Five Foodie Books for Festive Gifts

Here are some gift ideas for the foodie in your life, or for yourself! These food books live on our bookshelves with the exception of the children’s book and Ruhlman’s Twenty. That’s on my wish list – maybe Santa will leave it under the tree for me. Click on the images for more information. What’s on your “to-read” list?

Tags: books, eating, gifts

Fruity Mooncakes

My in-laws received some delicious mid-autumn festival mooncakes from friends and shared them with us. If you aren’t familiar, these are delicious little Chinese pastries (you could even say, filled cookies) filled with red bean, lotus paste or maybe a hard-boiled duck egg. Ours are fruit-filled which bodes well for the kids.

The imprint on the cake is my favorite thing… I wonder if I can find some “stamps” from a Chinese bakery? Wouldn’t those be fun in a craft room display? And the box that the cakes came in, it’s so cute with a magnetic closure. We’re keeping that for something – maybe my craft supplies. Just when you thought there wasn’t anymore, you get plastic knife and tiny little forks that say, “OK”. You know, because waiting to eat the cakes until you get home from the bakery just won’t cut it.

Tags: autumn, chinese food, eating, mooncakes

Communion Reception: Menu and Black Bean Salsa Recipe

What time do most people eat dinner? Do most people call it “dinner” or “supper”? I suppose there’s a difference, and maybe a subtle one. I never bothered to look up a definition until now. So, what would you do for a reception if a religious service was at 1:30 pm and lasted for 1-1/2 hours? It’s not really a late lunch, but it’s not totally time for dinner either. Essentially, it was supper and it was good.

Here’s what we figured for 25 adults and 11 children (some of whom are light eaters – count 2 kids as 1 adult)

• To munch on: Banana-chocolate chip bread, Cran-apple-orange bread, Orange-rosemary mini cornbread muffins (breads baked at home), salami and cheese, smoked salmon and crackers, roasted garlic hummus and olive crostinis (store bought).
• 48 piece tray – Italian subs and Club subs  (approx. 4″, bought at local Italian deli) One tray had 24 pieces, and that wouldn’t have been enough.
• Tortilla chips and roasted corn-black bean salsa (brought over by family)
• Shrimp salad (store bought)
• Cake – split yellow and chocolate cake with custard and strawberries
• Coffee, tea, assorted soda, and juice boxes for the kids

Notes:

1. Quick breads can easily be done a few days before and frozen if you want.
2. The cornbread muffin recipe is from Martha Stewart which was recently reprinted in the Living magazine with the addition of orange peel. True to the recipe, it keeps for 2 days in an airtight container. TWO days. I made it one day too soon. They dried out.
3. It’s nice to have a good bakery so close to home!

Here’s a favorite recipe for black bean salsa that I’ve made over the years adapted from The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook by Paula Deen. I visited her restaurant before she was a Food Network celebrity and bought my cookbook there. This salsa is similar to the one we had last Saturday; the difference being roasted corn. It does add a lovely smokiness. Just by frozen roasted corn for ease! Enjoy!

Julie’s Black Bean Salsa

• 2 (15 oz.) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (17 oz.) pkg. frozen whole kernel corn, thawed
• 2 lg. tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup. chopped fresh cilantro
• 4 tbsp. lime juice
• 1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 1 lg. avocado, peeled and chopped (optional)
• 1/8 tsp. cumin (optional)
• 1/8 tsp. garlic powder (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

In large bowl, mix all ingredients well. Cover and chill overnight. Before serving, add salt and pepper to taste if necessary. Great with tortilla chips or just as a side to your meal.

Tags: Communion, cooking, eating, Friends and Family, menu planning

Durian candy from the Philippines

Durian. Ever have it? Heard that it’s an acquired taste. It scares me. I’ve seen it at the Asian grocery stores, and I’ve only seen it being eaten on Food Network. While durian might be a great fruit, the unfortunate part might be its smell, which then I would think affects its taste. Let’s say it smells like feet… at the end of the day… after wearing socks made from synthetic material that doesn’t let your skin breathe. Yeah, right? What would possess someone to try this fruit? But, there are people who eat it. If you can get past the interesting aroma, you are rewarded with a smooth and creamy fruit – I wonder if it’s like avocado in that sense? In Asian cuisine, it’s used in milkshakes, ice cream, cakes and candy. So… hiding the fruit in food masks the smell? Maybe.

I’m not opposed to trying things once, so when my husband’s parents came home with some durian CANDY, I thought, okay, it’s been sugared up and I’m not eating it straight off the tree. It’s a little less scary. Great. I took a small bite out of the already small bite-size piece and let the flavor melt in my mouth a little. Disappointment. Sweetened condensed milk and sugar with durian could not convince me. I could still taste feet-iness. I wanted to like it, really. I even wanted to fake liking it so my husband would try it. Could you imagine, “Hey, honey, this is sooooo delicious. Try it!”

Found some takers for our two bags – My mom, dad and aunt were happy to have a taste of home.

Tags: candy, eating, ethnic, grocery, handcrafted, Philippines, travel, trying new food

Crispy Milk in Chinatown

Don’t know about you, but it seems the more we visit a restaurant, any restaurant, the more often we end up ordering the same dishes. This happens a lot when we go for dim sum in Chinatown. Our perennial favorite: Taro Puff, or deep fried taro dumpling (wu kok or o kok). It’s this amazing, little, frazzled-looking potato-esque croquette is on my daughter’s top ten. Maybe top five, she’s sometimes picky and still a kid after all. She likes to take her chopsticks and gives the puff “a hair cut” (her words). “Mom, I like shaving off the crispy.” Then she proceeds to inhale the dumpling and looks for more, sometimes taking her brother’s share.

Fukien fried rice is also very delicious especially on a chilly day. Gravy and rice is such comfort food; there’s a hint of seafood, and a smoky flavor, too. My husband and I just can’t seem to figure out where the char is coming from. We’ll order the popular dishes: siu mai (pork and mushroom dumplings), har gao (shrimp dumplings), steamed buns with barbeque pork and sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf. I’m so happy my kids eat so well when we go.

It’s not a bad thing ordering what you know, but I think we end up missing out on very good or new dishes. On one of our recent trips, we decided to try a dessert that has been tempting us for a while. Written on an 8-1/2″ x 11″ poster hanging on the wall are Chinese characters and the words “Crispy Milk”. How does milk get crispy? Can you really deep fry any thing? Apparently, you can.

I couldn’t imagine what it might have tasted like, but it was warm, lightly sweet, and delicious. It reminded me of a dessert my late Aunt Tess used to make deep frying dough balls made with rice flour and brown sugar, but crispy milk was far more delicate and tender. Just enough texture with a bit of chewiness, and I mean that in a good way. I’d order it again.

Tags: chinatown, dim sum, eating, eating out

Oatmeal cookie vs. oatmeal cookie

Smitten Kitchen versus Martha Stewart. Can’t go wrong really. Just depends on what you’re looking for. I like a hearty, chewy oatmeal cookie where the oatmeal is the star. My husband likes a thin oatmeal cookie – not sure if he likes crispy or chewy. In either recipe I needed to omit any nuts for the little guy and myself. We didn’t really miss it.

What I enjoyed about the Smitten Kitchen recipe: good chew, good body and texture. I chilled the batter, as recommended, for about one hour before baking (much easier to handle). I did need to substitute dried cranberries for raisins since I didn’t have any raisins on hand in the pantry.

As for the Martha Stewart oatmeal toffee cookie, the toffee makes the cookie. The “nut (toffee) free” version has no depth of flavor to me. We did not need to chill the batter prior to baking, but I’m wondering how that might change the recipe, if at all. We didn’t roll the dough into logs and cut as written because we were lazy. We just used our little cookie/ice cream scoop. This may be why our cookie looks nothing like the picture on Martha’s website. Pretty sure all our ingredients were fresh and measured correctly, too, but I found the cookie to be a little too dry and crumbly for my taste.

Regardless, the kids enjoyed taste testing… Ollie said, “MOM! Can I take a picture, too?” Sure, buddy.

Tags: baking, cookie, eating, martha stewart, recipe