Sundays Are For Food

I am not a big fan of Sundays. It's the day when I know that tomorrow, I'll be back to work, I'll have to go to bed early tonight, and I usually wake up late on Sunday morning as a result of Saturday night's late bedtime. Sundays seem to pass by so quickly this way, which makes sense, since it seems that I have less than 12 waking hours in one Sunday so often...

I woke up at 8:30 this morning and felt so uncharacteristically energized for a Sunday that I hopped out of bed, did my makeup and hopped back in to bed to have a FaceTime session with my friend G. Work just gave me an iPad for various classroom technology lessons. So far, it's been good for two things: FaceTime and Pinterest.

Oh Pinterest. Your endless walls of well-lit photos and how-to links. Admittedly, I've started going down the usual route of pinning cooking and baking photos to my boards, but have also taken towards the DIY crafts and-- bum bum bum-- wedding planning.

Nope. Not engaged. Not even close to it yet. But hey, it's going to happen someday. A girl can start planning ahead a little bit...

I love the metal work on this one. Designs like this are more or less more appealing to me than the stone itself! *cough cough*

Pinterest has also brought me back to eating-on-impetus. As I went about my morning, after cleaning the kitchen and taking stock of my refrigerator before the weekend grocery run, I remembered that I had a half dozen tomatoes in the vegetable drawer. Still good, but maybe I overshot on how many I would need last week. Recently I pinned a recipe for oven-dried tomatoes that looked pretty simple, if not a bit lengthy in bake time (5 hours!?). I decided to go for it and, boy, are they hard to save any for later. They're so good by themselves! Chewy and tangy-- I can't wait to throw this into my next pasta.

Not the most attractive photo I've taken, but oh are these good. Right now, they're soaking in olive oil with a few cloves of garlic.
- 5 Roma tomatoes (sliced 1/4" thick from top to bottom)
- Olive oil (enough to drizzle lightly over the slices and enough to cover them if saving for later)
- Kosher salt
- Thyme (optional)
- Garlic (optional, for soaking)
Bake at 225 degrees for 3-4 hours on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Today's lunch was a stellar sandwich that took it to the next level with some leftover pesto sauce that I mixed with mayonaise. Thanks to a fabulous little Cuisinart food processor, I can have pesto whenever I want! This was a sandwich worthy of a product info-mercial. Now, all I need is an actual toaster oven. For the last 8 months, I've been grilling bread on a baking sheet over a stove burner. I have to say, the process makes for pretty crispy bread with the right amount of give in the middle...

And pesto I shall have-- on EVERYTHING.
- Wheat bread
- Basil
- Sharp cheddar
- Tomato
- Oven roasted turkey
- Pesto mayonaise

Now that I've finished my sandwich, it's time to make a first attempt at homemade ice cream. Blackberry cheesecake ice cream. Oh kitchen gods, please let this work. I don't want to shell out for an actual ice cream churning machine. I've been scouring Goodwill almost twice a week for a second-hand machine-- once, a few months ago, there were three of them!-- but none lately. Darn! Should have picked one up when I had the chance.

Whether or not this works though, it's not even 4pm yet and I've already done so much today. And I'm in pretty good spirits about it, too. From here on out, I proclaim-- Sundays are for food.

Trying again.

So... unsurprisingly, it has once again been a while. But this is Work of Mouth after all, so lots to mouth off about regarding the last 6 months especially.

In July, I finally finished school. Early August, I was hired a for a high school chemistry teaching position. I moved to the other end of California as a result of said position and for the first time in my life, I am living alone. Having my own space is great, for about a day, until you realize that "alone time" isn't going to end when your roommate comes home. There is no roommate. There is only a now 8-month old cat named Phi to get riled up when the sound of your keys jangling in the door rouses her from her day-long nap.

Phoenix N-G... Phi, for short.

The school that I now teach at is fabulously wealthy with educational resources, awesome teachers and hundreds of hard working students. I've encountered a few of the more... shall we say, relaxed students in my time there so far. Incredible to think that I've already survived a semester there and teaching chemistry, no less. It's funny to consider that when I first decided to become a teacher, I wanted to teach chemistry, was required to student teach biology instead, and am now teaching chemistry for the first time as a professional. Holy crap. I'm a professional.

The view from the top of the stairs of my hallway.

The kids at first were weary of me. I look young-- young enough to be a student. About once a week, I'm still being mistaken for a teenager, be it by a distracted secretary, a well-meaning security guard, or an office TA "looking for my teacher". I may be young, but I'm still something of a hard-ass when it comes to my classroom. Having the role model that I do-- my own high school chemistry teacher-- it was inevitable that I'd try to emulate her teaching persona. Despite this, the kids warmed up to me and I to them.

Drawn on a quiz by a student in a fit of boredom. She did well on the quiz, too!

Living alone means suddenly cooking only for one, which, I admit, has been a bit of a struggle for someone who grew used to cooking for two, three, or fourteen people. After realizing that one pasta casserole lasts me more than a week even if it's the only thing I eat, I gave up for a while on doing what I always did and just drank wine and ate cheese. I lost 10 lbs in the first 4 months of living here. That being said, I still do it right-- no Kraft singles and 2-Buck Chuck in this joint.

Wine and cheese party for one.

Recently, I started cooking properly again. It took some acceptance that food simply is NOT as good when you constantly eat alone. Work has settled down enough that I know what I'm doing (most of the time) in advance enough that I'm starting to have some free time for baking and cooking. I am a grown woman with an income now. Bring on the gourmet ingredients! 

Filet mignon with mixed vegetables and Cupcake Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon

Turkey meatloaf with spinach and pine nut salad

You can guess where one who lives alone eats alone... Yes. At her desk. With her laptop. Sometimes with people on Skype! Every now and then S comes up for a visit and I gain back a couple pounds after consecutive nights of real food. Long distance love is probably the most difficult part of my life right now. Not just with S but with every person of importance in my life-- I've never been this far from my family and so many friends are still in LA and San Diego. Thankfully a few really good ones reside in nearby cities up in the Bay Area, but it's still not quite the same as being able to roll over to someone's house in 5 minutes and spend the rest of the night noshing on snacks and watching stupid YouTube videos.

Meet Henri. He is probably one of my favorite cats, after Phi and Simon's Cat, of course.

As a result of this persistent solitude, I've taken up a slightly haphazard search for hobbies. So far, the list includes interior design, DIY kitchen organization, crochet, a rebirth of abstract painting, and eating my way around the neighborhood with only impetus as my guide. Results have been varied. 

Phil's Sliders, Berkeley

From left: Blossom Bee, Dublin; The Cheeseboard, Berkeley; La Boulange, Danville

La Boulange, Danville

Maybe now with all of this idle time that I want to spend not thinking about work, more cooking posts will come. For now... leftovers for dinner. 

Teach, Speak, Blog.

In my year of student teaching at Morse High School, I learned a valuable lesson:

I am capable of failure.

I am not so full of myself that I believe I am perfect-- I made plenty of mistakes this year and I struggled to hone my craft as a science instructor. In the end, I also made it work by the time it really counted and I gained confidence in my skills as a professional educator.

This confidence was severely tested when I found out that I did not pass PACT, that terror of all assessment portfolios. To make things even more stressful, I had a month to re-do the whole thing. How was I going to pull my students together when it had reached the point of the year in which the spring could begin to untighten now that CST testing was over? Was I meant to be a teacher if I could not pass this important task in my professional trajectory?

I had never failed at something that I worked hard at before. I believed that hard work would be enough. My first reactions were to mope, curse the universe, and ask "Why me?" Ten minutes later, I knew it was time to get to work.

Over the next week, I designed a new teaching segment, implemented it, and reflected. To my ecstatic joy, I passed the second attempt and shared my story with my students. My peers, supervisors, and students were impressed with the finesse that I demonstrated in this process. I was proud of myself for picking myself up again, dusting off the remnants of my old PACT, and making something new that turned out to be the lesson that my students enjoyed the most all year.

Sometimes you will fail. Keep calm and pretend it's on the lesson plan. What you create the second time around will be better as long as you stay reflective, mindful, and positive. (Having an obsessive relationship with the rubric works, too.)

Downsizing

After living in San Diego for the last 6 years, I have managed to accumulate... a lot of stuff. A lot of it, I've realized over the last few months, I'm not really using anymore.

Rather than trying to sell it on Craigslist or taking it to the thrift store, I'm wondering if any of my friends and greek family might want it for themselves. All you have to do is pick it up from me. Prices will be low, sometimes free, depending mostly on how much I paid for it initially or how unused (such as art supplies) the item is.

If you see something you like, don't hesitate to contact me about the condition or price. I'm happy to negotiate. :)

Twin-sized Bed Set (Mattress + Bed Frame) - $50 
* Mattress is lightly used, in good condition
* Bed frame currently disassembled, can be reassembled if you need proof that it is complete
* Ikea brand frame, very easy to reassemble

Clean, lightly used mattress. 

The unassembled bed frame

The whole mattress (sorry for the clutter, it's been in storage for a while)

--

Stay posted!

So... it's been a little while...

Hi guys-- I've been crazy busy/lazy/without a camera/foresight to take photos of what I've been cooking lately. This blog has been on the back burner of my mind for a while and I really want to be able to get back into it soon. So I'm pledging that this weekend, after I come back from a brief trip to LA, I will return with my camera and start blogging again once more!

Soon... very soon. :)

To provide some fodder, I've moved to Normal Heights, a San Diego neighborhood that is famous for hipster-y coffee shops, amazing little restaurants, and fantastic beer bars. Hopefully this will at least elicit some inspiration. :)

Cheers!

My thoughts on beer + The easiest bread you'll ever make.

I apologize that I've been gone for so long! This last quarter has been devoted to a natural history blog that I'm working on for an internship. Please check it out and let me know what you think!

Natural Treasures: A Brief Guide to the Natural History of UCSD

Back to food though! This quarter has been an experiment in breads for me with not as much time spent on real cooking or pastry baking. However, there is a lot to be said about the benefits of knowing how to make your own bread. Let's start now with a very simple and quick to prepare recipe.

There is nothing quite like the smell of bread as it is being baked in the oven. The whole house warms up and practically glows with comfort, even on the grayest of days. Lately in San Diego, we've seen our fair share of gray and sun, often in the same day, possibly even the same hour. Whatever the weather, this honey beer bread is sure to hit the spot and remind you that beer isn't just for college students on a Friday night.

But first! A discourse on beer...

I have this discussion with friends all the time. Beer simply has a bad rep. It's often associated with the images of red-cup-toting, hysterical college-aged kids, intense chugging contests out of glass boots, and middle-aged men with beer bellies who watch TV in their den with the lights off while slowly whitling away the night with a 6-pack of cans. We think of croaking frogs, impassioned debates over "less carbs" vs. "more filling" and silly marketing schemes involving color-changing cans. These tactics are great... when you're 6. Personally, I haven't taken an interest in temperature-activated food items since the early 90s when you could find a Lion King color-changing spoon in the bottom of your cereal box. (Prizes were better back then... the simpler things in life have cheapened over time.) Alas, I've digressed.

So what's the big deal with beer? In San Diego, there is in fact, an enormous beer and restaurant culture. Let's face it-- beer and food are perfect for each other. Much like the way wines can be paired with cheeses, chocolate, meats, and pastas, so can beer, with pizzas, burgers, other traditional pub fare, as well as more gourmet items. And around here, the beer can be as gourmet as the food itself. Brewery restaurants like Karl Strauss, Gordon Biersch, Rock Bottom, and the Coronado Brewing Company have cornered a market in local brews paired with stellar menu items. My personal favorite-- Karl Strauss' Sorrento Valley location, a sprawling restaurant complete with its own (man-made) koi pond and Zen garden. It's a gorgeous place for a date or a Sunday brunch with fantastic beers and food. My recommendation is the Amber Lager, the Portabello mushroom burger, and for dessert, the Beeramisu-- a decadent tiramisu made with Karl's signature Red Trolley Ale. Oh my... I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. Ahhh.

And now (finally!)-- to the bread!

I've heard of beer breads for quite some time now and finally decided to give it a try. With so many good beers out there though, it took me a little while to decide on which beer would be the star of my bread. Finally, I settled with Harvest Moon, the Blue Moon fall seasonal ale.

I am a big fan of Blue Moon and all of its seasonal ales. Harvest Moon is a particularly complex one with spicy notes and a hint of pumpkin. I've also used Sam Adams Oktoberfest and the classic Blue Moon in later breads-- all very good options.

Honey Beer Bread

3 C all-purpose flour

2 T sugar

1 T baking powder

1 t salt

2 T honey (I used blue agave nectar, which has a more molasses-like flavor without being quite as thick.)

1 bottle (12 ounces) beer

2 T (1/4 stick) butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 7" x 3" inch loaf pan.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Using a wooden spoon, stir the beer and honey into the dry ingredients until just mixed.

3. Spoon the batter into the pan. This next part made me a bit nervous the first time I did it. Pour the melted butter over the top of the batter. It's going to pool and it's going to look a mess-- but trust me on this. This step is what makes the bread truly amazing.

4. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until top is golden brown and a toothpick/knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

If you're like me, you'll be watching that bread rise and start worrying about the pool of butter that it's being born in. Don't fret! By the time you take the bread out of the oven, the butter will have traveled to the bottom of the pan and your bread will have a buttery, crispy crust. Oh. Heaven. My recommendation is to serve it thoroughly cooled so that the beer flavor has some time to mellow out a bit (though, it's pretty difficult to not eat some right away out of the oven. Try both.)

Quick update...

Hey ya'll! Sorry I've been such a bum about updating. For now, just a quick post to show you guys what I ate tonight for dessert...

My parents grow dragonfruit in our backyard. Usually, it's pink on the outside and white on the inside, with black seeds very similar to sesame seeds. Yesterday my parents came to visit and brought a few dragonfruits, noting that this particular set of fruits came from our neighbor's plant. Much to my surprise and glee, our neighbors grow the variety with the dark pink flesh!

I know, this sounds soooo geeky. But look at how GORGEOUS this fruit is! It was super juicy and sweet. I sat and ate it on my bed with a spoon... is it bad that I didn't feel bad about being a little messy since the fruit was the same color as my sheets?

Man, I love summer. I hope everyone else is enjoying their summers as well!

Coming soon... breads!

Potstickers. With step-by-step photo instructions!

I will be the first to admit it: I am a horrific stress-eater, especially during finals week and especially when I'm not only stressed-out but tired as well. Now that the school year is over, I have time to breathe, cook, and feed myself right again after weeks of overindulging in comforting, yet hip-and-waist-bound meals. And phoooey, do I sure need some toning down! But believe you me, I hate running or doing anything that in general, causes me to sweat profusely. Luckily for me, DT bought me the Wii Fit Plus set as a "graduation" gift. Now, exercise is a lot less boring. I have to say-- Nintendo is doing their part in lowering youth obesity. Yaaay Nintendo. In any case, I hope you all have been eating well and keeping healthy. Hooray for summer! This looks to be a potentially productive time for my food blogging exploits. :-)


Most of what I make is based on whims stemming from cravings for foods I've recently tried for the first time or foods that I eat regularly and constantly crave. This long-overdue post is dedicated to my love of the potsticker. I just can't get enough of these!

Many Asian cultures have some variation of the potsticker or dumpling. I'm declining to state a particular culture for my recipe and am opting to just call it what it is-- a delicious side that can be found in almost every Asian culture and on just about every Asian-style menu in Southern California. Living in San Diego especially, there is a vast plethora of Asian restaurants, each offering a different form of goodies tucked in a wrapper. But in San Diego, there is only one king of the dumpling. Yes, my fellow San Diegans, I speak of The Dumpling Inn. The very thought of it is enough to make me start salivating. Alas, eating out as much as I tend to gets expensive. Now and then, we must make do with what we can get at the grocery store and put ourselves to work!


I got the idea to make dumplings one night when I had a terrible craving for a plate of sweet, juicy pan-fried dumplings in the middle of the week. Granted, I have only been to Dumpling Inn once ever, but the impression it has made is permanent. Nothing I have had post-Dumpling Inn even compares. Luckily for me, earlier that week, my friend MKS taught me how to fold potstickers, the way his mom taught him growing up. It proved to be much less difficult than I had expected and lo, after an hour's worth of catching up and occasional cursing over a broken dumpling skin, we had produced several trays of dumplings, ready to be cooked to our liking. Definitely a recipe that not only costs very little for ingredients, but yields a high volume of  product as well. More bang for your buck! If you study other similar recipes, you may notice that I have chosen to omit a few common ingredients, namely corn starch and water chestnuts. Quite frankly, I've never been a fan of water chestnuts and I've never really seen a use for corn starch. So what the heck, why not. They're my potstickers, I'll put what I want inside them! (You, my friends, are perfectly welcome to put whatever you want inside. Go crazy, get creative!)


After my first attempt at making potstickers (almost entirely) from scratch, I was pleased with the end result. They were juicy inside and a little crispy on the outside. It was also the first time I've ever dealt with cooking with shrimp (gasp!) so the experience was full of firsts. The method I describe below is simple yet still secure. Worst thing that can happen is that your potsticker tears open when you begin cooking it. The pleats I use, though not as nifty as many pleats in one direction, if done neatly, have a niceness all their own. If you want to be a real boss, try making your own wrappers from scratch. Personally, I'm a bad sport when it comes to making non-cookie doughs. Maybe someday! This particular dough recipe from Nyam's blog looks particularly promising. It's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one with a fear of dough...


Give this a try and make it a social activity! Gabbing and giggling over dumpling skins is half the fun!


Dumplings (or potstickers, gyoza, siu mai, wontons-- whatever you want to call them!)
1/2 lbs shrimp, shelled and deveined. (I used frozen, already deveined shrimp that I allowed to thaw and then chopped).
1/2 lbs well-chopped pork. (Not ground pork.)
2 c finely chopped Napa cabbage
2 green onions, finely chopped
1" ginger root, finely grated
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1 T oyster sauce
2 T soy sauce
1/2 t sugar
1 t sesame oil
1 package of frozen dumpling skins-- my instructions call for round ones.



1. Combine and mix your ingredients well. You should end up with something that looks like this. You can use a food processor to pulse your meats, if you have one. I'm a poor college student, so I just use my trust kitchen knife. Bwahahaha. Fear not the raw meats!

2. Once that's done, it's time to make the dumplings! Most store-bought wrappers are already pre-floured so flouring your hands isn't necessary. For my recipe, I chose to use round wrappers rather than square ones, for the nice half-moon shape you get at the end. Lay out one wrapper in your hand like so:

3. Next, spoon on a bit of your filling in the center of the wrapper. Using one or two fingers, gently spread a thin amount of water just on the edges of the wrapper. About the thickness of a fingertip should do.

4. Fold the wrapper in half over the filling, but pinch only the very top. This is very important if you're going for a nice pleated shape.

5. Now, pay attention! This gets a little tricky the first few times, but you'll get the hang of it as you keep going. With the pinched side still up, push in one of the sides so that it creates 2 new loose folds. Do not fold them down just yet!

6. Still with me? Good. Now, the 2 folds should be pointing to the side. For consistency's sake, I always do the right side first (you're seeing it as left, obviously). Pinch closed the fold pointing up towards you.

7. Ok! Now, with the fold pointing down, pleat it flat onto the top of the dumpling so that it creates two more folds. Check out the photo below, hopefully it helps...

8. After all that, you get something that looks like this. Repeat the above steps for the other side, making sure that the pleats all face up in the same direction. I know this would be much easier to explain with a video, but alas, my DSLR doesn't have video capabilities.

Don't worry if the first few look a little disastrous. It takes some practice. Once you get them all lined up and ready for cooking, they'll magically look a lot more professional  MKS cites this as "The Cheerleader Effect". I was puzzled at first when he said it but he explained, "Dumplings are like cheerleaders. One cheerleader by herself might be ugly, but when you put them all in one line, they look good."

Well said, M. Well said.

All right. Now that you have all of your potstickers made, it's time to cook them! 

1. In a large skillet, heat up about a tablespoon of vegetable oil on medium-high heat.


2. Lay the potstickers flat in the pan, pleated side up. You'll see that the pleats actually make it so that they sit nicely flat, ensuring a good, even amount of cooking. Cook for about 1-2 minutes and then add 1/4 cup of water. Allow to come to a boil and then cover. This will ensure that the meat is thoroughly cooked.


3. Allow another 1-2 minutes of cooking and then uncover to burn off the water, occassionally (and CAREFULLY!) lifting the dumplings so that they don't become flush with the pan. You'll just end up with exploded dumplings. No one wants that. 


4. Remove and drain on a paper towel. Serve immediately!

Spice Cookies-- Perfect for a Rainy Day!

Let me preface this post by saying that I am a complete nut over ebay's Daily Deals. A couple weeks ago, I got a pair of silicone baking mats for $7 (Prices start at around $10 a piece usually, so I was quite pleased with myself). And wow. I am IN LOVE. No greasing, no burning, no sticking and hardly any clean-up! Love, love, love. Anything to make my baking experience a little easier!

Anyway. Now to the good stuff!

Yup, that's my sorority sister and me, in our own homemade craft. It is sea-worthy! Yaaar! :]

My sorority had our first big philanthropy event last weekend-- a recyclable-material boat building competition with races across the campus pool. We invited all of the other Greek sororities and fraternities and with each invitation, we've been bringing cookies for their active bodies. The chapter that I coached, the Triangle fraternity, is actually my sororities's brother fraternity, a group also geared towards students in science and engineering. Since they're such a special group to us, I decided I wouldn't just bring them a package of store-bought cookies. They deserved something a little more thoughtful and unique!

Spice cookies are very reminiscent of ginger snaps, but with a lot more kick than just the usual snap. I made small ones, so there's more to "share" and you feel like you can eat more because they're so small (bwahaha, yes I know that's cheating). But they're wonderful with a cup of tea and when I made them yesterday, it was gloomy and grey outside, so the house seemed especially cozy with the smell of cookies wafting around. "But, Annie!" you say, "You live in San Diego, isn't it supposed to be sunny all of the time?" Ah yes. Thank you for this tremendous amount of abnormal rain, El Nino. Luckily, the day of the race was gorgeous and one of the first days of really good weather we've had down here for a while.

By the way, my team took second! I'm so proud of my Triangles. Good job guys. Maybe it was the bacon cookies I made for them on the day of the race, but they definitely showed everyone what they were made of that day! Can't wait to see how things go at next year's race! :D

And OMG go buy a silicone baking mat soon if you haven't already! A definite MUST for the baking enthusiast. I really can't stop raving about them! *squee*

Spice Cookies (adapted from Martha Stewart)
3 c all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 c packed dark-brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 t ground cinnamon
1 1/2 t ground ginger
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 c sliced almonds

1. Line 2 mini loaf pans with plastic wrap.

2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium speed for 4 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add eggs and spices. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions.

3. Press cookie dough into pans, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Freeze for 1 1/2 hours (or up to 1 month).

4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove dough from 1 pan. Let soften slightly. Cut eight 1/8-inch-thick slices with a sharp knife. Cover remaining dough, and freeze in pan until ready to slice and bake.

5. Place slices 1 1/2 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with a nonstick baking mat. Top each with 2 to 3 almond slices. Freeze until firm, 5 minutes. Bake until dark golden brown, 10 minutes. Let cool on sheet on a wire rack. Repeat.

* I made a batch without almonds. Still yummy!

Time to Get Crackin'!

The new quarter has started-- after a realization last quarter that this will in fact, NOT be my last year of college, I am definitely resolving to make the most of my remaining time in San Diego. That is, I will go forth and eat as much good local food as I can between now and the next year.

This blog so far has been mostly recipes, but it is supposed to be a record of my adventures in San Diego, after all. This should absolutely include the food that I didn't make myself!

Last night, D and I went to Crab Hut, your typical Vietnamese-Cajun dive where crawfish and shrimp are served by the pound in plastic bags. I'm told it's rather reminiscent of LA's "Boiling Crab" or OC/LV's "Rockin' Crawfish". It may seem kitchy at first-- fake netting and fish all over the walls, and the servings can be hardly attractive in appearance, especially once you start cracking and peeling those little guys open with your hands. But the mess and the work is all worth it!

We started off with some oysters and garlic bread. Tuesdays are $1 oyster days, so come have your fill of creamy, succulent bivalves!

This is not Man vs. Food-- do NOT power-shoot your oysters!

D and I got one pound of crawfish and one pound of shrimp in medium-spiciness "Full House"-- which just means, a combination of all of their sauces. We were skeptical at first, when we saw the steaming hot bag with its murky-reddish contents full of claws and tiny legs, but Yelp recommendations have rarely steered us wrong. Once we dug in, it was all over! And literally... all over our hands. They give you a bib for a reason-- so make sure you use it!

We're so ready for this!

The sauce was mind-blowing-- such an amazing blend of flavors! The heat was surprisingly stronger than expected for a "medium" level dish. I really enjoyed the familiar Asian flavors and the way that the Cajun tones mixed in so well.

I think part of the enjoyment of this kind of place is a security in knowing that EVERYONE AROUND YOU is eating just as messily as you are. There are no plates-- there are just tables covered with butcher paper with a giant roll of paper towels. Definitely not a great place for a first date (unless you like that sort of thing, of course). Be prepared to feel somewhat savage, peeling and sucking on seafood shells, but it's all a part of the experience...

"Holy Crab!"

All in all, a great adventure was had and many napkins had to die at our service. Apparently you can ask for gloves to wear while you eat, but where's the fun in that? I hope we get a chance to go again soon-- I think I found a new food addiction!

Carrot Soup - Good and Good For You!

When I was a kid, one of my favorite TV shows was "The Magic School Bus". I remembe one episode where one character ate nothing but carrots for a week and so, his skin turned orange (a condition officially called "carotenemia"). In truth, this can actually happen (mostly in your palms), and it can take up to 30 days for your skin to return to a non-carrot color. (Fellow fans -- did anyone else feel bad that ALL of the bad stuff always happened to Arnold? Seriously. The kid was just the show's whipping boy.) But don't let this possibility deter you, folks. Carrots are so nutritious and naturally packed with so much flavor that cooking with them hardly requires anything fancy to make something delicious.

I've made a variation of this soup before, with potatoes and ground ginger. Personally, I'm not a big fan of potatoes, so I like this version best-- the carrot flavor is perfectly balanced with the creaminess of the soup, and it's only made better with crispy ginger on top. C.Ly, DT, and I feasted last night on this soup and it was supposed to just be the appetizer!

Thanks to my good friend Bill for the photo-- I didn't have my camera with me when I made the soup, but luckily he decided to try it and took a picture of this half-eaten bowl. Yoink! :]

Carrot Soup (serves 6)

2 lbs carrots, peeled and chopped

1 medium onion

4 c vegetable stock

1 c half and half

1/4 c butter

1 t ground cumin

1 tablespoon fresh ginger (optional, but so worth having!)

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Put the vegetable stock in a large pot and bring to a low boil. Drop in your carrot pieces and let that simmer for a while. The softer the better, so there's no such thing as "too much" for this recIpe.

2. Chop your onions and sauté in a bit of oil until they become slightly translucent. Add the cumin powder and some salt an pepper slightly before you take the onions off the heat.

3. Add the onions to the simmering carrots and broth. Simmer some more.

4. Heat up oil in your skillet again and drop in julienned ginger. Fry until golden brown and let that drain on a pape towel. Sprinkle a little salt on top for extra flavor.

5. Once your carrots are nice and soft, pour the broth and vegetables into a blender. Add in the half and half and purée the mixture until it's a smooth, gorgeous orange color.

6. Put the purée back into your pot and add the butter. Stir until melted and well-integrated into the soup. Heat to desirable temperature again (if necessary).

7. Serve with the fried ginger sprinkled on top.

Be careful-- this soup is so good, you just might turn orange from eating too much!

Bacon is nature's perfect food.

Last week was DT's birthday, so as a present, I made dinner for him! Bacon wrapped asparagus and crispy garlic-ginger fried rice. The rice didn't turn out as well as I had hoped it would, but the asparagus was absolutely divine! But whatever does one do with all of that bacon grease after cooking? The plumbing at my place is shoddy as it is, so there was no way I was dumping any of that down the sink. I poured the fat into a jar and saved it until I could think of something appropriate to use it in.

A couple of days later, I remembered a fairly recent trip to the La Jolla Farmer's Market with CB and NV. A local bakery was handing out samples of gourmet cookies and I was pleasantly introduced to the "Morning Pancakes" cookie-- an innocent looking cookie that tasted just like a fresh stack of pancakes with bacon on the side. I was enthralled! And so, with the reemergence of this food memory, I decided to make cookies with my leftover bacon fat. Definitely crack the windows open for this recipe!

I apologize to my friends who have given up both meats and sweets for the Lenten period-- I promise to make another batch after Easter. :-)

Morning Pancakes Cookie
6 strips of cooked bacon -- crispy, but not cardboard-like in texture.
1/4 c BACON GREASE (oh Lord help us.)
1/2 c butter, softened
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c maple syrup -- do yourself a favor and get yourself a bottle of the REAL stuff.
2 eggs
1 T vanilla extract
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1 1/2 c chocolate chips (optional-- but why wouldn't you??)


1. Fry up the bacon. Honestly, every stove is different. Bacon is just one of those things that can go very wrong very quickly, so keep a good eye on it and don't try to multi-task while it's cooking (ie, talk on the phone, feed the cat, do the dishes... like me). When it's a nice, light crispiness, remove the bacon and let it drain on paper towels. Save the grease in a separate container and let it cool in the refrigerator. Chop your bacon into small bits and set aside to continue draining.


2. After the grease has cooled, add it to the butter and cream until they are nicely integrated together. Once that's done, beat in the eggs, sugars, maple syrup, and vanilla.


3. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Slowly mix in the not-quite-liquid mixture and work it until well-combined. Fold in the bacon bits and chocolate chips and distribute evenly. Let the dough cool in the refrigerator for a while. These cookies bake best if the dough has been thoroughly chilled, otherwise you'll end up with a very flat cookie. 


4. Once the dough is ready, preheat your oven to 350°. The nice thing about this dough is that there is no need to grease your cookie sheet beforehand (myself, I like to use tin foil just to reduce cleanup). Yay for self-greasing cookies! 


5. Drop the dough onto the sheet with a tablespoon and space them approximately an inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. After baking, remove from the oven and allow to cool before serving.

Close your eyes. It's breakfast time!

Senior Year

Psst. Guess what?

After a long summer of what seemed like one homework assignment and project-worth-30%-of-your-grade after another, I went back to LA for two solid weeks of lazing, getting fat (Thanks Mom and Dad, for feeding me so well!), and visiting with old friends I hadn't seen in quite some time (Kevin, you are so awesome.), here I am back in San Diego, with a stark realization:

School starts tomorrow. Oh yes. Time to jump back into the cycle. But what to do with my very last day of summer vacation?

After a disappointing interview on Tuesday with the Charter School of San Diego, Nikki, who was visiting for a few days, and I packed a lunch and made our way over to the San Diego Zoo. For those of you who are in the San Diego area, buying a dual-membership for you and a friend is practically a steal-- at $42 per person, you can get an annual pass for both the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park, with discounts on attractions and food included in your membership. Mind you, a full-priced ticket runs for $35 now, $30 for students. Plus the purchase goes toward the Zoological Society, so your purchase is technically a donation that is tax-deductable! OK, that's enough plugging for now. Just go-- the elephants will thank you for it. :]

It was the first time Nikki had been to the SD Zoo in a while, so we tried to see as much as possible. It's amazing how many times I've been to the zoo in the last year and still haven't gotten tired of it. Animals are so fascinating and majestic in their individual ways.

*Smooch* :]

If you're a San Diego local and haven't been lately, you've missed out on a lot of awesome new things. A new exhibit, "Elephant Odyssey" is the 7-acre new home of the zoo's elephant herd, along with a few new additions from the Wild Animal Park down the freeway. It is absolutely phenomenal. Truly, SDZ deserves to be considered one of the world's greatest zoos for its extensive work in animal husbandry and enrichment. Not only does the exhibit house the elephants, but a pair of African lions, a regal Secretary bird, and an impressive (but no less ugly) flock of California Condors, the once extant species of California bird that was re-introduced into the wild several years ago after years of captive breeding at the CRES facility located at the Wild Animal Park (an equally fascinating area that offers tours to the public. Two words: Frozen Zoo.)

Also, with equal excitement, I'm happy to inform you that a panda recently gave birth to a healthy male cub and that a polar bear is possibly expecting (it's hard to do ultrasounds on a 700 lbs female with a healthy storage of winter blubber).

*Sniff* Smells like mine...

Well, that's all for now. Here's to the new school year: my last (full) year in undergrad! Woot!

Photos may not be used or reprinted without permission

(c) A. Nguyen 2009

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza! My first food blog :D

Mamma mia!

Since Lent started last Tuesday, I decided to give up meat (except fish) again as moral support for my roommate, HK. I'm not actually Catholic, but it's just good to lower your intake of meat once in a while. Last year I did this and I was in the healthiest blood composition of my life. Anyway. I don't want to keep limiting myself to just pasta and tofu stir-fry for 40 days, so I've been more daring about what I make for dinner. My latest adventure was in homemade pizza, complete with dough made from scratch. Let me tell you something-- it's not that easy, but it's really easier than it sounds. But the end result was delicious. Tomatoes, basil, bell peppers, and mozzerella, with Black Forest turkey on one side for DT. He reaps the benefits of my kitchen whims so often...
 
Pizza dough, adapted from Peter Reinhart's Recipe. (Makes six 6-ounce pizza crusts.)
4 1/2 c all-purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 t instant yeast
1/4 olive oil (optional)
1 3/4 c water, ice cold (40°F)
Semolina flour OR cornmeal for dusting

1. Stir together the flour, salt, and instant yeast in a 4-quart bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer). With a large metal spoon, stir in the oil and the cold water until the flour is all absorbed (or mix on low speed with the paddle attachment), If you are mixing by hand, repeatedly dip one of your hands or the metal spoon into cold water and use it, much like a dough hook, to work the dough vigorously into a smooth mass while rotating the bowl in a circular motion with the other hand. Reverse the circular motion a few times to develop the gluten further. (Here's my weekly workout. I've burned enough calories doing this to eat the whole pizza myself!) Do this for 5 to 7 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are evenly distributed. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet and doesn't come off the sides of the bowl, sprinkle in some more flour just until it clears the sides. If it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water. The finished dough will be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50 to 55F.

2. Sprinkle flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Prepare a sheet pan by lining it with baking parchment and misting the parchment with spray oil (or lightly oil the parchment). Using a metal dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you are comfortable shaping large pizzas), You can dip the scraper into the water between cuts to keep the dough from sticking to it, Sprinkle flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Lift each piece and gently round it into a ball. If the dough sticks to your hands, dip your hands into the flour again. Transfer the dough balls to the sheet pan, Mist the dough generously with spray oil and slip the pan into a food-grade plastic bag.

3. Put the pan into the refrigerator overnight to rest the dough, or keep for up to 3 days. (Note: If you want to save some of the dough for future baking, you can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag. Dip each dough ball into a bowl that has a few tablespoons of oil in it, rolling the dough in the oil, and then put each ball into a separate bag. You can place the bags into the freezer for up to 3 months. Transfer them to the refrigerator the day before you plan to make pizza.Myself, I did the math and cut the recipe to make only one pizza.)

4. On the day you plan to make the pizza, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator 2 hours before making the pizza. Before letting the dough rest at room temperature for 2 hours, dust the counter with flour, and then mist the counter with spray oil. Place the dough balls on top of the floured counter and sprinkle them with flour; dust your hands with flour. Gently press the dough into flat disks about 1/2 inch thick and 5 inches in diameter. Sprinkle the dough with flour, mist it again with spray oil, and cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap or a food-grade plastic bag. Now let rest for 2 hours.

5. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone either on the floor of the oven (for gas ovens), or on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Heat the oven as hot as possible, up to 800F (most home ovens will go only to 500 to 550F, but some will go higher). If you do not have a baking stone, you can use the back of a sheet pan, but do not preheat the pan.

6. Generously dust a peel or the back of a sheet pan with semolina flour or cornmeal. Dip your hands, including the backs of your hands and knuckles, in flour and lift 1 piece of dough by getting under it with a pastry scraper. Very gently lay the dough across your fists and carefully stretch it by bouncing the dough in a circular motion on your hands, carefully giving it a little stretch with each bounce. If it begins to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue shaping it. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss as shown on page 208. If you have trouble tossing the dough, or if the dough keeps springing back, let it rest for 5 to 20 minutes so the gluten can relax, and try again. You can also resort to using a rolling pin, though this isn't as effective as the toss method. (Don't worry-- I suck at this part. I just roll and flatten it out with my hands)

7. When the dough is stretched out to your satisfaction (about 9 to 12 inches in diameter for a 6-ounce piece of dough), lay it on the peel or pan, making sure there is enough semolina flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide. Lightly top it with sauce and then with your other top- pings, remembering that the best pizzas are topped with a less-is-more philosophy. A few, usually no more than 3 or 4 toppings, including sauce and cheese is sufficient.

8. Slide the topped pizza onto the stone (or bake directly on the sheet pan) and close the door. Wait 2 minutes, then take a peek. If it needs to be rotated 180 degrees for even baking, do so. The pizza should take about 5 to 8 minutes to bake. If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone to a lower self before the next round. if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone for subsequent bakes.

9. Remove the pizza from the oven and transfer to a cutting board. Wait 3 to 5 minutes before slicing and serving, to allow the cheese to set slightly.