We ate my veggie burgers tonight. I actually ate it without a bun, but I slathered it with ketchup. I really liked it, and I think it was better this time. There was a lot of flavor, and the pan frying gave it a nice, crisp exterior.

Time machine

Tonight I went back to high school. Liz Phair played at the Fillmore and Jim won tickets to the show through Alice radio, so that was our Monday night. I was not a Liz Phair fan in high school, but as she played her set, I realized that I vaguely recognized half a dozen or so of the songs. And suddenly I was transported back to the days of flannel shirts and Doctor Martins, the heyday of Fiona Apple, Sarah MacLaughlin, and Ani DiFranco. Very strange.

It was also strange to see my peers singing along with the songs and screaming in adoration. Don't get me wrong--the venue was awesome and the show was pretty decent, too. I was just surprised at how diehard her fans were. They LOVED her. The girl in front of me screamed, "This is the best show I've EVER been to!!" I guess I was a little younger than the average attendee. I was more of the late chick rock era, circa Alanis Morissette. But I definitely knew who Liz Phair was. I just didn't realize that it was the 15th anniversary of her debut album. Or something like that. I didn't even know that the tour was to celebrate the 15th anniversary. Oh well. We definitely got our money's worth.

For dinner we went back to Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe. That was NOT what I had in mind at all. I was hoping for something new, or at the very least, a restaurant in San Francisco. But Rudy's we went. We got different food this time, sharing a quesadilla with grilled veggies and the sweet potato fries. For our mains, Jim went with the nightly special, chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and veggies, and I got a crunchy Asian tofu salad.

To my surprise, the sweet potato fries were shoestring. I thought they'd be beefsteak cut. They were light and yummy, but ketchup didn't really go with them and they needed some sort of dipping sauce that I didn't get. I still ate a bunch, though. The star really was the quesadilla. It was really, really good. The veggies were a great touch, and the pico de gallo was super fresh with very sweet, ripe tomatoes.

My salad was really good. It had lettuce, green and purple cabbage, sprouts, red bell pepper, avocado, fried tofu, and sesame seeds. The sesame vinaigrette was really good and had some heat to it. The portion size was huge, and I wasn't able to finish it, but that was probably more due to stuffing my face with my half of the quesadilla and too many fries. The Shaking Jessie didn't help, either.

Jim's entree looked like the epitome of greasy diner food. I don't think Jim liked it all that much, although he didn't dislike it, either.

Anyway, we had a fun evening. The show was fun, and it was certainly a different Monday night than I'm used to these days.

Jim and I went to Rubio's tonight. Surprise! The cashier was pretty funny. Jim ordered his chicken burrito and the guy deadpans, "Sorry, we're out of chicken." I was a little confused at first but caught on faster than Jim. Later on, the dude said it was $5 to sit outside, and I said I'd better get a clean table for that much (he was out there wiping down tables). He then wiped a streak onto the table and held out his hand for the money. Good stuff. Although Jim forgot to hold the white sauce, he enjoyed his fish taco anyway. The nachos were good but unremarkable.

I ate dinner with my parents for the first time in who knows how long. We ate the enchiladas that I assembled the day before. My mom burned them, but they were still pretty good. I was all in all happy with how they turned out. They were awfully filling. We had them with the Spanish rice, which totally macked. I definitely did all right with that dish. Can't be mad at that one.

Morning, noon, and night

Just about everything I did today centered around food. I went absolutely nuts. I'm exhausted but quite pleased with the fruit of all of my efforts. I started off by baking a lemon pound cake with a cherry compote topping, a recipe courtesy of Cooking Light. I creamed together butter and sugar, added a couple of eggs, and then alternated the dry mixture of flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder with lowfat buttermilk. Finally I folded in lemon juice, lemon zest, and a bit of fresh mint. I poured it into my greased and floured 10-inch bundt pan and baked it for 40 minutes at 350.

While it baked, I started in on the seitan chicken enchiladas, the experimental vegetarian version of Tyler Florence's chicken enchiladas, which Jim loves. I roasted tomatillos, jalapenos, onion, and garlic in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. On the stovetop, I sauteed diced onion, then added garlic, cumin, and flour before stirring in vegetable broth to make a vegetarian veloute. While it thickened, I went back to the roasted veggies, pureeing them in a food processor and adding cilantro, cumin, and salt. I put the chicken into the veloute and added some of the salsa verde and then headed out to church.

After church, I went back home to continue working on my food. I broke in my new cherry pitter by pitting 4 cups of cherries. What a freaking pain. If I had known how much work it was, I would have seriously reconsidered making any baked cherry dish. Guess that's why there aren't a whole lot of them out there--no one wants to put in all that work!

The cherries were cooked on the stovetop with sugar, cornstarch, water, and almond extract. Yum. I snuck a bite of the cake, which was good. I could taste the mint, but I would have liked more of a lemon flavor. But paired with the cherry compote, that cake is fantastic. It's hard to believe that it's a Cooking Light recipe. It seems just like a great regular dessert. My dad absolutely loved it.

While the compote cooked, I assembled my enchiladas. I realized too late that 3 pounds of vegetarian chicken is way more than 3 pounds of regular chicken because of the lack of bone deal. I felt kind of stupid when I realized this because I should have made the connection in a timely manner. But no matter. I pressed on, adding some extra vegetable broth into the chicken mixture for more moisture, since I couldn't spare a whole lot of salsa. I sampled the goods before starting to wrap the chicken up, and I was happy with the taste. I microwaved the tortillas and dipped them in a bath of salsa verde before adding the chicken and some low-fat Mexican cheese that I picked up at TJ's.

Assembling the enchiladas is actually a very quick process and they were in the fridge before I knew it. Jim called as I was working my way out of the door to go over to his place. We had an absolutely fantastic afternoon just spending time together.

For dinner we went to Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe. Jim is much more impressed with that place than I am. Don't get me wrong--I like it. I just don't love it like he does. I'm not going to rave about it, but it is still pretty good food. I got the same thing I did last time: a veggie triple decker sandwich with a salad. Jim got a chicken sandwich, and we had an appetizer of chili cheese fries, veggie chili of course. Besides the usual iced tea, we also split a Jessie's Shake, which may be even better than In-N-Out's milkshake. It's made of Guinness, espresso, and chocolate ice cream. It was absolutely amazing. I think I might have been able to drink an entire one by myself had I not held back.

My sandwich was pretty good, although for whatever reason, it seemed awfully greasy. I solved the problem by simply taking off the bread top, which had all of the oil. Jim's chicken sandwich had bacon and cheese and looked good. I do have to admit that their fries are super good--light and crispy. Mmm. I didn't really eat much of my salad because they didn't put the dressing on the side like I had asked.

So this round was a completely different experience. We ate outside and enjoyed the gorgeous day, plus it was an entirely different crowd. Because we came so early, the place was full of families and kids instead of the late night rocker crowd.

After dinner, we went across the overpass to walk along the Bay for a bit before Jim left for work. I couldn't get over how much cooler it was in Emeryville than at home. There was seriously a 20+ degree difference. I honestly thought my car's thermometer was broken when it said 80 degrees, because we had just left high nineties. But it made dinner and the walk so much nicer. Afterwards, I headed off to Whole Foods and did a quick bit of shopping before going home.

For whatever reason, I still felt like cooking that night, so after 10 pm, I started in on RFD's veggie burgers. I was much more efficient this time, and the entire process was much smoother, simply because I had a better idea of how to pace myself and what to expect. I shredded the tempeh and mixed in the tamari, water, oil, miso, salt and pepper, baking it off in the oven after mixing in some gluten flour. While that happened, I diced up all of the veggies and got to use fresh corn this time. I sauteed the mushroom, onion, corn, beet, carrot, bell peppers, and garlic and mixed it into the tempeh. Then the mixture went in batches into the food processor and finally I molded them into patties. The patties went into the fridge for the flavors to meld. Yeah, I was ready for bed after that.

Jim claimed it had been a while since we last had In-N-Out, so that's what he wanted for lunch today. I'm not one to turn In-N-Out down, so he got no complaints from me, although I will dispute his claim that we haven't been there recently. And this blog proves it!

We got our usual order, which was pretty difficult considering how freaking packed the place was. The current heat wave must have made everyone want In-N-Out because the line was all the way to the door and the tables were jam packed, even outside. The AC couldn't keep up and it was actually pretty warm inside. I found us a corner table while Jim ordered.

The only good thing about a busy In-N-Out is that you have the potential for really great, fresh fries. I say potential because sometimes when they're rushing, you get the soggy, not-quite-done fries. But we definitely scored today. The fries were absolutely perfect! And on such a warm day, the Neapolitan shake was even better than usual. But then again, I like ice cream best when it's all soft and slightly melty anyway.

Jim didn't finish up with his swim lessons until quite late, so we ended up going to Walnut Creek around 7 or so. It was so toasty outside that we figured all we were good for was a movie. We did a bit of shopping before dinner because neither of us were particularly hungry. I got a couple of pairs of sandals from Macy's (a pair of Coach flip flops on sale for $54--considering the knockoffs at A's party were $40, I totally scored, and a pair of brown, slightly gladiator-esque sandals that Jim picked out). We also stopped at Sur La Table and Williams Sonoma for me. I got a set of polka dot ice cream bowls which are adorable (Jim was horrified) and the mugs and plates to finish off Sister J's cat series (we got her the bowls for her b-day). Everything was a super good price ($3.99 each), so I was quite happy with that. At Williams Sonoma, I got a corn zipper that has a mouse-like holder to catch all of the corn kernels and a cookbook holder (finally!!).

I had this plan to go to Le Cheval for dinner, but my crappy memory took us to Da Lat, another Vietnamese restaurant. Oh well. I checked out the menu and saw lots of vegetarian options, so we were brave and went for it. It turned out to be a great mistake, since dinner was really good.

We ordered way too much food, but that just means dinner for Jim for the rest of the week (it's too hot to cook!). We started out with spring rolls and egg rolls, which has become something of a tradition for us now. Jim actually really liked the spring rolls to my surprise. In reality, what he liked was the peanut dipping sauce, but I don't care. Anytime the boy likes something cold, it's a miracle. The egg rolls were waaaaaaay too greasy, but we had a leftover one, and reheated and drained, it should be really good. The deep fried noodle dish was crispy, light (deceptively so), and very tasty. Jim loved his orange chicken, which he said was different from Panda Express but still really good. He also got a chicken and shrimp soup, and he was pleased with the amount of shrimp in there (he said they didn't rip him off of the stuff). The tofu salad was the only disappointment. It was too oily to be light and didn't have enough flavor. It was just bland and greasy. Oh well. I think I could re-work it into a decent stir fry dish.

After dinner, we went to Whole Foods for a bit before heading off to finally see Indiana Jones. The movie actually wasn't that bad. It's certainly a movie I could have done without watching, but I'm not regretting that I did. Given the fact that I've only seen one out of the three (or is it four originals?), it clearly isn't a big interest of mine. But I enjoyed it, and it was certainly a nice reprieve from the heat.

Jim and I went to Pelayo's for lunch today, which was quite grubbing. I definitely like the food there, although I couldn't help but be prideful, as my Spanish rice was better than theirs. :-) I got a super veggie burrito with whole beans, no cheese, and sour cream and guac on the side. Jim got a super chicken burrito with whole beans and no sour cream. They top their burritos with Ranchero sauce, which is more like salsa than anything else. I actually like it, which is unusual, since I typically prefer my burritos without sauce. It certainly helps that a) it doesn't taste like enchilada sauce like they usually do and b) they don't put a ton on.

Jim had swim lessons and I had a piano lesson, and between the two of us, we ran too late to eat at any non-chain restaurant. So we ended up at Red Lobster. I know! I hate everything about seafood--the look, the smell, the sound of it being taken apart and eaten. *shudder* But I wasn't all that hungry by the time dinner rolled around, and we didn't even get there until nearly 9, so I figured it was a good night to indulge Jim, who loves the stuff.

Fish, along with pork, is definitely something I struggle with cooking. I like the idea of cooking more fish for Jim, but it's so freaking expensive, and from everything I read, you have to get it super fresh, or else it's scat. And I have no real way of obtaining fresh seafood except at Whole Foods, but it's hard for me to go there and cook it up all on the same day.

So anyway, my long-winded point is that seafood is a good thing for Jim to eat out, because I refuse to make him crab or lobster. I've considered clam chowder, but clams aren't so icky. They're shells, and I've done my share of shell collecting over the years. And I did buy some frozen shrimp, but the idea was more for grilling them, and Jim can do all of the skewering. They come in a bag, so it's not like I have to actually look at them.

I couldn't believe it when Jim said he was going to get the crab linguine alfredo. I think my shocked look convinced him to go his normal route and get The Ultimate Feast, which was comprised of a lobster tail, crab legs, and two kinds of shrimp. He subbed clam chowder for his salad and got mashed potatoes for his side. I got an Apple-Walnut Chicken Salad with no chicken (duh) and the balsamic vinaigrette on the side. It was actually quite tasty and filling. I really liked the sun-dried tomatoes, which weren't oil packed, as well as the combination of blue cheese, walnuts, and apples. That tangy, rich, sweet combo is so yummy.

Of course, those cheddar biscuits also helped to satiate my hunger. I know they're terrible for me, but I can't help but love them. They're so buttery and cheesy and garlicky. Thankfully they were a little too salty for my taste tonight, so I wasn't too tempted to gorge myself on them.

Jim's lobster tail was, for the record, horrible. I honestly don't remember the tail having the little fin things on the end of it, but there it was, fanned out in all its disgusting glory. *double shudder* I built myself a view-blocking wall with the drink glasses so I didn't have to see it. Jim shared some of his mashed potatoes with me, which were pretty good.

For beverages, Jim picked out a Malibu Hurricane, which was naturally Malibu rum, plus tropical juices and a splash of Southern Comfort. It was really quite tasty. I even liked it.

After dinner, Jim and I watched an episode of BIg Love before calling it a night.

Vegan adventures

So fresh off of my incredible accomplishment of creating a chicken, I needed to maintain my momentum and turn it into a very special dish. I ended up making seitan fajitas and Spanish rice, both from the RFD cookbook. Yes, vegan cuisine is incredibly time consuming, but as usual, it turned out amazingly delectable.

I started off by slicing my chicken into thin strips and marinating it in a mixture of tamari and a bunch of dried spices: sea salt, oregano, basil, cumin, thyme, and red pepper flakes at my house. When I got to Jim's, I started in on the Spanish rice, which involved insane amounts of chopping. Thankfully my knife skills have vastly improved, so although it took a while to get it all done, things went light years faster than they would have a year or two ago. I fine diced red bell pepper, green bell pepper, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and a jalapeno. Whew! All of that was sauteed in EVOO for a few minutes, and then in went 2 cups of washed brown rice (Jim was in charge of the rice rinsing and the stirring of the veggies), tomato paste, cumin, sea salt, pepper, a can of diced tomatoes, and 2 cups of water. The mixture went up to a boil and then the heat was reduced to medium-low and the rice simmered for 45 minutes. It sounds so quick and easy to desribe, but actually doing all of that chopping? Crazy.

While the rice cooked, I started in on the fajitas, which required (suprise!) MORE chopping. This time I sliced up 2 onions, red bell peppers, a green bell pepper, and chopped up 2 tomatoes. The veggies were sauteed and then removed to a bowl. In went the marinated seitan and also sauteed. Then I mixed it all together and voila! Fajitas!! I grilled up the corn tortillas with the grill pan and crumbled some queso fresco, and dinner was ready. We did a mix of blue and yellow corn tortillas, which were all leftover from various other dishes, and it was great to use them all up.

The fajitas were, in my opinion, quite yummy. Was it worth all of the work? Well, the canned imitation chicken probably would have worked almost as well. Hard to say, actually. Jim said it was "very good," but qualified it with "for vegetarian." I really liked them, and I think I would do them again. The fajitas themselves weren't tons of work. It truly was the Spanish rice that took the most time and prep, and honestly, that WAS worth it, because that was some of the grubbingest rice I've ever eaten.

Oh my gosh, the rice was just insane! It was sooo good. I couldn't get over how moist and delicious it was. If I ever do another cooking class at church, this is definitely on the menu. Oh, and for the record, there is NO way that dish serves 6 people. Twelve is more like it. It ended up being an enourmous pot of rice that Jim and I didn't even make a dent in. The best part is that it's super healthy. I mean, the only fat is from 2 tablespoons of EVOO used to saute the veggies. That's it. What other Spanish rice recipe uses that little fat? And as for salt, it's got the diced tomatoes which are salty, but other than that plus a tsp of sea salt, that's all there is. Yet it's super flavorful. After it cooked for 45 minutes, I took it off the heat and let it stand, covered, for 10 minutes. Then I folded in some chopped cilantro, and that was it.

It's pretty much a letdown to describe our lunch after that fabulous dinner. We went to Quizno's. They're having a $5 large sandwich special, but it's only on certain sandwiches, so Jim varied from the norm and got a large roast beef on wheat with cheddar cheese. He didn't like it as much as Togo's because of the bread quality, there was less meat, and the meat didn't taste as good. I got a small veggie (for just about the same price!), and we split a diet cranberry Sobe and a bag of baked Lays.

Then God said, "Let there be Chicken."

Tonight I created chicken. Into the oven it went, and out popped a chicken. Okay, so I didn't exactly make a REAL chicken. But I attempted and succeeded at making chicken seitan. While it was a verrrrry long process, it wasn't overly difficult, and I'd totally do it again given how good it tastes.

The first thing I did was to mix together wheat gluten flour, garbanzo flour, nutritional yeast, and sea salt. In the food processor I added tamari, canola oil, a can of cannellini beans that I drained and rinsed, and a mixture of onions and garlic that I sauteed and cooled. I blended them all together and added some water. I poured the puree into a bowl and whisked in more water before adding the whole thing to the flour mixture. It all came together into a wet, sticky dough which I poured into a greased and parchment paper lined 8 x 8 baking dish. I placed that dish inside a roasting pan and created a bain marie (I think that's the snooty term for it) before putting it into the oven to bake for 2 hours. The whole thing was so heavy that I was nervous about dropping it, but thankfully I managed to avert disaster.

Right now I'm waiting for it to cool. The texture is nice, and considering how much salt I originally thought I put in there, it's not overly salty. I'm happy with the end result, which is four pounds of chicken! But I have a plan to use it all. I'm going to use three pounds for Tyler's chicken enchiladas and one pound for fajitas. Perfect! :-)

I have to say, it's nice having a kitchen all to myself to make messes in and create things. I'm such a dork, but I really do love cooking and baking.

Adult-only cookies

Tonight I made Giada's Apricot and Nut Cookies with Amaretto Icing, and oh man, were they yummy! It was a super easy recipe and the results were amazing. I creamed together butter, cinnamon, sugar, sea salt, and vanilla and then added an egg to the mixture. In went flour and finally slivered toasted almonds, toasted pine nuts, and roughly chopped dried apricots. I worked the dough into a log that, in all honesty, looked like an enormous penis, wrapped it up in plastic wrap, and stuck it in the fridge for a couple of hours. I sliced the roll into cookies and baked them off at 350 for 13 minutes and then let them cool on a wire rack. At that point, I snuck a taste of the smallest cookie and was totally blown away by the result. It was definitely a denser, crunchier cookie, and even though I am definitely in the soft/chewy preferred cookie camp, my mouth was still happy.

After they cooled, I iced them with a mixture of powdered sugar whisked together with Amaretto. I cut back on the amount of icing I made because I didn't want leftovers and I ended up making exactly the right amount (I did one cup of sugar instead of the 1 3/4 cups asked for and cut back on the Amaretto accordingly). I had to have another cookie at that point--soo good! The Amaretto was so tasty and cut through some of the sweetness of the powdered sugar, giving it a really nice flavor. Hopefully Jim likes 'em as much as I do.

Happy Father's Day!

Jim and I settled on a Bobby Flay recipe for those rib eyes: a Spanish-spice rub with a Sherry vinegar steak sauce. Exotic, yes. But I had all of the ingredients and it got me excited to try it. Here it is:

2 grilled red bell peppers, peeled, seeded and chopped or 4 piquillo peppers, drained and chopped
3/4 cup aged sherry vinegar
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish, drained
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon molasses
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the Spanish spice rub:
3 tablespoons Spanish paprika
1 tablespoon ancho chili powder
1 tablespoon mustard seeds, ground
1 tablespoon fennel seeds, ground
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

So this morning I made the spice rub and the steak sauce at my house. It was nice having a big enough kitchen to move around in. The only change I made to the spice rub was to chop the fennel seeds up. I don't have a spice grinder or a coffee grinder, so it was improv time, since I only had whole fennel seeds.

The only thing different I did with the steak sauce was to halve the recipe. I opted for the red bell pepper instead of the piquillo peppers, since that was what I had on-hand. I wasn't sure what to think of the sauce. I didn't dislike it, but it was very, very different than anything I've ever tasted before. I could really taste the honey and the vinegar, and it had a surprising kick from the horseradish.

I also pressed a package of tofu for myself. It never ceases to amaze me how much water can be pressed out of tofu. I went through a ton of paper towels trying to get as much liquid out as possible.

At Jim's house, I whipped up a batch of mac n' cheese, as well as a Nigella recipe for dessert. The dessert was definitely a last second thing that I wasn't at all planning on doing. I was panicking, trying to figure out a dessert that could be done in less than an hour that didn't involve room temperature butter. I looked in the fridge and saw a huge container of blackberries that I had picked up last week from Costco for only $2.99, and I knew it was going to be based on that. I contemplated making some sort of blackberry shortcake but ultimately decided to make a crisp instead. Nigella totally rescued me on that one.

I tossed the blackberries (4 cups) with sugar and cornstarch in a baking dish. Then I combined brown sugar, sliced almonds, oatmeal, cinnamon, flour, and melted butter to make the topping. All I had to do was crumble it over the top of the fruit, cover it with plastic wrap, and bring it over to Jim's parents' house.

At their house, Jim and I got the steaks on, as well as the food his dad had for grilling, beef ribs, a couple of T-bone steaks, and cheese hot dogs for the nephews. We tested out the spice rub on a piece of my tofu. I was very happy to make pretty grill marks all over my tofu. The spice rub was soo good, so we lathered up the rib eyes next (note: by "we," I mean Jim did the dirty work and I watched). Jim did a perfect job with the steaks and we ended up with 2 medium rare and 1 medium.

Everyone seemed to like the steak sauce, even Jim's mom. Jim's dad is a steak purist, but he said it was good and wouldn't have a problem eating it on chicken or something else. As for me, I was happy with my tofu. Yum. I got to be a part of it tonight, which was nice.

My crowning moment was definitely the crisp. I was pretty confident with that, since it's extremely difficult to mess up a fruit crisp. And it was delish! I was glad that I omitted the sunflower seeds, because it really didn't need them at all. Thankfully Jim's parents had vanilla ice cream in the fridge. There is little else that is better than ice cream melted by a warm fruit crisp. Sooo good.

I'm still having blackberry crisp dreams. :-)

This is my family

It was another one of those Saturdays. I seem to say that every Saturday, but they are out of control. I had church this morning and then after filling up with gas and a quick stop at Michael's, I drove to Angwin because my cousin K is graduating from college. Angwin is a sleepy little town past St. Helena with not much going on. While it's very beautiful, you couldn't pay me to go there. I prefer the city, thank you very much.

Anyway, it was a nice luncheon my aunt was putting on. Family friends let my family use their house for the party, which was incredibly kind of them. Although the house is older, it's absolutely beautiful and the kitchen was large enough for people to all be working together and helping out.

I tried to pitch in the best I could, but my aunt apparently isn't very confident of my cooking abilities, since I was assigned the boneheaded tasks of emptying chips into containers, filling the dip tray with hummus, olive tapenade, spinach artichoke dip, and pesto, and stirring the guacamole (which she re-did). I finally convinced her to let me slice up the ciabatta bread. Jim later on pointed out that there's no way she could no whether or not I cook and that she likely didn't want to put me on the spot and potentially embarrass me. It makes sense, but I was slightly miffed at the time. I don't think she quite realizes that I am an adult yet. Oh well.

She put on quite a spread. My aunt knows how to put on a party and entertain large groups of people. That is her thing for sure. Today's menu was simple and used a lot of Costco pre-made items, but it all came together in a rather stunning buffet.

Basically, it was sandwiches, salad, and fruit. There was ciabatta bread, along with artisan wheat and white bread. To that you could spread the hummus, olive tapenade, spinach artichoke dip, and/or pesto on your bread and then add your typical sandwich accoutrements (lettuce, tomato, onion, and deli platters of cheese and meats). The center jewel was an enormous salad that I'll call the kitchen sink salad. My aunt raved about the salad, saying everyone loves it, but apparently I'm the odd man out.

To be fair, it's a fantastic concept. Imitation chicken is shredded and seasoned with a taco seasoning packet. Romaine, tomato, onion, and avocado is added to that. Now, to me, if you're going to do a southwestern-style salad, you should top it off with tortilla chips, corn, black beans, cheddar cheese, and call it a day. Instead, she put garbanzos, pintos, craisins, cilantro, and Italian dressing. There was just waaay too much going on for me to be able to figure it out. The individual flavors were great, but it just didn't meld for me in the end.

Anyway, there was also a huge bowl of strawberries, a platter of watermelon, and cherries courtesy of my dad.

The sandwich was really good, thanks to the bread. I adore ciabatta bread, and freshly baked is even better. I didn't even mind the Costco hummus, which I don't typically care for (scratch doesn't take much longer and is so much tastier). And my aunt makes a killer guacamole, with jalapenos, tomatoes, and cilantro.

Sometimes I feel as though I should move down to southern California to get to know my family a little better. To be perfectly fair, I don't know if they're as bad as I currently think they are. And I feel more welcome now than I did growing up. But I also know that I am a Bay Area girl through and through. I don't think I could ever permanently live anywhere else.

So after I left, I stopped by Dean and Deluca just because. And then I met up with Jim at the Meritage Resort-Siena for dinner. The restaurant is located in the hotel, and is quite beautiful. Jim made the reservation through Open Table and we got 1000 points for it. Score!

Unfortunately, there wasn't a ton of vegetarian options. I decided to be brave and order a wood-oven pizza with pesto, figs, blue cheese, and caramelized onions on it. Jim went with the Kobe beef steak, medium rare. The breadsticks they brought us were soo good. They were nice and flaky and best of all, cheesy! The rolls were sub-par in comparison, but it's not like there was anything wrong with them. They were just ordinary, that's all.

Jim's steak was absolutely beautiful. I guess it was slightly underdone according to his tastes, but he ate it anyway. My pizza was pretty good after blotting. The blue cheese was a little much for me. But to my surprise, the figs were pretty good on the pizza. I definitely liked them and the onions and the pesto.

For dessert, we had a fruit crotada, which was basically an Italian fruit cobbler topped with pistachio ice cream. That was definitely the most authentic pistachio ice cream I've ever eaten. It had tons of pistachios in it and wasn't green. It was still tasty, but I must admit (to my chagrin) that I prefer the fake green flavored stuff. I do love fruit-based desserts with ice cream though, so I was a happy camper.

Afterwards, we went to Whole Foods and got a ton of stuff, including rib eye steaks that were on sale ($10.99/lb. from $15.99) for Father's Day. I love that store so much.

Friday the Thirteenth

Not that I'm superstitious or anything like that, but Friday the 13th is a little bit of an unusual day. Of course, the way my day's been going so far, maybe it is an unlucky day.

Right now I'm just waiting for my consultation and imagining the sushi I should be eating. Jim and I met up at the other Matsuri's, which we've never been to before. The ambiance is completely different; the menu identical. This place is much smaller and faux-traditional. We were seated in a tiny room which would have been great had it been private. Instead, there was another table for two less than two feet away. There was lots of bamboo accents and the rice paper window coverings. It was very pretty. Unfortunately I didn't really get to enjoy it because I have a consultation at 1:30. Yes, she's late, and yes, I'm hungry, and yes, I'm wishing that I had just stayed there to eat.

So far I'm settling for a Passion Iced Tea from Starbucks, which, while incredibly tasty, is not food. Of course, I should be happy consuming anything caffeine-related. I need to boost both my energy level and my metabolism.

Jim ended up bringing me my sushi later on, which incidentally, wasn't very good an hour later. Jim liked it, though. I went with him to his swim lessons and watched him teach a couple. It was actually enjoyable, because it reminded me of why I fell in love with him in the first place.

He is, and always has been, an amazing teacher. He's firm and in control, but the kids still adore him and really progress under his tutelage. I had almost forgotten. It made me feel bad that I was griping about him teaching lessons. From now on I'll view it like his hobby. He loves it, and who am I to deny him that?

Between lessons, we checked out the new Mountain Mike's, which was much better than the other, old one owned by the persnickity, parsimonious bastard who wouldn't make me a vegetarian (or even cheese) pizza during the buffet hours. We ordered a large vegetarian pizza with light cheese, which wasn't really a large pizza--it was only 14 inches. But it was pretty good stuff, and the dining area is still nice and new, so it was overall a good dinner. And afterwards, we played $4 worth of Area 51, the one arcade game that I like and don't completely suck at.

I went home after this while Jim taught his final lesson to get ready for his mom's ceremony. She belongs to Eastern Star, which is something I don't really know about. All I know is that it's somehow related to Free Masons, it's all-female, and apparently very popular among the senior citizens, since his mom was probably the youngest by decades. She was the Deputy Grand Matron this year, and again, I'm not exactly sure what that is, but I know she was in charge of lots of stuff. So the ceremony was to honor her service.

We missed basically the entire thing because of Jim's lesson, but at least we were there for the reception. There were sandwiches, chips, and lots of desserts. I tried a cucumber and Alouette sandwich on whole wheat that wasn't half bad. The lemon cake was very good and moist, and the oatmeal raisin cookies were pretty yummy, too. The best thing was the apple tart thingy. None of it was homemade except for maybe the lemon cake, but still good. Oh, and I got lots of fruit, too--watermelon and fruit salad that had grapes, pineapple, strawberries(!), an canteloupe.

There was tons of food leftover, so we took a box of cookies and some fruit home.

All's well that ends well

So today was Commissioner C's retirement luncheon at the local Marriott. Now let me be perfectly clear that I was under no delusion that I was going to have a whole lot of vegetarian-friendly food when I signed up to go to the thing. This was all about honoring her, and it was definitely one of those obligations I needed to fulfill.

See, Comm'r C helped get me my current job, and she's always been quite supportive of me as a law student, a lawyer, an Asian-American, and a woman. And while I dread entering her courtroom because of her crazy rulings lately, there's no doubt that she's due quite a bit of my respect and gratitude. At the same time, I think I share the same sentiment as most when I say that I'm happy she's retiring. It really is a win-win situation for everyone. She gets to go be a full-time grandma, and the era of the Court of High Adventure is coming to a close. So at the end of the day, all's well that ends well.

Anyway, SEC and GWC came with me for the luncheon and we all sat at a very boring table. Thankfully I met two girls approximately my age. One of them is a new attorney who is also a Davis graduate, which was pretty cool. I got her business card, and hopefully I have a new friend. She seemed super nice, so I was very glad to meet her. The rest of the table was filled with people I wasn't interested in socializing with. One was VR (now VRD as she keeps pointing out), whom I can't stand on grounds of her complete bitchiness. One of the worst OPC's I've dealt with. Another was Bumbling Bob, another OPC that I can't stand for totally different reasons (he's utterly incompetent). Then there was the current president of the Solano Bar, whose name I didn't catch, as well as the County Counsel, DB. I would have gladly spoken with him, but we were pretty much sitting opposite each other and too far away for conversation to flow nicely.

My meal consisted of a romaine salad, Italian-esque seasoned and grilled vegetables (zucchini and asparagus), some sort of lightly pickled bean salad with pinto beans, green beans, and yellow wax beans, and some of the best cheesy foccacia I've ever had. I have to admit, the bread really made my lunch. It was soo freaking good. Buttery, cheesy, and garlicky--the best combination!

Today my Aunt S, Uncle T, and cousin K are visiting, so we spent most of the evening visiting. It actually wasn't quite as painful as I thought it would be. Surprise, surprise. I've always liked my Uncle T. He's down to earth and has a dry, sarcastic sense of humor that I appreciate. Aunt S talks a mile a minute and I'm exhausted just listening to her, but she's not too bad. Now, K. The way I describe K is this: he'll either grow up to rule the world or blow it up. The kid's a freaking genius.

Anyway, it is quite late and I've got work tomorrow. Yippee.

Redless Robin

Jim and I went to Red Robin for lunch today and it was one of the worse dining experiences there. Our server was super slow and annoying (although that may admittedly be my present mood coloring reality). We got our usual order: Jim with his Monster Burger, no mayo, no salt on fries and me with my Garden Burger, sub Boca patty, no Bistro sauce, no pickle, and no salt on fries.

What she brought me was a disgusting mess. It was a Boca burger with onion and cheese. I was like, what?! It didn't even look remotely appealing. She replied that they were out of Gardenburgers, so she decided to do that instead for me. Okay, FIRST of all, I actually did order a Boca burger, so in other words, she screwed up my order. SECOND of all, what made her think that she could just switch up the patty without at least asking me about it or explaining when she brought it to me. THIRD of all, why did she think it was okay changing the rest of the order by holding the lettuce and adding cheese? I was super annoyed, but I have this theory about sending things back: if you do, you're eating it with some server spit. So I just had her bring me out some lettuce and was like, whatever. Oh and for the record, there was a disgusting amount of onion on that thing.

Anyway. I took off the cheesy half of the bun and just ate it half-protein style with lettuce for the other half of the bun. Jim took my discarded half and wrapped it around his Monster burger. At least his burger was fine. And the fries were pretty good today. Nice and crispy.

To add to my annoyance, I had to physically get up to get us more napkins cuz she forgot to bring them. Then she had the nerve to do my number one pet peeve which was calling me "hon." Now, if she was older than me, I'd be okay with it. But when I'm already annoyed with you and you're younger than me, don't call me some condescending cutesy name.

Wow, I just came off as a royal bitch. Heh. Oh, you might ask where the tomatoes in all of this was. Well, with the salmonella scare going on with the tomatoes right now, apparently no one at Red Robin got them. Of course, our server didn't bother to tell us that. There I go in full-on bitch mode again, huh?

So after work I ran a couple of errands which included picking up some chicken breasts for Midget. After my telephone appointment with Midget's Homeopathy Consultant yesterday, I agreed to try starting her on a raw food diet. I know, I'm one of those crazy pet owners. I'm not even sure I believe in Homeopathy. But what the hey. It can't hurt, right?

Jim and I made some tacos for his dinner. It really was a minimum amount of cooking and super easy. I grilled tomatillos and a serrano chile. While they were cooking away, I juiced a lime into the bowl of a food processor and then added diced red onion, a couple of garlic cloves, cilantro, and honey. After the grilled veggies had nice charred marks on them, I briefly sauteed them in olive oil before adding them to the food processor. Unlike Bobby, I seeded and de-ribbed the serrano, and then I finally turned the food processor on. Because I no longer have a blender, the food processor had to do, and it was more than adequate.

The mixture went back into the saute pan and I added some shredded rotisserie chicken in. Then all's we had to do was grill some blue corn tortillas, crumble some queso fresco, and then put 'em together. Easy as pie. I tried the salsa before adding the chicken and I liked it. The honey gave it a different flavor than Tyler's version, and I definitely liked the red onion in there.

When I got home, I gave Midget a chicken breast half. I couldn't believe that she started licking it immediately with no hesitation whatsoever. It's like she knew exactly what to do. I was completely floored. It took her a while to figure out exactly how to eat it, but she certainly knew it was food. I was pretty grossed out.

Jim and I walked her later on and she was completely bursting with energy (in comparison to how she's been). She even went off exploring in the bushes by herself. So maybe there's something to this raw chicken after all. *shudder*

Indian Burrito

I threw together an extremely fast meal for Jim tonight which was all stuff we got at the Farmer's Market last week. I used a spinach paratha, filled it with chicken tikka masala and tomato chutney, and wrapped it like a burrito. Voila! Dinner was served.

Yeah, I know it's not really cooking. But I snacked on the remaining paratha with the tomato dip. I thought it was pretty yummy.

Costco noshes n' nibbles

Mom sent me to Costco on my lunch break for freaking laundry detergent. The best part about the Costco that is kind of near my work is that they're uber-generous with the samples. Plus, if you go during lunchtime, it's practically a meal! So I went around trying salt and pepper pistachios (weird, plain salt is way better), sorbets in fake fruit halves (coconut was quite good, pina colada not so much), stir fried veggies (mushy frozen texture, but decent flavor), and a couple of other things I can't remember.

I got to play tennis after work with B, which was super fun. I royally sucked, since I haven't played in months. This may have been the first time I've played tennis this year, in fact. I had no consistency whatsoever, but every once in a while I managed to fire off a decent shot. We had a couple of really good rallies near the end. Hopefully he wasn't just being polite when he said he wanted to do it again. I certainly had a good time and I was super amped about getting to play tennis again. It's one of those things that you forget you used to love until you do it again.

I have a dream . . .

A completely ridiculous, far-fetched, never happen sort of dream, by the way. I think it's a great concept, but unfortunately I lack the talent in that department. As I've stated before, I am completely, 100% Food Network obsessed. Right now, it's the 4th season for The Next Food Network Star. The show just started up again (2nd episode tonight) and so the contestants are all whittling down their culinary points of view. And it got me fantasizing about my own culinary point of view. I think a fantastic viewpoint would be a flexitarian-type deal. I know that an all vegetarian or all vegan show wouldn't appeal to a large enough demographic, but an increasing number of families are mixed veg-heads and carnivores. To be able to create menus that appeal to them, whether they're strictly vegetarian meals or using tofu and chicken with the same sauce, there's a broader interest on that level.

The problem is creating dishes. While I've become increasingly competent at following recipes, I wouldn't even know where to start with creating them. It takes such a strong knowledge of ingredients/flavors and an enormous level of creativity that I'm pretty sure I lack.

Anyway, I tried my hand at adapting Ellie Krieger's turkey burger recipe tonight, and that's what made me think of it. I made the meaty version for Jim a while ago and decided that I wanted to give it a whirl myself. I used packaged imitation ground turkey, which I quickly realized lacked the sticky texture needed to adhere the burgers together. I tried to add a bit of flour at first and that helped, but not enough. So I thought and thought and threw in a beaten egg. That was the magic trick, and I was able to assemble my burgers.

The recipe is super simple. I roasted a red bell pepper and then diced it up. I made mini burgers and sandwiched the diced pepper and shredded mozzarella cheese between the two mini burger halves. Then I pan fried them until they were crispy on each side (no need to worry about cooking the meet all the way through here!). Then all I had to do was toast a whole wheat hamburger bun and dinner was done.

The burger was pretty good. I don't think the red bell pepper taste came through all that strongly. Maybe I didn't use enough. Or maybe I diced them too finely. When I made the recipe for Jim, I used bigger chunks. Anyway, it was an easy enough recipe and I would totally do it again. Maybe there's a way to make it with tempeh instead? Hmm.

Jim and I went to Rubio's for his dinner before he left for work. He got a Baja chicken burrito combo meal (no fish taco, just beans and chips) and nachos with the sour cream and guacamole on the side. The chips were ridiculously salty this time, as were the beans. But Rubio's is Rubio's. They're still grubbin'.

I watched The Next Food Network Star while eating dinner. I think I like Aaron. I like Kelsi, too. Nipa is still blech, but Lisa was surprisingly less annoying this time. We'll see how it plays out. You can kind of tell who can't keep up and who will be moving further and further along in the competition.

Graduation Days

Today was another one of those crazy nonstop days that started too early in the morning and didn't end until almost midnight. I got up before 8 am because I had to finish up those crazy cupcakes that I started the night before. I whipped up a batch of buttercream frosting, which is a recipe I've mixed up dozens of times before. Back in my bum days of unemployment I took a couple of cake decorating classes at Michael's, and this was the frosting recipe I learned. It really is one of the best frosting recipes out there. While I personally don't like frosting, it always receives rave reviews, and from my perspective, it's great because it has the perfect texture for decorating cakes. It's creamy but stiff enough to hold its shape when creating flowers and shells and stuff.

Anyway, there was no time for pretty colors, so it was simple, basic, beautiful white. For the record, anyone who makes their own frosting is very unlikely to eat the stuff based on the ingredients. You start by creaming a cup of vegetable shortening with a bit of water. Yup, an entire cup. The stuff is disgusting--greasy, thick, and insoluble. Anyway, then it's a tablespoon of merengue powder, flavoring (I usually omit the stuff), and four cups of powdered sugar. That's it! You have to add more water depending on how stiff you want the frosting. You definitely want a thinner texture when you're icing a cake, but typically speaking, medium stiffness is the way to go.

Today I decided to take a tip from Giada and Bobby and try to fill the cupcakes with the frosting. There's always too much leftover anyway for a batch of cupcakes. So I filled a parchment paper bag full of the stuff and fitted it with a #12 tip. The frosting went in perfectly and didn't even crack the top. I used a spatula to ice the tops and finished them up with rainbow sprinkles, which covered up all of the deficiencies in my haphazard frosting job.

After church, I met up with Jim at the Little League field to watch Big A's last baseball game of the season. It was nice that I got to watch him pitch for a bit, and I also got to see one at-bat (he struck out very quickly). We didn't get to watch the entire game, but we stayed for 5 of the 6 innings. They were losing 4-1 when we left, and my guess is that the score didn't really change.

Jim and I drove to Safeway to pick up a couple of gift and graduation cards. I originally wanted to get Visa or AmEx cards, but to my shock and dismay, they actually charge you extra on top of the gift card value! As soon as I read the fine print, I immediately changed my mind and tried to find other things to buy. I selected a iTunes card for my coworker A's son and a Starbucks card for S. I added a Staples gift card for S and drove off to A's party, which started without A, who was picking up the food for the party. I introduced myself to the graduate Z, who is quite sweet despite his unconventional appearance.

A rolled up about 15 minutes after we arrived, her car loaded with catered food from Rubio's, Murillo's, and other such Mexican places. The bean and cheese burritos were the bomb, but the cheese enchiladas lacked something. There was plenty of fruit, and I ate tons of strawberries and some pineapple, too. A's "friend" J was there to keep Jim company. I actually like J, although I know what a dick he has been to A. Of course, A isn't exactly always nice to J.

We left A's party to attend my intern S's party. This was a completely different party with all homemade food, tons of family, and a very homey atmosphere. I didn't stay very long and in fact, Jim slept in the car. I tried some of the best Spanish rice ever and a broccoli salad, both of which I fell in love with. Plus there was that tres leches cake, which is one of the best cakes ever. I love how moist tres leches cake is, although it's a little scary to think about how freaking bad the stuff is for you.

Anyway, we got back into town and Jim had to get going to work and I had company for dinner at my parents' house. We had lasagna, bread, and broccoli. I wasn't at all hungry and ate very little because I was super stuffed from all the food I had eaten throughout the day. I was absolutely not feeling the company thing, and they ended up staying until almost midnight. I was so tired and just not in a social mood. All I wanted to do was shower and collapse into bed.

I like the B family. I tutored little S when he was in 5th grade. Of course, he's not a senior in high school and towers over me. His brother S is back from Kuwait and in town for a little longer until he goes back to the CHP in SoCal. I liked talking with the elder S, but it was just too much of a day for me.

The whole day made me slightly nostalgic. With 2 high school graduation parties and Little S entering 12th grade . . . I really am getting older. Sigh. Ah, well, life goes on.

Sharing in the misery

Tonight we went to an A's (!) game with Sister K and her hubby M. The A's unfortunately lost to the Angels, 3-1, but as I'm not the biggest A's fan out there, I wasn't too bent out of shape. In fact, a small part of me rejoiced in their struggles. After all, if the Giants are sucking, the A's might as well, too, right? Of course, that leaves me no one to root for, doesn't it? Eh. As Jim phrased it, the last time we were there for the A's-Giants series last year, we walked out hanging our heads with defeat and trying to avoid getting razzed by the A's fans, and this time, at least we were all sharing in the misery.

We actually didn't end up getting any food at all at the ballpark because we went to Vik's Chaat House beforehand. Vik's is an Indian restaurant that L introduced us to our last boat wakeboarding outing last year. That was Jim's first time eating Indian food. He had previously been hesitant to give it a shot, but since we were in a group, he went along and to his surprise, he loved it. The rest, as they say, is history. Sister K & M told us they loved Indian food, so Jim and I decided that they had to try this place. It's just an added bonus that they're a seemingly permanent fixture on the Chronicle's Top 100 list.

Although we warned them that it was a serious hole in the wall, they were both shocked (and I think slightly horrified) when we drove past the place. They both gave a "Wowww," in the not excited or happy way of saying the word at the same time. But they gamely walked into the restaurant and seemed relieved that despite the warehouse look to it, the inside was much nicer than the outside.

It took us a while to figure out what we wanted. The first time we didn't read the menu carefully and picked mostly stuff from the weekend menu. So we revamped our order a bit and were served up our food scant minutes later. At Vik's, it's practically a fast food environment. You go up to the cashier to order, and then your name is called out on a loudspeaker when your food is ready. Unlike a fast food place, they serve you piecemeal, as the food gets done. In this case, our food came out in three rounds.

The first thing up was M's curried sea bass. Well, maybe not sea bass. I don't quite remember. But it was definitely fish! We couldn't figure out what it was, so we had to ask when our second platter of food came out. The curry crepes came out next. I don't remember what they were called either, but I know I had one my first time there. It was absolutely delicious, with curried potatoes and a super tasty garbanzo and curry dipping sauce. Their crepes are enormous, and with 2 orders, each of us ate a half.

The rest of our food came out in a huge clump. These were all off of the "appetizer" menu. We all love samosas, so we went with two orders of Samosa Cholle, so each of us got one. I absolutely love the chutney it came with--sweet, tart, and spicy all at the same time. The veggie pakoras were little fritter balls with a tamarind chutney. That has to be my favorite dipping sauce because of the slight sweetness to it. It's so flavorful and refreshing. We also got an Aloo Tikki Cholle, which were potato patties with a garbanzo bean chutney. I really liked that one, too. The pakoras were just okay. I would have much preferred another samosa, personally.

I was super relieved that Sister K and M said that they liked the restaurant. They said it put their usual Indian restaurant to shame and that the prices were reasonable, too. Sister K said it was a real treat. I'm always nervous about recommending restaurants to people. I would feel awful if they didn't like the food. So that was definitely a weight off of my chest.

Jim and I, of course, loved the food. We were bummed about the non-weekend menu, but that just means we'll have to come back on the weekend. I have to admit, mango lassi is amazingly effective at cutting through the spiciness. Also, it was way better than our first try. I honestly had no desire to drink lassi, but Jim bought one, so I tried it just for the heck of it and was very pleasantly surprised at how much tastier it was. And it wasn't just me being crazy--Jim agreed that it was better. It wasn't as cloyingly sweet and had a better overall flavor. Because it's been almost a year since I had the first one, I can't directly compare the two. Suffice to say, it was better. 'Nuff said.

We missed the first inning, but that was fine with me. As I've made very clear, I'm not a huge A's fan. So while I enjoy watching baseball, it's not like seeing the Giants play. We had some pretty decent seats in Section 104, Row 24, which were on the right field side. The view was pretty awesome, and that is definitely one of the best things about McAfee. For $15, you'd get pretty much nothing at AT&T, but here, we got great seats (okay, they were discounted, but still).

The game literally flew by and was over around 9:15, which was crazy. It took us a little while to get back to North Berkeley taking BART, but there's something to be said about the convenience of taking BART to A's games. We got back home before 11 pm, which was great, because I needed to do some serious baking.

Okay, so I didn't technically NEED to bake. I wanted to bake, because it was A and B's b-days. They turned 10 and 9, respectively this past week, and I have a very soft spot in my heart for them for several different reasons. But what compelled me most was that they made it a point to remind me about their upcoming b-days last week. So I decided to make them cupcakes to share with their church class.

I chose a cupcake recipe by Bobby Flay that sounded amazing. It was a chocolate cupcake filled with peanut butter frosting. Now for me, there's nothing better than chocolate and peanut butter mixed together. Love the stuff. And even though Bobby isn't a baker per se, he's got such an incredible palette and knowledge of ingredient pairings that I trust him completely in the flavor department.

Thankfully, once again, Bobby earned my unwavering trust because the cupcakes were fantastic. It was a more like a cake batter with cake flour, butter, and buttermilk, and I incorporated the ingredients cake-style, alternating the dry mixture with the wet one in thirds. Unusual ingredients included unsweetened cocoa (el cheap-o Hershey's, not Dutch processed like he called for) and hot coffee. The recipe yielded 23 cupcakes (not the 12 listed in the recipe) and lots of extra peanut butter and ganache. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

After the cupcakes came out of the oven, they cooled and I started in on the peanut butter filling. It was very simple: peanut butter, butter, and powdered sugar. I personally found it a tad too sweet, but with the chocolate, it balanced out nicely. I think I may like Ina's peanut butter frosting recipe better (the one with heavy cream). I filled each of the cupcakes with the peanut butter by fitting a double-lined parchment paper pastry bag with a tip, inserting the tip into each cupcake and depositing the filling in. I was so happy that it held up better than the marscapone filling that I made with that Giada recipe. The parchment paper was perfectly sufficient for the job.

At this point, Jim and I tried a cupcake. Oh my gosh. The chocolate cupcake was so amazing. It was incredibly tender, moist, and light. I mean, I know it wasn't really light, but the taste was very delicate and not overpowering in the least, although there was plenty of chocolate flavor to it.

Like the reviews stated, at least half of my cupcakes ended up with cracked tops, but who cares? I covered them with a chocolate ganache anyway. It took me a few tries to get my dipping technique down, but by the end, I was a pro.

When I got home, I baked a box of Pillsbury instant cake mix into more cupcakes. I figured I needed a non-peanut butter based offering just in case there were allergies. I don't have much to say about instant cake mix except that I don't really like using it. But one thing I have learned about kids and baked goods is this: the cake part is simply the vehicle for what they actually like, the frosting. And since I make a macking buttercream frosting, boxed cake wasn't going to matter. But I saved the frosting for tomorrow because it was after 3 am when I finished.

Bleeding money

I cannot believe how much freaking money I have been spending lately. I swear, it's like a never-ending list of bills and other freak expenses. Midget has been ridiculously expensive lately, and now my car, in today for its $350 30K tune-up (which was supposed to be a simple oil change, mind you), needs new tires to the tune of $900! I should be able to get a better deal through Costco, something like $750, but still! It's one unexpected bill after another. The tire thing came out of nowhere, because I only have 30,000 miles on the stupid things. I definitely wasn't expecting to need new ones already.

Anyway, Jim dropped me off at work this morning and then stayed in the area to take me out to lunch. Yesterday we decided we wanted Mary's Pizza Shack, a small California chain that makes some pretty mackin' pizza. The weather is so nice today that we definitely wanted to eat outside, and for a while we were the only ones there. Inside the restaurant was absolutely packed. Our poor server seemed to be the only one working, which was really weird. They had several people seating and bussing and taking drink orders, but he was all by himself for everything else.

Despite his busyness, he was really nice and as on top of it as I think he could be. He didn't charge for the iced tea and also brought us out some bread to munch on while we waited, so those were definitely points in my book. And the pizza was great as always. What I especially like about Mary's is their light, flaky crust that doesn't tear up the roof of my mouth despite the crispiness. We ordered a large pizza, half vegetarian with light cheese for me and half Toto's combo for Jim, which was, from what I could tell, your stereotypical combo pizza. The one difference I noticed was that their pepperoni is smaller in circumferance but thicker.

Jim came and picked me up right after work, and we drove to the Honda dealership to pick up my car. After that, we dropped of my car at Jim's house and went to the Benicia Farmer's Market, something I swear we've never done together and Jim is just as adamant that we have. For the record, as we were walking back to the car, he admitted that he was perhaps mixing it up with something else. Ha!

Right at the entrance of the market were two booths selling Indian food and passing out samples. The first booth we went to let us try just about everything, which turned out to be a petty smart strategy since we ended up buying some spinach paratha, chicken tikka masala, and some sort of tomato sauce that Jim liked more than I did (I preferred the cilantro chutney). Plus we grabbed a samosa to-go topped with my cilantro chutney.

Indian food is definitely something that's grown on me recently. I never cared for it when I was younger, but my friend I, who is Indian-American, cooked dinner for a group of us. The rest, to cliche, is history. The Indian food she made was absolutely amazing. The spices, the creaminess, the smells . . . there was nothing I didn't love about any of it. Ever since then, I've relished every rare opportunity to eat the stuff.

Back to the present, we also sampled the other booth's offerings, but he wasn't nearly so generous and their foods were slightly more expensive. So we went with Booth A in the long run. We wandered down the rest of the street, sampling strawberries, raspberries, white peaches, yellow peaches . . . tons of fruit. We ended up getting 3 pints of raspberries for only $5, which was way too fantastic of a deal to pass up. Plus the raspberries were beautifully sweet and mild without any tartness, which meant that I loved them. My only complaint about raspberries is their tartness.

On our way out we grabbed our Indian food and munched on the samosa. The samosa was soo good. It was room temperature, which concerned me a bit at first, but it was still light and flaky. It reminded me that I want to make a version of samosas that I read in Cooking Light, which uses phyllo dough and is baked instead of fried.

Isn't it ironic?

Jim can't seem to manage to wake up on time to do lunch with me when he works 10-hour shifts, but for whatever reason, he was determined to go to lunch with me today after the end of his first 12-hour shift work week. I really don't get it. I wasn't at all expecting him to come take me to lunch, but SURPRISE! He was a little grumpy with me that I had already eaten, but I was hungry.

Anyway, we hit up In-N-Out, which was of course yummy. The fries were a little less done than they usually are, but they were crispy and not soggy, so they still tasted great.

I have to admit, a small part of me is warming up to Jim's crazy new schedule. Tonight we were able to hang out and grab ice cream and go for a walk. I've been dying to try the new Baskin Robbins soft serve stuff, and we had gotten a coupon in the mail on Tuesday. I happen to adore soft serve ice cream. It's so creamy and refreshing and it melts in your mouth perfectly. We got a regular sundae with strawberry topping, nuts, whipped cream, and a cherry. Soo yummy. Jim doesn't care for nuts, but he indulged me on this one, which was nice because I love nuts with ice cream.

I hope our weekly walks become a routine because it was really nice.

Caffeine shock

I feel utterly wretched right now. I tried one of those Go Girl energy drinks because I am so freaking tired and the office is all out of diet caffeinated drinks. I think it was a big mistake. I am not normally a caffeine person. I try to avoid it as much as possible, although I do love my iced tea. I've been running on so little sleep lately though, that exhaustion has really started to kick me in the butt. I seriously couldn't stay awake this morning, and usually I just get sleepy after lunch. So I took a drastic measure and bought a Go Girl.

First of all, it tastes fantastic, especially for a diet energy drink. Those Rock Star things that Jim drinks are disgusting and I won't touch 'em, but this stuff was great. Plus it was pink and pretty! I started out with drinking half, and I was perking up with no ill side effects, so a couple of hours later, I polished it off. Apparently my body isn't used to all this caffeine though, because I am ridiculously nauseous and starting to get a booming headache. While I'm awake, I'm certainly not hyper. Ugh.

Oh, and I sampled a bit of some chocolate chip frappucino from Starbucks while I was at Safeway buying my Go Girl. It was freaking good. Of course, now I'm kicking myself for drinking anything that had caffeine in it. I just hope I can sleep tonight.

In the win column

The Giants actually won tonight! I was ecstatic that I got to attend a game that they won. At least I have that now, unlike last year, where I didn't see a single win. They resoundingly trounced the Mets 10-2, starting with 6 runs in the first inning. Randy Winn hit a solo HR to start things off and things went downhill from there for the Mets. Brian Horwitz, the kid we saw make his debut on Friday, hit a 3-run homer as well. With the exception of some incredibly sloppy playing, both offensively and defensively by Durham, it was quite a game. Sanchez scared me a few times, but in the end he pulled out 7 very effective innings. AND he got a double, which surprised the crap out of me.

I got treated by S, who is back from Kuwait and in town for the rest of the month. It's kind of funny how I really don't know the guy all that well even though I've been communicating with him for several years now. It was my own little personal way of supporting the troops over there. I tried to send him packages regularly and keep his spirits up. But it was nice hanging out with him and getting to know him a little better.

Anyway, it was a fun evening. We met up with his friends there who are the season ticket holders. I loved sitting in the Arcade, which is my favorite section thus far. It's less crowded and has a great view of the field, although triples alley is somewhat obscured.

I got a cha-cha bowl this time, which was great, because it way outranks veggie hot dogs in my book. Halfway through the game S got me a hot chocolate too, which was very happily accepted, if nothing else than for a hand warmer. I don't know the last time I have drank hot cocoa, so that part was a treat, too.

Craziness

Ugh, what a day. All I can say is that it’s going to take a period of adjustment to Jim’s new schedule. I am exhausted, and I was completely inefficient in the kitchen today. Of course, I think I bit off a little more than I could chew with the somewhat complicated recipes I selected.

We went to Walnut Creek so I could return some stuff to Nordstrom. I have to say, considering the short amount of time we had, we were incredibly efficient. We managed to go there, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Costco, and Harvest House (a health food store in Concord) and be back home by 4:20 after not leaving until about 1:45. I'd say that was more than good. At Whole Foods I stuck to the food needed for this week's meals: lamb chops, monterey jack cheese, queso fresco, blue corn tortillas, and tomatillos. I picked up organic flour tortillas from TJ's, and while I waited in the absurdley long line for gas, Jim ran in and bought milk from Costco. Harvest House was the last stop, and I got a couple of things for me and unsulphured dried apricots for my mom.

Back at the house, I went into full prep mode. The easy thing was making the glaze for the baa baas, which was simply salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, and honey. The mint pesto was mint (of course), parsley, garlic, salt, pepper, parmesan, EVOO, and pine nuts. I halved the recipe because I didn't buy enough chops, and Bobby's original called for 12 3 oz. chops. I bought 12 chops, but it ended up only being a little over a pound. I hadn't the slightest idea what a 3 ounce chop looked like, so I just 12.

I started in on the next recipe, which was a repeat of Tyler's chicken enchiladas. I roasted off the tomatillos, jalapenos, onion, and I remembered the garlic this time, too. While those roasted at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, I prepped the lamb itself by brushing salt, pepper, and EVOO on both sides. What I didn't realize was that the grill was out of commission thanks to an empty propane tank. So I grilled off the lamb in 2 batches on the indoor grill pan, which worked fine. The smell isn't what I care for, but between the open windows and vent fan, it was tolerable.

So for dinner, Jim had a couple of lamb chops, frozen peas (I mixed in butter and some mint), and bread from La Farine (which we picked up yesterday). That bread was so frickin' amazing. I swear there is nothing else like fresh bread.

The enchiladas actually went very quickly once I shredded up the rotisserie chicken purchased from Costco. The shredding itself was pretty gross, but I am actually becoming less squeamish about it now. Of course, the double layer of gloves definitely helps. I hope I didn't get too many bones in the two piles. Most of the chicken went to the enchiladas, but I reserved a cup and a half for chicken tacos.

With the enchilada sauce, all I did was throw the roasted veggies into the food processor (I did de-seed and de-rib the jalapenos first, though) and add cumin, salt, cilantro, and lime juice. I must admit, even I am impressed by this enchilada sauce (shameless self-promotion moment). It's super good, and even without the jalapeno seeds, it's got quite a kick to it.

For the chicken mixture, I sauteed onions and then added garlic and cumin, finally stirring in flour and chicken broth to make a veloute (one of the 5 mother sauces. I'm such a foodie! He he). I later on folded in the chicken and some of the enchilada sauce. I learned my lesson this time and only added a little sauce to the chicken mixture, not half like the recipe called for. While the onions were cooking, I shredded up the monterey jack cheese.

Then it was a simple assembly. It took way less time than my first attempt because the shredded cheese was in one bowl and I took out the 10 tortillas (out of the 12 pack) and put them on the counter. That way I didn't need clean hands at all and didn't have to keep putting on and taking off my gloves because of cross-contamination worries. It all got messy and mingled, but I used everything that was out there (unlike last time), so it was fine. I flash heated the tortillas over the gas stove, rubbed in some enchilada sauce, spooned on some chicken mixture, added some cheese, rolled it up, and placed it in the 8 x 8 baking dish. The recipe yielded 10 tortillas, 5 for each dish.

Although I had a ton of garbage, I actually kept more or less on top of it as I went along, so there wasn't too much cleanup to do at the end. I was pretty pleased.

Jim really liked the lamb. I tried to be pretty conscious about cooking them all the way through, since Jim said he liked it more medium. He said it was cooked well (as opposed to well doneness), so I was quite happy with that.

When I got back home, I still had to make dinner for myself. I ended up making a tofu dish created by Giada. When I saw this debut on Everyday Italian last week, I knew I had to try it, because, well, Italian tofu?? Never happen. Out of pure curiosity, I had to make it. Plus the recipe is ridiculously easy and quick, which was what I needed tonight.

I did my best to drain the tofu, weighting it down for several minutes. I made an Asiago pesto out of parsley, Asiago (of course), garlic, salt, pepper, walnuts, and grapeseed oil (as opposed to EVOO). The pesto was really, really tasty. I ended up adding a little more parsley because I hadn't measured the Asiago out, instead choosing to just throw a hunk into the food processor for convenience reasons. I think it was a little more than 1/2 a cup, because my first taste was awfully cheesy. So I added a little more parsley to tone it down a bit and it ended up being fine.

Then I grilled off the tofu on the George Foreman grill. The result was a crispy on the outside, delicate on the inside piece of tofu. I really liked the texture, and it was a very low-fat way of cooking the stuff. I did brush the tofu with just a bit of EVOO, but nothing compared to frying. I also added some salt and pepper, which was different for me, because I don't think I've ever eaten pepper with tofu. Not a bad combo by any means. Just different. I was shocked to see all of the water dripping out from the tofu onto the counter. When I do this again, I will definitely have to use the meat juice tray. Even with all of the blotting, tons of water still leaked out. I placed the grilled slices on more paper towels and they absorbed even MORE water!

The end result was different, but pretty good. You definitely had to have the exact amount of pesto on there. Too much and the tofu was completely masked. Too little, and it was bland city. But there were definitely bites that were quite yummy.