I said Mussels not MUSCLES

So much going on here lately. I didn't post anything because Evan was visiting with Kayla. We had a blast.



We went to Ipswich for some clams. I love this place.



Introduced Evan and Kayla to full belly clams.



Went into the city.



Went to the New England Aquarium. Lots of fun. There was also days that we just hung out at the house and swam and cooked.



I made Wild Salmon with Pearl Couscous, Slow-Roasted Tomatoes, and Lemon Oregano Oil. I love using my own tomatoes. I also love this recipe (which I have posted here before).



I love this dinner.



There was Indian food making.



Lots of work but well worth it. Then all too soon it was time for them to leave. I cried a little which I always do when my kids leave to go back home. I miss them so much and wish they would move here. Yes, move HERE.



So life goes on and there is more chicken for dinner.



More potatoes.



An awesome raw beet salad. My new favorite dish.



I got this recipe from Duane Marcus. Thanks Duane. I owe you some fabulous recipe.



Last but not least are these amazing Mussels. Damn, they were good!



We made a wedge salad to go with the Mussels. Sometimes you just need the crunch and nutrition free wow of iceburg lettuce. It was a carrier for blue cheese and bacon that we had just made.



Bacon was made that very same day.



So as the sun sets on Summer and Fall has arrived I am happy to announce that I am excited for what it brings.



So is my dog Moose. She loves Winter.

Raw Beet Salad - aka Janis's new favorite salad
thanks Duane Marcus!

2 Parts (2 cups) raw beets grated or finely diced
1 Part (1 cup) raw carrots grated or finely diced
1/4 part (1/4 cup) leeks, or shallots or scallions or onion finely sliced
1 Tablespoon of fresh dill or parsley or lemon thyme or all three. finely chopped

Garlic Miso Dressing
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon miso or tamari
4 cloves garlic - finely diced
salt to taste if needed. (miso can be salty)

put in a bowl and whisk until thoroughly blended.

Serve over a bed of arugula or lettuce or finely chopped kale.

NOTE: This makes lots of dressing but it is so good it could go on other stuff later in the week.

Coconut Curry Mussels Recipe
Simply Recipes

2 lbs of mussels, cleaned and debearded
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 thai chili, finely chopped (can substitute good pinch of chili flakes)
3 teaspoons of ginger, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons of curry powder
1/2 cup of chicken broth
1 can of coconut milk (13.5 fl. oz.)
Pinch of salt
1 stalk of lemongrass, chopped into four pieces and smashed
3 kaffir lime leaves
Chopped cilantro
Lime wedges


1 Place mussels in a bowl of cold water so the mussels will spit out any sand or mud. Let them sit for 10 minutes. Drain and repeat. Toss any mussels that are open as these are dead. Debeard the mussels, pulling out their byssal threads (aka: their "beards") and place them in a bowl of cold water until ready to use.

2 Heat the oil in a pan and add the onion and stir for a few minutes until they become soft and slightly translucent. Add the chilies, ginger, and curry powder and stir for a minute until fragrant.

3 Add the chicken broth and reduce half. Add the coconut milk, salt, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves if using and bring to a boil. Drain and add the mussels, reduce heat to medium and cover with a tight fitting lid. Cook for 6-7 minutes until the mussels open. Discard any that are closed as these were dead before cooking. (Some may only be slightly open, if you have to debate on whether it's good to eat or not, toss it.) Spoon mussels into bowls and pour over with broth. Garnish with chopped cilantro and juice from lime wedges.

Ignore this post if you are looking for a recipe.

I don't have anything to give today. I really don't. I could have skipped writing a blog post until I did have something to share or I was feeling cheerier but I didn't really want to. I wanted to be writing. I wanted to be spewing. I don't know what it is I want right now. Something feels hollow.



It could have to do with the end of summer being near. Summer isn't just defined by weather or what month it is. It is a feeling too. Here on the East Coast it is a palatable feeling. That one leaf turning red (Yes, I know that it is a fluke, or a sick tree, or whatever excuse you guys that are from here make up; but to me it is the end of Summer.



Most my tomatoes have been canned and I have my doubts about the dozen of green ones out there. I bet they don't turn red on time and they wither and rot.



Soon this pathway will be red and orange and then white white white.



We will get too lazy and cold to go into Boston.



Therefore no Falafel and other good food. It means cooking at home and hunkering down.



Ok, switch subject. Look at the chicken I made the other night. You know that finding new chicken recipes is a hobby with me.



Secret cooking has been taking place.



and some sweetbreads...



Don't say ewww unless you tried them.



Ok, I know that I have this habit of leaving people with nothing to say. I talk and talk and talk. No answer. No recipe. Nothing to give today. I am feeling the end of Summer and it has me feeling blue.

The beginning of the end and some sardines.

This is the road I take to get to a highway to get to work. It is beautiful. It always makes me happy. Funny part about it is that it always is the picture postcard of whatever season it is. For instance, the picture above is summer. In autumn the leaves are a shock of color. In winter the trees are bare with only snow covering them. Spring is the excitement of seeing leaves return to the trees.

Ok, enough with poetic thoughts. Lets talk about what I have been cooking.



My garden is starting to give up its vegetables. Soon it will be dead. It is the beginning of the end of summer. I hate to see my pool covered up. I will miss the smell of suntan lotion and bbq. See those banana peppers in that bowl? Which one is the banana pepper? You didn't just ask that did you? It is the thing that isn't the tomato or tomatillo green thing.



These peppers were grown for one dish that we make. It is Rick Bayless's Pot Roasted Pork with Yellow Chiles, Plantains and Piloncillo (Asado de Puerco con chile guero, platano y piloncillo).



I have posted this recipe before but will do so again because it is THAT good.



It really is a pretty easy recipe. We made it for friends and since we were kinda drinking really strong Margarita's I didn't get pictures.



Last week also consisted of some Sardines that I picked up at a Portuguese fish store.



Not my favorite the way that I made them.



Oh, and I also tried out the stupid egg trick of separating the yolk from the white with a bottle. It works people. Then again so does your hand. Crack yolk into hand and let goo drip between fingers. I got a kick out of how everyone thought this video was some kind of amazing.



Here is MY version of video of the same thing. Viral video THAT.



So it is the end of summer. My favorite farm stand will close for the winter and all my chickens will go inside or be butchered or whatever it is they do to them. I pretend they are mine in the summer. In the winter I don't wanna think about it.



Soon no more sitting around the table on the patio. Goodbye summer. Never appreciated you as much as I do since leaving California.


Pot Roasted Pork with Yellow Chiles, Plantains and Piloncillo
Asado de Puerco con chile guero, platano y piloncillo

Recipe from Season 5 of Mexico--One Plate at a Time


1 small cone (about 1 ounce) piloncillo
OR 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 pound (about 6 medium) fresh yellow chiles (I prefer hot Hungarian wax or banana peppers here)
A 2-pound boneless pork shoulder roast
1 medium white onion, sliced 1/4-inch thick
One 18-inch section of banana leaf, hard spine cut off, plus an extra piece to line the serving platter
1 large (10-ounce) ripe plantain (it should be noticeably soft and yellow splotched with black), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Salt
1 small red onion, sliced into rings 1/8 inch thick
2 limes, cut into wedges

DIRECTIONS
Fill a microwaveable measuring cup with 3/4 cup water. Add the piloncillo (or brown sugar) and microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove and let stand until piloncillo dissolves, about 5 minutes. (The brown sugar will dissolve more quickly.)

Roast the chiles over an open flame or 4-inches below a preheated broiler until blackened and blistered all over. Place in a bowl and cover with a kitchen towel and let cool until handleable. One by one, clean the chiles: Cut off the stem-end, slit down the side from seed pod to point, and open out flat. Gently scrape out the seeds and discard. Flip the chile over and, scrape off the blistered skin. Cut the cleaned chile flesh into 1/2-inch slices.

In a large (7-quart) Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high. Brown the pork on all sides—it’ll take about 8 minutes—then remove it to a plate. Add the white onion to the pan and cook until richly browned, about 8 minutes. Scrape it into a bowl, set the pan aside.

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. If a strip of the hard central rib is still attached to one side of the banana leaf, cut it off with scissors. Then use the leaf to line the unwashed Dutch oven (it will spill over the sides). Lay in the pork. Strew the onions over the pork, followed by chile strips and plantain. Drizzle everything with the piloncillo water. Fold the ends of the leaf in to cover the whole affair, secure the lid and bake until the pork is fork tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Line a warm serving platter with a fresh banana leaf. With the aid of two spatulas, transfer the pork to the platter. Use a pair of tongs to break it into small chunks.

Remove the banana leaves from the pan, scraping any clinging goodness back into the pan. If there is a lot of fat on top of the juices, spoon it off. Taste the juices and season highly with salt. Spoon everything in the pan over the pork. Garnish with red onion rings and lime wedges, and carry to the table, along with plenty of warm tortillas for making very delicious tacos.

Kimchi and Kvetching?

Okkkkk. I am entitled to have a case of ennui. It isn't boredom. It is a sense of something in the air that is about to happen. Maybe it isn't ennui. Maybe it is something else. Maybe it is just the end of Summer. Don't get me wrong, I love Fall. It is unbearably beautiful here in Fall. I even love Winter. Snow still excites me. So, what is it? I am not sure. So maybe ennui isn't the right word. Maybe I have a case of "Saudade". Saudade is a Brazilian Portuguese word difficult to translate into English. It is a longing, missing or nostalgia, often bittersweet. Ok you say ennui and I say Saudade...lets call the whole thing off.



My friend Amanda schlepped this cabbage grown in her garden in Pennsylvania to Massachusetts. I had to do something wonderful with this mammoth cabbage. It was beautiful.




So, I honored this giant cabbage by making it into one of my favorite things in the world. Kimchi!



I found the recipe on Amy Kim's Kimchi Mom website. You need to check it out because I loved the story behind it. It is called Summer of ’69 Kimchi.



It came out fantastic.

What else have I been cooking?



Chinese plum sauce out of plums that Heather Atwood gifted me.



Maple Scones that I made for Heather when she came to visit me. I had never made scones before and these were awesome and easy. I got the recipe from Eating Out Loud

That is about it. I think I will go wander. Maybe write poetry. Maybe take a walk on Walden Pond (I live near Walden Pond and in reality it is dirty and kinda gross but there is a really cool bookstore run by the Thoreau Society there. It would make Thoreau puke to see them selling bumper stickers that say "Simplify Simplify Simplify" Oh well. I am not going there for real. For real I am gonna go do laundry and go grocery shopping. So much for having "Saudade" time


Maple Oat Scones
Alan Williams

For the Scones
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup oatmeal, finely ground
1/2 cup oatmeal, coarsely ground
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chilled butter
1 beaten egg
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 chopped pecans

Egg Wash
1 beaten egg
1 Tablespoon heavy cream

Maple Glaze
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar (icing sugar)
2 Tablespoons heavy cream
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon maple extract

In a large bowl, combine the scone dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter in until pieces are smaller than the size of peas. Stir in the chopped pecans.

In a small bowl, stir together the cream, egg, and maple syrup. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. It is important that you do not over mix the mixture. Once the liquid is absorbed and the dough is coming together (only a little dry flour in bottom of bowl), then stop.

Remove dough from bowl and knead until it holds together. Pat the dough in to a 7″ circle that is 1 1/2″ thick and cut into 8 wedges. Use a spatula to carefully place scones onto a greased cookie sheet (I lined mine with parchment). Brush tops and sides with egg wash. Bake at 375F (190C) for 20 minutes.

While the scones bake, mix together the maple glaze ingredients in a small bowl. After baking, allow scones to cool on baking sheet. The scones should be completely cooled before attempting to glaze. Pour 1 tablespoon glaze on top of each scone, using the back of the tablespoon to spread it evenly over the top and down the sides.

Lets go back in time...

I have been sick. I have had the stomach flu. I have not been eating anything worth mentioning. So, here is a glimpse into my old blog "Yarn!" from August 2006 This blog really was for my Yarn store customers. I lived in Alameda, CA. and yes I owned a yarn shop named Yarn! (yes, I really named it that and as the kids walked by on their way home from school they would yell "YARNNNNNNNN". I named it that because my mother said "You can't name it that" when I was joking and told her that was what I was going to call it. Here ya go...


Dr. Food and I decided to spend the weekend cooking. It was like old times. We picked out recipes from a cookbook that we bought in Canada. It is by a couple of people that own an Inn down the road from Sooke Harbor House (where we stayed). The cookbook is called "Flavours" We spent all day saturday making beef stock and forging for the food we needed. We cooked Sunday and had Tim and Annie over to help us eat it.

Appetizer:



This is Mushroom, Ricotta and Sun-dried Tomato Strudel.

First Course:



Annie was in a hurry. This is Crab and Mascarpone Parfait.

Main course:



This is Mushroom Crusted Beef Tenderloin with Gorgonzola Onion Stuffing.

We also made Gratin of Fresh Greens



and then for dessert:



These are Gingersnaps with Mascarpone Filling.

There were about 3 bottles of wine in there as well with a Kir and champagne to start. Oh yeah we also finished off a dessert wine that we brought back from Canada with us.

-----------------

So peoples, that is it. You can see my blogging back then was no better than it is now.
That is why I get paid the big bucks. What is that? What is my agents number? Get it from Sven my assistant.