I just had to post a few pictures of Reese in her Halloween costume. She dressed up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and she was just too cute. I think she enjoyed her first trick-or-treat experience, although we did have some kids come to the house dressed as scary monsters which resulted in Reese clinging tightly to my leg and saying "all done, all done!" :)

Before we even started trick-or-treating she found our stash of lorna doones and wanted "cookie please"....how can you resist that face?

Trick-or-treating with Unc...

Enjoying the spoils of a successful Halloween...

Jason, Shannon and I headed down into the city for the parade madness this morning. It was crazy how many people were at the train station when we got there at 8:15am...it was just a sea of red! We were lucky enough to squeeze our way right onto a train and managed to get one of the last seats. They crowded as many people on as they could, so a lot of people were standing the whole way down (plus the overcrowding meant that the ticket guy never got to us, so we had a free ride down and back!).

So Taguchi, Jimmy Rollins (with the camera in front of his face), and Joe Blanton

Shane Victorino and J.C. Romero

Jason also saw Cole Hamels and Pat Burrel, but I missed them and didn't get photos. All in all we were glad we went down, even with the craziness. It was fun to see the players and to be so close to the parade. YAY PHILLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I finally cut open that acorn squash from the market to try a recipe from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Dinners. (Mom and Dad, remember going to Moosewood when we visited Ithaca?)

As recommended, I scooped out the seeds, sliced it up and baked the slices at 400 for 15 min in a buttered pan. Once they started browning, I flipped them over, added *more* melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, and baked for an additional 5 min.


This is far from the best picture in the world (even Photoshop couldn't help me here). But you can see that at places on the squash where there was lots of butter, the brown sugar melted and got all yummy....but where there wasn't enough, it just sat there and got crusty. Crusty brown sugar? Not nearly as nice as melty and all yummy.

Moral of the story: Use more butter. Am I my grandmother's grandchild, or what?

It's October 28th, and we got our first snowfall of the season! Ok...so it wasn't a "measurable" amount, but it did get us an early dismissal from school! They had 5+ inches of snow on the mountain. Looking at the picture, it's hard to tell what season we're actually in. About half of the leaves are still on the trees, and yet we had our first Nor'Easter!

Good thing we got the driveway done!! :-)

I always talk about going to the Ballard Sunday Market in my posts...so I took a few pictures this week so you could see what its like :)

The market! They rope off a block in Ballard and everyone sets up their stalls on the streets.

There's always a couple different groups of live music around...usually some guys with a fiddle, and someone playing an accordion ;-)

I'm finally trying my hand at posting a message on the family blog!! Laura's post about her first bread making adventure got me wanting to bake bread again too. I had dad get some yeast at the market this week. It's been years since I've made bread, so I wasn't sure how rusty I would be. But it all came back to me as I went through the process. We made Italian Bread and I think it turned out pretty good!

My new favorite meal is...boiled kale. I know, I know it sounds gross. Boiled vegetables, bleechh. All the vitamins end up in the water, the vegetables are nasty, we've heard this all before. But you have to believe me, boiled kale is undeniably good. I first read about it here and found a nice bunch of kale for $1 at the Sunday market. So why not?

My variations to Orangette's recipe (as reproduced from Zuni Cafe) include substituting broth made from bouillon for the stock (didn't have any stock on hand, and definitely too cheap to buy some), and whatever bread I had on hand for the toast. In this case, some week-old bread from the Wallingford bakery (can't beat $1 per loaf)!


The result was a spicy and somewhat sweet kale broth, to which the fried egg only added extra richness. Something about the simmering process renders the kale sort of buttery and soothing, and brings out some hidden sweetness, in a way I never thought green leafy vegetables could be. Be sure to include the egg and the red pepper flakes to this recipe, I bet it wouldn't be nearly as good without it.

Oh! And don't forget the next-to-last step, rubbing a clove of raw garlic over the toast *right* after it comes out of the toaster. The garlic melts just a little bit against the toast, and releases some delicious aromas. I don't know if it matters much to the final taste of the dish, but it sure feels fancy.

Boiled Kale

1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic
red pepper flakes
olive oil
1 bunch kale, washed and drained
2-3 cups of your favorite stock
salt and pepper to taste

In a large saucepan, heat a dash of oil and saute the onion until translucent. Add 2 cloves thinly sliced garlic and red pepper flakes and saute a few minutes longer to let the flavors come out. Add kale, and turn gently until wilted. Top with enough stock to cover the kale; bring to a simmer, cover, and keep simmering on low heat until the kale is tender, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, fry an egg in a bit of olive oil. Prepare toast from the best bread you have on hand, and rub a clove of garlic across it while it is still hot. Place toast into a shallow bowl; top with kale, a bit of olive oil, and the fried egg. Garnish as you like, perhaps with freshly grated cheese, or just salt and freshly ground pepper. I added a little extra broth to the bottom of the bowl, so the toast could soak it up.

Curl up and enjoy :)

Hooray! I'm so glad most everyone is on and posting now :) In celebration, I'm posting a picture of...my first yeast bread! Ever! It's a simple bread, but it turned out well.

The crust is light and crispy. Mom said that she always taps on the bottom of her loaves, and when the tapping sounds hollow, they're done. So I tried to tap on the bottom so Mom could hear it over the phone....and she just laughed at me because she thought it just sounded hard as a rock! But they're not that bad....after their first rising, I shaped the loaves into little baguettes and baked them on a cookie sheet instead of a bread loaf pan, which contributed to the extra crispy-ness. And I think the cell phone distorted the extra glorious overtones of the tapping. Trust me, they're fantastic.




Simple Sandwich Baguettes
Makes 4 (I split the recipe in half to make 2).
Adapted from Cuban Bread recipe on Baking Bites.

1 package yeast (2.5tsp)
2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp sugar
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
Egg wash, if preferred

In large bowl, mix yeast, sugar and water. Let stand for 10 min, until yeast is foamy. With wooden spoon, mix in flour until combined (dough will be sticky). Let rise for 2.5 hrs (I turned out the dough, cleaned out the bowl and sprayed it lightly with canola oil, then put it back in to rise. I don't know that it makes a huge difference). Cover bowl with saran wrap. Once the dough has doubled, knead in another half cup or so of flour, until the dough no longer feels sticky to the touch. Let rest for 15 min. Divide dough into 4 portions, and shape into baguettes. Place on lightly greased pan and cover with clean tea towel. Let rise 45 additional minutes. While loaves are rising, preheat oven to 400. Brush with egg wash (if desired) and bake 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.

I didn't use an egg wash, but I think I will next time, to give the loaves a better visual appeal. All in all, a basic, no-fail white bread. :)

Dorothy was out shopping yesterday and bought me the cutest book called Hello, Cupcake! She said she thought of me right away when she saw it. It's funny because Laura just told me about this same book the other day. I can't wait to show it to you guys, I love it...I was thinking maybe we could try making these snowmen cupcakes for Christmas this year...what do you think??

Ham Hock and Mixed Grain Stew
It's no secret that the economy sucks right now. In the past few months, I have been making a conscious effort toward more frugal consumption (except for those days when I'm too lazy to pack a lunch... which is actually fairly often, unfortunately). This includes cooking with cheaper cuts of meat and bulk dried grains. Dried grains are an excellent source of protein and have a shelf life of approximately 532 years. Hence, they come in very handy during major blizzards, nuclear holocausts, and other such apocalyptic events -- provided one still has access to potable water. Here is a loose "recipe" (read: anecdotal account) for a simple, hearty stew that promises to warm the soul and ignite a stock-buying frenzy.

Today I delivered my first cake that was requested by a non-family member! Danielle asked for a cake that was similar to the one I made for Reese, but less girly since she was having a combined birthday party for Grace and Grace's cousin Owen. I was given this napkin as my inspiration and color palette....

And here's the finished product...what do you think?

Ever since I moved to Fremont, everyone I met raved about Paseo's cuban sandwiches. How they were drippy, and crazy, and just so good. But of course, everyone invariably mentioned how the place frequently runs out of food midway through their daily rush and just stops serving sandwiches, and occassionally shuts down without notice when the owner doesn't feel like being open. It's a tiny little place with no seating and a line out the door. It's Seattle's Sandwich Nazi. Clearly a big part of the allure.

So I got a #2 today (they still had bread! and a short line! jackpot.)...the Cuban roast on baguette with aioli, jalepenos, carmelized onions, cilantro and lettuce. The sandwich was good, incredibly messy! The pork was marinated, but it was hard to taste the marinade through the aioli and jalepenos. I'm intrigued about their pressed sandwich (what isn't better with melted cheese?). Maybe I'll get lucky again some day.

Tomatillos...spanish for "green tomatoes" but actually a fruit from a plant in the potato family. They're known mostly for their distinctive flavor in salsa verde, and surprisingly, they're not commonly used in much else. I did a bit of research...apparantly, these little guys should be used when their outer skin is brown/yellow, but not completely shriveled up. At room temperature with access to circulating air, they will keep for a few weeks. Once the outer peel is taken off, they are reading to eat...but be sure to wash them first, they're a bit sticky from contacting the peel. I bought a handful for 80 cents at the local open air market, just to see how they would cook up.



I diced 5 medium tomatillos and sauteed them with a medium onion, 3 cloves of garlic, a dollop of chili paste, and some salt and pepper. The tomatillos don't cook down as quickly as regular tomatoes, since they aren't as watery inside, and retained much of their texture. To go with it, I made a pseudo-western omelette, with sauteed crimini mushrooms and onion inside, and a bit of cheese.



Cw was always better at omelette making than I was....in fact, I never ate an omelette unless he made it for me. But I recently read about omelettes in Cookwise, and picked up on a few tips that made me decide to try it again. 1. Make sure your eggs are at least room temperature, or they won't cook quickly enough in the pan, and the bottoms will get too brown before the top has a chance to cook. I put mine in a bowl of warm water while I prepared the saute. 2. Coat your pan with a combination of canola oil and butter, and let the grease spread up the sides of the pan to promote easy flipping. 3. Once the scrambled eggs hit the pan, don't touch them! Just let them set up, then move the omelette to the side, and let the remaining uncooked eggs slide into the empty space to cook up. Then, fill with your sauteed vegetables and cheese, fold over, and serve!

Summer in Seattle is...suddenly over. Just this morning I had to pull out my fall coat and mittens for the morning commute (sigh). With such a chill in the air, it was time to make use of my remaining summer crop!

About a pound of ripe cherry tomatoes will do! I roasted them for ~40 minutes, tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, crushed red pepper, and a couple cloves of smashed garlic.



Then, some al dente penne tossed with kalamata olives and feta, and stirred over medium heat until the feta melted and made the sauce a little creamy. Delicious!

The Ballard Sunday Market is a must-visit in early fall...plenty of second-spring spinach, kale, and chard, and an abundance of Washington apples. I picked up some Gala apples and a bulb of fennel, and on recommendation by a lovely mother at the market (who always have the best suggestions!), decided to carmelize them.


I sauteed the chopped fennel and onions in olive oil over medium heat for ~15 minutes, then sprinkled the pan with granulated sugar and allowed them to brown and carmelize for another 20 minutes or so, then a dash of sea salt, and served with fluffy white rice. For a nice touch, I thinly sliced one of the apples and carmelized it in the same pan with the fennel and onion drippings. Delicious.