Beets

Check out these beets from our garden.  We're growing different kinds of hybrid and heirloom beets including white, golden, bullseye, and your standard red.

Jello Shots!

I shared this blog post from Clockwork Lemon with Chris and he was psyched.  She used a petit-four pan as a jello mold.  We own the same pan! But you know what she was missing?  ALCOHOL.  Woo-hoo, we're classing up the joint.  Chris made some for a backyard BBQ.  Not as appropriate as pasta salad, but perhaps more welcome.

Ta Da!  I took these pics with Chris's fancy SLR, but have not yet mastered depth of field.

The flavors were rum & coke, orange vodka creamsicle, lemon vodka, fresh blueberry puree with rum,  sake with gummi bears, and strawberry with vodka cream.  Delicious.  Chris had made these before for a birthday party so he actually already had all these recipes.

Chilling in the fridge.  To create layers, he had to chill then pour then chill again.

We also made regular ol' jello shots in these little sample cups.  Chris layered these too.  Because they came with lids, they were fast and easy to stack on top of each other.  The molds are pretty but they're not quick.

Jello shot cups with the first layer of flavor.  Note the tupperware full of complete shots in the back.

Sake jello shots!  Chris floats a gummi bear in the middle.  It looks like the Japanese flag (sorta) this way.

Inevitably, there is leftover jello.  Chris poured whatever was left in layers in a regular bowl and chopped them up.
This was very tasty.

Making jello shots requires a lot of fridge space. By the end, our fridge mostly held jello and beer.  What did I tell you?  Classy.

Oh, and here's an attempt at artsy fartsiness.  While Chris was busy working, I was kind of hanging around, sampling, and, as a result, getting increasingly tipsy.  Those things sneak up on you.

Some Yum Eats

Here's some recipes I've tried over the past few weeks which are fab and delish. You'll note that the Indian dishes aren't from actual Indian people... well... what can I say? Traitorous. Or maybe these dishes are best described as "inspired by" rather than straight-up authentic. They taste just like how I remember them when I was in India. Or do they? It's been five years. Let's just go with "delicious" and leave it at that.

Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food Vindaloo
I make this with chicken or pork or whatever's in the freezer without marinating. It takes me 2-3 hours to do this thing because it involves toasting and grinding spices. But this is ohmigoddelicious. So pungent and flavorful. I'd even go so far as to say it's the best vindaloo I've had. Someday soon, I'm just going to go ahead and make and freeze the vindaloo paste so that this can magically become a quick meal.

Here's the recipe: http://offthespork.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

The picture is from Off the Spork too.

Emeril Lagasse's Tandoori Chicken

This calls for a grill. Baking in an oven at the highest possible temp followed by 3 minutes under the broil under high gets a close approximation of the tandoori oven.

Recipe here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/grilled-tandoori-chicken-recipe/index.html

Photo from Mad Man the Mighty. His photo is how tandoori made at home looks like rather than the bright red that you get from food dye at restaurants. You can get those crisp burnt edges from the broiler.

Cold Thai Salad

This is an adaptation of other recipes using whatever vegetables and pasta I had on hand. It's quick sesame-spicy deliciousness with a hint of lime tang. Perfect for hot days.

Dressing

I prefer a lightly dressed salad. I ended up only using maybe 3/4 of the dressing for an 11 by 5 inch bowl of thai salad.... that was like 3/4s of a box of pasta.

1 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp sesame oil

5 tbsp dark soy sauce (any will do, dark is a bit nuttier)

1-2 tsp of chili garlic sauce (or whatever spicy thing you have on hand)

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 lime (2-3 tablespoons of juice)

2 garlic cloves minced

1 green onion, thinly sliced

Make pasta. Stir fry whatever vegetables you like until done; sprinkle with a pinch or two or salt. I had zucchini and tomatoes on hand from the garden. I boiled green beans too because they have such a slower stir-fry time than the other ingredients... can never get the timing right on those. Drain juices from vegetables if there is any. Chill everything for a few minutes or until it's not hot. I do this to avoid cooking the pasta further via the slightly hot juices of the vegetables. Toss together with a cup of chopped thai basil (really, this is much better than italian basil for this) and a cup of cilantro. Serve when cold.

Strawberry Chocolate Tart

Oh my god this tart is decadent. It's delicious amazing tingle-inducing crazy yum. The recipe says it serves 9... but that's only if people aren't greedy. I had two slices and thought I'd never move again.

The recipe is originally from Ms. Martha Stewart but is shocking in its simplicity. This is super super easy. The original calls for raspberries, but whatever fruit tastes good with chocolate (um, all of them) will make a fine topping. A friend and I did this in lieu of bar hopping... and finished in time to feed it to our friends that did go out to the bars. The best part is the next day: the fruit juices sink into the tart and flavor the chocolate extra.

Ingredients:

8 oz box of whatever graham cracker thing you have (MS suggests chocolate wafers... we used chocolate Teddy Grahams and both agreed that you couldn't taste the chocolate in it)

2 tbls sugar

Salt

6 tbls unsalted butter, melted

12 oz chocolate chips (Ghiradelli 80% cocoa is perfect)

1 1/4 c heavy cream

fresh fruit for topping

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, combine cookies, sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Process until very fine crumbs form. Add butter and pulse until mixture just comes together. Press crumbs firmly into a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Place on a baking sheet and bake until crust is dry and set, 20 minutes. Let cool.

2. In a large bowl, combine chocolate and a pinch of salt. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a bare simmer over medium-high. Immediately pour cream over chocolate and let stand 1 minute. Stir gently until chocolate melts and mixture is completely smooth. Pour chocolate into cooled tart shell and refrigerate until set, 30 minutes. To serve, remove tart from pan and scatter fruit on top.

We're having our second annual bbq rib-off at our house this weekend. So looking forward to the good eats! YUM.

Get in my belly

We picked 7 lbs of blueberries from the sketchiest spot ever... next to a gas station off of a busy street. A woman who lives in an underground house next to the gas station sells as much as you can pick for $1/lb....

But first, one notes the Shell gas station sign. (That's our neighbor who led the way.)

And there is doubt and empty baskets...

But then, the promise is made real.

Tons of blueberries. A sight to behold.

7 lbs (2 baskets). Gone in a delicious week.

Swallow my Pride

Chris and I went to play bingo with our neighbors this past weekend. Big Gay Bingo! It's a fundraiser to support the local LGBT community.... this ain't your grandma's bingo. Think bingo mixed with drag queen song and dance shows and tons of sexual innuendo. Our host, Big Shirli, is pictured to the left. During one show, a different queen was dancing wildly in 6" heels, jumping off and on the tables, kept her wig on, AND never missed a beat despite almost falling. Man, how is that possible? That's some serious skill. There's random videos on Big Shirli's myspace linked above.

The bingo was ridiculous levels of fun. This was fancy bingo. Bingo where you had to get squares in a particular ever-changing pattern. Bingo with significant cash prizes... all ending in 69 cents! Ohhhh man. My eyes narrowed. My breath was shallow. I wanted to taste blood. Chris sometimes doesn't like my competitiveness (replay of last night's Scrabble game: "A J on the triple letter bonus! EAT THAT BI-ATCH!!!"). Alas, in bingo, I tasted only bitter defeat. Next time, my glittery friends, your cash prize will be mine. Muhahahaha.

Best t-shirt of the night: "Swallow my Pride"

Food digression

For dinner we had cheesecake at Cheesecakes by Alex before heading to check out the drag queen scene. By our neighbor David's logic, "If we eat cheesecake for dinner, we don't have to feel guilty about eating it for dessert." He is a wise man. He had frozen cheesecake on a stick dipped in chocolate. So wrong and yet so right. Their raspberry white chocolate cheesecake with an Oreo crust was like a long awaited homecoming. It belonged in my stomach. We ended up getting fast food after bingo anyway since nothing makes you hungrier than bingo. Gluttony: the 2nd best vice next to sloth.