Kiss the Cooks

Seattle Times reviews Terra Plata

2012-02-05T09:54:00.000-08:00

Read a really nice review of our pal Tamara's new space! She is described as sometimes acting "... as midwife in the earth-to-plate journey" - Many congratulations, Tamara!

Kissers, ~~I hear they plan to open for brunch in the near future~~... UPDATE 2/12: William tells me that Terra Plata has been open for brunch for a while, and a reliable fancy-food-friend of mine gives it a big thumbs-up!

http://terraplata.com/

Eat Chicken Wings and Keep a Clean Hand for Your Beer

2012-02-05T09:41:00.001-08:00

Whoa! I almost never eat chicken wings for this very reason. Somehow, it seems half as gross to have half my fingers covered in wing-goo, though - maybe it's time to give it another try using this guy's technique?

via FoodBeast

January KTC Event: Brunch and Coffee Roasting with Damian and Rick!

2012-02-05T09:41:00.000-08:00

Gray. Rainy. Sunday. That's right, Kissers: This could only mean one thing...No! Not that it is wintertime in the Pacific Northwest! It meant that it was time to brighten things up with a Kiss the Cooks brunch!

Grab hold of your cucumbers (but please don't grab someone else's without permission!), Kissers, and settle in for the scoop!

That's right, on a recent Sunday morning we gathered for a quick meal at the gorgeously appointed Chez Par-tay, AKA Chateau Kellobach. Rick and Damian had planned a simple-yet-deeeee-licious brunch to keep us sated during our scheduled coffee roasting lesson in Downtown Kirkland later in the afternoon.

Damian was our morning mixologist, shown here exactly as he is: a veritable maestro with a Boston Shaker full of Bloody Marys!

Wow!!! Look at his toolkit! (Get your minds out of the gutter, I don't mean THAT toolkit!!)

And, speaking of Bloody Marys, the good folks over at Bon Appetit are always looking out for their booziest readers. Check out the "Bloody Mary Bandit" - a slot machine-type contraption designed to fancify your standard Bloody Mary recipe so you can try a new twist on an old classic!

Try it yourself over at: http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/bloody-mary-bandit

We were bummed to spend the morning sans Fernando and William, but we enjoyed an extra-special guest in their stead: Bladesmith Daniel O'Malley of your favorite knife shop and mine, Epicurian Edge. It was a real treat to have you, Daniel-thanks for joining us!

Here's Daniel and Jessica observing the panache with which Anne sips that oh-so-fabulous Bloody Mary that Damian shook up just for her:

Damian was our hero that Sunday, and not only because he was shaking up the best Bloody Marys this side of Spokane. Worthy of his previously-bestowed title of "Jamkeeper," Damian brought along the infamous Tomato Jam that we canned at the end of the summer during our jam-making jam session (see what I did there?) back in September.

Allow me to jog your memories:

It was even more tasty than I imagined it would be - Soooo delicious!

Damian had also brought along a batch of William's famous Effing Good Cinnamon Rolls, albeit a gluten-free version to share with us. They smelled like heaven, even through the plastic. Don't fret - you'll see more of these up close in a minute!

As usual, we enjoyed our typical Kiss the Cooks kitchen antics. Here, Anne is using half an egg carton to catch herself some rainbow rays of Tomato Jam Joy before they put someone's eye out.

Joyce took on the meditative task of removing tiny thyme leaves, one by one, so we would be guaranteed the most lurver-liest garnish on the block for our brunchtime pièce de résistance. She still had time to interrupt her serious work for a grin, though! ¡Qué pícara!

During a lull in the festivities, several of us hiked out around the back of the house to visit the wine shed. Single-file, we followed Rick down a short path and into an innocent-looking door.

Holy wine-storage, Batman! You might not be able to tell from the photo, but this was a seriously groovy space to stash your favorite grape-based beverages!

Built into the ground on three sides, the open side is covered year-round by a thick copse of trees that keeps out virtually all the light. All that protection from the elements keeps the temperatures in the shed moderately and consistently cool all year round--perfect for storing your wine!

We filed back into the house, where it was MUCH warmer and drier, and got down to business. We planned to use a basic pasta recipe from the book James McNair's Pasta Cookbook, available on Amazon.

The basic recipe consists of:

~2 cups all-purpose flour, preferably unbleached
3 large eggs (at room temp, please!)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt

Jessica took a turn at mixing things up, and in no time flat, we had a perfectly-formed ball of pasta dough waiting for its time in the pasta machine. Have a look!

Jessica sprinkled and rolled like a pro:

Our friend Daniel pitched in to help out:

Meanwhile, Damian was busy mixing up and rolling out a gluten-free batch of pasta, using a special gluten-free pasta flour (Damian? Which one did you use? Let me know and we'll give them some link love here - it was tasty!).

Here, he's rolled the dough out and is cutting with a pizza cutter. What concentration!

Damian's hard work amply paid off. Here's his final product, resting before cooking! Et voilà!!

We were putting the finishing touches on the pastas when Frank arrived. He'd been singing at an event just prior, and was wearing a very cool vest. You can't tell from this photo, but it has very snazzy yellow and blue stripes!

Without exception, everyone in attendance at Anne and Rick's house was happy to see Frank. And I mean everyone.

While we rolled out the pasta, Meg was hard at work on one of her Meg-olicious salad offerings. Here, she whips together a quick citrus marinade...

And slices up some ripe pears and some gorgeous Honeycrisp apples...

And tosses the fruit into the marinade to somehow become even more delicious than it started out...

Daniel showed us how his Italian grandma used to rest the pasta on the back of a chair before cooking it...

A "sauce" for our pasta awaited, a heady mixture of olive oil, red pepper flakes, anchovy, garlic, and spices...

Joyce had turned out quite a harvest of tiny thyme leaves...

Anne mugged for the camera (what a babe!)...

Damian revisited the bartending toolkit...

At this point, we were finally ready to prepare for The Poaching.

Yes, this would be a feat of true ovoid fun. We planned to poach 10-12 eggs at virtually the same time, so we could plate, serve, and dine together at the table.We reviewed Tamara Murphy's (most recently of Terra Plata fame!) tips for egg poaching in her beautiful tome, Tender.

Rick had readied our egg-poaching mise en place, with individual eggs (courtesy of Coop Arcadia and Meg's Girlzzz!) awaiting their respective baths and shallow pans of hot water simmering on the stove.

We were nearly ready to eat! Rick and Damian made the plan: We just needed to simultaneously plate the salad, boil the pasta, and soft-poach the eggs all at the same time.

But wait! What was that? Is someone at the door?

It was our old pal Mikey, over to visit from Walla Walla!

He was freshly trimmed and coiffed, and looked great. He reports a fruitful ski season on the other side of the Cascades, and some hilarious-because-they-aren't-happening-to-you goings-on at Chateau Rollat. Mikey said he was here on a super quick visit, so we were extra-tickled to see him!

We took a quick conversation break to say hello and visit, and in typical Kiss the Cooks fashion, more kitchen antics ensued. In Fernando's absence, Anne helped Shawn create a romantic "first family portrait." Ain't they sweet?

Of course, that was the second take...The first take was way funnier:

Ahem...Back to business... The table was pretty much ready for us...

Someone put the pasta on to boil. We still needed to plate the salads and poach the eggs. Rick decided to use a method that almost no one was convinced would work. However, the laws of physics were on Rick's side, and his technique worked beautifully!

Into a pan of barely-simmering water, Rick carefully dropped an egg.

Then he dropped in a second egg...Can you see the second little guy in there?

When they were ready (not sure if he timed them or eyeballed them...Rick?), Rick fished them out carefully with a slotted spoon...

And gently placed them into a large, shallow bowl to await their final destination...

Rick patiently manned the Poaching Station...

Meanwhile, the rest of us (and I mean lots of us! Have a look!) got busy plating the salads. We decided on a rather deconstructed version of a salade composée...

First, a lettuce bed...

Then, more hands adding more goodies!

Shawn declared the fruit marinade delicious, and slurped up the extra straight from the plate.

Daniel watched us with amusement as we scurried around to get everything on the table at the same time:

Finally, we had a pretty nice-looking series of salads!

We unwrapped the cinnamon rolls and got them onto the table. They smelled sooooo good!

Have a closer look...

Meanwhile, thanks to Rick's loving ministrations, our bowl of poached eggs steadily reproduced. Not too shabby, eh?

We managed to get the salad and cinnamon rolls onto the table...

We were finally ready to plate up our main course! First, we tossed the cooked pasta with the aforementioned olive oil-garlic-anchovy-pepper flakes mixture.

Next, we sprinkled the pasta with crispy-cooked bacon, a poached egg, and Joyce's winsome thyme. Doesn't that look divine?

We plated everyone up, and a couple of lucky folks got an extra egg or two. We aren't quite sure what happened to this guy, but he looked a little sad and naked next to his eggy brethren:

Note that he looks MUCH happier in the company of his friends and family. And really, wouldn't you agree that this is the truth for most of us?

Here's the birds-eye view:

And a closer view. Oh. Em. Gee.

As much as we wanted to gawk and stare in admiration at our plates, and eat as leisurely as possible to prolong our collective culinary pleasure, time was a-wasting. We were expected in about 30 minutes in downtown Kirkland at Caffé Rococo!

When we realized what time it was, we inhaled the rest of our breakfast, and leaped up from the table. Rick told the folks who opted for a rainy walk that they should leave post-haste.

The rest of the Kissers stayed behind for a few minutes longer to straighten up a teensy bit before driving down the hill to Caffé Rococo.

Today, we would be enjoying a tour of Caffé Rococo's downtown storefront and coffee roasting digs. We would also be treated to a mini coffee-roasting class, courtesy of Jake and Adam, resident coffee roasting experts. We fueled up for the class:

And we headed around the corner behind the bar to see this crazy contraption:

The roaster-on-duty, Jake, smiled disarmingly and invited us all to come on in and have a closer look, so we did.

We introduced ourselves and informed Jake that we had arrived for our 3pm coffee class, and he beamed. Here was a guy (and a kinda muscle-y guy, to boot!) who loved his work! We picked our way over coffee sacks and other impediments, "abuzz" with excitement about learning how coffee is roasted.

There is a wacky mural in the roasting space, visible in the photo below. You can see that Jessica smiles next to the Pie in the Sky, relaxed. Poor Daniel, on the other hand, wonders what in the hell that tree up there is drinking, and why it looks so despondent.

Jake walked us briefly through how coffee beans go from this:

To this:

The first thing I can say is, WOW. I had no idea that coffee-roasting was such a scientific and intricate process! We had such an interesting afternoon, and we learned so much!

Jake empties out the hopper where some already-roasted beans have been cooling. He says that he pours into the hopper about 9.4 pounds of coffee beans at the beginning of the roasting process. During the process, the beans lose so much water and mass from the chemical reaction of roasting that only around 8.6 pounds remain at the end of the roasting cycle. Whoa!

Now, Jake gets down to business. His 7 years in the coffee business have made him one knowledgeable guy about the noble plant Coffea. At Caffé Rococo, Jake tells us, they favor a highly-controlled quality-focused outcome approach to roasting, in small batches.

Jake describes the fascinating process of how coffee "talks to you" - he says you don't necessarily roast coffee by temperature or by time, but rather that you can hear when it has reached the "crack" stage.

Adam, one of Rococo's owners (isn't he?), joined us about this point, and he gave us some more specific temperatures for these different stages. Adam told us that the "first crack" happens around 400 degrees, and reiterated Jake's statement that first crack is is called such because it sounds like popcorn! This is the process during which the beans swell and crack open along the seam, or butt, of each bean.

Jake pulled out some beans to let us listen to what the crack stage sounds like:

Here's a handy list of many of the different roasts that coffee roasters produce. I found this list on an Orlando, Florida coffee roaster's blog, The Weekly Roast. Check them out!

1. City/Light (first crack, a volatile sound of the beans cracking, has finished)
2. City+/Medium (shortly after first crack is complete)
3. Full City/Medium Dark (second crack is about to happen at any moment)
4. Full City+/Dark (the first few moments into second crack, a quieter snapping sound)
5. Vienna/Light French Roast/Very Dark (second crack is happening) – this is the darkest roast Weekly Roast offers (if we roasted any darker, the coffee would taste burnt and bitter)
6. French Roast/Extremely Dark (second crack is almost done) – Weekly Roast does not offer coffee this dark

We learned that coffees from different regions have different specific characteristics, similar to the idea of terroir in winemaking. For example, South American coffees are typically fruity and light-bodied with high acidity, typical of breakfast blends and other lighter roasts. Sumatran coffees, on the other hand, are more robustly flavored or earthy, with lower acidity and heavier body. These pair particularly well with chocolates.

Even more interesting, we learned that the darker the coffee's roast, the less caffeine it actually contains. He also said that, typically, Spanish and Italian roasts are even darker than French Roast, so have less caffeine. Perhaps that explains why I drank espresso all day long in Spain and could still go to sleep at night with no problem!

We also learned that coffee beans aren't really beans at all, but rather seeds of the fruit of the coffee plant. The fruit of the coffee plant is actually called a coffee "berry" or a coffee "cherry." Each coffee berry contains two coffee seeds (beans). The beans are covered by a tough membrane called silverskin, which is covered by a mucilage, which is surrounded by the coffee fruit, or berry.

The silverskin and mucilage must be removed before the beans can be roasted, and there are a few methods for doing this:

Washed: Commonly used in South America, water is used to remove the additional layers from the coffee beans
Semi-washed: Commonly used for coffee from Java/Sumatra. Partially washed, partially dried naturally.
Unwashed or natural: Whole coffee cherries are picked and left to dry in the sun naturally, like a raisin. Typically these coffees have a more rustic flavor, more fruity.

Lest you think these washes mean everything to the taste of your morning cuppa, consider this: Adam told us that we should think about the role of bean origin in the process. To use a cooking analogy, he said the coffee beans' origin is the ingredient, and the processing method through which the silverskin, etc. is removed is the seasoning. Interesting!

Shawn borrowed Jake's ever-so-easy-on-the-eye manly strength to spin around this huge bag of coffee so she could snap a photo of it for Fernando, who if you recall, was MIA. Three cheers for el café colombiano!

As our class wrapped up, it was time to do a little coffee tasting. Adam prepared two French press pots: One with Caffé Rococo's Breakfast Blend, and one with their French Roast. He even presented a few treats to accompany our coffees!

Adam chatted up Rick and Daniel while we sipped and discussed. Our small group seemed to be in agreement that we all preferred the French Roast blend. It was darker, smoother, and had more body in the mouth. The Breakfast Blend was plenty tasty, it was simply thinner, and more acidic. "Diner coffee," someone said. "It reminds me of Diner Coffee."

Adam told us that our preference for the darker French Roast was not the minority opinion in the Pacific Northwest, and that typically, coffee drinkers here appreciate a darker roast way more than a lighter one. He told us that the lighter roasted Breakfast Blend was more inkeeping with what people gravitate towards on the East Coast (think Dunkin' Donuts, yo).

Sundays are Caffé Rococo's re-stocking day, so pickings were slimmer than usual. However, many of us still found some goodies to buy - including a freshly-roasted batch of French Roast blend!

Jake told us to wait 5-7 days if we planned to use our coffee for espresso. He said that between the extraction method, the crema, and the stronger flavor profile, the beans really needed a few days to rest before using. However, if we were drip coffee folks, we should use our beans right away. I'm guessing French Press counts as drip in this sense - anyone know?

That wrapped up our visit and coffee roasting class. We bought our goodies and headed out.

We heart Caffé Rococo!

Many thanks, Caffé Rococo! We'll be back for sure!

I do encourage you to check out Caffé Rococo - not only was their coffee delicious and their space lovely and comfortable, but the service was simply impeccable. From the gal who carefully prepared our coffee to the young man who went to inquire about our coffee roasting appointment to our extra-knowledgeable roasting buddy Jake (who even dug out a huge burlap coffee sack labeled "Product of Colombia" for Shawn, what a sweetie!) to Adam the owner, we all felt so warmly received and well-treated - I'll definitely be making Rococo my stop of choice for a snack or a cuppa in Kirkland!

Next up, Kissers, is another date change in February (per our recent annual meeting): Joyce and Anne will dazzle us with something on February 25 (changed from the 18th due to the holiday weekend).

Quick reminder of upcoming dates:

March 17 (Shawn and Rick)
April 21 (Fernando and Jessica)
May 19 (Frank and Meg)

Note: We don't have anything scheduled after May, so we may need to consider working on that soon...I know how our calendars fill up!

See you soon, Kissers - Enjoy the sunny day/Super Bowl/beginning of February!

2011 Annual KTC Cookie Bake!

2011-12-29T21:51:00.000-08:00

Whew! Well, folks, it's January. As in, January 2012. That's right, no more 2011! It's time for a new year, a new start, and new fun times on our bloggity-blog! I cannot wait to tell you about our marvelous cookie back recently at Joyce and Jessica's home...So, with no further ado, here you go!

Way back in 2011 (Remember those times?), we met at Joyce and Jessica's home on a Saturday morning. Yes, it was a little earlier in the day than our usual meeting time, but it was obvious that J-n-J really knew their audience. A bevy of bottled beverages beckoned:

Fernando had, shall we say, overindulged at his office's Christmas party the night before, and I felt a little bad about our slightly-tardy arrival. However, I needn't have worried - it turned out that we all trickled in at different times, and were all moving at a markedly slower-than-usual pace. Curse you, holiday stress and busy-ness! Curse you! Why, even Rosie was feeling a little lazy!

But wait - Just because some of us may have FELT a little lazy did not mean that we were BEING very lazy, however. Lots was already going on even prior to our arrival. Have a look at some of it! I believe these were Jessica's lip-smackingly delicious Drunken Molasses Cookies with Ginger, patiently awaiting their time in the oven.

This is a pan of Meg's hilariously-named-but-oh-so-delicious White Trash cookie bars - AKA Magic Cookie Bars. The real magic is probably that these were usually made--at least in my grandmother's house--with margarine instead of butter, and somehow they still tasted pretty delicious. What a nostalgic treat, straight off of the Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk can label!

Shawn had brought along a Bacon-Jalapeño Cheese Ball, courtesy of Homesick Texan. It ended up looking more like a cheese disk rather than a cheese ball, but it still tasted pretty darn yummy.

Joyce made a salmon pate, too, that was equally delicious. It originally had a very fun cone shape, but we decimated the pretty part too quickly for me to capture it with the camera!

Finally everyone had trickled in. Damian's cousin Clare had joined us, to our delight. Damian would arrive a teensy bit late, William wouldn't be joining us, and we expected Henry and a friend a little later in the afternoon. We ate some snacks and visited a bit, and pretty soon, things started coming back out of the oven. We were making progress! Here's Meg showing off her lovely White Trash bars, fresh out of the oven.

Don't they look scrumptious?

Shawn and Fernando planned to make caramels in addition to the cookie dough they brought along. A modified version of the Barefoot Contessa's Vanilla Bean Fleur de Sel Caramels (modified in that the recipe calls for vanilla paste and we used vanilla extract instead) was just the ticket. Here's what the beginning of that process looks like:

We pulled the first pans of the molasses cookies out of the oven, aromatic and heady:

Rick began cutting out peanut butter cookies for his famous chocolate-dipped peanut butter sandwich cookies...

More Drunken Molasses cookies went into the oven...

Frank reduced a lemony glaze to brush over his cookies (what were they, Frank? If you send the recipe, I will post it for us)...

Meg melted some chocolate to brush onto her almond-oat lace cookies...

Between rounds of baking, we had time to take in the holiday ambiance. What a lovely tree!

Shawn inquired as the favorite or most kitschy ornaments on the tree, and Joyce pointed out one of Jessica's favorites. Ain't she a cutie? Jessica, you really haven't changed a bit!

And here's one of Joyce's favorites - here she is, folks, flanked on either side by glamorous feathered-hair gentlemen, and chock full of holiday spirit, as always!

Here was Shawn's favorite ornament on J-n-J's tree:

Joyce and Jessica's old neighbor reportedly built this divine little Christmas tree from a piece of wood. He drilled holes into which to insert the lights - it is really a super fun piece!

We mustn't forget, however, the star of J&J's Christmas decor: Gay Santa. And because we're still infected by the holiday spirit just an eensy-weensy bit, we'll discreetly avoid any discussion of the blown-out behinds of the reindeer. Ahem.

We'd set up some mismatched tables on which to cool our freshly-baked goodies, and at first glance, our invention appeared to be quite a feat of engineering. Doesn't this look like it's working nicely? Those are Meg's cookie bars again, along with her Almond-Oat Lace Cookies - a recipe I'll definitely be making again!

However, the laws of physics are more reliable than the laws of Fake Engineering by Kiss the Cooks, LLC, so gravity eventually won. Boo! Here we are trying to salvage what we could of Meg's extraordinary almond-oat lace cookies, which had unexpectedly tumbled to the floor.

In the end, we reasoned it could always be worse than this...But still...Oh, the humanity!

And still, we baked on...Henry and his good friend, Clifton, brought chocolate chip cookie dough, and got those successfully into--and then out of--the oven.

Anne prepared these gorgeous Pain d'amande - she says they freeze beautifully and are killer easy to prepare. I can't wait to try them myself, they were one of my favorites!

Jessica whipped up some no-bake cookie options...Here are the Chocolate Peanut-Butter No Bake Cookies, and she also made Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies:

In addition to all these, Shawn and Fernando also baked Dorie Greenspan's World Peace Cookies (small batch but dark-chocolate-DELICIOUS) and a light-on-the-flour Basler Brunsli, or Swiss Chocolate Almond Spice Cookie. Saveur published a gluten-free version recently as well.

Rick prepared his infamous Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies (Rick? Do you have a recipe for those?).

Damian made a couple of different gluten-free versions of holiday favorites: Gingerbread and (something else? Damian? Do you want to share recipes for those? We can post them too for our gluten-avoiding brethren!)

As our goodies cooled off, we sneaked crumbs, bites, broken bits, and even whole cookies as we finished organizing lunch. Isn't it easy to understand why?

As batches finished cooling, we began offloading them into containers to ready the table for lunch...

An assembly line for caramel-wrapping had been formed, and was chugging right along:

There was a lot going on in the kitchen, but what a warm and happy-feeling place it was! Don't we look like we are having a ball?

Before we knew it, it was lunchtime. Joyce and Jessica had prepared what would be one of my absolutely favorite soups of the entire year: Cheese Tortellini Soup with Cannellini, Kielbasa and Kale.

The recipe looks pretty darn easy, and calls for store-bought cheese tortellini for even quicker prep. And soooooo tasty! Have a look for yourself! Here's the soup, pre-tortellini, fragrant and soothing:

We added the tortellini...

And served things up with a generous spoonful of parmesan cheese. Doesn't that look yummy?

Meg put the finishing touches on what would be one of the most beautiful AND delicious salads I'd eaten all year, also. Don't the pomegranate seeds look gorgeous?

We added some cornbread and butter to the table, and our bellies smiled all around. What a satisfying day, topped off with such a satisfying lunch! Look how full of the holiday spirit we are!

During a lull in the conversation, Fernando put on a serious face. He solemnly announced that he had just had some photos taken, and that he wanted to know what the group thought about them. He passed a plain manila envelope across to Anne, who opened it up to find a couple of pictures that looked a little like this:

Anne's look of utter surprise was a hoot, and once everyone got over the initial shock and confusion that Fernando's less-than-direct announcement had created, congratulations began flowing around the table. We'll have a Junior Kisser-in-Training (JKIT!) by the summer!

A couple of Kissers distributed some delightful holiday gifties...

Then we got right down to the very serious business of distributing treats to take home...

And there you have it, folks! A cookie-licious recap!

Next up, we will be enjoying a lesson in coffee roasting at Cafe Rococo in Kirkland, courtesy of Rick and Damian. See you on January 29 for that! Wear your coffee-tasting hats, and bring a few extra bucks if you're interested in purchasing some of the amazing coffee or other goodies!

BONUS:
Here's a quick reminder of what dates/pairs we have planned through the spring. I'm glad I checked, I had no idea we would be up so soon! Whew!

Feb 25 (Joyce and Anne)
March 17 (Shawn and Rick)
April 21 (Fernando and Jessica)
May 19 (Frank and Meg)

Cheers, Kissers! See you soon! oxox

Move over, Flavor Bible!

2011-12-12T20:32:00.000-08:00

This was something my ex-work-husband sent over to me many weeks ago, and I'm just getting around to giving it its deserved place on our blog. It's very cool - different principal ingredients, surrounded by complementary flavors.

Click on the graphic below to access the whole page with lots of different options (Fish, Poultry, Root Vegetables, Greens & Salad, Meat, etc.). Neat!

via Graphic Facilitation

November's Annual Business Meeting and Thanksgiving Dinner Extraordinaire at William's

2011-12-12T17:54:00.000-08:00

Hey Kissers! I'm guessing that you, like we, are having a heck of a time avoiding the treacherous vortex of Holiday Spare Time Disappearance...Fernando and I have managed to hold our own so far, and while we did decide to pretty much nix sending out holiday cards, we are delighted to report having carved out time to complete a blog update for our recent annual meeting at William's place!

We arrived on a chilly November evening and found William busily reducing an aromatic concoction of his own invention.

William's home smelled as good as it looked. I can't recreate the marvelous smells, but I can give you a sneak peek at the table - Wouldn't you want to enjoy a gourmet meal here?

I suspected as much! We convened promptly at 5:00...That is, except for Joyce and Jessica, whom Meg had mistakenly led astray regarding meeting times...But that still worked out just dandy - we wasted no time in getting to the important stuff straight-away.

Rick poured up some champagne and we all settled in to attend to the business at hand. Fernando's business was to relax and take a load off, apparently.

Anne posed a thoughtful question...

Meg told us a spectacular story about her search for a chicken on the lamb (see what I did there, har har)..

Here, Frank considers the ratio of truth to hyperbole that Meg's tale really contains...

Poor William, while we were chortling and laughing and drinking champagne in the next room, he was putting the finishing touches on what was certain to be an extraordinary meal.

And speaking of incredible things that William produces, Damian couldn't stop marveling over the gorgeous set of placemats he had commissioned to William. They were stunning!

And, while we're on the subject, I couldn't resist snapping a shot of William's own extra-creative "Jewelry-as-Art" exhibit? Isn't this neat?

Rick checked in with William to see if there was anything he could help with...

In the meantime, we all had a glass of champagne...or two...and got started with the "meat and potatoes" of our meeting. Anne was our valiant scribe:

We began with a short list of items for discussion which immediately sprang to mind. But the point of this photo is really to say, "Ain't Meg a cutie?"

As we usually manage to do, all of us Kissers enjoyed lots of animated discussion and a ton of laughs...

All of us Kissers, that is, except for Damian, who was still raptly enthralled, examining William's astonishing handiwork. (Not really true, but it sounded more fun given the photos I had! *wink*)

See? There's Damian!

Our bulleted list grew as we continued to chat...

And our level of general punchiness grew, too - this is one of my very favorite photos of the night!

In fact, the "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" photo would have been the hands-down silliness winner if it hadn't been for Joyce's awesome dental-reminder-turned-incarnation-of-Rambi...What a crack-up!

We ended up with a nice collection of ideas and events to try. For your reading ease, I invite you to see the bulleted recap below the photo - the astute observation that every single one of us in the group wears glasses did NOT escape me (even if Fernando hardly ever wears his most of the time!)!

The minutes, ladies and gentlemen:

Date for our annual Cookie Bake: 12/17, at Joyce and Jessica's place
January idea, hosted by Rick and Damian (is that right, kids?): Brunch and coffee roasting at Rococo in Kirkland
Trips to consider for 2012. Dates/choices TBD

Walla Walla
Lopez Island
Oregon wine country
Napa

Event to definitely plan for 2012: Woodinville wineries and/or distilleries visit
Dorkiest idea award-winner (Thanks, Shawn!): Visit Richard Gradwohl and his mini-cows at the Happy Mountain Miniature Cattle Farm in Covington (you can hear an interview with Richard on KUOW's website here!).
Options for donations/auction offerings to benefit charitable organizations:

Sno-County Cancer Gala (May event)
Seattle University's Zambia program (Feb event)

"Chopped"-inspired event, using random ingredients
Mixing up our rotation of Kissers after May (we'll plan in the Spring)
"Less is More," Redux
Gluten-free baked goods/dinner
Knife-sharpening with Daniel (possibility of inviting him to dinner/he comes to us)
KTC Date changes due to holidays:

January 21 becomes Jan 28 (Rick and Damian)
February 18 becomes Feb 25 (Joyce and Anne)

We also had a brief discussion of sending around an updated list of addresses and birthdays - I don't have a complete set of this information anywhere...Can anyone help a gal out?

We finally wrapped up our meeting, smacking our collective chops in anticipation of another unforgettable meal shared at William's.

Can't you understand why?

Before we knew it, our plates were filled and we trickled in to sit around that fabulous table.

Suddenly, we realized something a little unusual had happened...How did we (especially WE) organically divide ourselves by gender all the way down the table? After a rousing parody of "London Bridge arms," we were ready to eat.

Doesn't that look scrumptious?

EVERYTHING was HEAVENLY. This was truly Thanksgiving dinner as it was meant to be. We enjoyed each other's conversation, and shared stories about special dinners in our homes of origin. It was an altogether enjoyable gathering! And that was even BEFORE we had dessert!

And ohhhhh.....I can't wait to show you dessert.....Pecan pie, and pumpkin pie with praline whipped cream...accompanied by a fancy vanilla bean ice cream AND an extraordinary cognac ice cream - all homemade by--who else?--our beloved chef du jour, William!

Feast your eyes (It was so good I started eating before I remembered to take a photo!)...

Damian (wasn't it you?) took this opportunity to artistically drizzle over his ice cream some delightful caramel sauce of William's creation...Doesn't that look great?

Add some whipped cream and some crunchy praline bits...and YUM.

Before long, all our plates looked like this:

After we'd eaten, we sat around the table and continued to chat - a truly necessary characteristic, to be sure, of any successful dinner party! We enjoyed William's stories...

On the guys' side...

AND the gals' side!

What a nice time we all had!

Then, of course, came the fun part of the night. We Kissers had decided to offer a couple of fun gifts to William since we adore him...

We suspected William had already seen this package stashed in his coat closet earlier in the evening, but this was his first chance to check it out up close. I like the glint of anticipation in his eyes...

We'd been planning this gift for a few weeks, and Fernando and Shawn put the finishing touches on it to bring it all together. William looked pretty tickled when he opened it:

It didn't occur to me to take a better photo when we were over there, but here's the photo we circulated to our Kissers earlier that day (so everyone could see how everything turned out!) before William's grand unveiling.

One funny side story...William's curiosity got the best of him, and his textile-expert fingers counted, "Tuck, pleat, tuck, pleat, tuck, tuck...Interesting..." Meanwhile, Fernando and Shawn held their collective breaths. They reasoned that, knowing William, he would want to figure out exactly how they assembled his gift--a fact which worried Shawn. She reports, "It wasn't that we did a shoddy job, just that we just kind of winged putting everything together...We just figured out a way to make it work in spite of our combined lack of crafty experience."

When she voiced this worry to Fernando, he considered this a moment, and then shook his head. "No," he stated firmly. "He won't take it personally. It's the American Way."

"The American Way? What do you mean? asked Shawn.

"You know, the American Way. Everything in the United States looks like something, but it's not. It looks like a fireplace, but it's not--it's fake. It looks like a brick home, but it's fake brick. It looks like a solid wall, but it's not! Everything is like that in the United States. It's the American Way!"

Ah, from the mouths of babes...So, William, if you're reading, just remember when you happen to see that extra tuck-that-isn't-even-a-tuck: It's the American Way!

We also offered a gift certificate to go towards replacing his beloved bowler, which he'd recently lost. A little bird told me that the new model looks wonderful, and adds an extra hearty dash of jaunty wintertime cheer beyond what William himself already brings naturally with just his presence! Yay, bowlers!

Here's a thoroughly self-satisfied William, basking in the glow of a job expertly executed and enjoyed by loved ones. I love this photo too - the Master in his domain!

He has plenty of reason to smile, too - not only did we enjoy a fabulous dinner, but we also all pitched in to clean up afterwards! Look at that dedication and hard work!

Also, look at that turkey carcass! Spic and span!

The aforementioned dedication and hard work began to display its fruits...

Between the all of us, we put William's house back together...Here, he corrects our placement of a table to the millimeter:

Anne and Rick would stay the evening, and Anne would Light-Rail it to the airport the next morning.

It was a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner had by all, and rivaling the best I've ever enjoyed! Many thanks again to William for hosting and preparing darn near everything, and many thanks to everyone else for making it awesome all the way around!

See you on December 17 at the Cookie Bake, y'all!

Anne's Alter Ego

2011-11-12T18:32:00.001-08:00

Happy late Halloween, Kissers! Anne, this was spectacular! Nevertheless, the question on all our minds is, "What DID Anne's mother say?"

William's Amazing Fall Stew Recipe

2011-11-12T18:26:00.001-08:00

What a blustery fall day we had today! I enjoyed watching the leaves blow around crazily - and the wind and chill got me to thinking about amazing autumn one-dish meals.

I suddenly remembered that William had kindly forwarded on his astoundingly-delicious stew recipe a couple of weeks ago, and it seemed like a dandy moment to share it with everyone! Click through to see it!

Fall Stew

Ingredients:
3 to 4 ozs of meat per person – Combination of Beef, Pork, Lamb stew meat – dredge in flour, salt & pepper. Brown on all sides until very dark but not burned. Work in batches one layer thick. Remove onto paper towels and set aside. After the last batch browns, de-glaze your pan with red or white wine, whichever is open.

Veggies - Cut in to chunks the size you would like, I cut on the diagonal about ½ inch thick.

Onion – Diced
Garlic – finely chopped
Sweet potato
Carrot
Red beets
Golden beets
Turnip
Rutabaga
Parsnip
Fennel
Celery
Butternut squash
Poblano Pepper

Sauté onions and garlic until limp add rest of the veggies. Add any veggie that you might like and leave any out that you don’t like (Rick)

Add Herbs and Spices
Sumac, Ras el Hanout, Smoked Picante paprika, chile Flakes, Herbs de Provence, Cumin Seed, Fennel Seed, Preserved Lemons, Slap ya Mama, Rosemary, Thyme, Marjoram, Salt & Pepper

Canned Tomatoes, chopped
Beer Guinness Stout – enough to cover – I sometimes will add some stock to help cover and not use more than two bottle of beer – about 40 ozs total
Worcestershire Sauce
Soy Sauce

Add meat back in – Bring to a boil and put into a 325 degree F oven covered for 3 1/2 hours. Make the day before you want to serve it and reheat and adjust flavor.

Enjoy

October KTC Escape: Fun on Lopez Island!

2011-10-31T00:26:00.000-07:00

Hi Kissers! What a wonderful time we had on Lopez Island...and what a process to get there! It seems apparent to me that, by "process," I mean, "Whoa, what a gorgeous view!" Let me give you a few examples:

I do believe that's Mt. Baker over there... (Isn't it? Anyone? Bueller?)

Here's another kind of gorgeous view... Fernando and Shawn decided to splurge on some Ruffles Sour Cream and Cheddar potato chips (I know, I know...), so as not to spoil their appetites for the sure-to-be-amazing dinner which they knew awaited them on Lopez... Of course the gorgeous view part of this photo has nothing to do with the Ruffles! Ain't he cute?

What a lovely evening...

The sunset promised to be spectacular...

Here's me snapping our dear F, who's snapping the beauty, too - very "meta!"

Oh, hi!

This is why we love the Pacific Northwest:

Fernando and I arrived and it was a super mellow crowd! Meg, William, Damian, Anne, Joyce, and Jessica had all made it up before we had, and there was some cooking already afoot. Juli's house was absolutely stunning, and FULLY appointed. Shawn felt a tad sheepish to have brought along most of her kitchen, "just in case," but, after all, it's better to be overdressed than under-dressed, right?

We learned that a deliciously aromatic stew was already ready, and that a new Brussels sprout recipe (Does anyone have the recipe? Send it on and I'll post it!) was in the works. Here is some torn sage and some sliced apples which were destined for that...

Someone had been baking fresh focaccia! Maybe Anne? (Was there a recipe, folks?)

A light was a-lit and the stew was stirred...

Here are the apples co-mingling with the brussels sprouts...

And a beautifully-dressed green salad with nuts, apples, and croutons - can you say "hazelnut oil?" Yum!

What a welcome we had! Look at that!

Mmmmmm....

A little closer...

Post-supper, Fernando ducked in to take care of some bio-business, and he received a special message, directly from the Pope! Glad (and surprised!) to see that he's such a supporter of water conservation!!

Look at those sprouts! Love!

And the stew....My, oh my, the stew...A savory mixture of pork, beef, and lamb (instead of veal), it was richly flavored with the help from some Guinness (wasn't it?). William, it was incredible - if you're reading, and you'd like to share the recipe, I'd be delighted to post it here!

Here's how tasty it all was:

A yellow jacket made its way into the house, which seemed curious since it was so cold and dark outside by that hour... Damian managed to deftly trap the poor critter in a salad container - our hero! He even transported the little guy safely outside and sent him off to fly away to his little yellow-jacket house in the country.

I posted the photo of the yellow jacket mostly to distract you from the fact that I didn't manage to capture any photos of the extraordinary buttermilk cardamom pie we enjoyed for dessert. Oh. Em. Gee. WHAT a marvelous and decadent treat! Again, responsible parties, if you are willing to part with the recipe, "enquiring minds want to know!" Be a dear and pass it on, won't you? I'd love to make (and eat!) it again!

Abuzz from the sugar, we all enjoyed a demonstration by Fernando and Joyce of what a weekend on Lopez should actually feel like. Behold, the Island vibe:

Post-dinner, our low-key evening went even more lower-key. Listen up, kids: THIS is the way to relax! Here's how Rick found us when he arrived late that night. He reported that we were so relaxed when he walked into the house that he wondered if, collectively, we still had a pulse.

We giggled our way through a few silly YouTube videos, including one preview for the British TV show on BBC, Walk On the Wild Side.
Note: Fernando believes these YouTube hijinks occurred on Saturday night after dinner. He might even be right. Nevertheless, since I have no recollection of most of Saturday night, and I DO remember sharing these videos, my conclusion is that this must have happened on Friday. If I'm wrong about that and we need to edit for accuracy, let me know and I can change accordingly. Muchas gracias!

We cracked up watching, "Alan! Alan! Alan!" decide he was actually calling out to "Steve! Steve! Steve!" Here it is again for your viewing pleasure:

And, a bonus!

From there, things just deteriorated. How else can we explain the sudden presence of the voice of Rick Perry? Check out ~1:05 to catch a real American's call to true patriotic action: Hot Yellow Kool-aid, and save a pretzel for the gas jets!

The next morning's brilliance allowed us to peep outside to enjoy the amazing view behind the house. That's a hot tub, and farther out, the Sound:

We got started making breakfast. Meg's Eggs (saved from 'the girls' starting several days prior) were to play a big role, and are shown here in all their orangey glory:

A veggie scramble was to play a big role in breakfast, but in spite of this beautiful display of zucchini and mushrooms, the scramble wouldn't be the real star...

The REAL superstar was this "Holy-Shit"-worthy pan of cinnamon rolls that William had prepared:

Oh. Em. Gee.

Would you look at that?

This would be a truly unforgettable breakfast...

We served everything up family-style, and even Jessica proclaimed, "William, these cinnamon rolls are fucking good!" Indeed, they were, Jessica...Indeed, they were!

A little fruit salad (Yes, those are pomegranate seeds, AKA "arils!") allowed us to pretend we were being healthy...

Fernando had a peep at the morning news...

What a view!

Post-breakfast, everyone eventually dispersed to go wander around the island. What a cute town it was, and what wonderful weather we enjoyed! It was sunny and dry the whole weekend. We headed back to the house to begin cooking our Cuban food extravaganza, orchestrated by Fernando in honor of his uncle Joaquin, born and bred in Cienfuegos, Cuba.

On the menu:

Mojitos (we modified this recipe considerably - way less soda, way more everything else...)
Yuca frita (Fried yuca)
Black beans
White rice with garlic
Ropa vieja (old clothes) with authentic Cuban sofrito
Flan

Shawn tried her hand at making mojitos. It took a few to get the ratios right (not that anyone was really complaining!), but before too long, she was mixing them up like a pro! You will feel proud/surprised/horrified to learn that we managed to consume most of our 1.5-liter jug o' rum in a single sitting!

We chopped up some aromatic veggies - don't these look lovely?

Joyce chopped and chopped...

Fernando, our chef du jour, got serious. Here he is, concentrating on his black beans - he was not fooling around!

Shawn took advantage of a lull in the black bean-stirring to steal a kiss (Come on, wouldn't you?)

Looks like the mojitos are working!

Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, and here's our dear Fernando proving that adage himself. He needed to smash some of the beans to add some body to the broth, but he found he didn't have a proper bean-smasher. So, no fool, he used the back of an ice-cream scoop. What a smartie-pants!

Here are Jessica and Shawn mugging for the camera. If you look close enough, you can see Shawn's tonsils. Please accept her apologies!

We were having a ball...

Hello, lovelies!

Anne did a little stirring...

I can't be sure, but in this photo, there appears to be some serious roof-raising going on. Wine-fueled? Or was it the mojitos? You be the judge!

Now that I think about it, I suspect all that jubilance may have been related to the "Mayonesa" song (really bad video quality, but no less fun!):

Here is some beautiful skirt steak we evidently browned up...I believe this must be around the time I had my little meltdown, since I really can't recall anything being done with the steak. My dear friends William and Joyce (and probably others, I was pretty fuzzy by then) listened to me whimper and cry, and generally offered me some seriously supportive shoulders to boo-hoo on...I apologize for the drama, and for any snot and tears that ended up all over y'all's clothes! Meg later consoled me by saying I should feel more like I'd come of age than anything else. I learned that our teensy group just naturally and historically lends itself to offering that kind of safe forum for some seriously magical support among friends. Thanks, y'all - for reals...Many thanks!

I know I emerged, surely splotchy and red-nosed, to eat a bunch of yuca frita--one of my favorite comfort-type foods, hands-down. Also known as cassava or manioc, yuca is a delightful tuber which represents the third-largest source of food carbohydrates in the world. Wow! It was perfectly par-boiled and then deep-fried, and absolutely DEE-licious with a sauce we whipped up from mayo, garlic, lime juice, and dill. Yum!!

Things a-simmered, and we prepared for dinner...Can you see that it's nearly 9pm?

While things simmered, we relaxed some more...

Meg and William tore it up on the dance floor...

And dinner was served! Post-meltdown, my emotional exhaustion was apparently such that I somehow managed to erase all of dinner from my memory. ALL of it! Boo! Very sad outcome, truly, since the photos look like everything tasted amazing.

Word on the street was that I sat through all of dinner and excused myself just before dessert (someone saved me a square of flan, you guys rock!) to go upstairs. I remember enjoying the yuca, then Meg and William dancing, and then nothing until I woke up after 3am feeling certain I'd missed all of dinner...How could I not recall this? Eeeek!

Here's Rick serving up the flan...

Yum!

Anne woke up extra early and snapped a few amazing photos of what promised to be a stunning sunrise...

I really like this photo!

Shawn emerged from her amnesiac fog and set up the camera with a filter to best capture the colors of the sunrise, very cool...

Look at that!

So beautiful...

Overall, we determined that we hadn't done too badly for a couple nights' work...13 bottles of wine, and more than a full liter of rum...Way to go, Kissers!

Sunday morning really felt like a Sunday morning is supposed to feel...

We were moving about the same pace as this guy!

Joyce told the superior joke of two proper Southern ladies, discussing the true purpose and utility of charm school. In short, it's so you can learn how to say, "How nice!" instead of "Who the fuck cares?" Since I know you wouldn't expect anything less, here's a fabulous and timely remix of that sagely-stated declaration. Hope you enjoy - I'm feeling very impressed with myself for putting this together!

Here's a super nice photo of J&J - ladies, I'll send you the originals to crop and fool around with as you like - there were some super cute ones!

Ain't they sweet?

Joyce and Jessica, how I love thee! Let me count the ways!

Too soon, it was time to head back to Seattle. We headed out to the ferry, and enjoyed another beautiful afternoon. What a view! Thanks, Pacific Northwest, for being so awesome! And many more thanks, Kissers, for also being awesome!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone on Nov. 19 at William's for our annual business meeting event! Thanks in advance, William - See all y'all real soon!

Are you a coffee snob?

2011-10-08T13:49:00.000-07:00

I think I've ordered coffee from these gals on a number of occasions, actually...Really funny!

Coffee Snobs from Frankie Shaw

via Foodista

Peel a head of garlic in 10 seconds!

2011-10-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't tried this yet, but I can't wait to give it a shot! Do I smell a wine-fueled experiment on Lopez?

How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds from SAVEUR.com on Vimeo.

via Foodista

September KTC Event: Canning with Frank and Anne

2011-10-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

Geez louise, folks - If you thought 100 posts was impressive, just imagine--we're up to 101 already!! The technical difficulties nearly did me in this time around, but with the help of a little of High West Whiskey's Rendezvous Rye and a chocolate shortbread cookie or two, I persevered through some late nights and here we are-Finally!

It's a good thing, too, because we had such a marvelous time executing Operation: Summer-in-a-Jar recently at Frank and Damian's house. Brainchild of Frank and Anne, the plan was to can the heck out of stuff--a first for me, and an reportedly popular theme!

Folks were fired up...For starters, Anne herself developed perhaps the best preview email in the history of the group. Since I'll never manage to do it any sort of justice by describing it, I'll let her words speak for themselves:

"Hello friends and family-types!

Frank and I have logged some serious hours on the plan-o-meter (.625 hours and counting) to bring you this thrilling, chilling, better-not-be-spilling KTC event aimed at preserving the best of summer (or, at least, whatever we can scavenge at local farmers markets and (thank you, Henry Kellogg) forage from local blackberry bushes). Details are still sketchy, err, ripening so let me paint this culinary montage in broad brush strokes and we will fill in the details tomorrow:

START TIME: 2 PM [Be late and risk having to fish out Ball canning lids from pots of scalding water]

LOCATION: Frank and Damian's (yes, yes, I know some of you were hoping to get an early glimpse of Chateau Kellobach but the neighbors are hosting a celebrity polo tournament in our front yard and we wouldn't want to scare the ponies...Either that, or WSDOT is predicting mass confusion and congestion on I-405 due to 520 closures plus numerous events in Seattle and beyond so do you really want to mess with that?)

FOOD ITEMS LIKELY TO be TRANSFORMED by HEAT and/or PECTIN: blackberries (possibly to be prepared two ways); tomatoes; something else?

But what will we eat?, RIck asks plaintively: Frank has graciously agreed to prepare a lasagne and we will accompany that with a fresh caprese AND some sort of dessert whipped up from among the preserving offerings. Kitty scratching opportunities will be presented throughout the afternoon.

Meg is bringing canning supplies, as am I. William, I do not think we need your half-sheets. Well, ok, maybe one?! Shawn, I don't think we will need any 5 quart jars but stay tuned. I am thinking of making tomato sauce or maybe dilly beans on Sunday and if it happens, shit-howdy, come on by!

<...>
Looking forward to it, as always. Sorry for the long email but Rick fed me coffee this a.m. Zeeeowwww!

NOTE: If your name is in the TO: line, you are expected to be there. If you are a Cc, we'd love to see you but never heard that you'd be joining us so you are not yet in the headcount."

This email, as you may recall, was met with much enthusiasm. Besides this, folks scoured their pantries/basements/storage boxes and dug out jars....

...And lids....

Snacks were laid in preparation...

A full box of peaches was at our disposal. Here's one of the kitties having a scratch on the box corner...We understood why, too-the aroma of ripe peaches was intoxicating:

Rick even brought along an apron he reports to have used as a youngster (Something about a first job, I think?). Fernando reports that he had no idea that such vibrantly-colored red dyes had been available during the Paleolithic Era.

In short, we were fired up! Ready to roll! ¡Listo, Calixto!

Fernando volunteered straight-away to cut tomatoes for roasting. He'd heard the magic words, "Tomato Confit" and even though he had no idea what the heck that meant, he instinctively knew that time was a-wasting. Here's his handiwork...Please join me in a collective "Wow!" - he's blossoming as a cook, and we're all responsible for that progress! Bravo!

Under Joyce's watchful eye, a gazillion tomatoes were rinsed...

Halved...

And prepared for roasting:

After such hard labor, even Fernando needs to relax a bit. Here he is as the unfortunate subject of Shawn's gleeful abuse. He looks more miserable than he really feels, I promise!

Next, we got busy preparing the fruit. First up, rinse and score about 342,854 peaches. Gawd, they smelled so great! The next step to easily peel far more fruit than is humanly responsible is to drop the scored peaches into a huge pot of boiling water.

After about a minute or so, you fish out the fruit and drop it into an ice bath. I've heard that this rapid temperature change is great for the skin, and it must be true - these babies have a real peaches-and-cream complexion! Hardi, har har...

After a dip in frigid water, the peaches are easy to peel:

Et, voila!

While all the peach-flavored action was going on, young Henry arrived via bicycle, with a knapsack of glass jars filled with blackberries, freshly picked. Someone (was it Damian?) shared an unpleasant story about a batch of blackberries they had prepared for a pie or something that yielded a healthy measure of tiny worms which floated to the surface after the berries were put on to cook. The reported solution was to soak the berries in salt water before cooking, which we did first:

Where are the berries, you say? Why, here are the berries!

They yielded no worms, to my relief, and we drained them for cooking:

Meanwhile, back to the peaches...Rick got to work slicing the peeled peaches:

Ta-da!!! That's only half of them, too!

These babies would go on to cook shortly. Meanwhile, it was time for the roasted tomatoes to come out of the oven. Don't they look lovely?

Here's a closer look:

We realized that we had a dilemma: What to do with the scant pound or so of tomatoes we had leftover which hadn't fit into our sheet pans? Shawn had found a recipe that very morning on the internet for Mark Bitman's Tomato Jam, courtesy of The Wednesday Chef . We conferred with these guys...

And we unanimously decided it was a go. We chopped up the remaining tomatoes and assembled the rest of the ingredients together in a small pan and put them on to simmer.

Henry decided to try his hand at caramelizing onions - after all, not many foodstuffs one stores in a jar are as versatile and delicious as caramelized onions! We sliced up a few pounds of onions, and Henry got to work. Here was the scene:

And here is the action, captured for your viewing pleasure!

Back to the peaches. Christ on a crutch, Helen, we had a lot of peaches!!

We put some of them on to cook next to the tomato jam...

It was hopping in the kitchen! Tomato confit was being assembled, peaches were cooking, onions were browned, tomato jam simmered...Here's a great shot of how snugly we fit in the kitchen. I counted 10 Kissers! Meg couldn't join us that day, so she isn't in there, and Shawn is only missing because she was snapping the photo!

I adore this photo of Joyce's enthusiasm, though - Only Fernando is missing from this one (he probably stepped out to pour more wine), or it would have replaced the one above without a moment's hesitation!

We began to see concrete fruits of our labors. Exhibit A: Tomato Confit!

We ended up offloading what I recall being tomato confit into Frank and Damian's fridge. Frank made a funny comment about how it would surely become lost in the fridge, and they'd pull it out a couple of months later and wonder what the heck it had been. We made a deal that I'd put a photo of it on the blog so they wouldn't forget about it, so here it is, guys! What is in that Athenos container? Is it still languishing in your refrigerator? Go find out! You're welcome!

After several hours of heavy labor, our physical weariness gave way to philosophical musings. Henry and Fernando worked at assembling a food mill, truly a feat of engineering on par with spaceship construction or angiographic imagery. This thing was complex. Also, it looked like a time machine! Here's a snippet of that delightful conversation:

The food mill was for the blackberries. I had no idea, but apparently to make a truly superior jam, one must separate the blackberry seeds from the rest. Rick and the guys got started on the task of passing the blackberries through the food mill, and of course we twisted the whole thing around in a most irreverent way, typical of Kiss the Cooks.

Here's a short explanation of the difference between blackberry goo and blackberry poo. Can you guess which one emerges from the backside?

Then, it was back to work. Rick began finely dicing up peaches for freezer jam:

Joyce took a break to play Hangman on Shawn's phone.

Fernando and Damian took a load off, too.

Time to can the peaches! We readied the jars:

Then we got our funnel ready. Here's the first jar of peach jam!

It was beginning to look like we had really and truly done some canning!

The tomato jam was so scant that we decided it should come along to our Lopez Island excursion. That seemed to be the most equitable solution, so we could all try a bit, since there weren't enough jars to go around. Damian volunteered to be the keeper of the jam. Of course, "Jam-Keeper" just begged to be made into a song....I think found the way to embed this as a video, but I'll have to work on it a bit. For now, click here to enjoy!

Next on the agenda was dinner. Frank had made a shitake mushroom lasagna, and we'd assemble a Caprese style salad using our incredible summertime tomatoes.

Here's Shawn showing how easy it is to wow folks when your ingredients are stellar to begin with:

See what I mean? Naturally easy-peasy!

Frank also took full advantage of the delicious peachy abundance to make a peach clafouti - here he is readying it for the oven. Wondering what the heck a clafoutis is? Read about it on Wikipedia!

Peach clafoutis a-baking, dinner was served family-style:

We also ate it family-style. This was so much fun!

Mmmmmmmm, tasty!

Pretty soon, our plates were empty. Here's the Sarah Palin plate. This bear seems to be asking, "Isn't it time for peach clafoutis?"

To our utter delight, it was! Look at this thing!

Frank was so proud (and rightfully so!), that we interrupted the final moments of dinner to present his masterpiece:

I'm tickled to say that next weekend already is our excursion to Lopez Island - woo-hoo! I'm looking forward to seeing all y'all then. Looks like this guy is sort of bummed to miss out on the excursion, though...

See you then, Kissers!

Easy, Breezy Redux: Summer Pasta with Meg and Shawn

2011-09-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

***HOLY COW, folks! This is our 100th blog post! Congratulations to us!***

Happy Labor Day, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful longweekend – I’ve got chicken stock burbling on the stove and a disc of pie doughresting in the fridge, so I figure I’ve "labored" enough for today. That means it’s time tosettle in and recap our recent easy, breezy pasta event!

Shawn and Meg were up for August – a truly serendipitoustime to host, to be sure. Fresh tomatoes had finally arrived in Seattle, andother summertime delights were abundant. Shawn and Meg reasoned that theweather was far too nice to work any harder than we had to, and they decided tokeep the “easy, breezy” theme that Joyce and Damian had begun in July.

And so it was.

Shawn and Fernando were proud new owners of a pasta machine,a fine Italian model which was passed on to them by Joyce and Jessica, whofound it (and a drying rack, w00t!) languishing at a garage sale, desperatelyin need of a better home. As such, Shawn couldn’t wait to try her hand atpreparing fresh pasta – purported to be far superior to the store-bought kindand really easy to make, to boot.

But that isn’t the whole story.The back-story of the mania surrounding this pasta machinein the White-Caballero household is this:

A couple of months prior, Joyce and Jessica hadalready surprised Shawn with another pasta machine they’d found at another garage sale.Shawn proudly tucked the box under her arm and headed off to the bus stop withit. When she sat the pasta machine down on the newspaper box to consult the bus schedule, shehad a “Holy shit!” moment when she realized that the bus would be passing in just acouple of minutes. Shawn dashed down the stairs into the bus tunnel beforestopping short at the bottom of the first flight. Her “Holy shit!” moment becamea “HOLY SHIT!!!” moment as she remembered her new pasta machine, sittingforlornly atop the newspaper box up at the street level where she’d forgottenit in her haste to catch the bus.

Only a minute or two had passed, so Shawn tore up the stairs from the bus tunnel in a whirlwind, and hurled herself around thecorner towards said newspaper box. Nothing. No pasta machine. Desperately,Shawn looked up the street and down the street…she looked across the street andall around…Shawn trotted up and down a two-block radius of the newspaper box,peeping into every garbage can and scrutinizing every bulky package carried byevery now-suspicious-looking fellow citizen.

Fruitlessly, Shawn returned again and again to thenewspaper box, hoping against all hope that the pasta machine might magically re-appearthere, that whoever had picked it up might have realized that it wasn’tanything of value in the drug market and wouldn’t likely be easy to sell on thestreet, and returned it to where they’d found it.

Alas, it was not to be.

Shawn’s extreme disappointment was as intense as thelevel of excitement she’d felt upon hefting the pasta machine’s box’s coldmetal contents and contemplating fresh pasta in her near future. Major bummer.

So, as you may surmise, gentle reader, with the arrival ofa brand new garage-sale pasta machine and a call to host an easy dinner forKiss the Cooks, little doubt remained about what would be on the menu forAugust. Plus, Meg sensibly reasoned, it had been a long time since folks hadmade pasta. It was high time.

So the fateful August day rolled around, and it was abeauty. Shawn and bonus helper Fernando arrived at Meg's place a couple of hours early toprepare “everything but.” The idea was to really focus on pasta-making technique,and to do that, the amount of other dinner-related tasks which needed to be completed had tobe minimized. So, Meg, Shawn, and Fernando got to work.

Fernando grated over FIFTEEN POUNDS of tomatoes into Meg’s Dutchoven. They barely fit! We put them on the stove to cook down…

Meanwhile, Meg prepared fresh pesto (OMG SO summery!). Shethrew a mélange of basil, parmesan cheese, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, lemon juice, andsalt and pepper together in the food processor, and voilà! Meg weighed in with tipson improvising a perfect pesto:

"Pesto:I add some lemon juice. Walnuts are a decent substitute for pine nuts if youdon’t have enough and need to supplement, or if you just want to make it withwalnuts instead. Other fun additives: a few leaves of arugula, parsley,cilantro, sorrel or dandelions!" ~Meg Olsen, Pesto-Maker Extraordinaire

Next, Shawn and Meg assembled some pre-dinner snacks. BeholdMeg’s special appetizer platter: the famous Pure Food Fish Market’s smoked salmon, Kerrygold’s Dubliner cheese, and Seattle’s own La Panzanella’s Croccantini:

Shawn prepped salad ingredients and threw together hernewest snack discovery for unexpected guests, goat cheese with cocoa nibs andsalt:

Then we got down to the important stuff: Cocktails.

In honor of the summertime weather and the joy-inspiringpresence of the world-famous “Holy Shit!” peaches (*see what I did there?) at Sosio's in the Pike Market, we decided to go big with Peach-Thyme Bellinis.

A dab of thyme-infused peach puree…

…topped with bubbly and garnished with a peach slice and asprig of thyme…It was lovely!

Fernando approves.

In short order, Damian and Frank arrived. Frank relaxed witha bellini and got ready for a long evening of pasta-making.

Damian and Meg went out to visit “the girls” in Coop Arcadia…

And here they are—or some of them, anyway! These gals(clockwise from top, I think they are: Grace Hopper, Marilyn, and either Hanna or Banna), areresponsible for the gloriously orange-yolked eggs we were to use in our pasta.

Meanwhile, inside, Joyce had arrived (sans Jessica, who wasin Boston for the weekend…We missed you!). Laden with countless bags andbundles, she looked like a movie star after a day full of shopping. Here,Fernando helps her unload…

Meg put the finishing touches on the puree for the peachsorbet we’d planned for dessert…It looks rather like pumpkin soup here, but itwas sooooo delicious!

Rick and Anne were on their way, and there wasn’t much to dowhile we were waiting on their arrival, so the rest of the gang actually sataround and visited over cocktails and snacks. Yes, folks, you read that right.Visited. Over cocktails. Sitting down. And actually looking at one another. Itwas heavenly!

Anne and Rick finally did arrive, and Anne definitelymatched Joyce for movie star-quality flair:

With the gang all present (sans William, who was in NM - we missed you, too!), we decided to get to work. We hadtwo options for recipes: One was from the Pioneer Woman’s website, which measures ingredients out by volume, and one based on Mark Ruhlman’s3-parts-flour-2-parts-egg ratio for pasta dough.

First step: Measure or weigh out the flour we’d use, moundit into mountain shape (either in a bowl or on a floured surface), and create asmall well into which to put the eggs. Meg had dutifully been saving herchickens’ eggs all week for this special occasion, and the girls definitely didNOT disappoint. Look at the color of those yolks!

In the Pioneer Woman’s blog post, I grinned when I read thather husband’s great-great grandmother created all her baked goods using the “crackeggs into a well in the flour” technique, and that she usually carried out thistask directly in the flour bin! I can’t wait until I’m enough of a pasta-makingrock star to do that at my house!

The next step after cracking the eggs into the flour well isto lightly mix them right in the well. Shawn and Meg shared a giggle that they’dboth independently decided to clip down their fingernails to “extra-short”status for ease of dough-kneading. Good thing they did, too, because this wassticky stuff!

Here’s Fernando’s still-shaggy dough. He still needs toknead a while to develop the gluten properly to have a smooth, stretchy dough.

Shawn’s pasta dough is taking shape…

Ta-daaa! Damian has incorporated all the flour into hisdisc, and he’s ready to work the dough a while.

Here’s a snapshot of the hard work and concentrationinvolved in making pasta for a group from scratch:

The previously-shaggy doughs now looked something like thisone. Smooth!

Joyce was up first. She cut her dough into fourths and beganfeeding it through the pasta machine. You start on the lowest setting (0 or 1)and pass the dough through the pasta roller one time. Then, you fold that pieceinto thirds and pass it through once or twice more on the same setting. Next,you pass the dough once through the next-smallest setting, and repeat, progressivelychanging the setting, until the dough strip is as thin as you want it.

Next, you pass the thin strip through the pasta cutter – we decidedto stick with fettucini-syle noodles. Here’s Joyce with our first batch of thenight!

Anne and Frank worked well as a lean, mean, pasta-rollingmachine…

Want to see it live? Here’s a video of those two crazy catsin the midst of pasta-making action! Note: we didn't actually make linguine, as Shawn mistakenly reports in the video...

As we cut the pasta strips, we tossed them in a bit of flourto keep them from sticking.

This seemed like a less-than-ideal method for the amount ofpasta we’d need to make, so Rick had a great idea. He jury-rigged a curtain rodto use for drying our pasta, and it worked like a dream!

Wow!

By the end of it, we’d run out of room on the draperyrod/drying rack, and “recycled” space. Once the drying pasta finished drying,we offloaded it onto a baking sheet and replaced it with fresh pasta on therod.

We tried the angel-hair setting (see the teensy pile at theback?), but determined it needed to be cut after passing through thesecond-to-last setting on the pasta machine. Otherwise, it was too thin to cutcleanly on that setting. Still, it looked pretty!

The sauce had cooked down, and Meg finished seasoning it. Someoneset the table. The sorbet was already in the freezer. Shawn put the finishingtouches on an all-green salad. It was nearly time to eat.

Then, something REALLY bizarre occurred. It was unlike anyprior Kiss the Cooks meeting we’d ever experienced. All of a sudden, as we sipped our glasses of wine, it hit us:

There. Was. Nothing. To. Do.

That’s right. Nothing to do. Meg and Shawn had pre-preppedto the point that we literally found ourselves in a small window of time duringwhich there were no tasks to complete. We only had to wait for the pasta water toboil, and no quantity of eyes watching over the pot were going to make that necessary step occur anyfaster.

It took a few minutes for the gravity of thesituation to sink in. So, we did the only responsible and ethical thing: Wechilled the @!#&%; out for a little while. That’s right, folks, for theSECOND time in the same evening at a KTC event, we VISITED with each other.Twice. In the same night. NOT ONLY THAT, but we did so while we enjoyed Meg’sincredibly welcoming front porch, the balmy summer evening, and the triumphant sense of ajob well-done.

There was no frenzied race to get everything plated. Therewas no easing of exhausted weary bones into our chairs at the dining table. Wewere fresh and smiling and taking time to relax – a perfect way to prepare fora wonderful summer dinner, and perfectly in-keeping with our easy, breezy themeof the night!

We admired Meg’s cool hanging planter…

Fernando supervised the relaxation…

Rick and Damian cracked jokes about blending in with thechairs and how funny it was that they were dressed in the same colors…

After we sat a spell, it was time for dinner!

Salad first. Meg and Shawn thought it would be fun to createa monochromatic salad. It’s all green: Lettuce, Castelvestrano olives, cucumber,parsley, avocado, kiwi, pistaschios…It was really delicious.

Here’s a close-up. Doesn’t that look amazing?

As folks were finishing up their salads, Shawn and Meg gotthe pasta on to boil. The pasta cooked in no time flat, and there was a ton ofit to boil. In typical good KTC sense, instead of dumping the pasta water aftereach batch, Meg and Shawn deftly fished out the cooked pasta from the water.

Half the pasta was tossed with the tomato sauce…

And the other half was tossed with pesto…

And plated up to serve, it looked like this! The texture was simply heavenly. Yum!

Dinner was just as relaxed an affair as our pre-dinner timehad been, and we had a lovely evening. Joyce serenaded us with what appears tobe a popular country music song these days, Brad Paisley’s “Ticks.” It was ascream. Here’s Joyce’s (kind of dark) performance, followed by Brad Paisley’s version. Whichdo you prefer?

Before too long, our plates looked like this:

In spite of the volume of pasta served to everyone, surprisingly,eating that much pasta didn’t feel heavy. We kicked around theories about whythat might be—perhaps the thinness with which we rolled it out made thedifference. Perhaps being extra-fresh made the difference. As for me, I thinkthe secret is in Meg’s sassy hens’ eggs.

Dessert was up next. The photo of the sorbet doesn’t do itjustice- it was a very grown-up version of peach sorbet, spiked with a bit ofGrand Marnier. The crunchy Linzer-style cookies had chewy ginger bits mixed in with groundhazelnuts, so were a nice contrast to the smooth sorbet.

We finished up with a nice glass of Porto…or two!

What a wonderful dinner!

So that’s it. Another rousing success of food, fun, fellowship,and flour at KTC! SOOO delicious, and so cool to make pasta!

Upcoming KTC event news: Fernando switched dates forSeptember with Frank and Anne – so we’ll be planning to hear from Frank andAnne about our upcoming meeting on September 17th. Fernando will plan a meal forour October visit to Lopez Island – coming soon on October 15th. (William, doyou have any idea about what the kitchen is equipped with? Also, is there agrill?) We’ll also be talking about our collective holiday plans over the nextseveral weeks, including our annual business meeting and holiday cookie bake.

Meg’s cats never showed their faces, but lucky for all ofus, ET did pay a visit. Or, was it Mother Teresa of Calcutta? Either way, themessage is what’s important:

July KTC Event: Easy Breezy Beautiful Summer Fare with Joyce and Damian

2011-08-08T23:56:00.000-07:00

Hey there, crazy cats! If you are wondering what the heck the title is all about, allow me to direct you to Cycle 11 of America's Next Top Model, a show where Tyra Banks demonstrates her continued ability to be a living, breathing train wreck while dragging down a dozen pretty model wanna-be's on national TV.

Also, for this blog post, I tried out some new speech-to-text software on my mobile phone. It's called Dragon Dictation, and it takes the blah blah blah that comes out of my mouth, and converts it to written blah blah blah with way more accuracy than I would have anticipated. For your enjoyment, I've called out in the blog a couple of the funnier typos/errors in translation that the program made.

Now, on to the good stuff...

It was an easy, breezy summer day indeed when we met in the house of Joyce and Jessica to enjoy easy, breezy summer fare! Joyce and Damian, our gracious hosts, had readied everything we'd need to enjoy an afternoon of delights. We had snacks...

And more importantly, we had booze:

The afternoon itself was typical for a summer day in Seattle, changeable, grey, and rainy. This was the view out the back door:

In spite of the gloom (or maybe because of it!), Jessica, Shawn, and Joyce took great pains to liven up the atmosphere a bit:

It must have worked really well, too, because folks were in particularly cheery spirits!

Even Rosie was smiling!

The evening's menu included:

Eggplant fries with pickle sauce
Freshly-baked Pita (can someone please send me the link/recipe?)
Falafel
Grilled romaine lettuce salad
Salmorejo (chilled tomato soup)
Shwarma-Style Lamb
Cherry Hand Pies

We jumped right in and got started.

Damian and Joyce had marinated lamb cubes in a fabulous shwarma-style spice mix of garlic, cayenne, paprika, cinnamon, cumin, mace, salt, lemon juice, and yogurt. As if the description alone weren't enough to make your mouth water, have a look at the final product!

While the lamb was browning so beautifully, dear Jessica had just created what might have been the most delicious salad dressing ever. Made with yogurt, avocado, and a ton of garlic, it was extraordinarily tasty and would be a hit on vegetables or potatoes in addition to being salad-friendly. In this shot, Jessica shows us just how delicious it is!

Since Rick was out-of-town fishing, we decided to take advantage and have as much cilantro as we were able today. Damian happily chopped away a full bunch for our assorted garnishes...

Fernando helped seed the tomatoes to make salmorejo, which is a chilled tomato soup, similar to gazpacho (tee-hee, my dictation program translated "gazpacho" as "best Pacho"). Salmorejo hails from Southern Spain, and is made with bread and almonds blended up into the soup to give it a very interesting body.

As an experiment, we thought it would be fun to slice up some of those polenta tubes and see what happened if we dropped them into the deep fryer for a few minutes. I know I had you at "deep-fried polenta," but have a look for yourself. Yum!

What? What's that you say? It doesn't look like polenta slices? Well, my pretties, you're definitely right about that one. We learned from our polenta experiment that you can only fry a few slices at a time - otherwise, everything breaks up into small, unevenly-fried bits. Not a bad thing, mind you, but from a greasy-fingers-management point of view, definitely something to keep in mind.

We'd garnish our chilled salmorejo with some hard-boiled egg and some jamón. Here's Damian fixing up the fixin's.

Next up, homemade falafel. This could not have been more delicious: coarsely ground garbanzo beans, perfectly spiced...They look yummy right here on the baking dish, and they haven't even been cooked yet!

Of course no easy summer dinner would be complete without freshly-made pita bread, right? Meg, Anne, Joyce, and even Fernando pitched in to stretch, knead, shape, and roll.

Anne had some pretty good luck...

As at least half of our group can tell you, given the right stroke and touch, little pitas can quickly grow into really big pitas!

And then into the oven things went, looking pretty flat.

Curiously enough, however, a few minutes in a hot oven do wonders for pita dough - check out the difference!

Our resident movie star Joyce shows us how to do things:

Of course, some pitas puffed up less than others, and these pitas we named "lavash." While they were too flat to fill with lamb, they were definitely not too flat to use as a pretend duck bill.

Another funny dictation error: "Joyce pretending to be a pita beast duck that's right Joyce theater looks like a duck if it walks like and death if it quacks like about it might be Joyce with pita in her mouth." Can I get an Amen?

Fernando tried his hand at rolling out the pita bread...Look at that devilish smile!

Now, look carefully at the photo above - You can barely tell, but Meg is in the background slicing up eggplant fries. These eggplant fries would be the most delicious and most horrifying thing we ate all night: long eggplant slices are lightly dusted with a little rice flour and some spices before having a nice warm dip in the deep fryer. Delicious, delicious, delicious!

I'd be remiss if I didn't introduce the heavy lifter of the night, William's deep fryer. To me, it looks like it is making a sad face, probably because it knows that its contents are the culprits of my rising cholesterol numbers and my ever-tightening pants.

We've just about nailed down all the details; we enjoyed crunchy-on-the-outside-creamy-on-the-inside eggplant fries, and Joyce manned (womaned?) the grill to sear our romaine lettuce. The falafel emerged, crunchy and delicious:

We readied ourselves to serve, and William took his seat at the table.

Et voilà. First course: grilled romaine lettuce, dressed with the aforementioned Most Delicious Green Dressing Ever, alongside a glorious martini glass filled with salmorejo. Here's what it looked like:

I know you want to see these a little bit closer. You're welcome.

We forked the bits of lamb into our fresh pitas...

But the unexpected hit of the party was the Pickle Sauce that we put on the lamb. I don't know who made it or what was in it, but EVERYONE raved over it.

We talked about the Pickle Sauce all night long. We loved it so much that Fernando and Shawn even made up a chart-topping pop song about it--Check it out by clicking here!

Cheers to us! ¡Salud!

In spite of the intended ease, breeze, and beauty of our summer fare dinner, by this point, we were so full that we were unable to even think about preparing and eating hand pies for dessert. Hand pies: they sounded sooo wonderful, "a PopTart for grown-ups," was the official description...nevertheless, our stomachs won. No hand pies for us. We did make due with a sweet and creamy glass of Amarula instead, certainly an adequate substitute!

Meanwhile, we rediscovered that the only downside to making deep-fried polenta, deep-fried eggplant fries, and deep-fried falafel is that that, when you're done, the deep fryer needs a good cleaning and it is kind of a pain to clean. Poor Damian got to scrubbing...

While Damian was doing that, the rest of the cooks took a load off...

Poor Damian kept scrubbing...

And everyone else kept relaxing...

Finally, I think Damian's arm wore out or something - William himself got into the act. Here he is extolling the virtues of SOS pads:

All that manly hard work paid off, though - take a look at that spic-and-span deep fryer! Just like new!

And that's all, folks! Once more, we've gone to a "regular" schedule for our future Kiss the Cooks events, and our next one is coming up on August 20, hosted by Shawn and Meg. Other official news finds us planning to go to Lopez Island in lieu of our normal meeting in October, and William has spearheaded the effort and secured our lodging for the weekend. Thanks, William!

See y'all on the 20th!

Upcoming KTC events through mid-2012

2011-06-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

OK folks - here is the schedule for upcoming months. I'm posting with the assumption that we'll have our annual business meeting in November and a separate cookie bake event in December - please let me know if this is inaccurate or if we'd like to do something different.

May KTC Event: Chocolate Adventures with Jessica and Rick

2011-06-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

It's that time again, Kissers! And, if by “that time” you guessed “far too many moons since we last published something on our blog,” then congratulations! You guessed right!

Jessica and Rick brought up the oh-so-shapely rear of the “partner swapping” experiment that Meg proposed last fall. You may recall that we pulled names out of a hat at our annual cookie bake during December, and decided to host 'per two Kissers,' rather than 'per household.' Jessica and Rick would be our fifth such pairing, and it was clear as soon as we arrived that they planned to knock this one out of the park.

We convened at Joyce and Jessica’s place and presented with delicious snacks.

Next, we tried an unusual, locally-produced (from Oregon, w00t!) bittersweet vermouth that Jessica had tasted at a recent wine event, called Imbue. Even I, smack in the middle of my self-imposed month of sobriety (what was I thinking with that idea?), tried a teeny sip. It was viscously sweet, but not unpleasant – the consensus was that it would be perfect mixed with a glass of soda and a lime wedge on a hot day. That is, if we ever saw a hot day again.

We got started relatively quickly – Jessica and Rick had done a ton of prep and pre-cooking, but we would still have a lot to do. First up, appetizers.

We would be making a chorizo and chocolate crostini to serve – which sounded like a totally bizarre combination. We began by browning the chorizo. The chorizo that Jessica found, while Spanish in flavor, was “fresh” sausage, instead of the more traditional dry-cured chorizo we initially envisioned. Like the amazing and imaginative cooks we are, we figured we’d try it anyway and see what the results were. So we browned ‘em up…

The chorizo was paired with a bittersweet chocolate-and cream spread and served over crostini. The results were surprisingly tasty, and the flavor combination was just as unusual as we anticipated, but very tasty. We determined that we’d have to try making this recipe again with dry-cured chorizo, which we hypothesize will have a stronger/saltier flavor to contrast even more colorfully against the creaminess of the chocolate. Yum!

Also on the menu was a springtime bonanza of farro risotto – complete with fava beans and asparagus. Everyone’s eyes lit up at the mention of fresh fava beans, but of course everyone looked the other direction when the task of preparing them arose – so Meg stepped up to the challenge. Look at those beauties! Meg rinsed…

Meg blanched…

Meg drained…

And then she peeled…

Somewhere in there, she may have even had a nap (fava beans are a lot of work!). In any case, in what felt like about 3 hours later, our fava beans were ready to add to the risotto!

Shawn got started prepping the ingredients for another unusually-flavored dish: cocoa and smoked pimentón roasted cauliflower. This is how ordinary people prep their cauliflower:

Here’s what happens at a Kiss the Cooks event with cauliflower:

Here’s what happens at a Kiss the Cooks event with cauliflower when Meg is involved:

And last, but definitely not least, here’s what happens at a Kiss the Cooks event with cauliflower when Anne’s creative connections are a-firing:

This is next photo is just a bonus cheesecake shot for all you Anne-and-Joyce lovers out there. Me-ow!

Surprisingly, after all the fun and games, the cauliflower actually didn’t look much worse for wear, and is shown here, ready to season:

Shawn added what seemed like an ungodly amount of a cocoa and smoked pimentón mixture to cover the cauliflower (note: this is twice the cauliflower called for in the recipe, and half the seasoning!), and into the oven it went.

Meanwhile, the risotto got going. This would be another variation on the emmer farro risotto we enjoyed from William’s rice cooker several months ago--this time with asparagus and fava beans!

Consensus is that we won’t ever tire of it, as it is an easy recipe with endless variations, and deeply soul-satisfying to eat and share to boot. It’s so awesome, as a matter of fact, that even William himself will stir it sometimes (the proof is captured here in the photo!).

We even whipped up a green salad with cocoa nibs, dried cranberries, and goat cheese. It was delicious!

With our “from-scratch” recipes already well on their way to deliciousness, attention turned to the other pre-prepped or mostly-finished items on our menu that we needed to tweak and/or finish preparing in time for dinner. Lamb was first – it had been marinated overnight with an aromatic cocoa, red pepper, and clove mixture, and was destined to become kebabs. Granted, it doesn’t exactly look appetizing here:

You can see Joyce here, carefully threading the skewers with chunks of lamb and red onion:

Now that’s more like it! Doesn’t that look good?

And now, for our grand finale of chocolate-themed incredulity…The night before, Jessica and Rick had prepared Bon Appetit’s amazing spiced chocolate torte, and frosted it in anticipation of our chocolate-flavored party. Even more remarkable was that Jessica had even managed to carve out space in their kitchen freezer to freeze the cake—whole—so we could more easily decorate it.

Jessica and Rick described our task. As a group, we would glaze the cake with chocolate, and then fabricate and add dark chocolate and white chocolate “ribbons” to decorate the cake as if it were a beautifully-wrapped gift. I can pretty much guarantee that my first thoughts, upon hearing that we would undertake such an endeavor, were, “Pfffft! Like we’ll really be able to do THAT... Whatevs!”

Boy, did I underestimate us!

First, we made the glaze…

It was poured onto the cake while still warm, and we worked quickly with William’s help to achieve the appropriate “swirliness” to cover the cake adequately with the finicky glaze.

It was a pretty neat process. See for yourself:

We would add some last-minute touch-ups, but already we had an already-impressive chocolate cake:

There was some chocolate glaze left over, which we enjoyed with some fine sea salt – doesn’t that look yummy?

And, since we’re just tawdry like that, you can imagine where things went from there. I feel like need a shower after displaying this. Or at least cigarette.

Somehow, after all that excitement, we needed to pull ourselves together and focus – we still had many more cake-related tasks to complete! Next up were the chocolate “ribbons.” We’d be creating ribbons of chocolate in two different colors using a pasta maker, which I thought sounded impossible, frankly.

There was some kind of mix-up with the white chocolate, which initially refused to melt despite everyone’s efforts to the contrary. A quick run to the supermarket for a different variety of white chocolate solved the problem, and we fired up the double boiler.

Once the chocolate was melted, we poured it over the back of a sheet pan to create a “sheet” of white chocolate. We’d be using this as the first step in our ribbon-making process.

Once cooled, we were able to jimmy the chocolate, still intact, off the sheet pan.

The beginning was a little rough, as evidenced below, but we got the hang of it soon enough.

Next, we’d pass the “sheet” of chocolate through the pasta machine, dusting with powdered sugar as needed.

We even made a movie about it!!

Joyce took a turn at it, too.

Rick and Fernando got the hang of it really quickly.

Next up would be to actually create and cut the “ribbons.” Every time the chocolate ribbons came through the machine, they were longer and better-incorporated. We would use a pizza cutter and Joyce’s vintage yardstick (circa 1952? What was the date on it?) to cut out long chocolate ribbons of equal width.

Of course, being who we are, we quickly determined the ancillary benefits (ahem) of having a yardstick in the kitchen:

Now adequately disciplined, Rick got back to the ribbons. Look at that concentration!

Meg and Joyce looked on approvingly.

This appears to be William inspecting the recipe for inferior techniques.

Anne decided to take a break for a while…

Things rolled right along; the chocolate ribbons were ready to use, and the lamb kebabs were ready to grill. The cauliflower had finished cooking and looked amazing.

Joyce did us the honor of acting as the evening’s Grill Master…

And turned out this phenomenally beautiful result:

Now that the risotto had cooked long enough, it was time to add our spring vegetables—and a whole plate full of cheese—for the last few minutes – so delicious!

William is overcome with fava bean-related joy:

And he even holds still long enough to pose for this oh-so-William photo.

Finally, everything was ready for the table. We were all looking forward to a marvelous feast! We went from this…

To this… a scene in which William appears to be praying. Even though I know that wasn't actually the case, I still like to imagine him somberly pronouncing the ever-popular Southern Baptist kids’ grace: “Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub, yea God.”

I filled up my plate, and it quickly went from this…

…to this…

Prior to dinner, we had decided to digest while we finished decorating our gorgeous chocolate cake. So some of us hopped up to attack that task.

Others sat around the table and chatted, which was lovely since it felt like a really long time since we’d all met. Fernando decided to just have a snooze instead.

Rosie, not to be outdone, decided she’d have a snooze, too.

When we finally scraped them both off their resting places, the cake was ready. Can you believe how incredible it looks? Wow!

I know you are dying for the close-up…

Wanna know what it tasted like? One word will suffice: Buttercream.

Oh, my.

Well, that’s all for this time, kiddos. We’ve skipped June, and decided to standardize our meetings – next up will be Joyce and Damian on Saturday, July 16. Soon, I’ll post the complete schedule with the dates and pairs we selected, and my goal is to figure out a way that we can find it easily in the blog for reference anytime. Stay tuned for that, coming later this week! Meanwhile, happy June to everyone – safe travels to the travelers, and enjoy the warmer days in town, non-travelers! ¡Hasta pronto!

April KTC Event: Thai Treats with Damian!

2011-05-19T23:09:00.000-07:00

Hi. Rumplestiltz here. I know, I know – you’re thinking: “Whaaa…..? Frank and Damian’s cat isn’t named Rumplestiltz!” Well folks, guess what. You aren’t the center of your pathetic little universe. We are.

Me and Tigertoots over here have had it. We are sick and tired of pandering to all you fancy-pants gourmets all the time. Every freakin’ time you come over, it’s all about us getting pushed around. Our normal roaming space gets compressed and overly dusted, and then we have to stay over in the office like a couple of pariahs. And the smells –OH the smells! You folks ooohh and aaahh over the dishes you are cooking, but all Tigertoots and I can smell is FEET. That’s right, humans, you have stinky feet. If you aren’t willing to lick your toes completely clean, do a cat a favor and put a sprinkle on it already, won’t ya? Attend a class like this one in Phinney Ridge—it will help you understand.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that the new kid, Shawn, has really been dragging her feet lately about writing up your monthly Wireless Space Newspaper. Usually, she throws a mild temper tantrum or two about not having enough time, but then at the last minute, just before you and your reeking feet all get together again, she ekes something out and sends it to Space.

Well, this month she really blew it. Not only did Shawn go out and find a full-time job at Harborview, she didn’t even ATTEND April’s meeting at our place. So, not only did she not have enough time AGAIN, but she decided to rely on everyone else for their take on the day’s Thai-flavored events. Even a canary can tell you that THAT isn’t going to work very well. I hope her new bosses know what kind of jewel they hired over there.

Well, then the other day, I really had my whiskers blown back. Tigertoots, who’s like a brother to me, caught up with me as I was heading in for my post-litterbox nap, and asked, “Hey, Rumplestiltz, don’t you write?”

Muffin-FORKER, I thought. I mean, we’ve been sharing a litterbox for a long time, but me and Tigertoots, we don’t go around getting all up in each other’s personal business all that much, if you know what I mean. I glared down my whiskers at him. “What?” I responded.

Tigertoots swallowed hard and asked again. “Weren’t you a writer before? In the Old Country?”

I felt paralyzed with unexpected emotion. The Old Country. For just a moment, I was lost in the memories…Mama FatCat, Louis, and my dearest Angelina. Ahhhhh, Angelina... I thought. Last I heard, Angelina had run off with that trashy tomcat Freddy the Ratcatcher... Suddenly, I remembered Tigertoots—he was still waiting for an answer.

I faked a hairball and cleaned my face with my paws a bit to straighten out my whiskers. After a few swipes, I felt sure that any emotion that may have crept into my typical reptilian-cool gaze was suitably erased. I thought for a few moments. “Well,” I finally replied. “I did used to write a little.”

See, that Tigertoots is a real softie. He feels kinda bad for Shawn. She comes over, and spends inordinate amounts of time cooing and smooching and snapping her fingers and doing all kinds of other ridiculous stuff to try and make friends with us. I guess she thinks she speaks Cat, but she doesn’t. Tigertoots and I can’t understand a word she says. Tigertoots always says, “Poor thing…I think she thinks we understand her. I think she thinks we like her…” Me, I just think she’s an idiot. Extra stinky, too.

Anyway, Tigertoots heard that Shawn felt bad for taking too long to send out the Wireless Space Newspaper, and asked if I could help her out. Me, I couldn’t give two tuna tins about Shawn, but I admit, I kinda got a soft spot for Tigertoots. Me and him go way back, see, so, anyways. That’s why I’m here. Shawn couldn’t get it together, and none of you other stinky feet-walkers were going to do anything. So here’s my version of your last meeting for the Space Newspaper. Rumplestiltz-style. Meee-YOW, baby!

Thai food. AKA fishy noodle-stuff with sauce. Usually Tigertoots and I like it, but on that fateful evening, two EXTRA feet-walkers showed up, Olivier and Theresa, and aside from also having stinky feet, one of them didn’t eat meat. These stinky feet walkers think they are SO smart, but they think that fish are meat! Can you believe it? “Vegetarian” they call it. “Heart-healthy and ethical,” they say. “You can eat full, rich, complete meals without meat.” I can barely keep my claws in. Even at IKEA they agree:

Barfota, indeed.

First order of business seems to have been admiring Joyce’s new haircut. Both Tigertoots and I approve.

And then, Rick spilled rice all over the kitchen. So we have clumsy AND stinky. I couldn’t believe my luck.

I guess then it was time to pretend that nothing at all had happened, and that rice wasn’t actually still strewn all over the floor and getting ground into every crack and crevice of the house. Hooray for you.

Then they picked up some more rice.

After that, some folks spent time admiring these stinky foot covers. Besides having stinky feet, you people commune over them. Christ on a crutch, Helen – What is this world coming to?

I’m not sure what happened next, to be honest. Between all the laughing and good time-having and wine-drinking, I gave up and retreated to the office to plan my revenge. All I know is that when I left, the kitchen looked like this:

And somehow a table full of food came out of it afterwards. Here’s how they told me it went. First, they boiled some water.

Next, they chopped up some colorful stuff.

Afterwards, they made a salad so beautiful that even Tigertoots and I would eat it. Then, they took a break, I guess from the hard work of making your feet stink.

Things were really hopping in there. We heard William tell how Marie twisted his arm to make him buy his expensive rice cooker. At least these two Extra Feet probably hadn’t heard the story before.

The kitchen stayed busy for HOURS. Did you note the time on the wall clock? They just wouldn’t go home, geez.

Frank made a delicious appetizer with some butter lettuce (meh) and some chopped, shrimpie business (yum). And then someone said that the aforementioned gorgeous salad should have had fish sauce. But since SOME people wouldn’t eat meat (see? We’ve gone from refusing MEAT to refusing not even fish – but fish SAUCE!!!), they used soy sauce instead. Harrumph.

I heard from even the meat-eaters of the group that the fried tofu was a total hit: deep fried in onion-infused oil, leftover from the fried shallots they crisped up for the pad thai topping. Someone even said it was the best part of the pad thai.

I think this is a picture of the sauce for the beef curry, although I gotta tell you, it looks like the corners of my litterbox after bad night of catnip overindulgence.

Blah blah, some artsy-fartsy picture of Joyce taking a picture of Meg taking picture of a bottle in the background. Or something. They drank lots of wine that night. At least it made their smelly feet less noticeable.

All mouths were agape as it was disclosed that William had never had Nutella before. Like, ever.

Tigertoots told me he didn’t believe it, that even HE had tried Nutella. Plus, we know William had worked with some hoity-toity French dude with a funny name for YEARS, and even cats know that all French people eat Nutella for breakfast. Then, Tigertoots nudged me and we caught all these guys barely disguising their mirth. I’m pretty sure Tigertoots is on to something.

Anyways, all you guys made entirely too much food. You tried to adjust portion size on the recipes to feed lots of people, HOWEVER…Curried beef, chicken, pad thai, fancy salad (sans FISH SAUCE), lettuce leaf thingie, leftovers soup, sorbet—Tigertoots and I watched in amazement as people kept shoveling it in.

Some tidbits we heard for the next time you prepare all this stuff:

Pad Thai Mountain turned to pad thai mush – even though you wanted to be sure to have enough to go around, it might be better to prepare two batches instead of one huge double batch. The sheer weight of the noodles crushing themselves in the wok broke everything up when you tried to mix it.

It tasted good (I won’t tell you how I know) enough, but wasn’t gonna win any beauty contests. Now, my Angelina, on the other hand...

Regarding the chicken. It was battered with flour and cornstarch. The chicken was cut into small enough pieces that it cooked through just as the batter turned the perfect shade of crispy. Nevertheless, the chicken had been previously marinated (VERY simple marinade, and multi-purpose besides being tasty!) and was delicious in its own right (I won’t tell you how I know that, either). The batter was unnecessary and sort of blanded out the chicken flavor. Next time, either leave out the batter, or add WAY more spice to it.

Chicken note #2: Your half-basil, half-spinach, coconut curry sauce with green curry paste? Delicious. BUT, after pouring it over the crispy battered chicken, all the batter turned soggy! Terrible Leftovers Situation, kids - Boo!

UPDATE 20 May
I forgot the recipes. I had to wait until Shawn went to work so I could hack into her email to retrieve them. Here you go:

Miang Kham (Wild Betel Leaf Wraps)
Spicy Beef Curry
Green Curry Chicken
Vegetarian Pad Thai
Crunchy Thai Salad with Cashews
Easy Thai Sticky Rice (Made in a Rice Cooker)
Easy Coconut Sorbet
BONUS: The Well-Stocked Thai Pantry

In summary, in the sage words of Meg, “We never make Thai at home because it looks so hard, even though we love it – and it IS hard. It takes long time to make, and was harder to do than we expected.”

Also, MANY special kudos to Meg for taking photo duty and inspiring this entry. Thanks, Meg!

So there you have it. You’re welcome. I’m going back to bed.

March KTC Event: Pastry dough with Frank and Fernando!

2011-04-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

Hey, party people! It’s finally time to write about our March KTC event: Pastry doughs with Fernando and Frank. Please think “WWJD?”—that’s “What would Julia do?” for the uninitiated—and forgive the delay. Instead, smile, and read on!

We met at Frank and Damian’s place on a Sunday afternoon. It was our lucky day—Damian’s cutie-pie mom would join us! She received us with a wide smile and seemed simply delighted to hang out for the evening with a house full of young’uns. Isn’t she sweet?

We had some wine and some snacks…

Joyce and Jessica posed (Joyce modeling a new jacket find, thanks to Anne!):

We were having a nice time, and didn’t realize that the volume must have begun to creep up—this guy kept nosing around at the window trying to see what all the fuss was about:

We poked fun of the kitty’s first-position feet, too.

Now that everyone had arrived, we assembled our collection of rolling pins…

Then we decided to get all artsy with them…

From there, it looks as if we moved into interpretive dance. Or something. I don’t remember exactly what we were trying to accomplish with this shot—only that it seemed really hysterical while we put it together. Now, though, several weeks later, it just looks a little disturbing.

Finally, we all moved into the kitchen…

Anne and Meg got cozy…

Here, Frank models our beurre du jour, unsalted Plugrá. Did you know Plugrá “European-style” butter is actually manufactured in the U.S. by Dairy Farmers of America giant, Keller’s Creamery? The butter’s name, "Plugrá," is derived from the French plus gras ("more fat"). Thanks, Wikipedia!.

William kicked us off with a short discourse about dough: how the ingredients work together, general do’s and don’ts, and our experience working with doughs.

The evening’s project would be this (Click on the image for a complete version whose text you can copy and print):

We were encouraged to experiment, and the options seemed endless. Food processor, pastry blender, or hand-mix? Lard vs. butter? Or half-lard, half-butter? Sugar or no sugar? Acid or no acid? If so, lemon or vinegar? Heavy cream vs. buttermilk vs. sweet milk? Herbs?

We mixed up our various combinations of doughs, and left them to chill in the fridge. Next steps: Rolling out our doughs to make crusts—both for a meat pie-type entrée and for individual crusts for our extra-cute (and useful! I’ve already re-used mine several times since then!) pie jars. Here, Meg demonstrates rolling technique with a tapered French rolling pin.

We dusted the counter generously with flour and cut off a little chunk of herbed dough to get started. So cute!

Within seconds, we’d rolled out a buttery circle of yum.

From there, we had a veritable pastry-pressing party. We took turns rolling, and noted differences between the different dough textures, temperatures, and elasticity.

Rick enjoyed this process, as evidenced by the tell-tale (grope?) marks on his shirt.

We needed a b-i-g piece of dough to serve as a top crust to cover this incredible looking beef stew-type mixture—doesn’t it look like pure comfort personified in a Pyrex?

So, William demonstrated a method for transporting large sheets of soft dough from one place to another:

We did pretty well, overall. There were a few crusts that looked iffy going into their respective receptacles:

But they all ended up looking super tasty! We used two fillings: one was loosely based on this recipe from What Katie Ate (apple, ginger, and blueberries). The other filling was actually the insides of this Shaker Lemon Pie by Smitten Kitchen.

Poor Damian was wiped out, and we giggled a teeny bit at his expense as he dozed on the sofa. Look how adoringly his mom gazes upon him!

We popped the pie jars into the oven to bake during dinner, and then mixed up a gorgeous, multi-colored salad…

Time to eat! What a cozy scene!

Looks tasty!

After no time at all, everyone’s plates looked like this:

Next was dessert. We fished out the pie jars from the oven, and served up ice cream (blackberry and vanilla, I think?). Everything was scrumptious!

And there you have it! Kitty says, “Bye, y’all!”

So you want to lose weight...

2011-03-15T22:25:00.000-07:00

How many of us have had any part of THIS conversation before? I admit to having been on BOTH sides at one point or another, haha! "Bagels are good for you!" Enjoy, kissers!

February KTC event: Gnocchi-palooza by Meg and Anne!

2011-03-12T12:24:00.000-08:00

Whew! It feels like I just published January’s update, and March’s KTC event is already this afternoon!!

So let’s see…We Kissers met in February at Meg’s house, where Meg and Anne were hosting the ”Gnot Your Gnormal KTC” event. The theme of the evening would be, as you may have surmised already, gnocchi.

We arrived in the afternoon, and saw the scene had been set. Anne and Meg had organized (and posted!) a fabulous-sounding plan: Three kinds of gnocchi, three sauces, a salad, and something delightful for dessert.

Our special guest of the evening was Meg’s dearest friend Donna, beautifully described by Meg as “…my bestest-bestest friend and mother of the two most talented, smartest, cutest and lovable godsons.” So the bar was high! Would Donna enjoy the gnocchi? Would she even like us? We
needn't have worried, though, as we were as tickled to see her as she was to see us:

Seems that these delightful little bowls were gifts to Meg from Donna, who’d bought them in France. Joyce organized this display to show them off a bit!

Meg got us started zesting citrus and slicing fennel for the salad – that way, we’d have the rest of the time to get down and dirty with the gnocchi part.

While there were plenty of tasks, there was still time to mug for the camera – have a look at these beauties!

Meg had won approximately 403,514 shower caps in a recent neighborhood event, and passed some on to Shawn. Shawn decided to see if the blank-eyed shower-cap lady’s stare might be less disturbing if placed atop an actual human body. You can see for yourself that the answer to that query is a resounding “No.”

We sliced up the fennel and red onion, and mixed it up with orange juice and zest…

Once the salad was prepared, William shared some information about the difference between gnocchi and gnudi. We listened attentively as he described how gnudi have hardly any flour at all, and the benefits of roasting your potatoes for gnocchi-making instead of boiling or steaming them.

Next, we needed to pick a station and get down to business. One look around told us that we would be making all sorts of interesting goodies. First, there were the fixin's to make Saffron Gnocchi with Tomato-Leek Sauce:

Next, we planned for Epicurious' basic gnocchi recipe:

And lastly, Martha's Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Drunken Prunes and Amaretti:

For such a daunting task, we prepared ourselves mentally in different ways. Frank gulped down the rest of his champagne and relaxed…

Rick laughed at Fernando’s jokes…

Meg loosened up Joyce’s shoulders for all the potato-pushing that we’d soon be doing…

I’m not sure how many pounds of potatoes Meg and Anne cooked, but here are some of them, pre-riced for our KTC convenience:

This shot is just in case you ever wondered why it was called a potato “ricer” – it really does look just like rice!

Shawn had some fun with Meg’s new copper pan.

The sweet potato puree was REALLY wet. But this photo is cool because it looks like a giant egg on the counter. Maybe an smallish unborn stegosaurus?

Of course, we needed to add actual chicken eggs to make the gnocchi.

But once we added the maple syrup to the mix, it just looked sort of anti-natural for some reason.

Speaking of eggs, Meg really got into the process of cracking eggs for our gnocchi, and ended up mistakenly tossing the usable egg right into the compost bin instead of tossing its shell. Hee hee!

Meanwhile, the saffron gnocchi team was tearing it up. They chopped herbs and grated cheese:

Saffron-laden eggs make this pile of riced potato look like a giant egg, too.

The trick, we learned from William and from Anne and Meg’s research, was to NOT overmix. Overmixing will lead to a tough result instead of teeny bites of pillowy softness. Saffron gnocchi’s team got started really well:

Looks like it must have tasted pretty good, too, based on these two “Oops! You caught me!” faces!

And the “plain ole’ gnocchi” [and/or gnudi - I wrote this entire post and somehow forgot the gnudi!!] team also seemed to be rolling right along:

Unfortunately, the sweet potato gnocchi recipe was turning out to be a little more difficult to work with. Here, about half the flour was already incorporated, and the dough was still waaaaay too wet:

We just kept adding more flour, and tried to be as gentle as possible with it, but in the end, all we could really do was laugh about our soggy sweet potatoes.

The other groups had already moved on to rolling, cutting, and pressing with a fork or gnocchi board.
Here’s Jessica and Fernando hard at work:

Frank and Rick had great luck, too – note the perfectly formed gnocco being passed over for admiration in the upper-right corner!

Joyce presents the magic of the gnocchi-board:

And Frank and Rick demonstrate their forking talents:

Anne gets a much-needed massage - After all, forking and rolling is hard work!

And Shawn and Meg finally added enough flour to begin rolling.

The dough was still super soft and sticky, and Shawn, bored with adding flour and scraping, tried to make a long cowboy-style moustache out of a roll of the dough, but you’ll see that it didn’t go so well.

But, as you know, no one can accuse Shawn of being a quitter. She made due with the moustache bits she had left. Sort of.

What a nice-looking group! Joyce’s “Snap it from a chair” technique is one we should use at all our meetings – everyone looks nice! Must be more fun to be a tall person if everyone looks fabulous from the higher vantage point…

In any case, the sweet potato gnocchi saga continued. Shawn and Meg made some progress.

Joyce displays the bounty to be achieved by maintaining perfect gnocchi-rolling posture:

And still we rolled…

And rolled…

And something really strange happened. All that dough manipulation apparently made Rick feel punchy. I’m not able to explain this photograph, so I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions. I’ll just say that this somehow looked even more vulgar in person.

Finally, we could say, “I can’t believe we rolled the whole thing!”

We ended up with three distinctive kinds of gnocchi. Clockwise from top are (surprise!) the sweet potato, the traditional potato, and the saffron gnocchi. [Again, my apologies - I forgot the gnudi! Boo!]

Our work wasn’t over, though – we still needed to make sauces! I ducked in for a bathroom break, where I met Meg’s new chickens, who were living in makeshift housing in Meg's bathtub. There they are under the screen!

I’m pretty sure this one stood up and said, “Who the hell are you? And why do you have sweet potato residue all over your face?”

One sauce had Marsala wine and prunes in it, doesn’t it sound divine?

Isn’t it beautiful?

We crushed up some amaretti cookies too, to garnish this sauce and give it a bit of textural interest.

We chopped some onions and leeks…

And put it on to cook down…

We added some Marzano tomatoes, lovingly crushed by (I think?) Meg’s capable hands.

After cooking a while, it looked like this. Yum!

Shawn did a little sage chiffonade…

Then we browned some butter…

Threw in the sage to crisp it a bit and infuse the butter…

And voilà. Yum again!

We had the sauce a-saucin’ – now, we needed to get the gnocchi in the pot, plate our aforementioned fennel-orange salad, and set the table. We began at the beginning.

Gnocchi went into pots of simmering water. When they floated to the top, they were done, and we fished them out with a spider.

We plated the salad, which looked absolutely stunning…Dressing was simply cream with lemon juice – and it was a gorgeous interplay of flavors.

We set the table…

And settled in…

Who’s hungry?

Well, now that I’m nearly to the end of writing all about our meal, I realize I forgot there were FOUR varieties – must have been sweet potato, saffron, potato, and then ricotta-based gnudi. Is that right? Terribly sorry for the confusion! I don’t know who did what – you guys can duke it out later this afternoon or comment below and I can update. Let’s raise a glass to short-term memory loss, woo-hoo! Ahem.

Back to business. FOUR varieties of goodies:

Served with three sauces. Clockwise from top, tomato and leek sauce, gnudi (naked! Oh my!), sweet potato gnocchi served with amaretti and parmesan, the prune and marsala sauce, another gnocchi (herbs? How did I get them all mixed up?) with parmesano, browned butter and sage sauce, and the saffron gnocchi with a touch of cheese.

Dinner and its deliciousness made everyone happy, but this photo was actually taken in a role-play setting in which Joyce informed William that his molar wasn’t worth a damn, and couldn’t be saved. Or something like that!

The proverbial pièce de résistance was next in the form of dessert. A mystery dessert! We were all so intrigued—what would it be?

Feast your eyes on this chocolate soufflé!

We decorated our tiny soufflés with freshly-whipped cream, and some were staid.

Some were rococo.

Others were more whimsical.

But all of them were delicious!

Once again, a rousing success! My apologies again for the oversights, but since we meet again TODAY, I think I’ll just leave things as they are for now. But do let me know if you’d like me to update and correct!

Many thanks again to Meg's special friend (and ours!), Donna, for joining us!

See you after while, kissers!

Tamara Murphy's Tender: An Interview

2011-03-01T12:17:00.000-08:00

Saw this interview with Tamara Murphy recently in Seattle Weekly, along with a fabulous recipe for parsnip soup! She and the interviewer discuss Tamara's new book, Tender: Farmers, cooks, eaters.

Read Part I of the Seattle Weekly interview at this link.
Read Part II of the interview (and try the aforementioned parsnip soup recipe!) at this link.

January KTC Event: "Three-from-the-Pantry" by Joyce and Shawn

2011-03-01T11:59:00.000-08:00

Hi-Ho, Kissers – another action-packed week at the Caballero-White household has had me running too fast to stop long enough to type anything extra-curricular in the computer! So, my apologies for the delay (again!). Good news? Here it is – as promised! January’s Three-from-the-Pantry recap!

Joyce and Shawn hosted – the first of our pre-selected pairs in this year’s “mix-it-up” partner-swapping challenge. Instead of cooking with our respective household partners, we drew names out of a hat during our December cookie bake at Anne and Rick’s place. Shawn and Joyce would host January’s event; Meg and Anne would host February’s event, Fernando and Frank would host March’s event, and so on.

Joyce and Shawn had a fabulous idea: They riffed on the concept of using recipes for inspiration instead of simply following the recipes outright, and decided to pick three pantry staple ingredients. The group’s task for the evening was to showcase these three ingredients for our dinner.

Extra points for thinking of easily-prepared or “go-to” weeknight-style meals, especially since all three items are relatively nutritious things which most of us probably have on hand at any time in the kitchen during fall and winter in Seattle:

Sweet potatoes
Kale
Goat cheese

The Plan: We would have a short brainstorming session to share ideas about quick and nutritious "weeknight" meals using these three ingredients, all easily sourced locally and abundant during our long fall and winter. Then, we would each team up with 2-3 people. One group would plan and prepare a first/starter course, another would prepare a main course, and the third would prepare a dessert. Each course had to contain at least one of the showcase ingredients.

Resources on hand would include a detailed list of pantry staples, produce, and refrigerated/freezer items which were on hand and available for our use at Joyce and Jessica’s house. Additional resources were a few laptop computers, the Flavor Bible, Michael Ruhlman's Ratio book, miscellaneous recipes and cookbooks on site and a suite of “starter recipes” for each ingredient which Shawn had pulled for us to review and use as thought-starters for our own ideas.

To add even more spice to the night, we had a houseful of special guests: Jessica’s sister Lesley was in from Boston, the lovely Elli was joining us for the evening, and our old friend Jeff Luoma joined us from Ithaca. Jeff also brought along his Seattle-based sister, Gretchen, niece Freida, and nephew Tate. We had some snacks, served some wine, and settled in to discuss business at hand. During Joyce’s extraordinarily informative introduction, our group was focused! On task! Paying attention! No, seriously – see for yourself:

When Shawn’s turn to expound on Joyce’s intro rolled around, folks were still attentive, but already itching to get started. Is that Joyce talking out of one side of her mouth to a smirking Jeff?

Well, probably, but it didn’t seem to hurt anyone’s feelings too much. Here we all are, relaxed and ready to get our brains a-stormin.’

After some spirited discussion (and a healthy dose of indecision), our three teams made their final choices for what to prepare. Initially, the three teams didn’t share much information about what each course would be comprised of, so it was really fun to see different and unexpected things unfolding from the same exact set of ingredients. We assembled in the kitchen to begin.

Yams were peeled and diced for roasting…

Kale was washed…

Thyme was plucked…

We boiled…

And sliced…

And chopped…

We turned out some extracurricular snacks along the way, like kale chips:

Shawn snuck a peek at Group 1’s appetizer inspiration (click on the photo for the recipe itself!):

And then she got a good, long look at the rouille, made in this incarnation from mayonnaise, tomato paste, smoked paprika, and other goodies. Yum!

Group 2 was putting together the main course, loosely inspired by this recipe from Food & Wine. It would be a rustic, free-form tart topped with chicken, kale, sweet potatoes, and a dollop of goat cheese. Here, Frank is melting butter to get the party started:

The group roasted up the sweet potatoes (er, yams?):

Then fried up the chicken:

Finally, sautéed some kale and onions for good measure:

Frank rolled out William’s fail-proof crust recipe (If someone will email it to me, I’ll see that it gets linked to this post!), and the tarts began to take form:

Have a closer look. Aren’t they pretty?

Sadly, the only photo of dessert preparation that we caught (besides the chocolate-chopping pic above) was this one, and as I recall, it was sweet potato and goat cheese ice cream, which we served topped with a chocolaty truffle which I believe also had some goat cheese in it (Can someone confirm? Anyone? Bueller?). Mmmmmm…

In short order, dinner was ready. As we typically do, our table was prepared…

But this time, before we dined, we joined Jeff in a rousing Bob Dylan-inspired version of the ever-popular pre-dinner hit, “Jingle Bells.” *N.B. As a KTC newbie, I wasn’t sure if “Jingle Bells” had some nostalgic significance, or if it was just a good choice since it was a given that we’d all know the words. If you know, pass a gal the 411, will you?

It is my honor to present to you our first course, Potato and Kale Cakes with Rouille.

Oh wait, that was Mango trying to nose in on the pantry-item action. Ahem. And now, Potato and Kale Cakes with Rouille (yummy for our tummies!).

Our main course, a chicken, kale, yam and carmelized onion rustic tart…It made up in flavor a hundred times what the photo displays.

And dessert, which I believe may have been sweet potato ice cream and some kind of chocolate thingie. Can anyone refresh my memory? I remember it was really tasty!

And that’s all she wrote! More coming soon about February’s amazing Gnocchi-palooza, with more people-pics, scout's honor!
[Gratuitous picture of Rosie to sign off, hee hee...]

Meg weighs in

2011-02-12T10:39:00.001-08:00

I think I gained 2 pounds just reading this entry...but I have to say I was totally impressed with the pro quality of these cookies! Or is it just that Shawn's pictures make us look so pro? ....that cardamom sugar?...it ended up in the topping of an apple crisp. I'll never make apple crisp again w/o cardamom. It's so grown up! After this event I made 2 more huge batches of Kourambiethes for n'hood and family events. It's a good thing Christmas happens only once a year.