Category Archives: posts by j

craving tea

i haven’t been in the mood for coffee since november. our shipment of MLT arrives today and i can’t wait. i love MLT. we also drink serendiptea, but we haven’t tried as many teas from them and i don’t like their blends as well as i like those from MLT. i am also biased because i hate their web site and their xocalatl chai brewing instructions suck. but i love their chamomile flowers and, someday, i would entertain a taste test of regular chai (no more rooibos chai for me) from both companies.

we tried 2 lupicia orzo teas a while back. orzo is an ancient italian barley. we smelled them in the store, thought we’d be adventuresome and ultimately tossed them, it pains me to say. we tried the recommended brewing method (blech!) and then we modified it to see if it would taste better (still blech!). we drank it unsweetened and hella sweetened (even more blech!). so we gave up.

i was poking around in the cupboard this morning and found another lupicia tea that we had forgotten about (that’s the problem with high cupboards and being short). i discovered adagio: green rooibos with lemongrass and pink grapefruit. i brewed it this morning according to the directions and it seems to be ok. recommended brewing: 2.5-3g / 150ml water / steep 3-5 minutes. my scientific measuring compulsions yielded: 2 level tsp = 3g. i steeped it in 150ml (5 oz) of hot water for 4 minutes. rooibos should take a longer steep (according to MLT whose recommendations haven’t yet led me astray), but it turned out ok. i don’t generally like fruity teas, but that is starting to change. KCL and ML sent us the best mango flavored black tea. i’ve never had a fruity tea taste that good. i supposed the black tea base helps.

back to my adagio, it’s the color of orange kool-aid and pretty much tastes like warm grapefruit juice. next, i will try it with sugar/honey and perhaps steep it for 5 minutes.

mmm, i am so looking forward to my tea.

cornbread

i am baking cornbread from a recipe in a bread book NM gave me for xmas. if you’re lucky, you may see photos of the finished product. if not, then rest assured that it was tasty and maybe i’ll take pictures next time. such a simple recipe…(will include later…)

(it had to rest, so i was able to sneak a quick pic! if i eat a wedge out, it will look like pac-man!)

taste test: honey

after our rediscovery of acacia honey, we splurged on 2 other acacia honeys at bay cities deli. the one on the left tastes like sue bee honey, orange blossom honey, whatever. nothing special. the one in the middle is an italian acacia honey and has a complexity and floral aspect that exceeds the french acacia at the far right. don’t misunderstand me, the french acacia honey is light and delicate and adds doesn’t overpower with its sweetness, but the italian acacia honey is perfect for that yogurt, pom, chocolate mixture that i love so much and is perfect in tea – just the right amount of taste and smell that accentuates the tea instead of smothering it.

taste test: caperberries

sometimes, the most expensive thing isn’t the thing that tastes the best. the 2 cheapest caperberries at bay cities deli are the most flavorful and are my favorite and the 2 most expensive caperberries have no flavor or have a nasty aftertaste.

aicha (far left): the cheapest. the sweetest in flavor and the smallest in size. good texture – not mushy. roland (second, from left): second cheapest. the most sour in flavor and my favorite. delicia’s (second, from right): the most expensive and has the funny aftertaste. miguel (far right): second most expensive. has no flavor whatsoever.

pickles

persian cukes. dill. allspice. 2 vinegars. shallots. garlic (lotsa garlic). some chili flakes. they are so good, i don’t need to buy pickles again. no, seriously.

leek tart

i have a list of things to cook for m, but am always somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer length of the list and the complexity of the recipes. tonight, i faced those fears head on and made a leek shiitake gorgonzola tart. a leek tart has been on her list for years. in building up to tonight’s culinary adventure, i looked for all sorts of recipes in all sorts of places. one recipe called for “your favorite savory pastry crust recipe” – i don’t have a favorite savory pastry crust recipe. i finally decided on the cook’s illustrated recipe because i wanted to stop thinking about whether i had the proper sized pie tin or what kind of pastry crust to use and if i could even find a crust that would taste good.

this leek tart was no small feat. it is currently in the oven and it took me over 4 hours to prepare (mind you, 1.5 hours of that was dough sitting in the refrigerator). the hardest part was the dough. i am a chickens**t when it comes to dough. i now bake bread but only found confidence after the 25th loaf when i started producing consistent results. i look in the oven constantly to check whether something is done. souffles – ha! a baker i probably won’t be. i rely on m’s expertise when we make gnocchi and pierogies. i don’t know proper rolling technique. but most of my stuff comes out tasting pretty good, so i guess i can get away with my rudimentary skill set. for now.

i am particularly proud of myself and this tart because all of my steps and results looked like the steps and results in the cook’s video. i produced pea-sized pieces of butter in my dough mixture. i achieved a loose, shaggy mass of dough as required in step 2. i rolled and folded my (very) buttery dough in the same way as shown in step 3. i didn’t roll my dough out into a proper 14-inch circle, but i was able to fold the dough and pinch the edges over the filling in a shape reminiscent of a circle. it looked more like an oval, but i think that’s what you get when you roll dough into a rectangle and then bring the sides in.

as i type this, i smell buttery, warm dough. my labor of love for my one and only is almost done cooking. i can’t believe i made a proper dough. and i don’t know how the french do it. in every brasserie, there must be a grandmother slaving away over a table of flour with a rolling pin that sees no rest. making a crust from scratch is quite involved. this tart is not a quick evening, post-work meal. it is a significant endeavor. i protest and say that i’ll never make this tart again, but making that dough was deeply satisfying and i may have to try it again just so i can be certain that i actually made it.

leek tart/galette

quinoa veggie loaf

quinoa loaf

m saw this recipe on the whole foods app on her phone. we love quinoa and the recipe sounded good, so we tried it. it was *excellent*. way better than i had anticipated. and so easy to make. note to self, it could probably stand to be baked a little longer than the 1.25 hours the recipe calls for, but i think the middle will still be mushy and need a quick pan fry to warm up and crisp up.

burning house

there is a tumblog called burning house where people post pictures of things they would take with them before exiting a fire. in this box, is everything i have ever written in my life since 1989 and every card and love letter m and i have exchanged.

anna

look how dark she was! we thought she might have pointy dingo ears, but they became floppy instead.

digging into the past

i am a bit of a hoarder. i collect little bits and pieces. i collect quotes. notes. design elements. comic strips. if i actually scrapbooked, i would be a junkie. i found this recently when i rummaged through a pile of papers…