Happy Halloween!
Scenes from Halloween 2011
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Keep Clam!
When family come out to visit, for some reason they all want to go to Ivar’s. Could it be the ideal and scenic location on the north end of Lake Union? No. It’s the clam chowder in the sourdough bread bowl. Two separate visits from my sis’ family and my parents, two separate trips to Ivar’s Seafood Bar, two orders of this Ivar’s specialty.
(Dinner for Emily, age 10). Keep your hands off my soup, Dad!
1150 calories, and 3100 mg of sodium goodness, right there! Oh yah! You betcha!
Sigh. Guess I’ll just have the Shrimp Caesar:
Only, it’s missing something … what could it be … Oh, that’s right. Deep-fried anything! Chomp chomp. Yay lettuce.
We interrupt this workday for a very important treat …
Word got out that I am a cupcake fan. Really? How does everyone know? Mattlin offered these tasty homemade treat, a coconut cupcake. I sensed a gluten-free batter but he said no. It was a little dense, which was a result of the coconut milk, we suspected. Quite good.
We now return to our previously scheduled spreadsheet.
The view from the 28th floor
I enjoy checking out the crazy desserts offered in my work cafeteria. They have some ambitious items out on a regular basis (chocolate lava cake was the most recent find). I must say I’ve never actually seen anyone purchase one. But the cooler with the fancy desserts has an ideal background/plating contrast, and the pics taken from my smartphone are impressive. Here are a couple:
“Pipeables”: I”m guessing yogurt, chocolate and vanilla pudding layered, with whipped cream and sprinkles on top. Classy.
Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Hello 1970s! Note the decorative garnish in the center. Does that come with my cake purchase?
I always end up buying the same thing (salad, apple). But at least the dessert cooler offers a little variety for me every visit.
Hot dog? Hot dog!
“Lily, what do you want for dinner?”
“Hot dog?”
“Really? Do you know what a hot dog is?”
“Pizza?”
“But last time you didn’t eat the pizza.”
“Hot dog. Hot dog! HOT DOG HOT DOG HOT DOG HOT DOG.”
Come to think of it, hot dogs sound pretty good. Only we don’t eat hot dogs in this house. How does she even know what a hot dog is? How about some sausage instead? With some grilled peppers and maybe some sweet potatoe fries on the side? Yeah. That’ll do.
For anyone curious as to how Lily learned about hot dogs, I suspect this book may have had something to do with it (the dramatic ending includes a huge hot-dog shaped blimp).
May Day
Anniversary dinner with the husband was a few weekends ago. Grandma and Papa watched the toddler and we hightailed it to the Hi-Life in Ballard. We miss the casual setting and good food at Atlas Foods since they close their doors at University Village. So when I suggested this other ChowFoods restaurant the husband immediately agreed. As has become custom these past few weeks, we set aside our SBD ways and enjoyed ourselves. I started off the evening with a fun cocktail, a Violet Pearl. If something can taste violet-y, this did.
Small plates included onion rings and BBQ pork sliders. The husband had a salad and I enjoyed the Salmon Burger with sweet potato Jo-Jos.
As it was a Sunday night, most of the other customers were partaking in the Family-Style Fried Chicken Supper, complete with mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, and green beans. We’ll have to come back on another Sunday and try that out.
I could get used to more nights out without the toddler, that’s fo’ sho’.
My favorite mistake
It was a mistake to make these. Not because they aren’t tasty. Not because the recipe, once the ingredients prepped, was incredibly simple. Because the husband and I enjoyed them so much we finished at least half the batch between ourselves in one night. Not exactly the right decision. Unlike the zucchini muffins, I’ve been requested to take the remaining cookies to work in an effort to get them out of the house. No offense taken on my part. It’s really for the best.
I adapted the recipe from a cookbook I picked up at the SPL Friends of the Library book sale. It is from “American Desserts: The Greatest Sweets on Earth,” which essentially has every “all-American” dessert recipe you can think of. I just love flipping through that thing. Hopefully I learned my lesson about breaking down and baking one of these recipes … it will no doubt become another memorable mistake.
The changes I made were typical, used a whole wheat pastry/AP flour combo and reduced the sugar some. Tips/instructions/secrets that I loved from this recipe: 1) plumping the raisins up through a quick simmer and soak in water; 2) toasting the walnuts; 3) adding maple syrup. The toddler, actually prefers plain raisins than these, I think. Which is fine. More for me!
When life gives you lemons … make lemon chicken
I was going to title this one “Lemony Chick’net”.
Well, the hunt for a good lemon recipe went beyond desserts, I also began looking for something I could lemon-ize for dinner as well. There are a ton of lemon chicken recipes out there, and most call for a pan-fry, which I was trying to avoid. While I had a recipe onhand that I printed from food.com, I chose instead to follow the husband’s basic chicken instructions instead. The instructions are, more or less, the following.
- Season chicken.
- Sear chicken over medium high heat using canola oil.
- Place chicken in baking dish. Add olive oil. Add whatever other accoutrements you would – or as they would say in the web world – “Personalize this dish!” (in this case, fresh lemon juice and rosemary with a little oregano)
- Cover with foil and bake at 350 deg for 20 minutes
Voila.
It turned out very well, I’m pleased to say. It is hard to go wrong with chicken, but I had one bad incident with not cooking it for long enough and that turned me off from trying new poultry recipes. And now, years later, I still find myself a little skittish for some silly reason, to cook chicken, and grill my husband (pun intended) for instructions each time. I think I’ve got it down, now. Plus this time I took notes which are conveniently stored on my phone.
Steamed broccoli and mushrooms sauteed in the seared chicken remnants, along with some brown rice finish the dish. The b.r. was a little mushy. Rice is another dinner staple that surprises me when done well, because there have been many times when I haven’t done it well (this, I believe, is because I grew up as all Chinese families do, using a rice cooker. I don’t know how to cook rice on the stove. It’s an enigma to me).
Muffin Success
I am waiting for the royal wedding to begin. I don’t know if I’ll make it. I have 2+ hours to go. In the meantime, a quick update on my mission to make a great muffin. Whole Grain Zucchini Muffin v.2 was a success. The main differences from version (1) going with an AP/WW combo and leaving out the oat and (2) adding in more than 1/3 c low fat sour cream. They stayed moist and yummy. I brought a bunch in to work to share and the husband was upset when he found out I did that. I count that as a thumbs up. Fortunately I didn’t do anything with them at work (other than eat one myself) so I brought them home the next day for him to enjoy. ANd they still tasted great the next day! And the day after that.
Another great success … this is the first baking recipe that I can remember where I did it by memory. No consulting a cookbook for me. Lookit me! It’s just like Top Chef!
Rise ‘n’ shine
Back to SBD for a short stint, until the next special event (did I mention our wedding anniversary is a mere week away?) Until then, please enjoy this dramatic image of “bad carbs”, brought to you by the Microsoft cafeteria located on the 28th floor of Lincoln Square in Bellevue:
To your left, some weird orange-marbled bread. To your right the danish, the chocolate croissant and peeking out of the corner is the item most likely to be purchased by the husband out of all of these choices, the apple fritter.
For anyone keeping track, the danish (if there is cream cheese present) probably clocks in with the highest number of calories, at around 490. All but the orangey bread will put you in the 400+ calories range. But considering the size of that slice of orange-ish bread up top, it’s probably in at least the mid-300 range, don’t you think? Never mind the question of, how in the world did that get so orange??