Return From Puerto Rico

We've returned from our trip to Puerto Rico. A lovely island.

A beach near Guayama, P.R., our homebase for this trip.

Same beach. It certainly was breezy. The water was so warm.

A little bar/restaurant not far from the beach, we had a little snack here. Right on the water.

My first Puerto Rican Pina Colada. We don't know why it's green.

Day two. We returned to the beach from yesterday for lounging and swimming.

My Corona commercial. I threatened to throw cell phones in the ocean.

I've been drinking...not too much though. See that wall back there? That's where we had to open our beer bottles...we forgot an opener! It was a pain opening the beer and you easily cut yourself...right on your knuckle...open cuts hurt in the salt water.

We drove out into the dark wilderness for dinner. A nice little place. We had some great sangria. Buy some I mean multiple pitchers.

Day three. Ponce, P.R. Museum of Art. It was nice. They had a Rodin exhibit we couldn't take pictures of.

Flaming June! We love this painting and have a print of her in our house. She is so beautiful. I was totally misty when I saw her.

Castillo Serralles. The home of the Serralles family, sugar barons of days of yore. They created the Puerto Rican rum, Don Q.

More Castillo.

Schnoozberries. I don't know the spelling and can't remember the real name. They look like tiny little limes. You gently bite them open to reveal the light pink, slimy, pulpy inside. You suck that pulp out and eat the pulp and juice, spitting out the hard stone in the middle. They were tasty. Sweet, lightly tart. But really slimy and pulpy. The texture could turn someone running!

Update:
They are called Quenepas. Wiki entry here.

Day four. We headed to El Yunque. The Caribbean National Forest.

J-lo and I in the rainforest.

Rainforest.

Mountains and Rainforest. I loved the rainforest. I bit humid, but not very hot. We had a good weather that morning.

After the rainforest, we paid a guy to bring us out to the little island of Icacos. Nothing on the island but sand, rocks and some trees. The mountain in the distance...that's El Yunque. We were up where the clouds are. On the little hill right in front of us, there is a white building on the left side of the little hill. That is the El Conquistador Resort, a fancy pants resort featured in the James Bond film, Goldfinger. Funny thing. That boat...it broke...our boat had to tow them back to Puerto Rico.

Day five. The Bacardi factory. Two free drinks!

Tasty Drink:
1 shot of Melon Rum
Top off with cranberry and 7-up.
Watermelon Jolly Rancher!

Guess who bought a big fat bottle of Melon Rum!?

Wall o' Bacardi.

Buildings in Old San Juan.

A water well in Fort San Cristobal.

Atlantic Ocean.

The Old Spanish war flag, Puerto Rican flag and the U.S. flag. Fort San Cristobal.

I'll head back some day. I could spend a few days in San Juan alone. A good trip.

Rainforest

El YunqueThe Rainforest!!!

Caribbean National Forest
El Yunque is the only tropical rainforest in the the U.S. Forest Service.

For today I cried

She's so beautiful in person.

Flaming June
Frederic Lord Leighton

Museo de Arte de Ponce

Museum of Art, Ponce, Puerto Rico

While travelling 55 mph

On the highway from San Juan to Guayama at 55 miles per hour.


Notice the smile?

Love it.

Another homemade Pizza Pie! Tasty and delish! Bought the dough at Giant. Made my own sauce. Pepperoni, Green peppers and Mozarella. 20 minutes later. So much better than any delivery...ever.


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See you in a week. We're off to Puerto Rico for a week. If I have anything exciting to post I will. Wish for no hurricanes please.

Cake in Provence

Long story short. I knew I had a recipe involving lavender and a tart pan. When I went to look for it in the book I knew it was in...it wasn't there. Some little book fairy came into my library and stole a recipe right out of a book! Seriously, I have no idea where it went! I'm not telling you the plan for the lavender and tart pan, cuz someday soon I hope to surprise you with it!

So, I now have lavender and don't know what to do...well...I insist that my secret recipe is out there somewhere, so I search and I search...no luck. But I did find several other recipes that were appealing.

Here's one of them!

Quatre-Quarts au Lavande
kah truh / kahr / oh / lah vahnd
Lavender Pound Cake

Recipe found on About.com

½ cup sugar
1 ½ TB dried lavender blossoms
4 eggs
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
¾ cup sour cream
2 ½ cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup granulated sugar
1 TB vanilla
1 tsp finely shredded lemon peel
1 cup sifted confectioner's sugar
1 TB unsalted butter, melted
3-4 TB freshly squeezed lemon juice

Put ½ cup of sugar and the dried lavender into a food processor and blend.

Take the eggs, butter and sour cream out of the refrigerator and allow them to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325F and grease and flour 2 loaf pans (8x4x2-inch size) and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the lavender sugar, granulated sugar, 1 cup of butter, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy; about 3-4 minutes.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating on medium speed.

Alternately add the flour and the sour cream, beating on low speed after each addition until just combined.

Stir in the lemon peel and divide the mixture between the two pans.

Bake for about 45 minutes. Remove and cool on a rack for 10 minutes then remove from the pans.

To serve:
Mix the confectioner's sugar with the melted butter and lemon juice until it is of drizzling consistency. Spoon over the cakes and serve.

The Lavender Sugar~~so aromatic. What an amazing scent!

The final cake! I lined my pans with parchment paper, which made for the easiest removal possible.

Big fat slices for dessert.

Garnished with honey sweetened whip cream. We had raspberries as well, but...well...they were in the fridge for too long and turned a little...well...fuzzy!

The flavor was perfectly subtle. Just lingering on your tongue with the combination of citrus and floral. The cake was perhaps the lightest pound cake I've had. Tender and moist. Not dry, crumbly or oily! The honey sweetened whip cream was great addition at the last minute. The honey matched the floral notes of the lavender perfectly. This will be a great spring/summer dessert.

Aromatherapy

Lavender!


Not just for candles and soaps.

Stay tuned.

Creamy, Chicken-y and Nutty

Mughlai Chicken

next time...also garnish with some cilantro or parsley to make the plate a little nicer looking.

Recipe by Nigella Lawson, see Scott's edits below

1 (1-inch) piece ginger, peeled
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp dried chili flakes
4 TB ground almonds
½ cup water
5 cardamom pods, bruised
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
2 bay leaves
4 cloves
¼ cup vegetable oil
3 pounds boned chicken thighs, each cut into 2
2 onions, finely chopped
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 cup chicken stock
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup sultanas (golden raisins)
1 tsp garam masala
1 TB sugar
1 tsp salt
¾ cup flaked almonds, toasted, to garnish

Put the ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, and chili into a food processor, or into a mortar and pestle, and blend to a paste. Add the ground almonds and water and then blend again, set aside.

Heat the oil in a large pan and add the chicken pieces - in batches so they fry rather than stew - and cook them just long enough to seal on both sides, then remove to a dish.

Add the spices and turn them in the oil. Add the onions and cook them until softened and lightly browned, but keep the heat gentle and stir frequently, to avoid sticking. Pour in the blended paste, and cook everything until it begins to colour. Add the yogurt, half a cup at a time stirring it in to make a sauce, then stir in the stock, cream, and sultanas.

Put the browned chicken back into the pan, along with any juices that have collected under them, and sprinkle over the garam masala, sugar, and salt. Cover and cook on a gentle heat for 20 minutes, testing to make sure the meat is cooked through.

It's at this stage, that I like to take the pan off the heat and leave it to cool before reheating the next day.

So either now, or when you've reheated it, pour into a serving dish and scatter with the toasted flaked almonds.

NOTES:
I used boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders. They are fine for this. You don't get as much flavor as you do from the thighs. That's ok, there's plenty of flavor from all the spices and herbs. And I just used a pound and a half, not three pounds.

I bought a packed of slivered almonds and ground them to a powder in the food processor. Great fun. Pulse the machine, so they don't run too long. I'm guessing that like peanuts they could turn to a paste/butter???

I forgot the cardamom. Bummer.

I used 2 TB of oil, not 1/4 cup!

My store does not stock Greek yogurt. I bought plain yogurt and dumped it into a cheese cloth lined strainer and let it sit for an hour. Probably 1/4 cup of liquid ran out, leaving a nice dense yogurt.

I only used about 1 teaspoon of sugar.

For the process, I followed the directions and all seemed to be well. I didn't make the dish a day in advance, but I did have it as leftovers. Served over rice, it doesn't hold up well over night. But I'm sure if it is kept separate, it will be much better.

After you add the cream and stock, the dish is really soupy and running. By simmering for 20 minutes, it thickens up to a great consistency! Stir often though, to avoid burning and scorching.

Overall, this is an easy recipe. There are multiple steps, but taking your time and doing each step, one at a time, will give you a great final dish worthy of an International dinner party.


MORE PICTURES LATER

Ragu

Tonight was pasta! Yesterday I decided to make a ragu sauce that I've made before. (click here for recipe.) The sauce takes some time...the more time the better, but even with just an hour of simmering, the sauce is very tasty and uber-satisfying.

Start with some bacon that you want to crisp up. Reserve. Pour out some of the fat. Saute the onions.

The onions with the fennel and crushed red pepper. When you have spices, if you can, add them early, in the oil, so they have a chance to release their flavors. The essential flavor compounds in most, if not all spices are soluble in oil. Giving the spices an opportunity to develop their flavor in the oil will yield you a more flavorful final dish.

I used a meat loaf mix (beef, veal, pork). The meat mixed with the onion and spice mix.

After the wine has reduced and the tomato paste added.

With the tomato puree. Simmering over the lowest heat you can.

Served with orcchiette. Garnish with grated parm.

Tastes like more!

Salted Beef

First thing you need to do is click over to Jaden's Steamy Kitchen and read the post on turning cheap steak into Gucci!

I'll wait.

You done? OK....well, the technique works and it works really really well! I gave it a whirl tonight and am very pleased with the results.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Start by salting the beef, liberally! I tried enhancing the flavor with fresh thyme and some smashed garlic as well. Let sit for an hour.

While the steak hung out, I prepared the veg that I was going to grill as well. Potatoes, which we did the other night. Vidalia onions and grape tomatoes. The onion was sliced thickly after I skewered it through the center.

After the steak rested for an hour with the salt, I rinsed it and patted it dry. Onto a medium heat grill pan. The steak was about an inch thick. I grilled for 10 minutes per side, I should have only done 8 minutes per side. The steak was a tad over done, but with the juicy tomatoes and onions, it was perfect.
The veg are pretty much done. The steak is resting on the cutting board. The onions took about 8 minutes total. Tomatoes took about the same amount of time. Flip half way through. The potatoes took about 15 minutes.
Done. The plate needs some green garnish to make the whole thing pop, but alas, I did not have any parsley...! Oh dang, I had some thyme I could have dropped on there! Boo.

Please try this! You will be left with a tender, juicy and very flavorful piece of beef. The flavors of the thyme and garlic were very subtle. Next time I might crush the garlic and herbs in the salt, allowing the oils to mix with the salt that will ultimately melt into the beef. This was fun! I'll definitely do this again. And the grilled Vidalia! Sweet.

Dressin' up Labor Day

Me & J-lo dressed up!

Hey all! Hope you enjoyed your Labor Day. J-lo and I played dress up and headed out to the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville, Maryland. You know what the Renn Faire means? Really good bad food. First you start with a few hard ciders. Then you start with fried ribboned potatoes, fried pickles, hot nuts, turkey legs, minced meat sandwiches and fried Twinkies and Snickers bars. And many many more hard ciders. It was a good day. The weather was perfect early in the day. As the day stumbled along, the temperatures rose with the spirits. Good times! I'd advocate going if you haven't before.

By the time we left, we were exhausted, stuffed and loaded full of goods. After the food and people watching, the best part of the Renn Faire is the shopping. We left with four large jars of honey (Tupelo, Orange Blossom, Mint and Blackberry) and several herbal teas. Usually we have many more goods, but we're on a budget this year!

Hamburger Helper...without the Helper

The other night we had ground beef to use for dinner. We had a box of the Hamburger Helper in the pantry, but I wasn't interested in the 'flavor' we had. The thing about the Helper...when you're not in the mood to do much, it does get something on the table for dinner. Well, this sort of Chili & Rice Helper One Pot Meal worked well, filled us up and used up some foodstuffs we've been sitting on.

1 pound ground beef

*Brown the beef until cooked. Drain fat. (I didn't...it was a little oily)

1 packet of fajita seasoning (this has been in our cupboard for AGES!!! So happy it's gone.)
Spices...chimayo chili, ancho chili, cayenne, salt, pepper, oregano.
1 TB tomato paste

*Blend the seasonings and tomato paste into the beef.

1 cup beer
1 can diced tomatoes
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup of rice.

*Add the beer, tomatoes, corn and rice. Stir, cover and simmer until the rice is cooked.

Serve with corn chips, shredded cheese and sour cream.

Braised and Grilled

Tonight we had braised pork chops and grilled potatoes. Delish.

I started with the thick cut chops. Seared those in the pan on each side. When each side had a nice crust on them, I removed the chops to a plate and added one large onion which had been diced. Giving them a minute to start to release their juices, I then added a few garlic cloves that were minced a a handful of chopped rosemary. I let this cook for a minute when I added 1/2 a cup of beer. This reduced for a minute and I added 1 cup of beef broth. With this simmering over low heat I added the chops back, covered and let sit for 40 minutes, flipping the chops 1/2 way through.

During the last 15 minutes, I took a large russet potato and sliced it into 1/4 inch slices. Each side was drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. I placed these on the hot grill pan and let them go for about 4 minutes, then rotated them a 1/4 turn, so they could get nice grill markings, they went another 4 minutes. Flip and repeat.

By this time the chops were done. I removed them from the braising liquid placed on a plate. I strained out all the solids from the braising liquid and then returned the liquid to the pan and brought to a boil. The sauce reduced for about 5 minutes. I added 1 TB of butter and stirred until melted and incorporated.

Plate up the chops and the taters. Spoon sauce over the chops and potatoes. Garnish with rosemary and serve!



Easy and tasty! The pork was dry and I knew that was happening as I couldn't get the temperature low enough on the stove; what should have been a bare simmer was much more than that. To remedy this, in the future, I will bring the chops and braising liquid to a simmer, cover and place in a 375 oven for an hour. This will slow cook the chops, allowing the braising liquid to penetrate into the meat, making it tender and juicy.