Posts from — June 2012

Don’t you love it when something you need or want is also perfectly and beautifully packaged?  I confess I’ve purchased things just because of the packaging, bought wine because I liked the label, and been attracted to something just because it was in a gorgeous box, bottle, or jar.  Take the jars above.  I snapped them up at Marshall’s a couple of weeks ago.  I wasn’t looking for Onion Relish, Pepper Relish, Chipotle Mustard, bottled dressing, or olives, but because of the jars, I went home with them all.

I could not resist these condiments in “collectible European drinkware”, so I ended up buying all they had on the shelves… a total of six jars – I mean six collectible European drinkware!

The same company, Braswell’s Select in Georgia, makes this Vidalia Onion & Pepper Dressing, packaged in a lovely little raised emblem cruet. I can just picture a bunch of wildflowers in it after the dressing is long gone.

And my heart nearly skipped a beat when I spotted this wonderful olive jar.  Yeah, it’s a weakness of mine, one of the many!

But all of these are nothing compared to receiving something personal that is unexpectedly packaged to perfection.  That was the case when a student of mine said that if I needed any more eggs this week, I could purchase them from her.  Farm fresh eggs from someone’s backyard chicken coop? YES, please!  I handed over my $4 and the next morning…

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I am nearly buried in cooking classes at the moment, so I only have a couple of minutes to slap up a few photos and a couple of recipes – if you can call them recipes. They are more like quick and super easy ideas for tasty bits… almost too easy to even label “easy breezy”!

A few students are missing from this photo. One was homesick, another was late because she was coming from lacrosse practice, yet another was just running late, and so on. We start at 10:30 sharp because there is a lot to do and we can’t wait. So this is a glimpse of what it looks like at the very start of class – when the students are just getting underway. Trash cans are empty, counters are relatively clear, the floor is still rather clean, and my two assistants are observing, rather than washing, drying, and well, basically “assisting”.

The gentlemen in the forefront are mixing up bread dough, for English muffin bread. My assistants, Connor and Troy, are waiting for something to do. The young lady in the orange shirt is frying up bacon for the Bacon Strip Pancakes, the two on the right are starting on a batch of Cinnamon Roll Pancakes and the young lady in the center, at the island, is working on a batch of granola.

For our breakfast-themed meal yesterday, one of the dishes we made was English muffin bread with quick homemade strawberry jam – here is the jam simmering away. You could use a potato masher to crush the berries, but donning gloves and using your hands is so much more fun!

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Connor and I went to the Scottsdale Old Town Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning. I got him all excited to go, telling him that we could split one of Eugenia’s heavenly croissants from the Essence Bakery Cafe booth at the market and then we’d go Barrio Queen for breakfast afterwards. Who could resist once they’ve seen this breakfast menu?

Con got up early on a weekend day and we left the house at 7:20. Only two problems – the Essence booth wasn’t there on this particular Saturday and Barrio Queen doesn’t open until 11:00. What an utter letdown!! We ended up eating a very nice meal at The Breakfast Club, but it certainly wasn’t the same as Chile Verde Con Huevos or Chilaquiles from Barrio Queen!

Oh well, at least we bought cute round zucchini at the market and I did my best to make it up to him by creating this meal for him on Sunday.

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“Bánh mì” is considered one of the world’s best street foods, and for good reason, it is one delicious sandwich!

Bánh mì is the Vietnamese word for bread, or more specifically the baguette, which was introduced in Vietnam by the French during their colonial period.

Although the term “bánh mì” itself only means bread, without fillings, the term is used to refer to a type of meat-filled sandwich found in Vietnamese bakeries abroad, especially in the United States, Canada, Australia, and France where there are large Vietnamese populations.

There are countless Vietnamese flavored Bánh mì fillings- such as pork prepared in numerous ways; juicy pork meatballs (xiu mai), bar-b-que pork (thit nuong), shredded pork (bi), and pork roll (cha lua). Also popular are grilled chicken (ga nuong), sardine (ca moi), scrambled egg (trung chien), and vegetarian (chay). The one seemingly surprising but very popular and common ingredient is liver pate.

For today’s recipe, I’m going with my personal favorite – the Xiu Mai or the pork meatball.  I hope my friend, Tram Mai, would approve of my rendition.

I used this cool little kitchen gadget that I’d purchased about a year ago at Sur La Table to julienne the vegetables. What’s so cool about it, is that it spins to reveal three different peeling/slicing edges.

I don’t recall how much I paid for it then (probably too much) but I saw it for sale at Cost Plus World Market, just yesterday. So if you want one – get yours there!

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Our first week of kids cooking ended with my new “Surprise Me Thursday” class.  Each week we’ll be making fun dishes inspired by photos I’ve pinned on Pinterest.  I won’t be posting the recipes for the dishes here, but you can go to the THIS LINK and check out the original recipes right from my Pinterest “Fun Foods” pin board.

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Guess what I got to do on Friday morning?!?  I got to go on a private farm tour! So how did this lucky event come along for me?  As usual, it’s all in who you know. 

I met Jennifer Woods back in October 2011, when Peggy and I attended that super cool dinner at The Accidental Yard – CLICK HERE to read all about it. Jennifer is a full-time mom to Patrick who is 5 and two-year-old Gretchen (pictured above), a contributor to Chow Bella (CLICK HERE to read just one of the nice articles Jennifer has written about me), and the Marketing Manager for Crooked Sky Farms. Yeah, Jennifer has a full plate!

Anyhow, Jennifer emailed me a week or so ago and asked if I’d like to tour the farm. Would I? Heck, YES!!  There was supposed to be a group of us but the others rescheduled (maybe because they looked at the forecast and noticed that Friday’s high was supposed to be 112 degrees!).  So I met Jennifer and her two adorable, outgoing, well-mannered, articulate, farm-enthusiast kids at the farm at 8:00 AM.

We jumped in the Gator, which looked something like this, but without the hay in the back, and headed out into the fields.

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While Peggy and I were working on her herb/garden crates the other day, she mentioned that she had a dream. She dreamt of a solution to my apron problem… you remember… THIS ONE.  Yeah, the one that I ranted about last year at the end of summer classes.

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