ruby crowned kinglette

i tried.....

but my computer conspired against me... so here are three.

three, to make up for the days i have missed.

this was my lunch on thursday.... garbanzo beans like molly says on top of sauted swiss chard... pretty good really.

i woke up and looked outside while still lying in bed and all i could see was a golden glow... so i whipped on some clothes and went outside to take some pictures... exactly what you would expect at 7:30am on a saturday morning... right?

and look! some goodies for the holiday season.  i have a little show with some gals this weekend and am furiously (kind of) getting ready.  these will be a few of the items that i will have. hopefully. as i mentioned before, december has kind of come up on me without me even realizing it was fall, let alone the holiday season.

we had pie

joanne's pumpkin pie, to be exact.

now it seems that i was a bit selfish earlier and didn't post a recipe - and this pie is so good that you should have the recipe.  so good.

so, so good.

 

joanne’s pumpkin pie

1        10” baked shell

1        envelope gelatin – unflavored
1/4     cup cold water

3        eggs – separated
1/2     cup sugar
1 1/4  cup canned pumpkin – unseasoned
1/2     cup sour cream
1/2     teaspoon salt
1        teaspoon cinnamon
1/4     teaspoon ground cloves
1/4     teaspoon nutmeg
1/4     teaspoon ginger

1/4     cup sugar

1        cup cream – whipped
1        cup sifted powdered sugar
1        teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2    cup chopped pecans

note:  i usually double by half the whipping cream mixture to be certain there will be enough to cover top of pie.

beat egg yolks in 1/2 cup sugar until lemon colored.  add pumpkin, sour cream, salt and spices.  cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until boils, continue boiling for 2 minutes.

remove from heat – stir in softened gelatin.  stir until dissolved.  cool.

beat egg whites until frothy.  add 1/4 cup sugar gradually and beat until stiff.  fold into pumpkin mixture when it has cooled.

whip cream slightly.  gradually add powdered sugar and vanilla.  mix well.

spoon half of the pumpkin mixture into shell.  add 1/2 of cream mixture. repeat.

sprinkle with chopped pecans.

i'm at it again

i have been baking more no-knead bread.  i love it, and that's really all that matters.  these last few loaves have been made from durum wheat flour i bought when i went to pacific food importers, or pfi.  i thought the flour would make a heartier, more chewy bread. i think i was right.  the yeast i had been using was a bit old so it wasn't rising quite like i expected. but, the flour was denser too.  this last loaf has 2 cups durum and one cup regular old stone-buhr white... mostly because i ran out of the durum, so it is a bit lighter and holier... you know, full of holes, not so much godly.  although....

i did buy new yeast too... so too many variables switched to know what specifically the difference was, but it doesn't matter - it is good. great really.

i made the marmalade last winter.  it is the last jar in the fridge and is really good too.  it's from the ina garten barefoot contessa at home book.  she, in turn, states that it is anna pump's recipe from her book country weekend entertaining.  it is easy and delicious.  it is also quite quick to burn should you put it on the stove and then walk away to become distracted by the internets.  so don't do that.  it will almost ruin one of your le cruset pans. but, if you do, you can dremel out the burned sugar that seems might be tougher than the enamel, but it isn't... it is just incredibly stubborn.  i, of course, know this first hand.

i didn't churn the butter, i bought it and then slathered it on the warm toast before the marmalade. it is taking all i have not to continue to power through the loaf of bread and a stick of butter.

going to california this weekend for a little golf.  although you haven't seen me much i am in desperate need of getting away.  here's hoping i break one hundred.

it seems all kinds of wrong....

but it isn't....

 
not.

at.

all.

i bought what very well might be the best after work treat maker* ever. it might also be my demise... we shall see.

the best thing - besides making the fluffiest popped corn and popping all but about six** of those kernels - is this.  i can make kettle corn.

so yes, i am in trouble. but good, light, tender, sweet, crisp trouble.

i bought the popcorn at costco in the big-ass 8 pound jug. totally worth it - both the price and the size...  bought the whirley-pop at target.com, and the dental floss picks at bartell's.  i will soon be buying bigger pants at nordstrom rack.

the recipe?

1/4 cup oil (i know)
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup (or so... more usually) kernels

whirl until popped.  put in bowl, sprinkle with salt. eat with abandon.

*ok, it has also been a dinner maker, and a lunch maker too. and a mid afternoon snack maker. and also a snack while babysitting maker.

**this time just four!

she said to make a lot...., so i did

 

she didn’t say to eat cheese from the floor, but i did that too.

oh, yes i did.

it was a big, beautiful cube of buffalo milk mozzarella, and in my haste to transfer those cubes from the cutting board to the baking dish one slipped away.  i wish i had mopped the floor like i had meant to this morning… but, i did sweep. in that fraction of a second as the cheese dropped to the floor i gasped, cursed and began my count to five. it hit with a splat of moist, creamy goodness, and this is what i thought... ‘at least i am not tossing it back into the baking dish'...  a moment later it was gone.

it was delicious.

molly, at orangette, posted about baked pasta today and today baked pasta sounded really, really good. it is a cold and blustery day here.  it has been cold and blustery for a few days now. it hasn't been warm here for very many days now. i am willing to bet that we did not crest above 60 degrees today and it rained like crazy, too.  i am willing to bet {again} that the rain was in fact the tears of more than two million western washingtonians weeping because although the calendar says june, it really feels like march. and has felt like march since.... MARCH!

i didn't have basil, so i used some baby spinach i bought at the farmer's market last week.  it was tiny, tender and delightful.  and, i think i could have used quite a bit more... but what i did use tasted wonderful.

so then, i am going to go now. the lights are flickering and i am a little bit nervous... i have lost connection to the internets twice causing my first draft of this to disappear. i can't risk that again, because... well, i might go berserk.  so, some housework, maybe some needlework by a fire and quite possibly a little snow shoveling in the early morning.  that last part? that better be an exaggeration.

a new project

others have photography projects...

maria and stephanie at 3191

alicia and heather at noticing project

andrea at hula seventy

meg and shari at entre deux mers

and more, of course...

pretty much i have wanted my own for a year.  didn't know what it would be, or consist of, or who to participate with....

it showed itself, on 13 april, as plates & forks.  i see it as a solo endeavor. the idea is to photograph these plates and forks where i see them, when i see them, dirty or not, mine or someone else's....  it will also serve the purpose of getting me to take my {jim's?} camera with me, and pull out my canon and film every once in a while too. i plan for it to run a year, ending on this blog's {unofficial} birthday, 23 march 2009. 

the project will have it's own album, over there, to the right. i will post photos here every once in a while too, especially on days when i got nothing else... like today, for instance.

book club, mario and advil

last night i hosted book club…  i was going to serve popcorn and beer, and looking back it might have been a better idea, but i would have missed learning a few things, and i always like to learn new things. in fact, sometimes i like to learn things i already know.

or should know.

or thought i knew...

new thing:  if i have read a book in the last year, and it is slated to be read for book club? i have learned that i won't remember to read it again, but do anything else that might look interesting instead. in the end, when there isn't time, wish i had read it... that last little part? i did know that of myself.  i believe that is called regret - i am intimately familiar with regret.

ok, moving on.

learning again thing:  it is very important to read, with some attention being paid to, the entire recipe of an item i am making for the first time...  case in point? mario batali's eggplant caponata.  the picture above are the first several ingredients cooking away in olive oil.  a generous amount of olive oil which is why everything is so shiny and pretty.  so pretty in fact that i became a bit distracted.

i kept adding ingredients, and it was still looking so darned good.  then i added the last three... and although it still looked good, when i tasted it... well, all i could wonder was 'did he really mean to add 3/4 cup of balsamic?', 'maybe it will mellow when it cools', 'maybe it needs to cook off that vinegary taste', and then again, 'did he really mean to add 3/4 cup of balsamic???'.  well, no. actually.  he meant i should add 1/3 cup.  ummmm.  those little eggplant sponges were in no way going to give up all that vinegar. so, i made it again.  it was tasty and really worth making it the second time...

learning again thing:  it is smart for me to make some recipes at least once before serving it to guests.  i didn't have as much success, i didn't think, with the orange tart, capri style.  i had nearly two cups of the custard that didn't fit into the tart shell.  wow!  my eggs were big but not goose eggs for crying out loud.  the custard that did fit to the very tippy top smelled quite good while it burned on the oven floor after slopping over and in between the shell and the pan.... nice.

new thing:  seven advil will make me goofy.  four were not doing the trick, so i took three more.  i seem to have hurt my upper back when i hit some golf balls at the driving range about six weeks ago. i keep waiting for it to get better, it keeps staying really tight.  apparently cooking in the kitchen didn't help so it was bothering me last night.  seven advils and a glass of wine helped... my back, not so much my brain.

thing i already knew:  my book club is full of great, wonderful women.  it was nice to be goofy with them, and have them eat my food and expose myself to the idea that i might be a little bit sylvie and have them still like me anyhow....

new thing:  it seems the recipes from my new mario batali's molto italiano cookbook are available through the food network... i don't know if it is all of them, but i wonder if i would have bought the book knowing that they were there?  probably, i love cookbooks, and the photography is so freaking great it almost makes you think you've eaten the dishes before you have prepared them.

new thing & thing i already knew:  jen wondered if it was strange that she had a little crush on mario batali... i said no. because.... if i could have one on kevin james, she could have one on mario batali...

liberty, flat pigs and another in the series

bought some liberty fabric on ebay... with our crap exchange rate i am not sure it was any more frugal that going to liberty itself {well, except for all the other expenses} or even clicking to purl soho.  i don't care, touching these makes it all better. i do have plans for them, but not firm ones.  it involves garment sewing, and that makes me nervous - so they may be hoarded with the rest of my stash.

hidden in there are 7 pigs - heh heh.

and then this, today's contribution to the plate & fork extravaganza.  it held a soft boiled egg on toast before it hit the sink.  i am an egg lover, no doubt about that.

today, for breakfast...

this is what i made for breakfast today....

it is a swiss chard and cheddar omelet.  and it was tasty. the recipe is from epicurious and in turn from bon appetit - february 2001.  i am pretty sure i have the magazine in the basement but i came upon the recipe last summer when it was included in the newsletter from the csa pat and i had membership in.  i didn't try it right away.  i am lazy.  pat did though and then served it for dinner one night while i was over at her house.  i have been making it since. looks like i was kind of liberal with the cheese this morning....

Chard and Cheddar Omelet

This southern-style omelet would go nicely with sautéed plum tomatoes and warm corn bread. Dessert can be butter pecan ice cream drizzled with bourbon.

Makes 2 servings; can be doubled.

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 ounces red Swiss chard, stemmed, chopped (about 3 cups packed)
3/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

5 large eggs
3/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
   

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in 8-inch-diameter nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add garlic; sauté until soft, about 2 minutes. Stir in chard, cover and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Stir in hot sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to small bowl. Wipe skillet clean.

Whisk eggs, 1/4 cup cheese, salt and pepper in medium bowl to blend. Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter in same skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of egg mixture and cook until eggs are just set in center, tilting pan and lifting edge of omelet with spatula to let uncooked portion flow underneath, about 2 minutes. Scatter half of chard mixture over half of omelet. Sprinkle 1/4 cup cheese over chard. Fold omelet over cheese; slide out onto plate. Repeat with remaining butter, egg mixture, chard and cheese.

i make it a bit differently though...  i usually just make a two egg omelet for me.  and don't really measure the chard or cheese, and use quite a bit less butter too {surprising, but true}.  i do use the sharp cheddar though, tillamook. always. i use olive oil to cook the chard and a clove of garlic, halved, left it in the pan to cook with the chard but discarding it once the chard is done.  {only a hint of garlic is necessary - for most things, most of the time. my friend the budding chef agrees.}

ok then... once the chard is done i remove it from the pan. i add a bit of the cheese and whip it into the eggs before pouring into the buttered pan. once it is about 2/3's done i top with the remaining cheese and chard and cover with my plate.  that way, it cooks through and i have a warm plate too...

enjoy!

oh, yes... it looks like a pattern is developing. look for more plates and forks this month, apparently it is plate and fork month on ruby-crowned kinglette....

                                                                                             

i would not, could not, ever be... a vegetarian

'cause i like meats too much.

lunch today was mighty nice.  in keeping with my promise to take advantage of the city in which i live, i drove downtown and picked up jen on the street corner and headed to pioneer square where we both had ourselves a nice meat sandwich from salumi.
jen had the lamb sandwich, i had the cotecchino and they were good, real real good.

before i picked up jen - from the street corner* - i stopped here and picked up some dessert.  i got a lemon cupcake and a red velvet cupcake. now, i have to say, and i know this is going to hurt some of you... but i don't think i am a big fan of the red velvet.  sure, it looks damn fine, which is why i got it, because i didn't think that the chocolate with vanilla frosting was going to 'look good'** in the box with the lemon one - but, now? i kinda wish i got the chocolate with vanilla frosting because it would have been buttercream frosting and buttercream frosting is just about the best frosting in the whole wide world - especially eaten from the end of your index finger, especially when it is piled high on the end of that index finger.  but they were not serving buttercream from the end of index fingers today so i went with the red velvet.

if i had more self control there would be a photo of the lemon cupcake too, but i don't so there isn't.... enough said.

and for some non-meaty news.... this was on my doorstep this morning.

and look what begins on page 86...

many thanks go to staci dumoski - she contacted me and then kept contacting me because i was incredibly tardy in getting any kind of article to her.  thank you staci, for your patience and making my blog and photos look so great.  it is a lovely honor to be in your magazine. and the best part is that they used my pig tower picture - i love that pig tower picture....

*jen does not actually work the streets of down town seattle, it is just fun to pretend.... well, fun for me anyhow.

**it is real important to look good where cupcakes are concerned...