Kickstart

A couple of weeks ago, I got to spend a lovely weekend in DC as an add-on to a business trip.  I stayed with my friend C, who I've known since the 7th grade, and her family.  Saturday morning, we send her son, A, off to attend a couple of birthday parties and realize we have about 5 hours to ourselves to play in the city.

Yeah, we could have done something cultural and expanded our minds but instead, we opted to boost the economy (shopping) and expand our bellies.

We had a lunch at 2 Amys, and quantities of cured Italian meats, cheeses, and beer.  We also had  these lovely deviled eggs, with a bright and fresh pesto sauce with anchovy...normally, I won't touch the furry fish with someone else's taste buds.  I try them every so often to see if my taste buds have changed, and the verdict is always NO.  I've come around on a few things--I'll eat Brussels sprouts  (with bacon, of course), and I'm working on lamb.  Still not feeling the love with canned tuna (like tuna raw and seared) or liver & onions, and probably won't ever...this actually might be a good diet plan,  Nothing to eat but canned tuna and liver = not going to eat = starve to death or at least my goal weight.

Anyway, these eggs and the sauce were wonderful, and we scraped the plate to get all the sauce...which may play into a later story. We retrieved A at some point and met some friends of C's for dinner at Palena, and had the most wonderful hamburger I think I have ever put in my mouth.  It was voted one of DC's top burgers and I can understand why.  They grind their own meat and bake their own buns, and it was juicy and meaty and I wanted it to never end.  I may never eat another fast food burger ever again--not that would a bad thing, according to Supersize Me.  It was burger nirvana, and I miss it. I made C promise that we would go back there whenever I come to town again.

Palena also serves a fry plate with shoestring fries, onion rings, dauphine potatoes, and fried lemon slices.  The dauphine potatoes are these wonderful little potato puffs that melt in your mouth...and that fried lemon slice was a real eye-opener.  It was lightly breaded and deep-fried, and it was crunchy, salty, tangy, and bitter all at the same time.  It was sort of like a Southern palate cleanser...'cause you know how much we like to deep-fry things.

I flew home on Sunday, and had an impromptu Oscars party at the house about 2 hours after I landed. Usually, when we do this, we sort of potluck, but since I was just getting in, we opted to order Chinese take-out.  In retrospect, this was a bad idea...especially after I work up at 5 am and embarked on a long day of spending "quality" time in  my bathroom.

The thing about having food poisoning is that you start wishing for death immediately, because your body is busy trying to expel whatever is poisoning it in any manner that it can...often violently...very violently.  About 2 hours into my ordeal, death could not have come soon enough, and I continued to feel that way for most of the day.

I won't bore you with all the details about the food poisoning, but the upside is that I lost 8 lbs.  I realize it was a little dehydration thrown in there, but it was enough to make a little kickstart in my brain and make me think about getting back on the diet track.

Late night television is just bizarre sometimes...we've all seen the "krazee" commercials, infomercials, and the things said and done in the name of religion.  However, it's sometimes good television, as in the case of the late re-run of Good Eats.

Somehow, over the last year or so, Alton has lost about 50 lbs., and he's done a show called "Live and Let Diet," that entails some of his thinking and methodology.  I finally started paying attention when he kept smacking these giant lard blocks, a'la Oprah and her red wagon of fat, and thought to myself that maybe AB might have something important to say, or at the very least, different about how he lost the weight.  And, we all know he's scientific about it, too.  So, I sat up and took notice.

Essentially, he's got 4 lists--things he consumes every day, things he consumes at least 3 times a week, things he consumes only 1 time per week, and things that he NEVER consumes.  You can find all the particulars all over the internet at this point, but if you get a chance to watch the show, you really should.  He starts his day with a fruit smoothie with some purple fruit, which he tells you is chockfull of antioxidants and other important things, bananas, other fruits and a little soy milk.

Other items on the everyday list include nuts and green tea, which wouldn't be too hard to eat/drink.  Then, the 3 times a week list, well hell, let me just show you the lists and I won't have to type nearly as much...am lazy like that:

Include Daily
- Fruits
- Whole Grains
- Leafy Greens
- Nuts
- Carrots
- Green Tea

3 times a week
- Oily Fish
- Yogurt
- Broccoli
- Sweet Potato
- Avocado

Once a week
- Red meat
- Pasta
- Dessert
- Alcohol

NEVER!
- Fast Food
- Soda
- Processed meals/frozen dinners
- Canned soup
- "Diet" anything

And the number one AB rule seems to be:  Eat breakfast every day, no exceptions.

He never really prescribes a diet plan, and is rather quick to say that he's not proposing the hot new diet trend, blah, blah blah, but I totally can see him becoming the next big thing in dieting...that cult of celebrity chef thing, you know.

Anyway, I thought, what the heck?  Why not try some of this out?  Listening to the program and watching him talk about the science behind how he created the lists really started to make sense...no matter that it was 2 am and bloody EVERYTHING makes sense at 2 am.  (How else do you think those geniuses at Taco Bell thought up "Fourth Meal?"  You know it had to come out in some drunken 2 a.m. ramblings.)  Plus, I wanted to buy a new blender.  A red one.

So, I trotted off to Target and got a new blender...I wisely opted not to spring for the $150 Waring bar blender even though I really, really, wanted one, just in case I decided after 3-4 days to chuck this whole morning smoothie idea and only really use it to make fruity drinks on occasion.  (Besides, it wasn't red, and I can always upgrade later.)  And, then stopped by Publix on the way home and got frozen fruit and some soy milk.  I am so not sure about this soy milk business.  I tasted it once, and it was just blecch.   I am committed now, with a new blender and a bunch of frozen fruit, so we'll see how it goes.

Day 1 - made smoothie...blender did not vortex as well as AB's, but it did seem to crush up the frozen fruit with no issues.  The smoothie is a huge amount, and someone out there in the Internetland said they figured it to be about 340 calories and practically fat-free, depending on how much soy milk you used.   I also ate a salad for lunch, and made Pineapple-Glazed Chicken with Cilantro-Lime Sweet Potatoes, plus a little steamed broccoli, for dinner.  No butter on the broccoli...am amazed at self.  I did not manage to get in any whole grains, nuts, carrots, or green tea, but I figure this is going to be a "work up to" project. 

Day 2 - began again with the smoothie and coffee...am not giving up coffee, which is not listed on any of AB's lists, thank the gods.  For lunch, I tried the Sherried Sardine Toast recipe.

Yes, I actually ate sardines voluntarily...which is something I thought I would never do, after my adventure with the fresh ones.  And while the fresh ones didn't work out, the thought of actually consuming ones in a can was nowhere in any of my brain cells.  I remember my dad eating them with crackers and thinking that "man, you got me to eat a raw oyster and like it, but that is the absolute extent of gross things that I will eat for you, period."  And, my dad could create and put away some really icky things.  I remember coming home from college once to do laundry, and opening a cabinet in the kitchen to find a snack...and the man had begun pickling his own eggs...looked like some sort of alien larvae floating around in a large jar.  Scared me witless.

AB's recipe was actually not bad, but I thought it was a lot of work to make, nothwithstanding how much I like avocados, and I think I might be able to actually eat them straight from the can.  Weird, I know.  I did try one from the can, and it wasn't nearly as fishy as I remembered it being.  I think the key is to get the brislings in the 2 layer pack with olive oil.

Anyway, I'm not doing everything that AB is doing--baby steps, people, baby steps--but I have been making the smoothie every day, and I've managed to keep 10 lbs off, so we'll see.

The New Favorite Vegetable

"I think Brussels sprouts might be my new favorite vegetable," says The Man. I am still on the fence about this, because macaroni and cheese is my favorite vegetable...wait, are you saying that mac and cheese is NOT a vegetable? Ha! Tell that to generations of Southern cooks and purveyors of the classic "meat and 3" cafe offerings...mac and cheese are always on the vegetable side of the menu.

(Actually, I'm not sure I have a favorite vegetable...one that I prize above all others. I like just about all veggies, especially vine-ripened tomatoes...which aren't really vegetables, but fruit, so go figure.)

To recover from the trauma of the sardines, I sort of went all out in the comfort food direction for Tuesday night's dinner. Those lovely Berkshire pork chops, a creamy Parmesan risotto (yes, it was from a box, but it was still good!), and the baby Brussels sprouts sauteed with butter and bacon. I even gave Mark Bittman the chance to redeem himself with the pork chops...still not forgiving him for the vinegar pork roast.

The problem with grilled pork chops, as my buddy Mr. Bittman says, is that they get dry, and it's because American pork has been bred to be leaner, yadda, yadda. Hence the whole brining thing. But, he says no matter that they have the propensity to get dry, he likes the taste of grilled pork chops and makes and eats them anyway. He's come up with some tips and tricks to try and keep them moist and flavorful...the foremost trick is to get a pork chop that's at least 1-inch thick, because the thinner ones will cook fast and are more prone to dryness.

Behold the Berkshire pork chops from the farmer's market...the $11.99/pound pork chops from the farmers market, which were worth every single penny we paid for them. They were like small pork roasts, and the flavor was amazing. (I forgot to take before shots, but the after shot is pretty sweet, don't you think?)

Bittman suggested that you bring the pork to room temp as you preheat the grill. Then, generously season your chops with salt and pepper, slather them with a tablespoon or two of olive oil and throw a tablespoon or so of lemon juice on them right before putting them on the grill.

Sear them on the hottest part of the grill for about 2 minutes on both sides, then move to a cooler section and cook for about 10-20 minutes, depending on the size of the chops. After they have finished cooking (use a meat thermometer to test the temperature--needs to be about 140 degrees F for medium--pull them off, drizzle a little olive oil over them, and let them rest for a few minutes before serving.

Back to the sprouts...Brussels sprouts have never been high on my list of things to eat. Many times, while on the road, I was asked by my project team what I wanted for lunch. My standard answer was "I eat anything except canned tuna, liver, and Brussels sprouts, so if we could avoid the All Canned Tuna-Liver-Brussels Sprouts Cafe, I'll be fine."

It's not that I don't want to like Brussels sprouts, because I do...they are such wee tiny cute veggies--sort of the Pop'ables of the vegetable food group. (Unfortunately, it seems that Pop'ables have been discontinued...I really liked the Reese's Peanut Butter ones.) But, I've never been able to get past the bitter, overcooked cabbagey taste of them...probably because most of the ones I've ever had have been old and overcooked.

(I also feel the same way about kumquats. They're cute, so they should be tasty. I've not had one in decades, but I vividly remember NOT liking them at all, and feeling very duped when I tried them. Because, they look like miniature oranges and should taste like miniature oranges, is probably what my child mind was thinking, and it was a cruel, cruel joke that they did not. Damn the universe for being so unfair!!)

Enter the bacon. Just about everything on the planet is better with bacon, and what's not better with bacon just needs cheese or chocolate. We have about a half pound of Nueske's bacon left in the freezer from an extremely thoughtful holiday gift that The Man received from my friend Tessa. It is some damn fine bacon.

I chopped 3-4 slices up and sauteed them to render the fat and get them crispy. I put the bits on paper towels to drain, and set the pan with the bacon fat aside while I worked on the sprouts. While the bacon was cooking, I put a small pot of water on to boil. Then, I pared off the tough bottom core of the sprouts and removed the outer couple of leaves, which sort of came off when I cut off the core. Then, with my paring knife, I made an "X" in the bottom of each one, not going all the way through, to facilitate the blanching. I popped them into the boiling water for 5-6 minutes, then pulled them out and plopped them into an ice water bath to "shock" them and stop the cooking.

After they had cooled, I patted them dry and cut them in half. I heated the bacon fat back up and added a tablespoon of unsalted butter, then sauteed the Brussels sprout halves until they started to caramelize a little bit. And, you know what? They weren't bitter and were darn tasty, if I do say so myself. I'm wondering now if I can use the bigger fresh ones and get the same result by blanching and then sauteeing, or if it really has more to do with the size. I'll keep you posted.

Here's a cool blog post with pictures of Brussels sprouts in progress--very interesting--plus a recipe for Brussels sprouts with lemon-mustard sauce, which I think I might try in the next week or so.

I'm still wary of the kumquats, though...but, maybe, just maybe they will surprise my adult self, and we'll find out they aren't Satan's Citrus after all.

Day 2: Not So Hellish

Ah, the "easy" practical day. Couple of sushi rolls, Asparagus Polonaise (instead of the broccoli version), a couple of eggs over easy, and a couple of oranges to segment. How bad could this possibly be?

Ha! It's never as "easy as it seems," especially at Fine Technical College's School of Culinary Arts. It's absolutely impossible to make good sushi rice under these conditions...especially when you are trying to cook your rice, and Dimmer Switch keeps moving your pot off the eye. Aaargh! Rice turned out too mushy, of course, but I was using it anyway...who has time to waste making more rice, because time moves at triple speed on practical days.

About 10 years (cannot believe it's been that long!) I took a couple of afternoon sushi making classes at a local Japanese restaurant. It was great fun, not that I was any good at it and ever really wanted to make my own sushi on a regular basis. No, the main reason I did it was to have all I-could-possibly-stuffed to the absolute gills (pun intended)-eat sushi for about $35. A bargain, I tell you, a bargain! I did learn how to make sushi rice during that class, and believe me, there's just no way, given the equipment we had, that anybody's rice was going to turn out anything but gummy. And, not the my class instruction went to waste. I have made sushi at home, and my rice turned out just fine, so I know I can do it.

Also in this class, I learned that you should toast the nori (aka "seaweed") sheets before using them to make a roll. The little hamster wheel in my brain begins to turn, and I think at least I can do something a little different than my other gerbil classmates. I grabbed a sheet pan and put my nori on it and headed towards the salamander. The Chiclet gives me a look that says "what in the name of all that is holy are you doing?" I explain about the toasting, which she hadn't heard of but thought sounded grand. So, I trot over to the salamander and stick my nori sheets in. About 2.5 seconds later, they almost burst into flames. Smoke starts to waft out of the salamander along with an odd smell. I grab the sheet pan out and see 2 little seaweed cinders. The Chiclet is about to pass out because she is trying to contain herself and not laugh out loud since this was supposed to be a test.

Luckily, no one noticed but her, and I quickly buried this latest disaster in my garbage pan. Dumb hamster me forgot that the little box that a sushi chef toasts nori in is probably a 1000 degrees less than the salamander. (If you want to know more about the finer points of sushi eating/making/etc, check out this guy's site. A quick comprehensive guide with pictures! WE loves the pictures!)

Anway, I got so wrapped up in dealing with seasoning and cooling the damn rice that I forgot my egg (for the Polonaise topping), which was boiling merrily away. Amazingly enough, it was perfectly fine--cooked through with no "ring of green death" that signals overcooking. But, it didn't really matter, because I overbrowned the bread crumbs for the polonaise. Eep! And, I was down to 3 eggs, which I felt I was going to need all of them and more for my attempts at fried eggs over easy. Decisions, decisions...in the end, I grabbed some of the Chiclets leftover polonaise topping and mixed with my overbrowned one to try and achieve some sort of balance. Which didn't really matter in the end, because I had overcooked the asparagus when I blanched it. (And, I can blanch asparagus...been doing it for years, both stove top method and the new favorite microwave method...I ask you, why the heck can't I do this in class? I am so not the next Food Network Star!)

My orange supremes (segments) looked pretty good...of course, the one that still had a shred of pith on it was the one that Chef picked out of the bowl to look at. Cannot win for losing, cannot win for losing...cannot...you get the picture.

Amazingly enough, I did manage to produce 2 fried eggs over easy, although it took all 3 of the remaining eggs to do it. I've always had the hardest time flipping eggs, and it's probably because I over think it. Plus, I really like scrambled better anyway. Honest.

Now, I'm slaving away trying to finish the brunch for 250 project that we were assigned several weeks ago and that I've been studiously ignoring until this weekend...and it's due on Wednesday. To give myself some credit, I've been fairly good about staying on track and schedule for projects. I had sort of decided that I would be a better student this time around, and I'd like to think I've been pretty successful up to this point. For some reason, I just could not get into this project, so now I'm scrambling around like a mad woman to finish it. Bad me! Bad me!

Tomorrow is Cheese Test day, and unfortunately it's not an "identify it by taste" kind of test...or maybe that should be "fortunately." I need to catch a break somewhere!

The Citrus Reigns Supreme

Sigh...I'm reaching, I know.

Today's class was worth the price of admission or at least tuition for this quarter, because we learned how to make citrus segments, or supremes in "chef speak." Supremes are the segements of oranges and grapefruits that are free of that nasty white pith and lie jewel-like on the plate.

I have struggled and struggled, cursing and moaning the whole time, trying to figure out how to do this, and why the hell I never Googled it before I started this blog entry, I have no idea. Because, if I had, I would have found this lovely little step-by-step set of instructions from the fine folks at Sunkist. (Smacks hand into forehead, then pokes finger in eye.)

Basically, you cut the top and bottom off your orange or grapefruit, and then take your paring knife and cut away all the outer peel/rind of the fruit. You could zest the orange first and save the zest in the freezer for later. After you have removed the pith and peel, working over a bowl, hold the fruit in the palm of your left hand (adjust if you are a Lefty), and carefully cut the segments out. Do sort of a "V" around the segment and just push it into a bowl. Let's borrow a nice illustration from the Sunkist site for demonstration purposes.



If I had found that website sooner, we could have all been saved a lot of grief, my feet, some tuition money, and I would not have embarked on this whole culinary school roller coaster of insanity.

Here's a better picture that I swiped from somewhere else:



It gives more detail and a better idea (than the line drawing) of where you are supposed to cut.

After you have removed all the segments from the fruit, squeeze the remaining fruit over the bowl; the juices help preserve the segments. That's it. Period. No big mystery there, now is there?

Chef demoed quite a few fruit cuts and assembled a simple fruit display. The coolest thing were the papaya crowns. He did those as garnish, and they looked really neat. If you check out this site, there are more elaborate crowns, and a nifty tutorial on making them and little vegetable cups.
(Where the hell have I been, and why have I not been Googling this stuff all along??)

While we're on the subject, let's talk about papayas. Hate them. Plain and simple. They taste kind of like soap to me...sometimes like kerosene, or what I imaging kerosene to taste like if I were to drink kerosene. (But, I'm not quite there yet!) I know, I know, it's weird. The first time I was presented with fresh papaya, I was excited, because it was a new and different tropical fruit. I eagerly put some on my plate and got ready to be transported to a tropical paradise complete with hot young Antonio Banderas-looking cabana boys and drinks with umbrellas. I'm sure if anyone had actually been looking at me when I ate the first bite, all thoughts of cabana boys and paradise would have flown straight out the window. Ick! I thought, this is bad, very bad. Maybe it wasn't quite ripe, I think to myself, so I get another piece to try. Urk...even worse than the first one. I've tried it again and again, even once more today, and I still think it tastes waaaaaay bad. Way bad. Maybe, I'm just not wired right to appreciate that little bit of tropical paradise...but I can still appreciate the cabana boys.

Another fruit we discussed today was the star fruit or carambola...sometimes called "Chinese tamarind," according to the Chiclet, or at least in her home country. Personally, I've never been that impressed with the flavor of the star fruit, but it does look pretty and is sort of a built-in garnish. I always thought they came from far away, which was why they're so expensive, and that might account for the lack of flavor, i.e., picked before ripened, etc., but no, they're now grown commercially in Florida. So, why the heck are they so expensive, then? It's not like Florida is half a hemisphere away or anything, like Sri Lanka is, where they are also grown. I guess exotic = expensive...which is probably why I would never make it on the exotic dance circuit...unless maybe I covered myself in star fruit slices, orange segments, and worn a papaya crown?

It seemed to work for this woman.



"Oh, cabana boy!"