Many Times, Many Ways.. Merry Christmas!

Best wishes to you and your family! Most of my readers are my family.. so Merry Christmas family!



...and the amputated gingerbread man...

New Cook

There have some serious changes going on and it's not just the leaves. Until recently, the economic crisis hasn't hurt at all. In fact, in the last year I've been able to have 2 jobs and will get a raise in the upcoming months. Unfortunately, E hasn't been as lucky as his job is so closely connected with construction. Hence the new changes. E has been spending more time at home and I've been spending more time working. We've been lucky enough to spend A LOT of time together.

So E has been doing almost all of the cooking, which is why you haven't been seeing any new recipes. Here's E's Banana Walnut Bread from scratch.




Our walnuts are coming down in a plethora! Every time we drive the car over the driveway, you always hear a bunch of crackling noises... our way of cracking walnut shells! We also just picked all of the olives from the olive tree's and have about 6 gallons of organic olive oil. We didn't have to take it far to get the olives pressed. The Greek Orthodox Church on Main Street has a press machine in the back of the church and they're nice enough to do all pressing for us!

If you want the recipe for the Banana Walnut Bread you'll have to ask the new cook! He's pretty nice but he won't give it away for free!

RIP Gourmet

I'm sorry to say that Gourmet Magazine has been buried in the magazine cemetery forever. Goodbye Gourmet.. I'll miss the good and bad times we've had together

Yikes!!

I haven't been food blogging in about a century it seems. I honestly don't know where all the time has gone.. and I don't even have kids! Yesterday, I went to the evil super store which shall not be named in fear of my life and watched my mom's teachers (Pomo Elementary) get a $1,000! The store was on good behavior for a day. It should be in the Record Bee sometime in the near future but this newspaper isn't exactly what you'd call... what's the word I'm looking for....... sympathetic towards educators I think is as polite as can be written.

Back to the kitchen, I haven't made anything fun or fancy. In fact, I've gotten down to the basics, hamburgers, pasta, and whatever else I can throw in the mix. E made some tasty cornmeal pancakes the other weekend where we used a birthday present that E's sister, S, gave me. It was a great gift because I'm horrible at making breakfasts hence the reason why E makes them! And E is an excellent breakfast chef!

In other news, someone suggested that I start a new section of the blog called "Cooking for C!" While C hasn't been to her normal zip line of energy, E and I have been making dinner at our house and bringing it over for a much fuller conversation filled dinner. Actually, I make the dinner and E drives while I balance a very hot casserole dish on my lap (with some beach towels underneath) with a bag of side dishes in some tupperware and garlic bread in between my knees. Don't worry, they literally live less then a mile from our house. Anyway, I've made some tasty things for "Cooking for C!" like Chicken Tortilla Soup, Lasagna, and Enchiladas! All good and all easy so it's a must that they make an appearance on the blog!

The only kind of painful/funny cooking I've been doing is at work. We're gearing up for the Pear Festival which is THE FESTIVAL for Kelseyville! It's on Saturday on Main Street, where the ice cream shop is located. One of the great things about the ice cream shop is that we make our own waffle cones. It's also one of my least favorite things to do at work. I already have so many scars from burns on that darn waffle maker. I swear, it's my arch nemesis. My co-worker Paulina, thinks it's hilarious.. I on the other hand do not! When the weather gets cooler, I'm hoping to enjoy it much more because I know it will keep my warm. Those things produce crazy heat! It's always interesting to hear what people have to say about the waffle cones. Almost everyone says they smell good, because they do. For some reason the waffle cones always smell like chicken noodle soup to me. Strange? I think so too. So here is the recipe for our waffle cones, but please keep it a secret!!! We don't want people to know our top secret recipe!

Some tips before you start your waffle cones:
- make sure you roll the waffle as tight as possible so that when it gets hard it has a solid formation

- the most important tip, make sure there isn't a hole at the bottom of the waffle cone or else your ice cream will be gone faster then you can lick it and it'll be on your lap!

Enjoy! And remember Shhhh.......



Lu Lu's Waffle Cones
secret recipe
time: 20-25 minutes

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch salt
• Nonstick cooking spray

Special Equipment:

• Pizzelle iron
• Cone-shaped mold

In a large bowl, add sugar, vanilla extract and eggs and beat until creamy with a hand held electric beater. Add butter and mix well.

In a medium bowl, add flour cinnamon and salt. Slowly blend into wet ingredients.

Spray pizzelle iron with nonstick cooking spray and allow to warm up. Pour 3/4 tablespoon of batter onto the iron and cook until baked and brown.

While still hot, quickly roll the waffle around a cone-shaped mold, sealing the point. (The cones will harden as they cool; remove from the mold when cool.) Repeat with remaining batter.

" I think I can, I think I can! "

As I stated earlier, I've really let my blogging go to the dogs, or the garbage disposal! I swear I've been cooking up a storm lately, especially for the dinner's we've been invited to. I made a tasty Paella Salad that E thoroughly enjoyed. I also learned how to make fresh gnocchi, which I've been dying to learn how to for years! I still need to blog about "Julie & Julia" and S's encounter with Julia Child at Macy's in Union Square. Us Lake County folk are also up in a tizzy about the upcoming Pear Festival and currently the pear picking season (it's kind of a big deal around here). When E came home early last Friday, he witnessed a sheriff giving a ticket to some people stealing pears from the orchard across the street.

Getting back to the blog, my last blog was about finding various dishes using peaches from our backyard. I was somewhat unsuccessful and couldn't find too much in my magazines or online. Much to my appreciation, MB sent me a site from the NY Times about a recipe for canned brandied peaches. It looked delicious but I didn't think I had the culinary expertise to accomplish such a feat! After sitting on the idea for a couple of hours, I finally talked myself into actually doing it! It's not like I didn't have 75-80 peaches sitting outside my door! The entire time I spent canning the peaches (which was only about 1 hour 20 minutes) I told myself...... "I think I can.. I think I can .. I think I can.. I think I can can these peaches!!!!" It might be somewhat strange, silly, or weird that I got encouragement from a book that's targeted for children age 4-8, but hey, whatever works right?


It was such a fun task, although very sticky! I misread a sentence and became extremely anxious not knowing some of the lingo. I asked around the neighborhood, i.e. V&S and E's dad looking for the #1 peach fan, and no one knew what it meant. I even e-mailed MB, asking her what the heck it meant. Well of course nobody knew what "fleshing" meant because there's no such thing as "fleshing!" I plan on doing the rest of the canning tomorrow and as convenience would have it, the Times also had a canned poached pear recipe which I will be using!! If you're upset about this being the last encounter with the brandied peaches and poached pears, not all is lost my friend! E and I will be giving these out as Christmas presents! So you too, can experience all the tastiness Lake County has to offer! I thought this would be a good environmentally friendly, economical gift since we're trying to save some money to go on a trip... perhaps Africa!

A special thanks to MB, for which this blog post would not have not been possible (do I sound like PBS?)

Also, you're not hallucinating if you see a bunch of crazy different fonts on this blog.. I have no idea how to control it or get it to the size I want.. it's infuriating, but if I can can peaches I can figure out how to control the font!


Brandied Peaches
recipe by New York Times & MB
time: around 1 hour 20 minutes

3 pounds ripe peaches

3 cups sugar

About 1/2 cup brandy.

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Using the tip of a paring knife, make a shallow “X” in the bottom of each peach. Add the peaches, one at a time, to the boiling water and cook for 1 minute. Remove the peach from the water and plunge into a bowl of ice water. Repeat with the remaining peaches. Peel off the skins, then pit the fruit and quarter the flesh.

2. In another large pot, combine 3 cups water and the sugar and bring to a boil. Add the peaches and simmer until just soft.

3. Have the jars, bands and new lids scalded and ready. (To scald, dip the jars and rims in boiling water. You don’t need to sterilize the jars, as you will be processing them for more than 10 minutes.) Simmer the lids in hot water to soften the rubberized flange. Gently pack the peaches into the jars.

4. Boil the leftover syrup until it thickens slightly, then spoon it over the fruit, filling the jars ¾ full. Use a butter knife to release any air bubbles caught in the jars. Pour in enough brandy to fill the jars, leaving ¼ inch of headroom. Wipe the rims, cover with the lids and screw on the bands fingertip-tight. Place the jars on a rack in a big pot and cover with 2 to 3 inches of water. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat to medium and gently boil for 20 minutes. Remove the cover and then, after about 5 minutes, remove the jars. Allow them to cool, untouched, for 4 to 6 hours. Check the seals and store in a cool, dark place for up to a year. Refrigerate after opening.

Makes 2 pints.

Picking in the backyard

My main goal since I've been home is to become a master solicitor and get people to come pick some peaches by the vineyard. So far it's been good although not good enough. We've even been giving them out as presents. We gave Grandma L 35 peaches on our way to Oregon thinking she probably wouldn't be able to get rid of the whole bunch. On our way back we stopped for dinner, she didn't have a single peach left! After dinner, we went to T&B's, where T made a tasty peach & berry crumble with some Humboldt Creamery ice cream on the side. It was to die for!

With my blog seriously lacking any recent recipes and my absence from the grocery store haunting me, I decided to make a recipe (with some help from Bon Appetit) with ingredients entirely from the garden... or as much as possible. It's so very Alice Waters!!! Enjoy!


Arugula and Peach Salad with Creamy Chive Vinaigrette
time 10 min
serves 6 (as a side dish)

2 large ripe peaches (backyard)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided (meyer lemon's from my parents backyard)
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (fresh from our olive trees)
1 1/2 tablespoons whipping cream (grocery store) :(
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh chives (from the garden)
12 cups (loosely packed) arugula (about 6 ounces) (grocery store) :(


Wash peaches, rubbing to remove fuzz. Cut in half; remove pits. Thinly slice peaches. Place peach slices in large bowl. Add 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice; toss. Whisk 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice and olive oil in small bowl. Whisk in cream, then chives. Season with salt and pepper.

Add arugula to bowl with peaches. Add dressing and toss. Season with more salt and pepper, if desired, and serve.

Busy in August

I know I haven't been blogging too much recently and I apologize. I knew something was amiss for the past few weeks and didn't realize what it was until I checked my blog site! So sorry!

I haven't made any super delicious meals lately because we've been in Oregon for half the month and yesterday we had to bury our beloved Remy. Also, we've been going from house to house this week, enjoying the luxury of other people's cooking and company due to my birthday tomorrow. As you can imagine, it isn't going to be the best birthday ever. E has taken it better then I but it's still hard for the both of us. The two things I enjoy most both involved Remy; reading and cooking. Regardless, we're both thankful to have had such a wonderful creature come into our lives.

Anyway, due to my total lack of responsibility, I thought I'd share some pictures from Oregon! Enjoy!