Just in case you thought we were slackin'

We've been busy. Restaurants, emergency room, you know, vacation stuff but in between Doodles and myself have actually done some cooking. One item on her list of must-haves was fried chicken so I fired up the iron skillet (which is what our Grandmother, Emily Prucilla called a frying pan) and got busy with a chicken. Here's a recipe from a past post. Fried Chicken.


The liver didn't look good so I didn't fry it but the gizzard, upper left corner, was for the guest of honor. Frying chicken is a messy deal and I should have picked up some extra livers and gizzards because, to me, they're the best part.

No complaints from the family.

Fill'er up, ma'am?

Doodles and Mooncrazy are back, well sort of. We've been doing a bit of resteraunt review and a whole lot of eating.

A review for Ford's Filling Station in Culver City caught my attention in a recent issue of Sunset Magazine. I knew I'd seen that name and then remembered it was just west of Surfas in Culver City. I made a mental note to include that in our food explorations while sister Doodles was in town. Last night we were in LA and looking for dinner and we were not disappointed.

A small menu but everything sounded so tasty it was hard to decide. Doodles chose the Flat Iron Steak with spinach souffle and I settled with a Porterhouse Pork Steak and mashed potatoes. These were both fantastic choices. The steak was so tender it literally melted in your mouth and the pork, though not as tender, had such a wonderful rich flavor. I tried to eat it all, we both did the there was quite a generous portion of meat on both so of course some came home.

Desert? Of course. We tried the rhubarb crisp with vanilla cream. Quite tasty. The service is good with the manager coming by more than once to check up on us. Nate, what a nice guy and I hope he finds his Utili-kilt soon.

They don't have a website but there's loads of parking around the corner in a two-story structure with two free hours. And although we got there early, before 6:30, should make reservations. Near 7:00 it was filled and this was a Wednesday night.

9531 Culver Blvd. Culver City, CA 877-243-0925

Now we've done quite a bit of tasting so far and will have some posts on that but we both need to get back to cooking. Funny how you crave a little stove time on vacation.

Stay tuna'd

peach lush v 1.0

the lack of posts recently is due to the fact that the three of us were all in one place this weekend and actually doing things instead of sitting in front of the computer. on sunday, we had this dessert that was called "peach lush" at this restaurant on el paseo whose name escapes me. all i can say is...yum. it was a lighter version of a cheescake, with a pecan shortbread crust and topped with fresh peaches, as the name would imply. i have not been able to stop thinking about it, so i attempted to recreate it.



after tasting the finished product, it's good but not quite right. here's what i came up with for version 1.0:

crust:

16 pecan sandies cookies, crushed
4 tbsp. melted butter

mix together and press into a small (7") springform pan and bake at 350 about 10 - 12 minutes. cool.

filling:

8 oz cream cheese
4 oz milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 c heavy cream

beat cream cheese, milk, vanilla, powdered sugar until smooth. keep beating until some air gets incorporated and the mixture gets thick. in another bowl (alton brown would tell you to chill a metal bowl for this), beat the cream until stiff peaks form. mix 1/3 of the whipped cream mixture into the cream cheese mixture to lighten it. then fold in the remaining two thirds of the whipped cream in two batches (those are definitely a.b. instructions). fill the cooled crust with this mixture and chill thoroughly.

topping:

1 c water
1 c sugar
2 peaches

make a simple syrup from the water and sugar. peel peaches and remove the seeds. cut into thin slices. just when simple syrup comes to a good simmer, remove from heat and add peach slices. poach peaches in syrup for about two minutes then remove to a plate and drain off any excess syrup. chill peaches, then arrange on top of the "pie."



thoughts for next time: the crust and the toppings were pretty close. the filling was a little too mousse-y, though. the original was really firm and rich. i don't know if that was because there was more cream cheese or if it was just chilled longer. (as mooncrazy could tell you, i'm not the world's most patient individual, so if you guessed that i didn't let it chill that long, you'd be right.) i might also try beating the cream cheese and the heavy cream together or maybe add a little gelatin in the cream cheese mixture.

mutley

here's a cute snap of my maltese, multy, being all happy:



he's my favorite!

attention foodie dog-o-philes: check out other food hounds at sweetnicks' weekend dog blogging.

Please be advised.................

that my dear sister moon is somewhat indisposed due to a slight injury to a couple of digits. Sweet niece little bird is busy, busy, busy at work. And I am trying my damndest to get ready for a trip that takes me to visit these two fine folk among others.

So things might be a tad bit slow on PBE till we can re-group and get it together........stay tuna'd

afternoon delight..........

My sweet husband mentioned that we hadn't had an "us day" in awhile and since I am going away let's do something on Wednesday. I know that gas is at a premium but we got in his truck and just started to wander. Found our way to an unknown restaurant on the water, actually an inlet off the Gulf of Mexico. Unusually bright sun shiney day and not that humid. Restaurant looked quite nice, nothing fancy but at two in the afternoon the parking lot was crowded - good sign I say.


The menu was fairly normal with a couple of exceptions. I ordered a lobster and crabmeat salad on a croissant. It came with a lovely side salad of mixed greens and a tasty dressing of a lime and honey mixture. I took a picture..........I thought the waiter was gonna explode. He was immediately by my side asking "is everything all right"? I confirm that it was and explain briefly about PBE give him a card with the web site address so he knows I am not a mystery diner.


Jason the waiter wanders off and out comes the chef - Chef Sheryl to bring us a dessert - LOL The dessert was Lime basil sherbert - have heard about this sherbert as I think a fellow food blogger made this recently but I cannot remember who. We got to talking and tasting and I forgot to take a picture of the dessert but I took a photo that was on their menu.........so a tad distorted - sorry.
The dessert was a lot better than this photo


Lime Basil Sorbet

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Key Lime juice
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup sugar
10 - 12 whole basil leaves coarsley chopped

Preparation
Dissolve sugar in water over medium heat. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. When cool, pour simple syrup and lime juice in a blender and add basil. Blend well. Pour into shallow pan and freeze until firm. Remove from freezer when firm and put back into blender. Blend well a second time and re-freeze. When firm serve and enjoy!!!




A good day was enjoyed by us both for sure. Oh in case you are wondering the restaurant "Rumrunners Marina Grille" doesn't have a web site.........can ya imagine!!!
But a really pretty view out our window

T'is the season to be cheesy

This must be pizza season because Mixed Salad Annie made one as well. I was itching to try Pizza on the grill from America's Test Kitchen because it is still too hot to bake in the oven-- although I did make a batch of oatmeal cookies but that's another post.

Don't be put off by the seemingly long process, it's quite easy. What makes their dough better than buying it pre-made? They add oil to the dough so it doesn't stick to the grill and it doesn't. It cooks quickly and doesn't stick. I was amazed because I'd tried some Trader Joe's dough and wasn't happy with the performance.

The other trick is roll them out small, no bigger than 10 inches that way you can get them on the hot grill in one piece. See how nice and round mine look. Well look at the next photo. Something happens to change that nice round pie into a shape not unlike the continent of Africa.


This could also use two people because they really cook quickly. They only used cheese and tomato because the crust is thin and fragile. Next time I'm going to try some other pre-cooked toppings. A few mushrooms or olives wouldn't break this crust.

Cheese. They said Fontina was less watery which keeps the crust "snappy." I'd try mozzarella next time. I was looking for that nice salty taste.


Don't forget to poke the wee bubbles or when you turn it over they'll burn. You'll see in the last photo what I'm talking about.



This was fun to try and I will make this again, soon. I'm thinking appetizers for a party would be great.

my favorite lazy weekend brunch

we love us some caprese salad in this house. obviously, we modify it a bit with the bread and the salami, but the concept is the same. it's our favorite lazy weekend brunch. it's such an easy thing to prepare, yet it looks great and tastes even better.



this batch was made with fresh heirloom tomatoes and basil from our cropshare. let me tell you, this is what tomatoes are supposed to taste like.



hope everyone had a great weekend!

A belated but special wish

To our friend Sylvie ...............

Sylvie we hope you had a very

special birthday week-end.

from the PBE women

kimchi

so, i really love pickles and i really love spicy things, so, i pretty much think kimchi is the perfect food. my good friend mina told me once that i eat more kimchi than any girl she's ever seen. i like to think that was a complement! anyway, i buy it in jars at the asian markets, but it's expensive (about $2.99 for less than a pint) and it goes pretty fast. i've kind of always wanted to try making it at home, but i was a little intimidated. i was afraid that i'd basically be making homemade, spicy botulism. so, imagine my glee when i ran across kitchen wench's kimchi how-to on her blog. it was a family recipe (read: authentic) and the process was so well explained, it actually looked do-able! i couldn't wait to give it a try. so, off i went to k-town and the han kook market where i tried to find the smallest sack of chili powder they sold (i still have enough for three more batches) and all of the other ingredients (plus about 50 bucks of other korean favorites like laver seaweed, green tea noodles, pickled radish, bulgogi marinade and my favorite korean soda, milkis).

i followed kitchen wench's instructions to the letter; i wasn't leaving anything to chance. the only thing i did differently was to slice up the cabbage before i added the chili mixture at the end, as i didn't want to have to slice up messy giant kimchi leaves later. this is definitely a process, with a lot of waiting while things wilt, ferment, etc., but it's worth it. here's the kimchi jar after fermentation and a few days in the fridge...



and here's the final product:



it tastes soooo yummy! thanks, kitchen wench and kitchen wench's mom for sharing your recipe for kimchi lovin' pae-gin around the world to try. i will never run out of kimchi again!

If you still need another salad

We have a dear friend Dorothy Watanabe and this is her recipe. It couldn't be easier but sometimes it's the simple things in life that are the best. If it's hot I use a market variety roasted chicken, Costco being the best in my opinion, but you can use leftovers of poached. Lea at Copperpots has a good poaching method.

Chinese Chicken Salad
1 chicken cooked and deboned; chopped into bite size pieces
1 large head of iceberg lettuce; shredded
1 can of sliced waterchestnuts; drained and rinsed
2 bunches green onions; chopped
1/2 cup slivered almonds

Dressing
6 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup oil (part sesame oil)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons, or more to taste, of ground pepper
Shake and refrigerate

Mix all the ingredients together and pour over dressing to your liking.
Toss and serve immediately.

a tasty rib eye

Sometimes ya just get the urge to chew on a big piece a beef….a good steak! Well we did that the other nite. I even BBQ’d between thunderstorms and believe you me that is a trick I have a stainless steel cooker. But that steak was just tempting me.

Nice juicy rib eye…………..but I thought not the usual sauce as in A-1 or HP, lets try something different. I was re-organizing my recipes the other day and going thru some magazines for keeper recipes. Just needed to lighten the load a bit. Well I came across this keeper from January Bon Appetit.

To make Wasabi-Garlic Cream, combine in saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until reduced to 1 cup, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes:
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 large garlic cloves, pressed
Whisk in and cook 1 minute:
1 - 3 tablespoons prepared wasabi I get the wasabi in a tube at the Asian market
Remove sauce from heat.
Season to taste with salt if necessary

Completed the meal with oven-roasted veggies, peppers, zucchini, onion and some fingerling potatoes. But no oven was turned on for this meal, I did it all on the grill. And the skies opened up and poured upon turning off the grill…………perfect timing wouldn’t ya say.

Sauce is quite versatile - so use your imagination.

What’s your favorite cut of beef to grill and do you sauce it or eat it plain like the husband?

Diabetics; turn away now

After I made the marshmallows I felt the need to share them so I invited our friends Donatello and Blondie over for dinner. It was a casual outside dinner of stacked green chili and chicken enchiladas with black beans and a lovely green salad that Blondie brought.

I chose a bottle of sauvignon blanc and dropped a few fresh peaches in each glass. It didn't have the result I was looking for but what the hell, we drank it anyway.

After dinner darling husband set the fire pit ablaze and Donatello quickly made roasting sticks from a few hangers. We toasted the marshmallows and made S'mores. Ah, childhood memories. Calibut milk chocolate, graham crackers and lovely-gooey-melty-toasted marshmallows made for quite a dessert. More like a diabetic coma waiting to happen but fun.

Dontallo made a modification to the skewers to keep them from sliding off and because the S'mores were way too sweet, we ended up just toasting the rest.

Marshmallows and money: they don't grow on trees

I do like to try other food blog's recipes and this is my attempt at a good one I found on Baking Sheets. Nic's got quite the nice site. Seems she got it from someplace else but I'm not keeping track these days, way too hot. This recipe took a minimal amount of stovetop cooking and it looked fun. Everyone I've told has the same reply, "who makes marshmallows?" Well, someone has to, they don't grow on trees you see, so I gave it a try.

Was it fun?

If fun means getting completely sticky this was a ball. First don't forget to oil EVERYTHING! You might even throw a coat on the floor while you're at it. I had that goo everywhere. It's super easy albeit a bit time consuming getting all the cutting done.

They are wonderfully soft and not as sweet as the market tree-grown varieties. Next time I think I could get more creative with the outside coating, powdered sugar/cornstarch mixture but we has a great time making s'mores with them that night. I even took a dozen as a "get well."

I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours #3

This month, the theme is your tried-and-true recipes.
Cate at Sweetnicks is sponsoring this monthly event.
Check her out for this months roundup. Thanks Cate.

What a mess I have in the recipe keeping system and I am convinced I will continue to have.The mess is organzed to some degree that I am able to locate a recipe………..you might not be able to but I can.

I posted a blog http://pbetouffee.blogspot.com/2006/07/recipe-management-software-program.html a couple weeks ago regarding this very subjuct. How do you organize your recipes and in what format? Well my dear niece, malteses parakeet, aka “little bird”, told me about del.icio.us.

{quote} i snagged a cool online cookbook idea from our blogger friend sylvie at soul fusion kitchen. she got the idea from elise at simply recipes. the instructions are here. it's really simple. {quote}

And she was dead on right - it is way simple. But then only as good as long as the site stays up and running. Hey I’m will to take that chance. But I must admit I have printed off many of the recently saved recipes to del.icio.us just as a precautionary measure.

You know you always think that you are the only one in the
world that has a mess such as this. I'm sure I'm not alone.
Hopefully from this event something can help me to be
more organzed. I am quite anxious to see what other folks
have done in the recipe management department.
so..........stay tuna'd

caramel ice cream

so, this recipe that i found in gourmet magazine is the whole reason i bought the ice cream maker in the first place. the recipe is called grandpa roy's caramel ice cream and it was in the letters section in the july 2006 issue of gourmet. so, here goes:

1 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. heavy cream
1 c. whole milk
6 large egg yolks
2 tbsp light corn syrup

cook sugar and salt in a dry 4- to 5-quart heavy pot over moderate heat, undisturbed, until it begins to melt. continue to cook, stirring occasionaly, until suger is melted into a deep golden caramel, about 10 to 12 minutes.


The caramel and heavy cream mixture. Photo by Avgvstvs.

carefully pour in cream (this will bubble up faster and farther than you think and create loads of steam) and simmer over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally until caramel is dissolved. whisk in milk and return to just a boil, then remove from heat.


Adding the milk. Photo by Avgvstvs.

whisk together yolks and corn syrup in a large bowl until smooth, then add half of hot caramel cream in a slow stream, whisking until combined well. then add yolk mixture in a slow stream to remaining caramel cream in the pot. cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture is thickened and about 170-75 degrees (coats back of spoon, about three minutes).


Stirring the custard. Photo by Avgvstvs.

pour caramel custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl set in a larger bowl of ice, salt and cold water. cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. then cover and refrigerate until cold, at least an hour or two.

finally, freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions, then transfer to an airtight container and freeze to harden, at least four hours.

this recipe makes about 1 1/2 pints. serve the finished product alone sprinkled with sea salt (try it, it's really amazing) or with your favorite dessert. as you can see, i made a free form apple pie...


Dig in! Photo by Avgvstvs.

A lettuce wrap that husband will eat........

**I adapted a recipe that I found on my local grocery store web site Publix and Lea at Copperpots posted a lettuce wrap recently.

First let me say that husband is a great eater and will eat just about anything I place in front of the dear boy. He just happens to have a couple of limitations. I know I do as well as most of the people in this world. I digress….Knowing that the husband is not fond of the idea of stuffing food in a piece of lettuce and wrapping it up and eating it, go figure, I decided to do lettuce cups. Husband loves salads and pretty much all varieties.

Remembering that Copperpots made a tasty sounding lettuce wrap and Publix had a similar version but in boston lettuce cups. I had that AHA!!! moment.To say he loved it was putting it mildly. I won another round there folks. See this is what makes cooking fun and challenging. It’s not just getting the ingredients right and the preparation, it’s the pleasing factor. We as humans want to please another human soul by preparing a food item and hope to hell they like it.
Oh yeah it’s great for the ego!

So I took Copperpots recipe that follows

INGREDIENTS
1/2 rice your choice I used sushi rice
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 pound ground turkey I used ground chicken
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 large red bell pepper, finely diced
a couple of handfuls of cashews, rough chopped
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
salt to taste if necessary
2 heads Boston lettuce, leaves separated
1/2 cup chopped chives I used green onions
1 large carrot, shredded

METHOD
1. Cook your choice of rice according to package directions.2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and ginger; cook, crumbling with a wooden spoon, until the chicken is cooked through, about 6 minutes. Stir in the cooked rice, bell pepper, cashews, broth, hoisin sauce, five-spice powder and salt; cook until heated through, about 1 minute.3. To serve, spoon portions of the chicken mixture onto lettuce leaves, top with a few green onions sliced at a diagonal for pretty, shredded carrots and some chow mein noodlesand a splash of tamarin sauce low sodium version.

I served a nice fresh fruit salad for a side dish and voila – happy eaters.
As Copperpots said “Yum!!!”

**adapted = my version of a couple of recipes I have found to be usable then melded them together.

Castro couldn't get better food

Weekly Dish is collecting a list of favorite summer drinks so stagger on over and see how she cools off.

I'm a fan of the sangria at the Cuban restaurant Versailles in Culver City so went looking for a recipe and Little bird came up with this one. It's been so hot and while cleaning out a drawer I found this recipe and doesn't a nice fruity sangria sounded refreshing? YES!

This great Cuban joint is quite the establishment in LA and I read a review that said, Versaille is Jerry's Deli with a twist of lime. You'd have to be a local to get that one. If you live in LA and you've not been to one of their four establishments, what the hell are you waiting for?

Enjoy a bit of Cuba and don't throw out the fruit, it's the best part. I add different fruit depending on the season. I've got some very ripe apricots that will be taking a dip today. I've also been known to add a splash of club soda. This is enough for a party of drinkers or if it's really hot … well, it does keep for a day or two.

3/4 cup simple syrup
2 bottles red wine
3/4 cup brandy
1/2 cup triple sec
3/4 cup orange juice
2 peaches, sliced
2 lemons, sliced

Blend and refridgerate 2 hours or two days. I put a little ice in mine because I like it cold.

Blueberry Nut Bread

Think this is my entry for sweetnicks' a.r.f./5-a-day tuesday. Please check out her site on tuesday for the roundup of everyone's tasty a.r.f. treats!!!

Blueberry nut bread ............. ahhhhhhhh tis the season for those ARF blueberries , wow!!!

Seems they are everywhere. And now they are in my kitchen in the form of this blueberry bread. Annie over at Mixed Salad Annie made some fat friendly muffins that looked quite tasty, but we had just had some muffins. So a bread popped into me teeny little brain. Husband enjoys it toasted under the broiler then spreads it with a walnut cream cheese spread.
The following recipe is from a Bed & Breakfast that husband and I stayed at in Venice, Florida several years ago.

Ingredients
3 cups all- purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
***3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
**1/3 cup orange juice
3 cups blueberries
1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts/ pecans)

Combine the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, sugar, and salt. Using a wooden spoon, beat eggs, milk, vanilla, melted butter, orange extract and orange juice.
Pour into the dry ingredients and stir until flour is thoroughly moistened. Add the blueberries and the nuts. Stir thoroughly but gently. Pour into a well buttered mini loaf pans and set aside for fifteen minutes. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes or until the loaves test done.
Makes 4 mini loaves or one very large loaf. Remember, if you do the large loaf the cooking will be a lot longer (around an hour and a quarter)

**I used cranberry juice because I had some dried cranberries I was also going to add to the mix
*** I remember the woman that made this bread saying I didn't have enough white sugar so I completed the 3/4 cup with brown sugar.

Anyone ever do this?

Support your local tomato

For the past year we've been visiting the Thursday Farmer's Market in the town next door. Only about 20 miles but hey, one does get lazy. In Bakersfield, our Saturday morning visit to the local was less than a mile. So when I heard lil old Simi Valley was getting their own and it is less than a mile from me, I was thrilled.

I was less that thrilled with the vendor turnout but am not giving up hope this being the first day and all. Not the variety I was looking for and it's not organic but it is fresh and close and I can still find my way to the Thursday showing.

I am so willing to pay more for fruits and veggies that have been picked locally. I found some gorgeous beefstake tomatoes and peaches that were firm but not still green.

If you have a local farmer's market, support it, even though it might be a bit puny, give them the encouragement to have more. The crap they push in the big mega-markets these days is a shame. Picked too early to have any flavor and travels enough to have bonus miles. I understand that two heads of lettuce vacationed to Rome on the miles they racked up.