afotogirl | San Diego Photographer | Artist | Blogger

a breath: i will carry your heart in my heart always …

2011-12-23T19:54:00.001-08:00

Auntie Sally's graduation photo.

Today we said goodbye.

My heart is heavy. It broke again last night at the viewing, first hearing my mother's sobs as she stood over her younger sister's coffin. It broke again when my 82 year old grandmother stood over it to say goodbye to her third born. And again and again as auntie, uncle, sisters stood over it sobbing their goodbyes.

I feel broken. How and why am I still standing?

…

Back at my grandmother's, the family home is overflowing with bodies. My Auntie Sally I'm sure is smiling down from heaven pleased to see so many people gathered to honor her memory. For me, the house is too filled. I can't breathe so I retreat to the fresh air of my grandmother's garden.

I hear people laughing. Talking. Commenting on the food. More food than we started with. I know I should be inside. Helping. Visiting.

I can't seem to get myself to move off this bench. I am typing these words in Evernote on my iPhone. Keys blurring as I try to write through the tears.

Write.

Sally gave me my love of writing stories and reading. When I was young–grade school age–she would give me a list of 10 or 12 words and have me write a story using all of them. Sometimes she would give me the opening line, other times it was all up to me to choose the course of the story. Then I had to draw a picture to go with my story. And when I was done, she'd read it aloud and pile on the praise.

Never without a book in hand, she also gave me my first 300 page book to read when I was in junior high and got me started on horror ("Interview with a Vampire") and period romances ("Shanna" by Kathleen E. Woodwiss).

When my sisters and I were very young, mom had a hard time with fatigue so she would come over and cook and entertain us so my mother could rest. And I remember as each sister was born, she'd come and stay with us to take care of the older girls while mom and dad took care of our newest addition.

Me and Auntie during my 40th birthday celebration.

Several years back, I had a serious complication to elective surgery that very nearly took my life. I was in ICU for a few weeks and then moved to DOU (Definitive Observation Unit -- a step down from ICU) where I remained for a little more than a month. Mom would come stay with me as long as she could but with my youngest sister still at home and my father ill, her time was split. Auntie Sally was there every day, all day. She'd read to me, she'd let me sleep, she'd paint my toes, massage lotion on my legs, feet, arms, hand and make sure that I had a never-ending supply of ice chips and that the nurses where paying attention. When I went home, mom stayed with me for three weeks. Then Auntie Sally stayed with me for three weeks after that. She'd cook, help me on my walks, and introduced me to Buffy – now my favorite show right after X-Files (also a love we shared).

Auntie never married. Never had children of her own. Myself and my four younger sisters, and later my nephew, where like her children. She certainly loved us like we were.

And we loved her as if she was our second mommy.

It still feels so surreal. I won't see her test messages anymore asking me how to unfreeze her laptop, or emails in my inbox praising my latest Confessions post and teasing me about when I'd make what I wrote about for her. No more sharing horror books are talking about our latest sci-fi obsession.

60 years old. Her life seems so short. Her death, so sudden. This last year, I became so busy trying to juggle everything in my life: adjusting to life with a doggy, this blog, freelancing both photo and design work, still working on my jewelry making business, guest blogging and of course, my full-time design job at the newspaper. So busy that I didn't spend much time visiting with her. I am filled with so much guilt because of it. I have to remind myself that she loved me. That she spent a lot of time helping cultivate my creative spirit and encouraged me at every turn. I hope she knew how much I loved her. I hope she knew how much she meant to me. A woman of extreme faith, she lived her life with an open heart and treated everyone she met with a generous smile. She went out of her way to not rock the boat, to forgive no matter how much someone trespassed against her, to never say anything in anger and not hold anything against anyone. She was a good person almost to a fault.

I hope I can honor her memory by being just a fraction of the good person she was.

I love you, Sally. Always and forever.

{a breath & a bite} Family IS everything & The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap recipe Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti

2011-12-12T11:46:00.000-08:00

As I sit here writing this, I realize that I am so distracted it’s really difficult to think about cookies and holidays and all the material trappings of this time of year. It’s hard to remember the excitement I felt just three weeks ago while I was developing my recipe for my participation in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. Instead, I sit here, in the hospital, surrounded by family – some of whom have flown in from out of town – praying together for a miracle that will save my Auntie Sally.

Walking into the her room in ICU is both frightening and saddening. The brightness of the hospital lights, the whirring of machines that are keeping her breathing, cleaning her blood and feeding her all bring a lump to my throat and threaten to loosen tears from my eyes. She is fighting for her life.

She’s had a cough and cold for a while. Last weekend it was really bad. Finally, on Wednesday, my grandmother decided to call an ambulance to bring her to the Emergency Room. She was admitted and the calls went out informing the family. At first, we were told it was pneumonia and she would need to be in the hospital a few days.

But by Thursday, it was clear there was something more going on and they ordered another round of tests ... That’s when the worry started to set in.

Four days ago, I saw her in her room as she came in and out of consciousness, alert enough to know I was there, telling me to go home and be with my doggy and not to worry about coming back in the next day. She would be fine she insisted.

Today, sedated, medically paralyzed as to minimize the “waste” of oxygen, she is not the same person that sat among us two and a half weeks ago at our Thanksgiving table.

They’ve identified the secondary infection: Legionnaires. The doctor says she quite possibly could have had the bacteria for years in a dormant/semi dormant stage.

I looked up the disease.

The internet can be a scary source of information. 50% survival rate. 50%. That’s without other complications. Complications like pneumonia. Like impending kidney failure. Like diabetes.

It’s Monday morning now. I started writing this post yesterday but had to put the laptop away for the day. It was too hard to organize my thoughts …

I try to remain strong. I try to embrace my faith and know that ultimately I must accept God’s will. My Auntie is a woman of exceptionally strong faith. Wavering in mine at a time like this, my Auntie Syl reminded me last night, will only dishonor my Auntie Sally. Nonetheless, I had a meltdown last night for the first time since she was admitted.

Heaving, can’t breathe, fetal position, sobbing. So hard and so loud that my fur child couldn’t stand it. She went from calmly laying next to me with her little head using my leg as a pillow to jumping back and forth from one side of me to the other, trying to hump my arm, my leg, my head as it rocked on the pillow, lick my tears, howling along with me. They say that cocker spaniels are extremely sensitive to their human’s emotions. It’s one of the reasons you aren’t supposed to raise your voice when reprimanding them. A slight change in intonation and they can sense something is up. So I try not to cry in front of her but this … this is simply too much to keep inside.

Little gifts in the mail
I had been so busy last weekend that I got my cookies out for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap a day late.

I chose to make chocolate pistachio biscotti, making a trial run to take to work. After they passed the test there, the cookies were ready to be baked once more, packaged and sent out.

My recipients were:

Christine from Ruminations on Food

Nick from Macheesmo

Nicole from Sweet Peony

Wednesday evening I received my first box of cookies from the Swap. It was the first day of Auntie’s hospital stay. I’d planned on going to see her after work but re-injured my bad knee getting into the car. So I called her instead and spoke to her on the phone a few minutes. Then settled in to rest and enjoy a cookie from Sara over at The Little Bite.

Coconut Macaroons. Although not crazy about coconut, these cookies were moist in the center and after partaking of a few, I found them rather delicious. Thank you, Sara.

Thursday, after the definitive diagnosis of pneumonia, I made sure to get to the hospital. Auntie was still awake then but barely. Worn out when I left for home and my fur child, I found the second box of cookies. This time, they were from Lisa of Tequila Cupcakes.

Ginger Spiced Cookies. They were an instant pick-me-up. Soft, warming and comforting. And I couldn’t help but think, Auntie might like these. Thank you, Lisa.

Friday, Auntie was moved to pulmonary ICU which is where she is still. That’s when they sedated and intubated her. I left work early Friday, unable to concentrate and afraid I’d make a costly mistake. Seeing her there that first day, her chest rising and lowering more regularly, less labored due to the help of the machine, she looked like she was just sleeping. The beeping of the machines around us told me she wasn’t. I cried a little, I spoke to her. Told her she HAD TO FIGHT! Told my Grandfather it wasn’t time for him to walk with her.

My sister flew in from Arizona Friday night. I waited at the hospital as she was coming straight there. We all hugged, we all prayed. After she got a chance to visit with Auntie for a while, I said goodnight to my Auntie and drove my sisters home.

And the last box of cookies was waiting for me. Chocolate Cranberry Biscotti from Hannah 1/2 of Cats and Commas. Thank you, Hannah. A biscotti, a cuppa tea, a half hour of playing with my fur child and I was nearly calm enough to attempt sleep.

The cookies arriving in the mail where little bright spots in an otherwise difficult time. And I’m thankful to be a part of such a supportive online community.

Family is everything

It’s 10:30am now. I haven’t left for the hospital yet but I just got a call that my Auntie is worse than she was yesterday. They are changing her breathing machine to a stronger one and will resume the dialysis they started Saturday morning. My heart is heavy.

There is so much guilt. Guilt for the arrogance I had thinking that we have more time – enough time – to say and do the things we should be doing all along. All the times I said we’d do this or that, all the times I felt impatient or short with her are haunting me, no, strangling me making it hard to breathe.

I want more time.

But the truth is we don’t know, do we? How much time we have with the people we love.

We can’t waste it.

Please, don’t waste it.

Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti with Rum and Cinnamon

Makes 4 dozen

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tablespoon dark rum

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoon instant espresso powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 cups raw pistachios

1/2 cup evaporated milk, poured into a shallow bowl

3-4 tablespoons course sugar such as turbinado

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted

Preheat the oven to 350° and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter with the sugar at medium speed until creamy. Switch to the whisk attachment. Add the eggs, vanilla, and rum. Beat on medium high until smooth.

In a small bowl, whisk the flour with the cocoa powder, instant espresso, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add the pistachios and combine.

Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and use a wooden spoon to mix the dry ingredients into the batter a cup or two at a time. Incorporate well.

Divide the dough in half. Place each half in the center of a baking sheet. Dough will be sticky. Once on the pan, dip your hands in the milk and shape the dough into a long slightly flattened log. It should measure out to about 12 inches long by 3 to 4 inches wide. Repeat with second half. Pat down the top of both logs with a little more milk and immediately sprinkle the turbinado sugar over the logs.

Bake the logs for about 10 minutes then switch their positions in the oven. Bake for an additional 15 minutes. Remove from oven and move the logs onto wire racks to cool by carefully pulling on the parchment paper. Let the logs cool for 15 to 20 minutes.

Using a serrated knife, cut the logs into 1/4- inch slices on the bias (diagonally). Return the same parchment they were baked on to the cookie sheets and arrange the slices on them. Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool completely.

When cooled, melt the chocolate in a microwave or by using a double broiler. Place the cookies on a wire rack and place the rack over the cookie sheets or on top of newspaper. Use a tablespoon to drizzle the chocolate over the biscotti. Place rack in refrigerator for chocolate to set up.

Biscotti can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week or placed between waxed paper and sealed tightly, they can be frozen for up to a month.

How you can play next year

Want to participate in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap next year? Sign up here.

Ghirardelli's Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign & {Recipe} Making Mexican Mole with Intense Dark Chocolate

2011-10-14T17:39:00.000-07:00

Did you know that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month? In honor of it and to help raise awareness and funding, Ghirardelli is donating $50,000. Plus they're donating an additional $1 (up to a total of $100,000) for every code input from specially marked packages of Intense Dark Chocolates to the National Breast Cancer Foundation from now until December 31, 2011.

Look for the pink ribbon on Ghirardelli Intense Dark bars to participate in this awareness campaign.

The special packaging for Evening Dream™ 60% Cacao, Twilight Delight™ 72% Cacao, Midnight Reverie™ 86% Cacao, and Toffee Interlude™features a pink ribbon on the outside and has a code printed on the inside of the wrapper. This code can then be input here and for every properly inputted code, Ghirardelli will make the donation. That's $100,000 to educate women about early detection and provide mammograms for women who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford them. As a woman with friends who have fought this disease–and too many other forms of cancer to count–this is definitely a movement I can get behind.

So, how can you help spread the word? Buy some chocolate and input that code. Also, how about hosting a party? Buy a few extra bars, invite some friends over and have a pairing party. Try the chocolates alone, with wine, nuts, crackers, olives. Here's some ideas from wine expert and head Thirsty Girl, Leslie Sbrocco to get you started:

For more ideas plus a downloadable pairing party kit, log on to http://www.ghirardelli.com/intensedark/.

What I did with some of my chocolate

Since cooking is my passion, I wanted to take it one step farther and try cooking WITH the chocolates. Since my go-to cuisine is Mexican, it seemed only natural that I would try it with one of my favorite Mexican comfort foods: mole. Especially yummy this week because it got cold and rainy for a few days in our otherwise sunny San Diego.

Homemade mole doesn't have to be intimidating. With a few ingredients and about 40 minutes, you could be enjoying this hearty traditional Mexican meal. What are you waiting for?

Mole makes me think of home. Mom makes the best. I can't remember the last time I had hers. I usually cheat and make it semi-homemade using this. You can pick it up at most major grocery stores with a Mexican Foods section. It takes all the guess work out of making mole. Just open it up (a trick in itself! Use a bottle opener and inch your way around the cap with it. The container itself is a reusable juice glass. I have a collection of them.) and add it to a pot containing a quart of warmed chicken stock (ratio is four parts stock to one part mole paste). Stir to dissolve, taste and adjust salt to your liking. Add some chicken that you've pre-browned, cover and let simmer for 20-30 minutes until chicken is cooked. Easy-peasy.

A few years ago, while hosting a tamalada, I texted messaged mom for her recipe so I could make her mole for the pork tamales. I text messaged mom instead of calling because mom is deaf and praise be the baby fifa for text messaging! It's our favorite form of instant communication. Anywho…Naturally, there were no measurements in that text just a list of the ingredients in the order added. I come from a family of intuitive cooks. There is no measuring. It's all done by feel and years of perfecting recipes. Doesn't make my job very easy in trying to replicate them and record them here for everyone to share. But I try. The night before the tamalada I made the mole and was surprised at how close I was able to replicate it. Not exactly. But close.

There are many different kinds of mole. Every Mexican family has their own version. Some with chocolate. Some with peanuts. Some with tomatoes. Some made from re-hydrated chili. Some from fresh. And some, like my family's, made with our chili powder of choice: California.

If mole recipes with 20+ ingredients and the need to re-hydrate chilies or dealing with purees and toasting nuts seems a bit daunting, then this recipe is for you. You get the satisfaction and taste of homemade without investing in ingredients you'll most likely only use once. If you follow this blog at all, you know I use two chili powders a lot: California and New Mexico. So you probably already have them in your pantry if you've attempted any of my recipes.

Using Ghirardelli Midnight Reverie with 86% cacao in this recipe changed it from our traditional Mexican chocolate version. It really brought out the taste of the chili and made this mole taste all the more complex. It was a definite winning combination. One I'll try again.

Soon.

And often.

I served my mole on a bed of white rice with some refried beans topped with queso seco and cold hot carrots to add variety of heat, crunch and temperatures.

Mexican Mole featuring Ghirardelli Midnight Reverie

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CHICKEN

6 chicken quarters

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

olive oil

FOR THE MOLE

36 oz. chicken broth

4 tablespoons California chili powder

1 tablespoon New Mexico chili powder

1 tablespoon ancho chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon

1 bar Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate: Midnight Reverie 86% Cacao, hand broken in to small chunks

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

METHOD

Place chicken on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the chicken. Flip and repeat. Massage oil and seasonings into chicken. Set aside.
To a stock pot or dutch oven, add the chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and add the chili powders, cumin, garlic, salt and bouillon. Whisk to combine well. Add the chocolate, sugar, cinnamon and peanut butter. Whisk until chocolate is melted and peanut butter is combined. Bring heat down to low, cover and let simmer while you brown the chicken.
Bring a large skillet up to medium hot. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When oil is hot and shimmering, add chicken working in batches so as to not overcrowd your skillet. Brown on all sides. As chicken is browned, remove to a paper towel-lined platter until all chicken is browned. You're only searing in the juices and crisping up the skin at this point. The chicken will finish cooking in the mole.
Once all chicken is browned, carefully add to the mole ladling the sauce over all the chicken to make sure it's covered in mole. Cover and simmer on low for 30 minutes, stirring the chicken every 10 minutes or so.

SUGGESTIONS

Serve the chicken mole over a bed of Spanish Rice or white rice (my preference as it soaks up all the excess mole and is oh-so-good!). Add refried beans or a side of simply dressed peas to complete your meal.
I found that a nice glass of sangria goes really well with this complimenting both the chili and the Ghirardelli chocolate in the mole.
You'll most likely have extra mole after all the chicken is gone. Strain it and use it in the morning to smother your fried eggs with it. Yum!

Next up? Brie and Chocolate Quesadillas with Fig Jam. Oh, yay Baby!

How are you going to use your chocolate?

Until next time…

¡Buen Provecho!

Ani

The fine print: I received sample chocolates as part of the FoodBuzz Tastemakers program and directly from Ghirardelli.

{ Wordless Wednesday / iPhonegraphy } What I wish I was doing right now

2011-09-28T11:12:00.001-07:00

{ Portrait } Phil & Mary Ellen

2011-09-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

Photography was my first love and photographing people was the first aspect of it that I gravitated towards when I first started taking pictures way back at the age of 10. So it is a real treat for me when I can take a break from cooking and styling, graphic design and writing to reconnect with my first love.

Phil hired me at the word mill more than 20 years ago now. He took a chance on a gal who was a custom black and white printer with NO color printing experience to print color ON DEADLINE (yes, the old fashioned way in wet darkrooms, not digital ones), who had a stronger art background than journalistic and came from a commercial lab instead of another newspaper. Under his guidance in those early years, I flourished – truly – for the first time. He retired back in '99 and I occasionally see him in the building for visits and I thank Facebook for making it even easier to stay abreast of what's going on in each other's lives.

In fact, it was through Facebook that Phil contacted me recently asking if I would have time or interest in photographing he and his wife who are celebrating 50 years of marriage. Seeing as he is still in contact with so many current and ex staff photographers, I was honored that he asked me to document this special time in their lives. He wanted informal photos in Balboa Park and said he liked my style of shooting. So I grabbed my camera, asked my nephew to come and assist me and off we headed one Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago. It was the least I could for the first person in my professional life who truly wanted me to succeed and went out of his way to make sure I did.

Happy 50th Anniversary Phil and Mary Ellen.

Happy Monday everyone! Until next time…

Ani

{Portrait} Playing Cowboy

2011-09-22T09:29:00.000-07:00

From the archives...

{Life with a Dog} sporting a new skirt

2011-09-16T17:50:00.001-07:00

Been a while since I have posted a Life w/a dog shot. My fur child has a new 'do and I just had to share. And yes, ok, more than half of my feed photos on Instagram are of my fur child but c'mon! She's cute! And I simply can't help it!

Wordless Wednesday: Seattle, Washington {iPhoneography}

2011-09-14T12:41:00.001-07:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

Cooking and Baking with Olive Oil (Part 1): Pesto, Tortillas & Mexican Empanadas. Yes! Three recipes.

2011-09-01T23:48:00.000-07:00

Mexican style empanadas filled with ground beef and potatoes.

I jumped on the olive oil bandwagon before there was a bandwagon to jump onto.

Growing up with primarily American and Mexican cuisine meant that lard, corn oil, bacon fat and butter showed up to the cooking party most often. All tasty for sure, but none the most heart-healthy of ingredients. Olive oil did make an appearance on occasion. And when it did, it meant that an Italian meal was on the horizon: dad's famous lasagna or his fabulous meatballs with marinara the two most likely suspects. Both are legendary dishes in the Arambula household.

Recently I was given the opportunity to try a product relatively new to the Crisco brand: olive oil. And not just one, but three: Extra Virgin, Pure and Light Tasting. Having used olive oil as my primary cooking fat for more than 20 years now and not being particularly brand loyal to any up to this point, I was up for the taste test.

Quick & Easy "Bruschetta"

I used the Pure Olive Oil to make use of some of the basil growing in pots on my patio for a pesto pasta dinner one night. It was a tasty success!

The Extra Virgin Olive Oil I used for a late afternoon snack of quick bruschetta. It's super easy and not really a recipe per se. I learned this from an Italian friend years ago and every time I make it, I think of him. It really is the perfect vehicle to highlight the oil.

Start by toasting up a couple of slices of sourdough.
Take a clove of garlic, slice it in half and rub the cut side on one side of each piece of toast.
Take half of a tomato (or whole depending on it's size) per toast and place them on the each piece of toast.
Carefully slice, then chop the tomato while it's on the bread so that it soaks up all the juicy goodness. Spread the tomato evenly over the toast.
Chop some fresh basil and sprinkle over the tops of each toast.
Sprinkle some dried Italian seasoning and salt and pepper to taste over each slice.
Finish by drizzling Crisco Extra Virgin Olive Oil over your creation.

Crisco Light Tasting Olive Oil takes the prize

My favorite by far was the Light Tasting. Not because I don't like the taste of olive oil. Quite the contrary in fact. But what I found so surprising was just how light it was and therefore all the more versatile. My test to see just how mild tasting this oil could be?

There could only be one true test in my latina culinary bag of tricks: flour tortillas. Then, to really push the envelope, I opted to make those into empanadas - the kind I grew up with - which meant pan frying the tasty creations.

I used a quarter of the masa (dough) for the empanadas and rolled the rest out for my week's worth of tortillas. I have to say, I not only didn't miss the taste of butter (my fat of choice when making tortillas) but rather enjoyed the consistency produced by substituting it for the olive oil. The dough itself had great elasticity (think pizza dough) and rolled out beautifully. The finished tortilla had just the right amount of chewiness that a good homemade flour tortilla should have.

Once the meat and masa is made, next comes the fun part: assembling the empanadas! Start by rolling out the masa to about 4" in diameter.

Next, place about 2 tablespoons of meat on one half of the tortilla, staying away from the edges.

Fold the tortilla and using your index fingers and thumbs, start at one of and roll the edges up making your way around the half-moon shape pinching to seal as you go. You can use your thumbnail to pinch down afterwards or take a fork and use it to press the seal together ensuring it's tight.

Coming up next time

In Part 2, I share with you a recipe for Apple Upside Down Olive Oil Cake that really shines. Until then, enjoy my recipes for flour tortillas, Mexican Beef & Potato Empanadas and pesto.

Ani's Homemade Flour Tortillas

INGREDIENTS

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (plus 1/4 cup flour for rolling)
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3.5 oz of Crisco Light Tasting Olive Oil plus 1 teaspoon
1 cup of hot water (as hot as you can stand to touch it)

METHOD (FOR STEP BY STEP PICTORIAL, REFER HERE.)

Add first three ingredients to a large bowl. Stir to combine. Add oil (reserving the 1 teaspoon for later) and use your hands to combine well. Flour will be crumbly. Add the hot water a third of a cup at a time combining well between additions. Using your hands, gently knead the dough until it holds together and pulls away from the bowl. Once it holds together, knead the masa (dough) for three to four additional minutes. Masa should be smooth and have a good amount of elasticity. Pour the reserved teaspoon of olive oil over the masa and smooth it over the entire surface with your hands. Cover with a clean warm dishtowel and let rest for 15 minutes.

NOTE: If making Empanadas, now that the masa is made, skip to the Empanadas recipe. If making flour tortillas, continue this recipe.

Heat griddle. While it heats, prepare masa for rolling. Remove towel. Wrapping your hand around the masa, gently squeeze the masa between your index finger and thumb, pinching away about a golf ball size of masa. Continue until you have about 18 - 24 small balls of masa returning them to the bowl as you go. Keep the pre-formed balls covered while rolling to keep them from forming a "skin" and drying out.

Place one ball of masa into a shallow bowl of flour. Holding the ball over the work surface, using your thumbs to form a disk turning the masa clockwise while pinching in order to keep it round. Once it's about 1/4" - 3/8" thick, place a little more flour on work surface, lay the masa in the middle of it and use a rolling pin up and down a couple of times while applying a little bit of pressure. Masa should be an elongated oval shape. Flip the tortilla turning it a quarter turn. Roll up once, then down. Repeat the flip and turn until the shape is round and about 1/8" thick. As it gets thinner, take care not to be too rough as the thinner the tortilla gets, the more easily it will "tear." If it tears, use your fingers to pinch the tortilla back together.

Place the tortilla onto a hot griddle. After about 30 seconds, it should start to bubble up like a pancake does. Once the tortilla is covered in little bumps, carefully turn over. Using a clean towel, dab the tortilla applying a some pressure the surface to force hot air pockets to form (careful! If they pop on you, you'll get a steam burn). Flip once more and allow to puff up. You want some of the bigger bubbles to turn golden and the rest of the tortilla to become opaque. Take care not to burn them. Remove tortilla and place in a cloth covered bowl or tortilla warmer. Continue with the rest of the masa.

Mexican Empanadas with Beef and Potatoes

INGREDIENTS

For the meat:

2 tablespoons Crisco Pure Olive Oil, or to cover pan
1 large russet potato, diced
1/2 cup onion, chopped fine
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb ground beef
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon California chile powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste
6 oz canned tomato sauce

For assembly:

prepared tortilla masa
prepared meat
extra flour in a small shallow bowl
1/2 cup Crisco Light Tasting Olive Oil

For the meat: Heat a large skillet to medium hot. Add 2 tablespoons (or enough to cover) the pan. Once shimmering, add potatoes. Reduce to low, cover and let cook for three minutes. Remove lid, stir potatoes and add onions. Sprinkle the vegetables with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cover and cook for about 8 minutes (or until the potatoes are fork tender) stirring occasionally. Remove cooked potatoes from pan. Set aside.

In same skillet, add ground beef breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Add cumin, garlic, coriander, paprika, chile, 1 teaspoon salt and the pepper. Stir to combine. Cook for 5 minutes or until meat is no longer pink. Add back the potatoes. Add the tomato sauce, stir and remove from heat. Place mixture in a bowl and set aside.

For assembly: Wrapping your hand around the masa, gently squeeze the masa between your index finger and thumb, pinching away about a walnut-sized ball of masa. Continue with remainder of masa returning pre-formed balls to the bowl as you go. Keep masa balls covered while working to keep them from forming a "skin" and drying out.

Place ball of masa into the flour, covering the ball with flour. Remove and while holding the masa over your clean dry work surface, use your thumbs to form a disk turning the masa clockwise while pinching in order to keep it round. Once it's about 1/4" - 3/8" thick, place a little more flour on work surface, lay the masa in the middle of it and use a rolling pin up and down a couple of times while applying a little bit of pressure. Masa should be an elongated oval shape. Flip the tortilla turning it a quarter turn. Roll up once, then down until your tortilla is about 4" round.

Take about 1 - 2 tablespoons of the meat mixture and place on half of the tortilla in a half moon form. Gently pull over the other side of the tortilla to cover the meat, making sure you have a bout 1/4" of meat-free edge along the seams. Starting on one end of the seams, gently roll up the masa to fit snuggly against the meat and pinch as you work your way around to the end. You can use your thumbnail to "score" the rolled seam to make sure it's a tight seal or use a fork. Place on a platter. Cover and continue until all the meat and/or masa is gone.

Heat a skillet to medium hot. Add 1/2 cup of oil or until oil is about an inch high. Once oil is shimmering and hot, gently lay in the empanadas, always starting at the back of the pan and laying them in AWAY from you so as to not risk splashing yourself with oil. Place enough of the empanadas into the pan to fry them without them touching and leaving enough room for you to flip them easily. These will cook fairly quickly -- about 3 minutes on each side or until nice and golden brown. Always flip them away from you and once they are ready, remove to a paper towel lined platter. Continue until all the meat pies are cooked. Serve immediately with a side of Spanish rice and re-fried beans. Garnish with any combination of fresh salsas, sour cream, guacamole, chopped fresh cilantro or pico de gallo.

Basil & Spinach Pesto

INGREDIENTS

2-3 cups fresh de-stemmed basil (packed)
1 cup washed, de-stemmed spinach leaves (packed)
4 cloves garlic, peeled (more to taste if desired)
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
¼ cup grated Romano cheese
½ cup pine nuts
½ cup Crisco Extra Virgin Olive Oil or more as needed
salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

METHOD

To start, pan toast the nuts. Add pine nuts to a dry, nonstick heated skillet shaking the pan constantly to keep them from burning. Remove from pan when they're lightly brown (this will bring out their nutty goodness. Set aside to cool for about 15 minutes.

Once the nuts are cooled, place them and the garlic into a food processor, pulsing a few times to get them into a coarse consistency. Add the basil and spinach a little at a time, pulsing between additions. Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula (add a few tablespoons more oil if it’s too thick/dry). Add the grated cheeses and pulse until well blended. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Place in an air tight container, pouring a little olive oil over the top to just cover so air won't come into contact with the basil. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks (or freeze for up to three months).

Until next time…

¡Buen Provecho!

Ani

***The fine print: As a participant in the FoodBuzz Tastemaker Program, Crisco provided me with samples of their oil for this post.

I was a monkey in my other life: {recipe} Banana Bread with Mexican Chocolate

2011-08-30T21:08:00.000-07:00

I am bananas for bananas. Yes. I did just say that.

I have loved them since I was a child. But I'm one of those weird folk that prefers my bananas JUST BEFORE they are ripe: nice, firm and just starting to develop their sweetness. Yes, I'll eat them fully ripened but my preference has always been the former.

Sliced into bite-sized pieces and floating around my cereal, sliced and snuggled between two slices of bread smathered (yes, I did just make up a word, go with it, please) with peanut butter, a peanut butter and banana quesadilla - sans the queso of course cuz I'm not that odd - are just a few of my favorite ways to indulge.

Last week, I bought bananas hoping to haul my buttocks out of bed a half hour earlier than usual so I could enjoy a bowl of cereal with them before running off to work. Good intentions, surely, but the lure of a little more sleep kept me snuggled up with my fur child who also had no desire to get up earlier than I'd trained her to. So come the weekend, my nice firm bananas were nice and brown and gave way too much for my liking when I touched them.

Now what? Wasted money?

Lightbulb moment.

Banana Bread.

And not just any banana bread, but chocolate, no MEXICAN CHOCOLATE banana bread. Yes! That will do quite nicely, thank you very much.

The recipe I had on hand called for 7 bananas. Hmm. I had a mere three.

Google and my favorite bloggers to the rescue. I found this one over at Simply Recipes and thought, yes! This one I can adapt.

I brought it into work today. It was gone in no time.

Which only means, I'll have to make it again.

Soon.

Banana Bread with Mexican Chocolate
makes one standard loaf
(adapted from Simply Recipes)

Ingredients:

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed with a fork
1/3 cup unsweetened butter, melted
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
half a disk Ibarra Mexican chocolate, finely grated (see note)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚ F. Prepare a loaf pan by greasing the bottom and sides with butter. Cut out a sheet of baking parchment to fit the long width of the pan and have it oversized enough to come up at least 2 inches on both sides of the pan. These will be your "handles" allowing you to easily lift the cooled bread out of the loaf pan (see photos above). Grease the parchment.

With a wooden spoon, stir butter and bananas together in a large bowl until well incorporated. Mix in the sugar, egg and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda over the entire mixture and stir well. Add salt. Stir well. Add flour and chocolate. Mix to combine. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack for 20 minutes. Use parchment to lift bread out of pan and place on a serving dish. Slice and serve.

•NOTE: if you follow the link to the Ibarra chocolate, you'll notice another popular brand, Abuelita. You could use it but I have to say, there seems to be camps on the matter. Yes, camps. Liken it to those who prefer Coke to those who prefer Pepsi. Clearly Coke is better but there are still those poor folk who keep hanging onto Pepsi. In this scenario, Ibarra is Coke and Abuelita is Pepsi. And I'm sure by now you can tell that I'm a Coke person, not Pepsi. Seriously, to someone who has grown up drinking Mexican hot chocolate during cold winter evenings, my palate can tell the difference and it clearly prefers, as does my entire family, Ibarra. But if you can only find Abuelita in your local ethnic market, by all means, go ahead and use it. Just don't tell me. :)

Until next time,
Ani

Wordless Wednesday: Lake Crescent

2011-08-24T13:54:00.001-07:00

Caring for Cast Iron + { Recipe } Skillet Cornbread

2011-08-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

Just one post last week. Seriously?

Where have I been, you ask?

I wish I could blame it on my day job.

Or freelance overload.

Or out-of-town guests.

Or tell you that I was abducted by aliens.

Or that it's because my kitchen was swallowed up by a black hole and I've been living on takeout.

But, alas, it’s none of these. Truth be told, the excuse is a bit frivolous, really.

The real reason Confessions of a Foodie had only one post last week is …

Drumroll puh-leezzz …

Netflix.

More specifically, my (late) discovery of the NBC drama, “Friday Night Lights.”

The beautiful Tami Taylor who plays a guidance counselor and West Dillon High and her compassionate husband, Coach Eric Taylor. NBC only has the last five episodes online and they're only available until September 18, 2011. I think I see a DVD purchase come Black Friday. (Screen capture of nbc.com's FNL site.)

“FNL?” you ask.

Yuppers.

I never in a million years would have thought that I’d ever get so caught up in a series that on the surface was about nothing more than a bunch of high school jocks. It held zero interest for me during it’s run on network television.

But in the same week it became recommended viewing on Netflix, I also saw a tweet about it in my Twitter feed and I decided it was a sign. Plus, after just having finished viewing the last season of “The Tudors,” I was eager to find another engrossing drama.

I just hadn’t counted on finding one that would wind up being quite THIS time-sucking, can’t seem to turn it off engrossing. And I gotta say, the first episode didn’t grab me. I had to watch it twice. But half-way through episode two, I was hooked.

So last week disappeared on me faster than I could say “I’ll have a quad shot extra hot nonfat latte, please.” Because, seriously, a quad shot is what I needed in the morning after watching the show back to back all last weekend and almost every night this past week into the wee hours of the morning.
This show created a monster.

Such a monster that I was quite upset to find that Netflix only had seasons 1-4 and that there was a fifth season and that NBC only had the last five episodes of season five available on their site so I watched it there and grew exasperated with the commercials (I swear they up the volume for those dangnamit things!) but I HAD to know how it all ended so I watched them even though I missed most of the season prior to those last five episodes.

Phew! That was quite the run-on sentence but that’s how passionate I became watching this show that made me root (I hate football, but I rooted anyway) and cry and think and wish I had a relationship like Coach Taylor and his wife Tami.

But I made it through and have come out the other side.

Hello. My name is Ani and I’m a Netflix addict.

Welcome, Ani.

{ And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming. … So to speak. Hehehe. }

I've had this cast iron pan for more than twenty years. It has survived many a roommate unfamiliar with caring for cast iron. This pan is so resilient! And it just keeps getting better.

Cast Iron Dreaming
One of my favorite, and most often used, tools in the kitchen has to be my cast iron skillet. I absolutely love it! It makes the best fried eggs and omelets. It provides quick and excellent searing on steaks that can then be put directly into the oven to finish pan roasting. It’s also excellent for dry toasting seeds, nuts and herbs.

The beauty of cast iron is two-fold: it conducts heat evenly and with proper care and use, develops it’s own nonstick (or, a-hem, “low” stick) cooking surface.

Seasoning a new cast iron pan
My Lodge cast iron skillet and griddle I bought brand new before Lodge released their pre-seasoned line of products. If you buy one that needs seasoning, it’s really easy to do:

Place two racks in the oven. Place a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil on the center of bottom rack.
Using a paper towel, apply a thin even coat of lard, bacon fat or solid vegetable shortening (Crisco is a good choice) to the cooking surface of your pan. Do not use any kind of liquid oil or nonstick spray as the burning point on these are not high enough and will leave a sticky, gummy residue on the surface. Be sure to go all the way up the sides of the pan.
Place the pan in the oven upside down on the top rack centered over the cookie sheet. Turn the oven on and set the temperature to 400˚ F.
Bake for one hour.
Turn off the oven and leave the pan in the oven to cool.
Remove pan from oven. Carefully wipe with paper towels. Your cast iron pan is now seasoned and ready to use.

If after a few uses, food is still severely sticking to the pan every time out, simply scrub the pan out and repeat the seasoning steps above.

Using cast iron
The best way to use your pan is to begin by wiping your cooking oil on the cooking surface of a pan with paper towels. Then use add desired amount of cooking oil to the pan, place on low heat for the first couple of minutes, slowly turning it up to medium heat until it comes up to the proper cooking temperature. Always allow the pan to come to temp slowly. Once your pan reaches the desired temp, you're ready to start cooking. Remember, cast iron gets very hot. Never touch the handle without proper pot holder or pan handle cozy.

Caring for cast iron
A beautiful, well cared for cast iron pan will become even more seasoned – smoother, blacker – with regular use. And as it becomes more seasoned, it will become naturally nonstick. But it won’t become this way if you make the biggest mistake so many cast iron novice users make in caring for it: washing your cast iron with soap or using an abrasive sponge to scrub off burnt on food. Doing either of these will remove the seasoning (and any nonstick properties you’ve built up) from the pan forcing you to start the seasoning process all over. It’s at this point, that most cast iron haters have given up and moved on to other types of cookware.

To help ensure a good return on your investment, here are my tips for clean up:

After cooking and removing all food from the pan, immediately wipe the interior of the pan with a wadded up wet paper towel, careful not to burn yourself in the process as the pan will still be hot. Then turn the heat back on to high and let the pan heat up for five minutes to burn off any moisture. Turn off the heat. Add about 1/2 teaspoon of oil and use a paper towel to rub it over any surface of the pan that might come into contact with food and then continue to buff it out with a clean paper towel. This will provide a “shield” from air moisture that could allow rust to form on the pan while in storage awaiting it’s next use. 90% of the time, this is all that needs to be done.
If your pan is a little crustier and a paper towel wipe down is not enough, you can add some water to cover the bottom of the pan, bring it to a boil and use a wooden spoon to carefully loosen up the burnt on food. As soon as it’s loosened though, stop and carefully dump out the hot water then proceed with the instructions above to burn off moisture and provide a rust shield.
If you're uncomfortable with just wiping out the pan as in step one above, use a stiff nylon brush to clean the pan under HOT running water. Never place a hot pan in cold or lukewarm water as it can cause the pan to crack. Carefully scrub with the brush but NEVER use soap.

Cast iron cookware does take a little TLC initially but it’s really easy and I believe, the payoff well worth it. And with a little care, they’ll become treasured family heirlooms for generations.

Skillet Cornbread is quick, easy and tasty
I first saw the recipe for Skillet Cornbread over at Pioneer Woman. It was love at first read. I've made some tweak's to Ree's recipe because I love to bit into real corn kernels in my cornbread.

Ready? Let's get baking.

Add cornmeal and all-purpose flour to a large mixing bowl.

Add one teaspoon salt.

Add 1 tablespoon baking powder.

Use a fork to stir. See those lumps? Lumps bad. Use the fork to break 'em up until…

those lumpy bumpies are all gone and the dry ingredients are nicely combined.

Next up, dairy goodness: milk (I happen to drink nonfat but you can use whole or lowfat), buttermilk and one large egg.

Add the milk, buttermilk and egg to a bowl.

Whisk it baby, whisk!

Add 1 level teaspoon of baking soda to the milk mixture and whisk again.

Add the wet ingredients to the flour bowl.

Add 1 cup of frozen whole kernel corn and stir to combine.

Stir in melted butter.

Slowly warm up your cast iron skillet. Mine is 10 inches so my cornbread was a bit on the thin side. I like it thicker so if your pan is 8 1/2 inches, you'll have thicker bread.

I'm jealous.

Add pancetta to the pan and render out the fat. Once rendered, remove the ~~bacon~~ pancetta bits. If they aren't too terrible burnt, save 'em to add to your scrambled eggs the next morning. Trust me. Yum.

Add butter or shortening to the pan and melt. Now the next time I do this, I'm using Crisco shortening instead of the butter for this step. The butter made for REALLY crispy crust.

A bit too crispy for my liking though I hear it's preferred this crispy by most southerners.

Carefully add batter. Even it out with a spoon. Cook on the stovetop for 1 minute then transfer to a preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Oh! Yeah! Baby! Bring on the BBQ!

Skillet Cornbread

INGREDIENTS
1 cup Yellow Cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup whole kernel frozen corn
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 tablespoons pancetta
2 Tablespoons butter or shortening

METHOD

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Combine cornmeal, flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl. Stir together.
Measure the buttermilk and milk in a measuring cup and add the egg. Stir together with a fork. Add the baking soda and stir.
Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Gently stir in the corn.
Place 1/4 shortening into a small bowl and microwave to melt. Slowly add melted shortening to the batter, stirring until just combined.
In an iron skillet, cook the pancetta to render out the fat. Remove the pancetta bits and save for breakfast (taste yummy in scrambled eggs). Add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter or shortening to melt careful not to burn. Carefully pour the batter into the hot skillet and spread to even out.
Cook on stovetop for 1 minute, then transfer to the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I hope you enjoy the cornbread!

Until next time,

Ani

Kodak Gallery: Making my own personal photo-filled cookbook { plus, a 40% discount for my readers!}

2011-08-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

My 20 page collection of recipes sampled from this blog made possible with Kodak Gallery's Photo Books software came in the mail today and I was so excited to see the printed results. I was not disappointed in the quality one bit!

I close my eyes and see myself walking through a bookstore, perusing the cookbook section and stopping when I find this: Confessions of a Foodie: A Latina in the Kitchen. The book is slickly designed and filled with gorgeous photos of dishes inspired from my childhood styled and shot in my vibrant palate with short stories paraphrased from this very blog introducing each recipe.

Then I wake up and realize it's only a dream … well, a dream for now anyway.

Until then, I'll have fun sharing my trial run "cookbook" that I had the pleasure to produce last week courtesy of FoodBuzz's Tastemakers Program and Kodak Gallery's Photo Books software.

The photo book comes with a slipcover, making it feel all the more special.

I've made photo books before and this Kodak interface is just as easy to use as what I've used previously. Easier, in fact, because while I was laying out the book, I realized I needed a vertical instead of a horizontal for this page or that page and it was a cinch to add more photos from within the page layout window even after I started the design process. They automatically loaded into the photo tray at the bottom of the design interface. The software also alerted me when a photo I was using was too small for proper reproduction. Since I keep all of my full-size photos on a separate backup drive, it wasn't a big deal to go back and switch out the lower resolution file for a better quality one. If all your files are optimized for web, you might want to go back and locate your original files before uploading the photos you want to use.

Here's a peak at what the interface looks like:

Considering that this is Kodak, I really shouldn't have been surprised at the quality of the book itself. It's quite lovely. I picked a high-gloss black cover and the pages themselves feature a thick satin finish paper. Color is spot on (I uploaded files with an sRGB color space) with only a little gain in the darks.

This is the opening spread. While designing, you can change easily between a photo page, a text page or a combination of both. Also, the page templates allow for multi-photo options though aligning multiple photos is a bit of a crap shoot. You can see from this shot that the right-hand photo of the upside down margarita glass doesn't line up with the larger photo on the left. I finally gave up trying to get them right.

My only complaint – and it should be noted that the average user will most likely not be bothered by this – is the inability to manipulate character styles. What I mean by this is that I did not have the ability to italicize or bold individual words or change headline size. Any changes I made to the text affected the entire text block. Considering that I am a professional graphic designer, not being able to off-set my recipes from their introductions was a real frustration. But like I noted earlier, the average user familiar with basic word processing will not note this as a problem. And it defnitely won't be one if your book is primarily photos with captions or short introductions.

Discount Offer from Kodak

I would definitely recommend this service if you're looking to put together a collection of recipes, document a family vacation or special occasion. It makes a lovely gift, too. And what's really awesome is that Kodak is offering all of my readers 40% off on a medium or large hardback photo book creation of their very own from now until August 31, 2011. 40% off! Yay!

Use this link, www.kodakgallery.com/creativity, to redeem your discount.

Go. Create. Enjoy! And share here with me if you take advantage of this awesome opportunity.

Until next time,

Ani

* THE FINE PRINT: I received a discount for the creation of this book as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program with Kodak Gallery.

Tea for Two is Sweeter with Earl Grey Scented Shotbread Cookies {recipe}

2011-08-08T09:29:00.000-07:00

I love having girlfriends over to chat it up over a little something to nosh. And sometimes, when that little something is a little sweet, all the better! These earl grey shortbread cookies are light and crumbly with just a hint of the earl grey flavor and are ever-so-slightly sweet.

Shortbread is one of my favorites. It’s a super basic, easy dough that is great all by itself but also serves as an awesome base for add-ins such as these earl grey tea leaves but also lavender buds, mini chocolate chips, crushed nuts or half dipped in chocolate (aka, Royal Shortbread). This particular recipe is lighter and more delicate than the classic 1-2-3 version (one part sugar-two parts butter-three parts flour) due to the addition of the cornstarch.

I wrote about my attempts at perfecting my shortbread over at Tree.com for a post I did on lavender shortbread. Now with my basic dough figured out, I can experiment with various add-ins to my hearts content.

Ready? Let's bake!

Cream powdered sugar and room temperature butter. Add vanilla.

Is a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch and a dash of salt.

Add a third of the flour to the butter mixture.

Carefully fold to combine. Repeat with the second third of flour.

Earl grey is hands down my favorite tea. I've been out of loose leaf for a while and due to finances, found this alternative bagged tea from Fresh &amp; Easy. Considering the difference in price from what I used to use, I was pleasantly surprised the first time I made it at how tasty it is. For my shortbread, I cut a bag of it open and it gave me just shy of 2 teaspoons.

Add the last third of the flour to the dough bowl and the earl grey tea leaves. Carefully fold until all is combined.

Turn out the dough onto a piece of plastic cling wrap. Form it into a ball then pat it down to about a 1/2" thick disk. Completely wrap the dough with the cling wrap. Pre-flattening the dough saves you from spending too much time rolling out the chilled dough. This ensures the dough has less time to come up to room temperature before baking. Place the disk into the fridge and allow it to chill for 30 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 300˚F.

Working with a quarter or half of the dough at a time, roll it out on a lightly floured board using just enough flour to keep it from sticking. Too much flour will toughen the dough so be a bit stingy here. I use a 3 inch scalloped edge biscuit cutter to cut out my dough after rolling it out to about 1/4" thick. Combine the scraps from each roll/cut stage, flatten it out, wrap it in the cling wrap and place it back in the fridge while this first batch is baking.

Place the cut out cookies 1/4"or so apart onto a sheet pan lined either with parchment paper or a silicone cookie pad. Bake for 18-20 minutes just until the cookie is set and just starting to get lightly golden around the edges, but not browned. It's such a tragedy to over-bake shortbread so keep an eye on it and start checking at about 16 minutes. Allow to cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

Some tips for success:

Use the best unsweetened butter you can afford. The butter, is after all, the main flavor in shortbread.
Don’t add too much extra flour when forming ball or rolling. Use minimum needed to keep dough from sticking. Adding too much flour at this stage can result in a tough dough.
Work quickly to keep butter from warming up to room temperature.
To ensure that cookie won’t “spread” while baking, after cutting out cookies and placing on cookie sheet, put cookie sheet into refrigerator for 5 minutes to add back some chill.
Unless your cookie sheets can fit on one rack, bake only one sheet at a time to ensure cookies bake evenly.

Until next time!

Ani

Gorgeous evening at the dog park

2011-08-03T19:12:00.001-07:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

Feeding Unexpected Company is Easy with a Well-Stocked Pantry: Baked Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta with Chicken {recipe}

2011-08-03T17:31:00.000-07:00

Weekends or mid-week, a good friend drops by and you get to talking and talking and talking and the next thing you know, it’s dinner time. Uh-oh! You haven’t been grocery shopping yet. What to do? Don’t upset the rhythm of your lovely leisurely visit by leaving the comfort of your home and heading to a restaurant (especially if that talking included sipping on wine or cocktails). Instead, if you have a well-stocked pantry with essential easy to throw together ingredients, simple, yet satisfying dinners are a snap such as this Baked Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta with Chicken & Ricotta.

I’ve written about pantry staples before but part of the fun of having this site is the joy in sharing ideas on what to include in a well-stocked pantry and then what to do with those ingredients.

My previous list of must-haves included:

long grain white rice
pinto beans
canned stewed tomatoes
peanut butter
eggs
white flour for tortillas
masa harina for corn tortillas
frozen chicken breasts
butter
milk
canned albacore
olive oil
onions
seasoning including Knorr's chicken bouillon, dried oregano, dried basil, ground cumin, California chili powder, Spanish paprika, kosher salt, black pepper

I had a “Duh!” moment when I went back and read this list from last year. I realize it was meant as a sampling of the staples I try to keep in my pantry and not a complete list. Some of the items that I left out – most of which are in today’s recipe – include:

Trader Joe’s jarred sauces including basil pesto, sun-dried tomato pesto, masala and korma
assorted Italian pasta shapes with an emphasis on penne and thick spaghetti
cheese including parmesan, ricotta, mozzarella (usually fresh such as ovoline or buffalo), shredded mild or sharp cheddar, jack cheese and cotija (a Mexican hard, aged cheese)
pine nuts
chicken
vinegars including balsamic, red wine, apple, rice and white

Now, let’s get cooking!

Boil pasta in salted water to al dente. Drain, rinse under cold water and add to a large bowl. Tip: To prevent the salt from staining your pans with that hard to remove white ring, don't add salt to water until it's already reached a boil.

Add leftover cooked chicken, jarred pesto and pan toasted pine nuts. Stir to combine. Personalize it: Any leftover cooked meat will work. I've made this with both chopped steak and even chopped leftover pork chops. Or leave the meat out altogether and use canned beans – or not. The point is, don't be afraid to customize to your taste. As for the pesto, I've also used basil pesto and it's just as tasty.

Turn oven on and preheat to 400 degrees F. Coat the inside of your casserole dish with olive oil. Place a layer of the pasta to just cover the bottom. Sprinkle with parmesan.

Use a spoon to add dollops of ricotta.

This is olovine. It's a fresh mozzarello made from cows milk and comes packed in a brine. It's soft and has a creamy, milder taste taste than it's semi-hard counterpart that most people are familiar with. And even considering that it sits in a salt solution, it's actually less salty than it's counterpart as well.

Hand shred some olovine over the ricotta.

Add another layer of pasta and repeat the parmesan, ricotta, olovine steps.

Add the last layer of pasta, sprinkle with more parmesan and add the last of the olovine.

Bake in a 400˚ F. oven for 15-20 minutes until the cheese has melted and the top has a golden crust.

Let it sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

{ Sharing the Kitchen With } Glo shows me her doggy tested recipes for homemade dog food

2011-07-29T22:15:00.001-07:00

I am the proud mommy of a fur child.

So proud, in fact, that 75% of the photos on my iPhone are of her and I probably have about 10 gigs of photos on my backup drive that I shot with my 5D. It didn’t take long for me to become one of those people who post photos of their dogs on Instagram, Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, have photos of them all over work stations and screensavers and wallpaper on computers. Starbuck even has her own blog (though it’s been a bit neglected of late) and I post a lot of photos of her on my other blog. Yes, this blondie has become my center and I’ll admit that sometimes, even being on as tight of a budget as I am some months, I will go cheap on my own groceries so I am not skimping on the quality of her dog food (and, ahem! treats). I occasionally will buy her wet food but most of the time, she’ll sniff it, taste it and walk away. So when my friend Gloria told me about her two super simple homemade dog food recipes she makes for her fur child, I jumped at her offer to share them with me.

Happy Anniversary, Starbuck

Starbuck on the day I brought her home from the Humane Society one year ago.

Today is the one year anniversary of the day I rescued my little Starbuck from the Humane Society. I’d been looking for a dog for more than a year. Once a week, I’d pour myself a glass of wine, fire up the laptop and peruse the pages of our local Humane Society, Animal Shelter and dog rescues.

Over the course of a year or so, I’d met several dogs but had yet to make a connection with any of them. I was beginning to think that because I’d always been a cat person, I would never find a dog that I could commit to. I’d given myself one more month to look. If I came up empty, then I figured I’d change course and bring home a kitty instead.

One Wednesday evening, I came across a photo of a white and brown spotted cocker spaniel on the Humane Society website. The next day, I left work during my lunch break to see the dog in person. When I reached his “apartment,” I couldn’t believe how cute he was. But he already had 7 holds on him. Disheartened, I moved on to the next apartment where a very vocal jack russell was at the window trying to get my attention. So I stopped to give him some when I noticed he had a roommate. A smallish blonde puppy was lying on the floor playing with a chew toy completely ignoring the terrier. I looked at the info posted on the window. Lettie was her shelter name and she was a 10 month old cocker spaniel. You’d never know it by looking at her. She had this crazy Nina Blackwood head of hair and the fur covering her body was short and choppy all over.

By Halloween, there was no mistaking that Starbuck was a full-blown cocker spaniel.

I asked to see her immediately and found out that she had just been released from observation that morning and didn’t even have a profile online yet. She came up to me, tail wagging, butt wiggling, licked my hand and then sat on the floor watching me as I wrestled with her roommate who was determined to keep my attention all to himself.

And that was it. The fact that she acknowledged me but wasn’t so aggressive as to fight the terrier for my attention made me fall in love with her and her sweet temperament. I knew I’d met “the one.”

Spanish Landing is one of Starbuck's favorite spots: she watches the sailboats go by, chasing the seagulls and enjoys all the loving she gets from folks out exercising who stop to pet her.

Two days later, I got to bring her home. Little did I know then, or in the frustrating early two months of training, exactly how much this buff cocker spaniel would add joy and love to my life. I take her nearly everywhere with me. She’s won over everyone who has met her. And now, a year later, I can’t imagine my life without her.

Making Homemade Dog Food

This is Glo.

This is her dog Bonnie. Isn’t she adorable?

Glo told me that she started making Bonnie’s dog food – and Clyde’s, too, who they lost suddenly a while ago – when the dogs where a year old. It was just about the time that she and her finance, Sean, moved to California.

“I couldn’t stand the smell of it,” said Glo of the first time she opened a can of wet dog food. She decided then and there that there was no way she was going to feed it to her “kids.”

Faced with the dilemma of finding an alternative, she did what most of us do when faced with a question: She Googled. The recipes she’s sharing with us today are modified versions of what she found all those years ago.

“The beauty of these recipes are that you can substitute any veggies (that are safe for dogs) for ones that are just about to turn. You can even use leftovers,” she says. In fact, the potatoes used for one of these recipes were from dinner the night before. As for the meat, she buys whichever ground meat is on sale come shopping day.

I asked what Bonnie’s vet said about her feeding these homemade dog foods to her. “Oh, the vet’s fine with it completely,” said Glo. When it’s time to eat, Bonnie gets a bowl made up of half good quality dry dog food and half homemade dog food.

Easy Peasy

Nena, Glo's beautiful little girl, kept us company in the kitchen while we cooked up this first batch.

Isn't she lovely? Her eyes are the first thing you see. Large, round and a gorgeous shade of blue.

Ok, baby break is over.

First up: Ground turkey with brown rice and carrots

Heat up a pan and add a tablespoon of vegetable oil (Glo used olive oil).

While the oil heats up, chop the carrots in a food processor.

When the oil is hot, add the meat and begin to break it up.
Once it starts to cook, add the carrots and cook until the meat is almost cooked through.

Add water to help steam the carrots.

Add pre-cooked rice. Glo was a little short on leftover brown rice so she added some white rice to get the right amount and then finishes the dish with a pinch of salt.

Mmmmm. What is that smell?

Starbuck was circling me when I moved the bowl of food over to the coffee table to take the "finished" shot. She could hardly wait to taste.

Next up: Ground beef, zucchini, potatoes

Use a food processor to shred the zucchini.

Heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a pan. Add the ground beef and break up with a wooden spoon to begin the browning process.

Add the zucchini. Stir to combine.

Add the pre-cooked potatoes.

By this time, the girls were circling Glo. They could smell something yummy cooking.

Glo added a dash of salt to the pan. And this recipe is ready to serve up.

A couple tablespoons of dry food and a couple of this homemade dog food and …

dinner is served.

(CLICK ON PHOTOS FOR PRINTABLE RECIPE CARDS)

Have an awesome weekend!

Until next time,

Ani

The Hemingway Diaquiri: My new favorite cocktail {link love}

2011-07-20T11:56:00.001-07:00

Last Monday I tweeted that I was up early shooting a cocktail in my home studio for a cover story for the newspaper and how said cocktail will be THE drink of my summer.

The story published today and this is the completed page. Staffer Robert York wrote a sweet story on Hemingway and how this recipe became the author's favorite. You can read the entire story here.

How did I get here?

I will admit it right here to all of you (in case being a casual reader of my blog hasn't already clued you in): I am a control freak. Yes, yes I am.

But they say, the first step to recovery is acknowledging there is a problem.

But I ask, is it a problem? Seriously?

Because those times I am in complete control of my creative process – from deciding on the most visual recipe to reproduce, recreating that recipe in my own kitchen, shopping for props and then art directing the page design in my head while I am shooting the image makes for a real sense of freedom and creative satisfaction. And let's face it, with the economy pushing companies these days to consolidate in a quest to cut down costs, where individual talent is often thwarted under the guise of efficiency, having a day when you are satisfied with the outcome of your efforts is priceless. Well, almost priceless, anyway. If it fails, I fail alone. If it sings, however, everyone is happy and I have the satisfaction of a job well done.

I started prop shopping two weeks before my planned shoot weekend. This included buying new wood for a fresh off-white background, deciding on the right "shade" of white (which took three trips because I was being indecisive), painting it and then finding the right tray and V-shape cocktail glass (the shape of my martini glasses were really shallow and I wanted glasses with a nicer profile that would allow me to show off some of the color).

I tracked down the liqueur needed, bought the fruit and shot the recipe the day before I needed the final shot. And as is my usual control freak way, I stopped shooting when I realized I wasn't getting the shot.

I slept on it. Woke up super early the next day – which was of course the Monday I was to start design on the page – and re-shot it.

I find sleeping on it always helps. I discovered that in art school where I pushed my deadline all the time because I wanted time for ideas to "gel" in my head before attempting them and then gel some more after my initial efforts.

I'm just weird that way.

Here are some outtakes:

Until next time,

Ani

Sunday cooking: Two Color Pepper Steak with Potatoes for the week {recipe}

2011-07-19T09:00:00.001-07:00

On Sundays, I like to carve out time to cook some dishes that will reheat well (and pack well for lunch) during the work week. It isn't always easy finding this time but when I can do this, it saves me from eating poorly during the week. You know what it's like, right? Come home late from a long day at work and no matter how much you love to cook, after walking the fur child, there just isn't enough energy left in you to make an elaborate meal. So you either stop on the way home and pick up overpriced fast food that lacks anything resembling nutrition. Or if you're like me, you have just enough energy to scramble an egg, wrap it in a tortilla, pour yourself a glass of wine and call it dinner.

Hence the Sunday cooking marathons whenever I can. One of my favorite dishes to make is pepper steak. It's also one of those dishes that reminds me of home. My mom makes the best. It's been a very long time since I've seen her make it and can't quite remember how she does it. So I came up with my own version from what I remember Mom's tasting like and although I am not too proud to admit that there's something about mom's that I can't quite replicate, my version is nonetheless quite yummy.

Maybe some day, I'll have Mom make it for me while I take notes. And then I'll post an update.

Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. Hear that Mama?

Until that day, I'll share my version.

Let's get the party started: Since the potatoes will take the longest, I get them going first. Peel and cube one large russet potato. Add two tablespoons of olive oil to a large frying pan. Heat to medium hot; oil should be rippling and shimmering when ready. Test the pan by placing one cube of potato in the pan. If it sizzles and bubbles, add the remaining potatoes. If it doesn't even so much as burp, wait a little longer for the oil to reach the right temp. Cook the potatoes covered, keeping a watchful eye so that they don't burn. You don't want them to crust up or even brown but you do want them almost fork tender. While they cook, move on to prepping the other components.

Prep the veggies: What's pepper steak without the bell peppers? You'll need to matchstick two. They can be whatever color you have on hand. Since we all know that we eat with our eyes first, I like to make it colorful by using one green and one red. You'll also need to slice a small onion - white or yellow - whichever you have on hand.

Prep the meat: I like to use a thin steak because it cooks fast but you can use whatever kind of steak you like. I usually buy the least expensive cut they happen to have on shopping day. You'll need to cut it into bite-sized pieces. Put flour, salt and freshly ground black pepper into a large ziplock bag. Add the cut meat and shake.

Shake. Shake. Shake. (Did K.C. & the Sunshine Band just pop into your head or am I, like, totally dating myself?) Shake until all the little bits of steak goodness are well coated.

Shake off excess: I like to use a strainer over a paper plate to shake off the excess flour.

Cook the veggies: Once the potatoes are almost fork tender, remove from the pan, set aside and wipe out the pan. Add another tablespoon or two of olive oil and sauté the onions until translucent (about 5 minutes).

Add the peppers and cook another 8 minutes. Remove the veggies from the pan and set aside.

Meat browning time: Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan and once the oil is hot, carefully add the floured meat. Sauté until all sides are slightly browned.

Add back all of the veggies. Stir to combine. Add 1/3 cup water, cover and let simmer for 15 minutes or until liquid is reduced by half and the potatoes are fork tender.

Serve with a green salad. And a glass of wine is always welcomed.

Pepper Steak with Potatoes

Ingredients

1 large russet potato, peeled and cubed
1 small yellow onion, sliced
1 small green pepper, cut into matchsticks
1 small red bell pepper, cut into matchsticks
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 - 1 1/2 lb steak, cut into bite-sized pieces
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Method

In a large frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil until oil is shimmering. Add cubed potatoes. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Stir potatoes to turn. Continue cooking and stirring until almost fork tender but not browned. Remove from pan, set aside and wipe out pan with a paper towel.

Add another tablespoon olive oil to pan. Add onions and sauté until translucent. Add peppers and cook for 5-8 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.

In a large resealable plastic bag, add flour, 1 teaspoon each of salt and ground black pepper. Shake to mix. Add cut steak. Shake to coat steak well. Turn steak out into a fine mesh strainer and shake off excess flour.

Add 2 tablespoons oil to hot pan. When oil is shimmering, carefully add the meat. Brown on all sides. Return vegetables to pan. Stir to combine.

Add 1/3 cup water, cover, reduce heat to low and gently simmer for 15-20 minutes until liquid has reduced by half or until potatoes are fork tender. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Until next time... ¡Buen Provecho!

Ani

Farewell to a great gig and as my parting gift? This awesome Spanish Sangria recipe {link love}

2011-07-15T12:51:00.001-07:00

Just when I was in dire need of a kick in the behind to dedicate more time to writing, cooking, shooting for my blog, along came Tree.com and it's initiative to expand their sphere of influence by starting up a Food & Dining Channel. The Channel Leader, the awesomely talented Darlene, approached me about becoming a Featured Contributing Writer for the new site and I was so excited and honored to have been a part of this great bunch of passionate folks. Tree.com will no longer be devoting energy to this initiative but the site remains up and the recipes still available to inspire you to cook, get healthy and make life a little bit tastier.

My final story on making this luscious fruity spanish sangria published today. Head on over for the recipe and enjoy it this summer at your next BBQ.

Pork makes everything better: Simple Carnitas Tacos with Salsa Cruda {recipe}

2011-07-13T00:59:00.001-07:00

Most of my fondest memories growing up involve food. I have little pictures in my mind of barely being able to reach the counter and "helping" mom roll out tortillas. I see our family sitting around the kitchen table assembling tamales. There's the picnics at the beach with grilled burgers, grilled corn and homemade treats; my best girlfriend and I combing over my childhood cookbook trying to decide what to make next –that is, of course, after we graduated from using our Easy Bake ovens. There's also mom getting up at an insane hour to make bean and Mexican rice burritos for our 2 hour annual road trip to Disneyland; Dad coming home in the middle of the night from his carpet laying job, waking us up with the smell of banana pancakes to entice us into the kitchen to eat with him. There's the birthday cakes of all shapes and sizes that mom made for us: from Mickey Mouse to Cinderella, and because we got to choose our birthday dinner, from lasagna to beef stew, the food was always special.

There's also the days of preparation for holidays, family get-togethers, and just because. And in this latter group - the "just because" - lies a picture in my head of my dad, chair pulled up to the stove, two giant - no, ginormous - thick bottomed pots with the sounds of crackling and bubbling escaping from them and, there's dad, holding a huge wooden spoon - no, paddle is a better word - with a handle at least two feet long that he hand made for this special application: the ritual known as homemade carnitas.

Carnitas are super easy to make. Some folks like to add spice but traditionally, it's just pork butt, salt and water. I believe Dad brines his meat in milk sometimes and his ALWAYS come out the best. I think the secret to his success is his watchful eye and his intent: everything is made with so much love, how could it not be anything other than delicious?

Simple Traditional Carnita Tacos with Salsa Cruda
serves 6-8

2 - 3 lbs of pork butt
2 teaspoons kosher salt
water

2 dozen corn tortillas, for the tacos

To make the meat:
Cut the pork butt into approximately 2" cubes. You don't want them too small or they'll disintegrate during the rendering process. Place them into a heavy bottomed pot in as close to a single layer as possible (my dutch oven is big enough for "mostly" one layer). Sprinkle the salt over the meat and add water to just cover the meat. Bring pot to a rapid boil then drop the heat down to medium-low and slowly simmer the meat until the water has evaporated, about hour to hour and a half depending on the size pot, amount of meat, etc. While it's simmering, stir the meat to turn it every 15-20 minutes.

Once the water has evaporated, the fat on the meat will begin to render out. Continue cooking and stirring every 20 minutes or so on medium-low, about an additional hour to hour and a half. Once the most of the fat is rendered out, remove the meat onto paper towel lined baking sheet. Set aside.

For the Salsa:

1 medium tomato, rough chopped
1/2 small to medium Spanish onion, finely chopped (approx. 1/3 cup)
1/3 cup chopped cilantro, leaves only
juice of one lime
salt and pepper to taste
optional: 1 small jalepeño, seeded and finely chopped

Toss all the ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.

To assemble:
Chop the meat into bite-sized pieces. Use a griddle or large skillet to warm the tortillas. Place some meat on the tortilla and top with the salsa cruda. Serve immediately.

Some tips for success:

When it comes to carnitas, fat is your friend. While shopping for your meat, if you have a choice between lean and one with more visible fat, get the visible fat cut. I usually pick the one with the most fat in the bunch. And when you bring it home, don't trim it off. The fat will keep the carnitas moist on the inside, flavors the meat and provides the "lard" that will render off during the final cooking stage to give that awesome crunchy exterior that good carnitas always have.
If you dread stovetop braising because you're having to constantly adjust the heat on your burners, it's not your technique that needs to change, it's your cookware. Your cookware has probably also trained you to move the food around because this part of the pan burns browns the food too quickly. So, use a heavy bottomed pot that conducts heat really well and very evenly. A heavy cast iron, a good quality dutch oven, a heavy copper bottom pot is what you need as opposed to a thinner stainless steel or aluminum pot for this recipe. And you don't have to spend a lot of money. I bought my Lodge enamel dutch oven from Walmart for under $50 and it's paid for itself several times over since I'm no longer burning food due to a thin pot.
Do cook on the stovetop. Don't cheat and put it in the oven. This isn't brisket. You want the meat to slowly simmer UNCOVERED on the stovetop.

Tequila Lime Grilled Shrimp: For a gal learning to like seafood, this shrimp ain't too shabby! { recipe }

2011-07-06T16:00:00.001-07:00

This Tequila-Lime Grilled Shrimp is easy to make and, considering I was not a shrimp eater the first time I had it and now love it this way, I'd have to say, it could quite possibly convert any non-seafood eating person into a shrimp eating person.

There used to be a time where my very first reaction to anything from the sea – other than canned tuna – was "YUCK!"

Growing up with a dad who's father/daughter time included early morning pier fishing, you'd think I'd have acquired a taste for seafood as a youngster. But I didn't. No, what I loved was the father/daughter time: Dad would take turns taking one of us three girls out (sisters 4 and 5 came later). He'd pack breakfast for us and I remember feeling so grown up because I got my very own thermos of hot chocolate. Then we'd head out before the sun came up while the rest of the house was still asleep.

Other times it was a family affair and the whole lot of us would pile into the station wagon, each of us girls with our own fishing poles and we'd head to Mission Bay to fish and picnic.

But even if we caught anything, us girls would never eat it. Any caught fish was for mom and dad. Especially after we'd catch a glimpse of dad cleaning the fish. The thought of eating it after seeing its life-force all over the chopping block dad used was just not something I'd easily forget. Nope. Us girls would have hamburgers or hot dogs on fish night.

Fast forward to college where by the time I made it to the cafeteria for lunch, all that was usually left was tuna salad. Luckily, this was something I was familiar with.

It came in a can.

I never saw it whole.

And best yet, it had a texture like chicken salad and not that opaque look of "real" fish. So tuna became a college staple.

Then in my early 30s, my best friend and I discovered The Marine Room in La Jolla. It was much too out of our price range for causal dining but for quite some time, it did became our to-go-to place for birthdays. The first time we went, Dan ordered surf and turf. I ordered just the "turf." He coaxed me into taking a bite of his lobster tail. Prepared to be completely grossed out, I held my breath and went for it.

It was like nothing I'd ever had before. What was this? Why hadn't I had it before? The next birthday there, I ordered surf and turf too.

Next came my introduction to fish tacos. For a community known for them, it's a shame I waited until my mid-30s to try them. Again, it was because of Dan. He took me to happy hour at The Brigantine, a local seafood restaurant chain. They had $1.99 fish tacos on the bar menu. Crispy beer battered, they were over filled with cabbage, salsas, some kind of dressing reminiscent of thousand island dressing that the fish was all but camouflaged. And I loved them. A few months later, I started up on fish tacos from Rubio's which highlight the fish much more than the toppings and now enjoy them every lenten season.

Shrimp came only recently. About five years ago or so, a friend of mine made grilled shrimp during an impromptu weekend gathering and they were so delicious. I'd tried shrimp before and had not become a fan of it all. But Lisa's tequila-lime grilled shrimp was so flavorful my tummy forgot that my head said 'we don't like shrimp.'

To be honest, there are still ways I won't eat shrimp. I will not eat it in pasta sauce. I do not like it cold with cocktail sauce. I do not like it scampi. And forget about serving it to me the day after it's been grilled. Ew. Shudder.

The main players: 16 medium to large shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails on, Mexican Oregano, limes, garlic, cilantro and not pictured but nonetheless IMPORTANTE! -- tequila.

Make the marinade: Add the olive oil, tequila, lime juice, cilantro, garlic, chili powders and oregano into a small bowl.

Whisk!

Marinate: Place the shrimp into a resealable baggie and pour in the marinade. Place in refrigerator and let it sit around and get happy for about 30 minutes.

Skewer me baby! Thread the shrimp onto bamboo skewers that have soaked in water for at least 30 minutes beforehand.

Grill: Place on a hot grill and cook for 3 minutes on each side or until shrimp is pink and opaque.

Serve immediately.

Tequila Lime and Cilantro Grilled Shrimp

serves 2 for dinner or 4 as an appetizer

16 medium to large shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails on
1 1/2 oz of tequila
juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon California chile powder
1 tablespoon New Mexico chili powder
1 tablespoon ancho chili powder
1 tablespoon whole mexican oregano
4 wooden bamboo skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes

Place shrimp in a large ziplock bag. Set aside.
In a small bowl, add the next eight ingredients. Place the oregano in the palm of your hand. Rub hands together over bowl to crush leaves and flower buds. This releases the essential oils from the oregano. Use a whisk to combine well. Add to shrimp. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Heat grill to hot (450˚F).
Thread 4 shrimp onto a skewer. Continue until all shrimp is threaded. Place on grill and cook for 3 minutes with lid open. Carefully flip shrimp using tongs. Cook for 3 minutes on this side or until shrimp is bright pink and opaque. Remove and serve immediately.
Recipe can easily be doubled.

As for loving fish in general. Well, I'm still not there yet. I don't like salmon. But I do have a new-found appreciation of good fresh fish & chips. I wrote about enjoying them during my Pacific Northwest Adventure here and a while back at a local restaurant here.

YOUR TURN: Are there any foods that you absolutely hated as a kid but love now?

Until next time,

Ani

Seen on our walk today { life with a dog }

2011-06-26T13:34:00.001-07:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

First we saw a cool old Chevy. Then a sweet red truck. As we were nearing the end of our walk, this kitty, maybe six months old, jumped of her porch and came right up to Starbuck to nuzzle her nose. Starbuck, always curious about kitties, went into complete happy wiggle butt mode. Kitty let her smell her butt and rubbed up against my legs to say hello then returned her attention to Star. You could totally tell kitty is being raised around pooches cuz when Star got really excited, kitty turned over and exposed her belly. My fur child was in heaven. Kitty didn't have a collar. I almost brought kitty home with us.

So are those strawberries on your grill or are you just happy to see me?

2011-06-23T09:30:00.001-07:00

Auntie texted messaged me Sunday night to let me know that she had picked up strawberries at the strawberry fields in Carlsbad just in case I wanted any. Did I want any? Uh, yes.

So Monday, after work I stopped off to pick up my baby, who is right now trying to distract me from typing by being super duper cute.

She’s learned how to jump up on to the dining chair next to where I sit typing away at my keyboard. And she licks and licks until I pet her. Mission accomplished.

So, anywhoooo … I picked up my baby and headed over to Grandma’s to pick up the strawberries from Auntie.

As usual, they did not disappoint. They were big, red, juicy.

And although they were delicious as is, I was itching to try something.

Something extreme. Something Auntie suggested when I picked them up: "What about grilling them?" she asked. Grilling them? Now that sounds interesting.

So I did. I grilled a banana and some strawberries and served them with a scoop two scoops of French vanilla ice cream.

Heavenly.

Grilled Banana & Strawberries with Cream

serves 2

1 banana, peeled and quartered
6 large strawberries, stems cut off, halved lengthwise
1 tablespoon melted butter
4 scoops French vanilla ice cream
2 tablespoons preserves, any berry flavor on hand

Heat grill to medium high (400˚F)
Place the butter in a bowl. Add the bananas and strawberries. Stir to coat.
Using tongs, carefully place fruit on grill. Cook for 4 minutes and use a spatula to carefully flip. Cook for 4 minutes and then remove strawberries. Cook bananas for an additional 2 minutes.
Divide fruit between two serving dishes. Add 2 scoops of ice cream to each.
Place preserves in a microwave safe dish and warm for 15 secs. Remove, stir and drizzle over each dish.

Until next time …

Ani

Pacific Northwest Part 2: More Good Eats { link love }

2011-06-22T21:19:00.001-07:00

The piping hot Spinach & Artichoke Dip with freshly fried pita chips was so delicious, I wish I hadn't ordered a sandwich so I could indulge and eat the entire appetizer by myself.

It's from this place:

The oldest bar in Seattle located in Pioneer Square.

I also inhaled some fish.

Yes.

Me.

The one who says, "Yuck!" to fish. I was temporarily possessed.

It was so yummy, that I was almost finished with the goodie basket when I realized I hadn't shot it yet.

I also tried this:

The meat. Not the guy. That would have just been weird. He's married. And young. And I'm old.

So old that I'm easily side-tracked. What was I saying... Oh, yeah!

Head on over to Tree.com's Food & Dining Channel to read what the heck this all means. Especially if you're planning a trip in and around Seattle. I promise, more pretty pictures, too.

Until next time…

¡Buen Provecho!

Ani

{ Life with a Dog } cuddle time with a toy puppy

2011-06-19T13:59:00.001-07:00

Caught Starbuck using her stuffed puppy as a pillow. It had been in her toy chest so she actually grabbed it and pulled it up on the couch so she could cuddle. Guess my fur baby got a little sleepy waiting for me to finish shooting a dish for my next Tree.com post. I had just enough time to turn the camera on her before she realized I was watching her. As soon as she did, she came bouncing over to me like Tigger ready to play ball.

Gosh! I love this pooch!

Pacific Northwest Part 1: Pike’s Place Market & the Beecher’s Handmade Cheese Adventure

2011-06-18T02:35:00.001-07:00

Last year’s birthday adventure was a drive up the coast that, by happenstance, took my auntie and I on a partial California Mission tour. It was loads of fun. And I still haven’t finished culling through all the images I took. Wow. I just now realized, I haven’t finished culling through all the images I took until I wrote that sentence. Where did the time go? Because here it is, a full year later and I’m talking about this year’s adventure with my auntie: we headed even farther north this time around to Seattle, Washington. Auntie was turning 50 and that meant getting outta dodge for a little fun, a little something new, a little adventure.

I'd been to Seattle twice before but always on the way to somewhere else so other than driving through Pike's Market Place, Indian food in Capital Hill, trinket shopping along the Pier, I hadn't spent much time there. So I was looking forward to our adventure.

Pike's was fun. There was so much to see. I only wish I hadn't been saddled with a cane and still recovering from a bum knee because the place is H-U-G-E! We only just scratched the surface.

Of course, I had to get some iconic images like this one…

and this one…

and of course, these guys. Every time they threw the fish though, I kept missing the shot because I was distracted by something else around me.

I saw lots of things I've never seen before. Like these Fiddle Fern Heads. They look strange to me. What the heck do you do with them?

The fruit, and there was LOTS of it, was amazing. Everything looked vibrant. And large. Must be all that friggin' rain.

And there was a lot of it. Like, pretty much every day we were in town. How do the natives deal with it?

There were more unusual items. Can you read that sign on the right? Yes, you are reading that correctly. Chocolate pasta. Mr. Pasta man was trying to get passers-by to taste it. I love chocolate. But raw pasta? Not so much. I passed.

But I did try this:

Gourmet olive oils. Gourmet dipping sauces. Gourmet vinegars. Like this 18 Years Aged Fig Balsamic Vinegar. Now we're talkin'. This stuff was oh-so-yummy! I'd like to bathe in it.

Ok, so maybe not. But you get the picture. It was tasty.

Auntie bought cashews from this nut lady. Pike's Place Nuts. Freshly roasted. Literally. They burned my tongue. But it was a good hurt.

There were more flower stands than I could count. They were gorgeous.

And ginormous. Seriously. These tulips were big. Really big.

I loved the artisans. This dude was sitting in for his friend who made all these awesome cuffs.

This is the one I bought for me. Love it. I feel like Wonder Woman when I wear it. Kinda.

All this walking around and lookie-louing got us hungry. So we went on our hunt for sustenance. And quickly fell into indecisiveness because there were so many choices.

Cold weather means comfort food.

So when I saw this cheese shop, Beecher's Handmade Cheese. That was it. Mmm. Cheese.

They make their cheese on the premises.

They've got sandwiches …

and they have cookbooks…

and cheese … Lots of cheese. We ordered lunch. But there was no seating. We grabbed our lunch and went in search of a place to hunker down with our goodies. Took us almost a half hour to find a place. One that wasn't wet.

Beecher's is known for their mac and cheese. It's in the cookbook up there. Auntie likes mac and cheese too. I ordered it. It was made with Jack cheese. Just Jack, they say on their signage. But when I say it, "Will & Grace" episodes float through my head. Hear him? "Just Jack!"

Flavor was decent. But do you know my favorite part of mac and cheese? The crunchy bits on top from baking. This didn't have any crunchy bits. They served it from a huge pot thingy. Think "cafeteria." Not freshly baked. So, it was borderline mushy. Pasta should be al dente. So even though this had flavor, it lost points for lack of texture. It fell flat. I wouldn't buy it again.
And then there was grilled cheese.

I would buy this again. This is my sandwich. It was the Flagship Sandwich: flagship cheese, just jack, basil, tomato and their Beecher's spread. It was crispy and buttery on the outside, ooey-gooey on the inside.

And that Beecher's spread, I wish they bottled it. Look at those mustard seeds. I adding them to my next homemade grilled cheese. Yes. They were perfect.

Auntie's sandwich. She got the classic Grilled Cheese: flagship cheese and just jack. Look at the ooey-goodness. I had a bite. Again, crunchy buttery outside. It was good but after eating mine with the basil and mustard seeds, this was too one note for my taste buds. I think Auntie liked it.

A few days after I got back to San Diego, while I was laid up due to the horrendous cold I caught the last night in Seattle, I was watching Martha Stewart on the Hallmark Channel. And the first guest was Beecher's owner. Talk about coincidence. He was making their mac and cheese with Martha and talking about the Beecher's that's due to open in New York this summer. So they're going by-coastal.

Now they just need to open one up down here. Because even in sunny San Diego, there's no such thing as too much comfort food.

Summer means it's time to grill up some corn! { link love }

2011-06-11T11:25:00.001-07:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

My latest contribution to Tree.com's Food & Dining channel gives you a step by step on grilling up some sweet tasting corn-on-the-cob. Just in time for summer BBQ's. Super simple, super tasty. The trick is to… find out here.

Until next time...

¡Buen Provecho!

Ani

Say hello to the “Mother Grain” { recipe } Quinoa

2011-06-08T16:19:00.001-07:00

Heard of quinoa (pronouced KEEN-wah) but not sure how to use it? Ready to discover a delicious and nutritious grain that is high in protein, magnesium and potassium? This salad by America's Test Kitchen, republished in the Union-Tribune's Food section today is a tasty introduction to this healthy ancient grain.

Quinoa, technically, is not a grain but a seed (grains are harvested from grass, this comes from a broadleaf plant) and has ancient roots in South America.* To the Incas, who cultivated this plant prior to 3000 B.C., quinoa was sacred. They referred to it as the "mother grain."

A good source of protein, magnesium and potassium (8 g, 118 mg and 318 mg respectively, per cooked cup**), this nearly complete "superfood" (quinoa contains all nine essential amino acids) does take a little effort to prepare: the hull of the seed is rather bitter resulting in the need to rinse well and rinse again. But the fluffy texture, filling nature and nutritious value of quinoa make it worth the effort.

The trick is definitely in the rinsing, and rinsing again. Another tip picked up from Darlene over at My Burning Kitchen, is the addition of a final steaming, which produces the lightest, fluffiest quinoa so far tested.

As I've mentioned before, sometimes I have to step out of my role as page designer for the newspaper and cook, style and photograph dishes for cover presentations in our food section. Such was the case for this wire story which provided mediocre art. Not having tried quinoa prior to this, I stuck to the original recipe for the creation of this photograph but have since incorporated some techniques picked up from Darlene and a few modifications for personal taste (original recipe calls for jalepeño. bee-yuck!).

This is salad has become a staple for me as it packs great for lunch (I often am so swamped, I'm forced to eat at my desk for a "working" lunch). Also, the preparation for the quinoa can be easily adapted to include any of you favorite flavors and "add-ins."

Have fun experimenting and feel free to check back in and let me know what awesome recipes you've come up with, too.

Quinoa Salad with Dijon Mustard Dressing

1 cup quinoa, rinsed and dried (see step 1)
1 1/2 cups cold water
salt & ground black pepper
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped fine
1/4 cup golden raisins
2 tablespoons red onions, minced
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Prep the grain. Place quinoa in a large bowl. Fill with cold water to fill. Swish and wash the quinoa. Empty water and repeat, two more times. Line a cookie sheet with a linen dish towel and spread out the quinoa in a single layer. Allow to dry.
Prep the veggies and herbs. Seed and finely chop the bell pepper. Mince the onions and cilantro leaves.
Prep the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, lime, mustard, garlic, and cumin.
Cook grain. Place dry grain in a large skillet on medium heat and stirring constantly, dry toast until lightly golden and aromatic, about 5 minutes. Fill a small pot with 1 1/2 cups of water, add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the quinoa had place on high to bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.
Steam. Drain quinoa into a metal sieve. Refill pot halfway with water, return to medium heat and place sieve with grain over pot being careful that water doesn’t touch grains. Cover and steam for 15 minutes. When done, rinse under cold water to cool, add to a bowl, fluff with fork. Add veggies and herbs. Give the dressing another quick whisk and pour into bowl, stirring to combine everything well. Taste and adjust salt and pepper to taste. Particularly tasty the next day after all the ingredients have spent the night together.

Until next time,

Ani

*Agricultural Marketing Resource Center

**Self NutritionData

Hey! Where'd all the images go?

2011-06-08T01:12:00.000-07:00

The bad thing about using Posterous to multi-publish to my various blogs? When they go down for maintenance (which is more often than I like), all the images on my many sites disappear. So not happy. This time they're moving servers. Hopefully, it won't take too long. I think I might have to return to linking images manually from flickr...

Stay tuned. Come back again and hopefully, all my images will be back.

Cooking for One: Cheesy Egg & Spinach Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms {recipe}

2011-06-05T11:11:00.001-07:00

Well, hello there.

It’s been a few weeks, I know.

First it was due to vacation. Then, well, I should say, now I’ve been sick. All week. Like, can’t get out of bed during the day because I was up most of the night hacking up a lung.

A quick iPhone shot of Lake Crescent, Olympic National Park

I got ill the last night of my Pacific Northwest adventure (more on that adventure another time, or two). I know exactly when it hit me. I was driving on the 104 in the Olympic Peninsula on the way to the ferry for our return trip to Seattle when it hit. I thought my throat was scratchy from the pretzels and chips I was munching on during the 2 and a half hour trip from Forks, WA to Kingston, WA where we’d pick up the ferry across the Puget Sound.

This is me, resting, er, taking an iPhone self-portrait of me pretending to be resting while on the ferry. I wish I could sleep that peacefully now.

There I was. On the ferry. Coughing. I decided to lay back and try to relax for the 30 minute trip, concentrating on not coughing. "Man, I ate too much of the Munchies Mix," I remember telling my auntie once we checked into our hotel in Sea-Tac.

Yesterday, I slept ‘til 1:30pm, getting up only because I had to take my fur child to her grooming appointment. I used the opportunity to make a quick stop at the grocery store. My appetite has been lacking this week, but I knew I needed something high in protein and meat didn’t sound good. Which is surprising coming from this confirmed meat-eater.

I love mushrooms. In fact one of my favorite appetizers to take to parties is sausage stuffed crimini mushrooms. It’s a hit. Every time.

Sausage didn’t sound good. But mushrooms did and the giant portobello’s on sale at the market looked great.

As a single foodie living alone, I often find that many of the recipes I want to write about means I’m eating it for dinner, lunch, dinner and sometimes even lunch again. It gets kinda boring. The lovely thing about this recipe is that it’s perfect as a generous portion for one or paired with toast and some hash browns, a good recipe for two.

This makes me happy. It’s super simple and fast which is great because I didn’t have much energy.

Don't they look yummy? I didn't have the energy to fire up the grill and go outside. I know some folks don't like grill pans. They complain you can't get a good char.

Yeah, right. I love mine. And look at those lovely grill marks.

Heat a little olive oil in your trusty cast iron skillet. You're gonna sauté the onions, a little garlic and some spinach and you'll smile, like I did, from the fragrance filling your senses. Mmm-mmmm. And a note on spinach. Being that I'm single, I often rely on good quality frozen veggies because I don't always get through an entire bunch of anything before it goes bad. I am a huge fan of Trader Joe's Chopped Frozen Spinach. Trust me, I've tried lots. But the TJ's variety is frozen loose leaf and not in chunky blocks and is quite yummy.

Goodness gracious do I love eggs! And I love 'em soft scrambled (brown tinged eggs away with you!). Seriously, a little sour cream and some green chilis in there and the creamy goodness is simply heaven.

Come together! Right now! Eggs, spinach and my favorite cheese mixture. Oh, yeah baby! And not wanting to sound like I'm particularly promoting Trader Joe's but I love Trader Giotto's Quattro Formaggio (a shredded mix of parmesan, asiago, fontina and mild provolone cheeses and it's also great in quesadillas and pizzas).

Split the mixture between the two mushrooms, top with some shredded parmesan, broil in a toaster oven until lightly browned and bubbly and break out the utensils …

Cuz, seriously, I think this has become my new favorite breakfast. Of course, since I slept all day, it was actually dinner time. No matter. It was delish and even with the snapping of the few pictures along the way, beginning to end this took all of about 30 minutes.

Cheesy Egg & Spinach Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
serves 1 or 2
Ingredients

2 large portobello mushrooms, stems removed
olive oil
1/3 cup frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed of excess water
1/4 cup sliced onion
1 clove garlic, pressed
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon light sour cream
1 - 2 tablespoons diced (Ortega) green chilies
1/4 cup of your favorite hard cheese, grated
1 tablespoon shredded parmesan cheese, divided
kosher salt & ground black pepper to taste

Method

Heat a grill pan to medium hot. Brush olive oil on each side of the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper on both sides. Place on hot grill pan and cook for 6-8 minutes on each side or until slightly charred. Remove from grill and set aside.
Heat a sauté pan to medium hot. Add 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add garlic and stir to keep from burning. Add spinach and stir to heat through. Remove and place in a bowl.
Wipe out pan and return to heat. Add 1-2 teaspoons olive oil. In a small bowl, gently beat eggs, sour cream and chilies until combined. Add to pan and soft scramble. Cook until eggs have just set. Remove and add to bowl with spinach. Add cheese. Stir to combine.
Fill each mushroom cap with the egg mixture. Top each with the parmesan cheese and place on an oven safe pan. Place under the broiler or in a toaster oven for 5-8 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and parmesan has lightly browned. Enjoy immediately.

Untitled

2011-05-24T07:48:00.001-07:00

Thirsty Girl is coming to San Diego: Get your discount code here and join the fun

2011-05-21T13:16:00.001-07:00

On Thursday, May 26th, at Donovan's Circle of 5ths, you'll get the opportunity to mingle, mix and munch with the Thirsty Girl crew and have an opportunity to meet the head Thirsty Girl herself for wine and food tasting.

What is Thirsty Girl, you ask? It's a community of like-minded Thirsty Girls who live life to the fullest and come together to share and inspire each other to follow their passion wherever it leads.

And who is a Thirsty Girl? In an interview with Ashley Lauren of Sacre Bleu Wine, founder and head Thirsty Girl, Leslie Sbrocco, explains:

"When life hands you lemons and you make lemonade … with vodka …you're a Thirsty Girl. Jump on a plane – or out of one – at a moment's notice? You're a Thirsty Girl. If fantasizing about celebrity chefs only results in gaining 10 pounds, you're a Thirsty Girl. Though Thirsty Girls crave libations and laughter, there's more here than meets the lips. We're a movement of like-minded women who thirst for fun, adventure and fulfillment.…"

The Head Thirsty Girl. Leslie is an award-winning author, speaker and Tasting Notes columnist for Epicurious.com. She's the host of Check Please! on PBS (which garnered her a James Beard award and three Emmy's). She is the co-founder of WineToday.com, the wine website of The New York Times and her work has appeared in numerous publications.

Events. Passionate about sharing her adventures in food, travel and wine, Thirsty Girl hosts live wine-tasting events around the country. And they're headed here to San Diego.

The night will include a tasting of seven TG select wines paired with seven appetizers. And it's for a great cause. A portion of ticket sales will be donated to the San Diego Chapter of DRESS FOR SUCCESS.

Discount. The gals over at Thirsty Girl are extending a discount for my readers. Head on over to http://tgsandiegolive-auto.eventbrite.com/ and enter coupon code TGME to receive a $5 discount.

And when you have time, head over to the Thirsty Girl website and take a read at some of the articles on their Crave (eats & travel) or Quaff (sips to savor) blogs for a wealth of inspiration.

Follow TG on Facebook and Twitter.

Thirsty Girl Live! Tasting in San Diego
Thursday, May 26th from 6-8pm
Donovan's 5th Circle

333 5TH AVE

SAN DIEGO, CA 92101

PHONE (619) 906-4850

http://donovansprimeseafood.com/

And as they say over at Thirsty Girl: Life. Drink it up!*

Until next time,

Ani

*A trademark of Thirsty Girl.

Using available light for food photography – a tutorial, Part 2 of an ongoing (occasional) series

2011-05-20T11:00:00.001-07:00

You don't need expensive studio lights to successfully photograph food.

In fact, for editorial work, some magazines like Food & Wine and Cooking Light as well as some of the more prolific food photographers and food bloggers all praise the more naturally appetizing look of food when using window light to photograph. That's not to say that strobes are bad. There is a market for it. Look at magazine covers like Food Network Magazine or bon appétit and that highly lit, almost advertorial look, is prevalent.

Personally, I go back and forth between strobe and natural day light depending on the final look I have in my head or the time of day I am able to shoot or the conditions of the kitchen (or dining room) I'm shooting in. However, even when I shoot with strobes, my goal is always to simulate natural window light as much as possible. This takes a certain level of skill and comfortableness with studio lights and an understanding of the quality of light that the big golden orb in the sky produces at different times of the day. Since I've been working with studio lights for more than 25 years, I feel fairly confident manipulating them for most conditions. Not to say that I'm an expert – there is always something to learn. That is the beauty of being humble and open to improve and continuously work at your craft.

That said, I know plenty of working, successful photographers who would rather not fumble their way around studio strobes and prefer working with natural light. If you fall into this category or if you can't justify the need for them, not to worry. With a few tips at your disposal on manipulating natural light, knowing how to perform some basic post production (SOOC camp, get over it. I was a professional darkroom printer for more than 10 years and believe you me, we did a lot of manipulation in negative printing to get publication and exhibition worthy prints; every shot you publish should first get some post production love and it doesn't have to be over the top), you can make some lovely food photographs using nothing more than window light, a white Foamcore board, small mirrors or silver / gold reflectors, a tripod and an adventurous spirit for trial and error.

I've posted on using natural light before. That post not only eschewed the merits of window light but also pointed out that you don't need a fancy camera either. The shots for that post were made with a Canon Digital Elph on macro mode. This post, going just a little deeper than that post, will illustrate the point by showing the setup and the affects achieved with and without the fill.

The camera settings are the same for all three photos:

camera: Canon 5D
lens: Canon 85mm f/1.8
manual -- I ALWAYS shoot on manual
white balance set at 5600k (pretty much standard for me when I shoot with daylight or my Alien Bees strobes since they are rated at 5600k. Shots have the amount of warmth I like SOOC. AWB tends to run on the cooler side. When not shooting at 5600k, I create a custom white balance setting.)
ISO: 400
shutter speed: 1/25th
f-stop: f/9
shot RAW format (I shoot EVERYTHING in RAW)

This shot is SOOC with no fill. It was converted in Adobe Camera Raw and I just accepted the defaults, opened and saved it as a JPG. I almost always have my main light behind or to the side of my food. Never in front and RARELY above which was actually the way I was taught back in school more than 25 years ago. That is pretty old school – throwing a large softbox directly overhead or at a 45˚ angle in front of the camera facing the subject. Too me, that flattens the food out. Food needs to stir our appetite and looks best when it has light and shadows giving it dimensionality not flattening it out. I think that's what my problem is with advertorial shots and food magazines that shoot with heavy obvious flash. Works fine for edgy fashion shoots. Not so much with food. I say this as I sit here looking at a bon appétit issue on the top of the pile of food magazines on my desk. Yuck. That steak shot with a hard overhead flash looks greasy, not yummy. I also don't like my fills to be the same quality. Which brings me to the next photo.

This shot is also SOOC but shot with a white fill card to camera left and a silver reflector to camera right. Again, converted in ACR accepting the defaults and opened and saved as a JPG. Why a white card and a silver? Why not two silvers or two whites? Because the white is a softer fill and the silver a little sharper. Using the same on both sides would again flatten out the food. In this setup, my main light is the window light coming from behind. My next brightest "light" is the silver reflector to camera right which acts to throw brighter specular highlights on the shinier surfaces. The white card acts as my third "light" and is the softest in intensity just lightening up the deeper shadows enough to bring out some detail.

An iPhone capture of the scene with the fill cards both in place: I move my table over to catch the southern light coming in from my half windows in my dining room.

From this angle, you can see the surface of the silver reflector.

So this is the final shot (same as the one at the start of this post). Most of the correction was done in ACR: I lightened the exposure a few points, bumped clarity and vibrance up a bit, opened up the shadows a few points and then once in Photoshop, I dodged the tomato bowl ever so slightly just to open up those shadows a bit more to accentuate detail, brought in my watermark and then saved. I use Camera Bag for the Mac just to put the rounded corners on the photo because I like that finished for presenting the images on the web. My print portfolio is all full bleed. (Note: Rarely do I use the filters in the Camera Bag program. I prefer creating Photoshop actions for the grunge and retro looks I like when I'm working with image captures from my 5D. Actions give me much more control.)

To recap:

Shoot manual to get the best combination of focus and speed.
Set a manual or custom white balance if your AWB is giving you an unwanted color cast.
Use a tripod so you can use slower shutter speeds giving you more options to control your DOF.
Use a combination of white cards, silver or gold reflectors to throw light back into the areas you want to "open" up. Move the cards around and watch the light move.
Have a main – or key – light either coming from behind or from the side for maximum impact.
Have fun!

P.S.
This set up is a behind the scenes look at a shoot for a blog post I wrote for the Food & Dining channel on Tree.com. The recipe I created is for the tortellini pasta salad I posted photos for earlier this week. It looks kinda like this one:

You can find the recipe for this dish here.
Until next time,
Ani

Simply Grilled Garlic Chicken Sandwich with Honey Goat Cheese { recipe }

2011-05-19T14:00:00.001-07:00

Company was coming.

I am still handicapped with a bum knee. All of my energy was zapped just from cleaning my week-long neglected house in preparation for said company.

Well, I exaggerate. But only on the “company” part, that is. It isn’t like I was having a party, for goodness sake. My good friend, @jpadillabowen, was coming for dinner and a DVD. We try to have a girl’s D&D night periodically and it had been a while. I always cook up something fabulous like this, this and this. But truly, this bum knee has slowed me down. I was a bit worried about what to make. What tastiness could I come up with that was fast, easy, healthy and low effort?

One thing to narrow the field: Jess is not a meat eater. Just chicken and fish. And I don’t care for fish. A quick inventory of the pantry and freezer told me I had frozen sandwich rolls that I had saved from a photo shoot a few days before, boneless chicken breasts, whole wheat elbow macaroni, sugar snap peas, grape tomatoes, honey goat cheese I’d picked up at Trader Joes after having tried it at this party, shallots and a couple heads of garlic.

A plan was forming.

I love it when that happens.

I literally only let the chicken sit with the garlic rub for a mere 10 minutes. Just long enough for the grill to reach the 500˚ that I like to grill at.

The macaroni boiled while the chicken was grilling (sorry, no photo! But see this photo of my dinner this week? It is basically the same thing only it has tortellini in place of the elbow macaroni. Can you picture it?). I blanched the sugar snap peas, cut them on the bias and dressed it and the pasta with a super simple balsamic vinaigrette: 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cp balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon raspberry vinegar, a generous squirt of dijon mustard, 1 clove of garlic, minced, 2 tablespoons of minced shallot, salt and pepper. Give it a good whisk and viola! An eeehhhxcellent vinaigrette for almost any baby greens, pasta or rice salad.

Dinner was a hit. It took all of about 30 minutes from beginning to end to prepare. We inhaled it and then sat down to watch a chickflick which tends to be what we watch when we get together. It turned out to be rather entertaining.

I love it when that happens, too.

Simply Grilled Garlic Chicken Sandwich with Honey Goat Cheese

serves 2

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
4 cloves garlic, pressed
1 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoon olive oil, divided
2 sandwich-sized ciabatta rolls (french will suffice)
4 tablespoons honey goat cheese
2 thin slices of red onion
handful of arugala
2 tablespoons mayonaise
dijon mustard to taste

Directions

Take goat cheese out of refrigerator, measure and place on counter to come up to room temperature.
Pound the chicken. Place one chicken breast between 2 sheets of clear plastic wrap at least 3 times the size of the chicken. Maker sure the chicken is centered then use a meat mallet or similar (I use the end of my rolling pin because I don’t have a meat mallet) to pound out the chicken so that the thickest part is the same thickness of the thinner part (about 1/2” thick). Place pounded chicken into a shallow dish. Repeat with second breast.
Massage. Pour 1 tablespoon olive oil over the chicken. Add the garlic, salt and pepper and massage into the breasts being mindful to cover all of the chicken with the seasoning. Set aside and let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes. In the meantime, start grill.
Grill. Once grill is hot (gas grill to at least 450˚ - I like it to reach 500˚; charcoal grill is ready when the briquets have turned ash grey - or red if grilling at night), place chicken on grill. Don’t move it. Once it’s down, leave it. Don’t poke. Don’t smash with the spatula. Cover grill and let cook for 6 minutes. Chicken should release from grill easily indicating it’s ready to flip. Flip and cook for 6 -8 minutes on this side. Because the chicken was pounded so thin, it will cook up rather fast and evenly. Remove chicken from grill and place on a plate. and tent with foil.
Prepare rolls. While chicken is cooking, slice the ciabatta rolls lengthwise in half. Brush olive oil on cut side and place on grill to warm. Flip so both sides get those yummy grill marks.
Assemble. Once bread is ready, spread 2 tablespoons of goat cheese on each of the two top halves of the rolls. Spread 1 tablespoon of mayo on each of the bottom halves. Add mustard to taste. On the bottom half, place a layer of arugula on each. Next add the onion, then a chicken breast then the top of the roll.
Serve with a glass of ice cold sangria or other fruity wine or rosé.

{ food photo } Farmers' Market + Sugar Snap Peas = Dinner!

2011-05-16T09:00:00.001-07:00

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What did you have for dinner last night?

{ life w/a dog } my injured knee and a furry nurse

2011-05-09T14:40:00.001-07:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

I injured my knee at the dog park last week. It was so swollen the next day that I was forced to stay in bed and ice it all day. I had "Ally McBeal" streaming on Netflix and a furry nurse to keep me company.
Starbuck stayed down near my leg or up by head all day sleeping or licking my injured leg.
What companions these fur children become. I can't imagine my life without her now. She has completely taken over my heart.

{ a quick look at… } Baking mixes don't quite rise to my expectation

2011-05-07T11:01:00.001-07:00

Scones. Sometimes with fruit. Sometimes with chocolate. Sometimes with butter. Always with coffee (I know, I know, tea is much more British but I am a self-proclaimed coffee addict).

I've never made them from scratch. Nor I have I ever made them from a mix. I have not made them at home. I have not made them anywhere.

But I've been tempted.

And I finally gave into the temptation while doing my weekly shopping at my local Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market when they had the canisters of bake mixes on sale (buy two get the third free).

I am a huge fan of Fresh & Easy. There is little that I've tried that I don't like. As for the baking goods, I love their pancake mixes (both the buttermilk and their blueberry make excellent waffles!). So I picked up the chocolate cupcake mix, the banana bread and the English-style scone mix.

The first one I made was the chocolate cupcake mix. Instead of making cupcakes though, I poured the batter into a loaf pan so I could have slices of chocolately goodness with my morning coffee. Of course, after it cooled long enough not to burn, I had to taste them, morning or not. First bite was nice and moist and I was quite pleased. But the third bite, well, it was not so good.

On the third bite, I crunched into something.

Hmm. Eggshell? Was I that messy preparing the mix? I wrote it off as eggshell.

Next morning, I cut myself another slice. First bite this time. Crunch. What the?

Ok, I have to be more careful, I thought.

That night, I thought I'd have a little something after dinner. And just as I started to bite down, that familiar crunch feeling was there so I took the piece out of my mouth this time (I know, TMI, but bear with me) and squished the piece in my hand.

I was a bit shocked.

I couldn't quite tell if it was glass or plastic but one thing I was sure of: It wasn't eggshell.

Needless to say, I figured I couldn't prove it was in the mix to begin with so I decided to chuck the rest of it not wanting to risk injury.

A couple of days ago, chocolate cupcakes mix disaster now in the past, I moved onto trying the English-style scone. Admission time. I sifted the mix into the bowl JUST IN CASE.

No foreign objects. Yay.

Craving chocolate, I decided to add chips to the mix but other than that, I stuck to the recipe on the box.

This time the disappointment comes from the actual end result. I really wanted to love them. However, I found the scones dry and bland, with the only burst of flavor coming from the added chocolate. Even toasting them and spreading some butter on them doesn't help. Maybe this is why the British eat scones with cream? I don't know.

Anyone out there have a good recipe from scratch they love? Send it my way. I'm dying to try a good one now and conquer the homemade scone successfully.

In the meantime, I'll satisfy my scones craving with a trip to Rebecca's Coffeehouse for their yummy raspberry or blueberry scones. Now those are scones! I'll just hope that craving will hit in the morning, when they're fresh and hot.

Oh! And what about the banana bread mix, you ask?

Uh, well, I kinda haven't worked up the nerve to try it yet.

Until next time,

Ani

{ link love & memories } A toast to you, Miss Lisa, as I raise my margarita glass in your memory

2011-05-04T01:10:00.001-07:00

When the weather warms up like it has here in Southern Cali, I start thinking it's margarita:30 time. But more than this, my mind also wonders back to a time in the early and mid part of my newspaper career. A time of collaboration like I have yet to see again. A time when people's strengths weren't ignored but nurtured. A time when a "working" manager, was exactly that and respected all the more for it. And it makes me miss it. It makes me miss her, especially.

I miss her, Miss Lisa, as we fondly called her. I miss her smile. I miss the goofy confused look on her face when she didn't like something but was trying to hide it. I miss working with someone of such great integrity and insight. I miss her "Boy, howdy's!" and "You betcha's!" and "Praise the Baby Fifa's!" and her denim skorts with socks and Birkenstocks and her low-key, mellow demeanor, even under pressure.

Yes, I think of her often.

But most especially, I think of her every time I decide to make a margarita at home. As a matter of fact, the Waring blender I use to make them I bought for one of our first shoots together for the food section. It sits on my counter. A constant reminder of an incredible woman.

Lisa was a visual manager at the newspaper back in the mid-90s. I was on the photo desk, working as a photo editor and illustrator in Features. I had the opportunity to work with her first when she was designing pages. I cherish the times we spent in the studio, lying on our belly's in the middle of the floor, sketch pads in hand drawing and brainstorming Food section presentations: she as designer, me as photographer of the projects. We made a good team.

Then again, she made a good team out of anyone she worked with. She was elevated to Features Design Editor and that's when we, her team, really took flight. Her faith in my illustrating abilities gave me the courage to truly flex my talents. Under her guidance, I gained a reputation like I had never experienced before. She guided without the need to thumbprint all over the work. We weren't her technicians, executing her ideas. Instead, she was our mentor, our teacher, guiding us to be the best versions of ourselves. And everyone who knew her, felt the same way about her.

She loved and appreciated her staff. She would hold, "We made it through (fill in the blank)" parties at her house. Often, she would host just the ladies, too. We'd tell stories, watch Almodóvar films and black & white classics with newspaper themes. And we'd drink beers or share her awesome margaritas out on her deck overlooking the San Diego Harbor.

Lisa moved on from San Diego, to the LA Times for a spell before heading out to the midwest. But we kept in touch, here and there. Not nearly as much as I would have liked. But life, well, life can get in the way, can't it?

Until it's too late. Too late to call. Too late to write. Too late to catch up.

Lisa left us a few years ago. A rare form of cancer. It left a gaping hole in most of us, no matter how much time had passed since we were in each other's presence.

So, during this warm weather spell, as I sit and sip, I raise my margarita glass up in a toast to you, Miss Lisa. In your honor, I share with the world the margarita recipe you taught me and know with a certainty that you wouldn't mind.

Peace be with you, my dear, dear friend.

(Find the recipe here.)

Until next time...
Ani

{ link love } Now playing over at the Food & Dining Blog: Cinco de Mayo Taco Party!

2011-05-02T12:58:00.001-07:00

Up today over at Tree.com, the first of my three part Cinco De Mayo series featuring three of my favorite taco party recipes for guacamole (published today), my perfect pitcher of margaritas (publishing tomorrow) and another version of my carne asada recipe for the taco part of the party (publishing Wednesday).

Head on over and take a read and while you're there, check out some of the other posts by the Food & Dining Blog family.

Have a great week everyone!

And as always ...

¡Buen Provecho!

Ani

{ life with a dog } puppy kisses from my baby

2011-05-01T19:13:00.001-07:00

{ weekend DIY } the fruit of my labor: faked weathered backgrounds for food photography

2011-05-01T18:21:00.001-07:00

Look at that gorgeous color! Truly excited to start using these handy dandy backgrounds that I made today.

I've been making my own painted backgrounds for photo illustrations like the one used in this illustration:

and for studio photography like the one I used in this margarita photo:

But my backgrounds were becoming tired. I wanted to change it up a bit.

Having been a reader of Helene Dujardin's Tartelette blog for years now, I've always been envious of her lovely weathered table tops in her photos.

Drool envious. Seriously.

Last weekend, I discovered a new food blog, Bakers Royale and what was her post on? A DIY project on making your own antiqued boards. Even kicking my Flintstone feet into high gear, I couldn't get to Home Depot fast enough!

It's super simple people! And it took me no longer than two hours or so to get it all done. And by the time I was finished, the first batch of planks were dry enough for me to shoot the lemon shot at the start of this post because I just HAD to test it out. Like now.

The key is to use CHEAP wood. You know the kind? Full of knots and holes and grain. I bought 6 of the cheapest fencing 2x6's that Home Depot sold and had them cut them in half for me while I waited.

That gave me 12 boards to work with.

Did you know that Home Depot sells little test bottles of their wall paint for cheap? I didn't. And I was pleased that I found these on clearance in colors similar to what I was looking for.

I decided to use four boards per color so I now have six new backgrounds to play with.

Aren't they purrrrrty?

With the weather in the 80s today, it was hot. And my baby really wanted to keep me company but the heat was just too much. She decided to sleep underneath my work table which was the only substantial shade in the back patio today. Isn't she darling? Ok, I digress.

Here's another shot of the purple that shows the awesome grain I got from these boards.

All this luscious goodness rang in at $24 for the wood and the test paints. I already had a paint roller and paint pan at home so that saved me some cash. But considering that I now have six new backgrounds, $24 is such a deal!

Next weekend, I plan on adding a couple more colors to my collection. Because if you're anything like me, you can never have too many props. :)

If you're inspired to try this yourself, here's the post that got me going. Enjoy!

Until next time, weekend warriors unite!

Ani

{ portrait session } Chris

2011-04-24T23:19:00.001-07:00

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Chris needed portraits for her online profiles & social media sites. Shot in my home studio.

{ life } happy birthday to me

2011-04-22T21:14:00.001-07:00

My sister Cat called me earlier this week to ask if I had plans for tonight. No, I didn't. Even though it's my birthday weekend. At 45 now, I really wasn't planning on celebrating. She said she and my sister Ellie wanted to do cocktails for me at my parent's house.

I have an awesome family! Ellie and her girlfriend Nicole have spent the entire evening making all these yummy hor d'euorvers.

Yummy! And thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes. Here's to another year...

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{ link } DIY Craft Project: Photo Transfer Eggshell Topiaries for Your Easter Dinner Table

2011-04-20T09:41:00.001-07:00

I'm so pleased to announce a new gig: I'm a Food & Dining Blog contributing writer over on the soon to officially launch site, Tree.com. I was approached by @DarleneEats (My Burning Kitchen) to write and shoot for the new blog and I jumped at the challenge of working in regular freelance work in my off hours at the newspaper.

The site had a soft launch last week and will have an official launch here soon but it's up and running and there are tons of great articles and blog posts to wile away the time with while taking away some useful information on living well.

I volunteered to do this particular project in my spare time for the newspaper originally. But the issue it was supposed to publish in was tight on space and it got cut. Luckily for me, Darlene chatted with the editor for the Home+Garden Blog Channel and my project was accepted there. It published today and is my first post on the new site.

Head on over here to read the instructions on how to create these whimsical placeholders for you table.

Until next time…

{ 4pm 4/21/11 ----- UPDATE: TREE.COM IS STILL IN BETA. If you encounter an error message, please bear with them and try back in a day or so. Thank you! Ani }

{life with a dog} Keeping an eye on the neighborhood part 2

2011-04-16T12:11:00.001-07:00

Problem solved.

{life with a dog} Keeping an eye on the neighborhood

2011-04-15T18:29:00.001-07:00

Mom had to stack three of my doggie beds so I could keep watch on the neighborhood in comfort. But I still couldn't see completely past the darn screen door when I'm laying down. "Hey mom, can we add a fourth one so I don't have to strain my neck? I wanna keep an eye on those darn kids out there."

{ cooking experiments: Passover } A Catholic Latina and the Matzo ball soup experiment

2011-04-15T13:12:00.001-07:00

So not Mom's chicken and dumplings but not too bad either. To finish off the soups I made for the newspaper, I combined the Moroccan Chicken Passover soup with the Matzo ball soup to make my own version of "chicken and dumplings."

Sucky art or altogether non-existent art is the most difficult part of relying on wire or freelance stories to fill the pages of a newspaper. Why? Because in this day of dwindling staff, there are less resources to use to execute better art. So unless you have the time, you're kinda screwed.

We often use a freelancer based in Los Angeles who interviews chefs from around the world including their recipes in the story and sometimes supplementing them with a few of her own. Because she's in LA, it's impossible with our current staffing to send our photographers to any of her contacts to shoot professionally cooked finished dishes. The photographer she uses to art the pieces she syndicates isn't up to par with ours so I use her work sparingly, often saving it for inside art if at all.

Since I cook, shoot and am not afraid of failing in the kitchen, I'm usually volunteering to prop shop, cook, style then photograph a recipe or two myself so that I have art to work with come time to design the food section. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this part of my job. I just wish I was given more time for it. If I'm lucky, I get one afternoon to do it all. Seriously, if you cook at all, you know how time consuming recipe testing can be let alone prop shopping, grocery shopping and then shooting the finished fruit of your labor. It's a huge investment on my part so it's a good thing I love doing it. And after, when it publishes and I receive compliments by the same staff photographers I used to photo edit, all is well in my world again and I'm ready for the next one to come along and challenge me.

This time around, for our Passover lead story, the freelancer wrote about how different the Sephardic and Ashkenazi styles of cooking are. (You can read the story here.) After brainstorming presentation possibilities, my design director suggested we pick a typical Passover soup from each culture and show them side by side to illustrate the differences. The recipes with the story were all Sephardic and included a Moroccan Chicken Passover Soup. So that was the winner from the Sephardic camp and it was decided matzo ball soup would represent the other.

Being the HIspanic Catholic mutt that I am, I have not been exposed to much in the way of Jewish cooking, personally. In my early days at the newspaper, I met and became fast friends with a photo intern who was Jewish and I learned a bit from her. She had me over to share meals often but it was not necessarily Jewish so much as it was vegetarian because she abstained from all meat. So, for this story, I was starting at ground zero.

I researched online for several hours pouring over various blog posts and online magazines about the do's and don'ts of matzo ball soup and combined the best of everything I read to make a version of my own that would photograph well.

I learned that seltzer water was best to help make a lighter, less dense dumpling and for maximum flavor, rendered chicken fat was far superior to plain shortening. I learned that there are two camps out there: camp A says cook the dumplings in the broth to give them more flavor and camp B says cook them in a separate pot of boiling salted water to ensure that the chicken broth it will be served in remains clear (cooking the dumplings in the broth produces a cloudy soup).

Since I was going to be photographing the soup, I opted for Camp B because I wanted the most photogenic soup possible. Cloudy soup will make for a muddy photograph. I prefer 'mouth-watering' that inspires people to attempt recipes not turn them off of them.

As for the chicken soup, well, if I were to make it again, I'd make the following adjustments: one leek instead of two and only 1/2 cup of wine instead of 1 cup. Both were much too overpowering.

So, after all of this, have I become a matzo ball soup fan? They were light, and fluffy as the best described out there but in all honesty, no, not a fan. Gimme Mom's chicken and dumplings (made from Bisquick, of course!) any day.

Matzo Ball Soup with Carrots
Serves 4-6 depending on size of balls and amount served to each

4 eggs
1/3 cup rendered chicken fat (I used what I skimmed off my homemade chicken stock but you can also get it at your local butcher shop)
1/2 cup seltzer water
1 teaspoon kosher salt
dash of pepper
1 cup matzo ball mix
4 cups boiling water
1 tablespoon salt
8 cups homemade or prepared chicken broth
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
fresh dill

Whisk together eggs and rendered chicken fat.
Add seltzer and 1 teaspoon kosher salt and pepper. Combine well.
Add matzo mix and stir well to combine. Cover and let chill at least 2 hours (chilling overnight is best).
Bring a pot of water to a boil adding the rest of the salt once it's bubbling (waiting until the water is rolling before adding salt will save your pots from getting that hard white salt ring on them).
While waiting for water to boil, dampen your hands and form a ball from about two tablespoons of the chilled matzo mixture. Place them on the pan and continue until all mixture has been formed into balls.
Carefully drop the balls into the pot of boiling water and cook on medium heat for 30 minutes or until the dumplings are no longer dark in the center when you slice it open. (Dark center means it's still raw. It should be a light color from edge to center when cooked properly.) Balls should float to top when done.
While balls are cooking, put stock into a second soup pot and warm for 10 minutes. Add carrots and continue to softly simmer stock until carrots are done to your liking. Adjust seasoning to taste.
To serve, place chicken stock with carrots into a shallow bowl. Add one to three balls according to appetite and garnish with fresh dill.

Find the recipe for the chicken soup here.

{life with a dog} trying to keep me company

2011-04-11T09:20:00.001-07:00

While I get ready for work. But the pull of cozy toasty sleep was just too strong to fight.

{ From the "Faux" Recipe Files } A very (Un)Tradtional Red Velvet Cake to you!

2011-04-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

Growing up, one of the memories I associate with the Christmas celebration was my mother's traditional, from scratch, Red Velvet Cake complete with the traditional buttercream frosting.

Red velvet has become my dessert of choice for anytime and I don't feel the need to wait until Christmas to make it. However, I do tend to wait to make it when I need a wow(!) dessert since buttermilk is not something I always have on hand which means making the cake is usually a production. What I wanted to figure out was an alternative that would be a decent stand-in for the real thing.

I've had this recipe hanging around for a long while and recently, in my day job, we ran a reader recipe about an easy from the box red velvet which reminded me about my own from the box red velvet.

With summer on the way, weekend gathering invitations are sure to start pouring in so why not try this super duper easy cake for yourself?

(Un) Traditional Red Velvet
4 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cp buttermilk (no buttermilk in the house? see note)
1/2 cp vegetable oil
2 oz. red food color (2 bottles, see note)
1 tbsp white vinegar
2 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder (not dutch process)
1 box yellow cake mix

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Trace the bottom of your 8" cake pan (one if it's the deeper professional grade of pan or two if it's the normal shallow consumer grade) onto parchment paper to form a circle that will fit inside the pan(s) and cut out with scissors. Grease the bottom of the pan with butter. Place the parchment in the pan and smooth over with fingers to help transfer the butter to the paper. Flip paper over and lightly smooth again to adhere to pan. I don't like crunchy sides on my cakes so I never grease the sides of the pan.
In a large mixing bowl, lightly beat eggs.
Add buttermilk, vinegar, oil. Combine well.
In a small bowl, mix cocoa, food coloring and vinegar together until all lumps are dissolved. Add to egg mixture.
Add boxed cake mix and beat for two minutes on medium. Careful not to over beat as this will result in a heavier, more dense cake.
Bake for 50-60 minutes if using one pan and 30-40 min using smaller. Test the center of the cake with a toothpick for doneness removing from oven once the cake has shrunk away from the sides of the pan and the toothpick comes out without dark wet cake mixture on it.
Place on a wire rack. Run a butter knife along sides of pan to ensure cake is released from sides of pan and allow to cool for 20-30 min. If you are going to frost the cake, place a second wire cooling rack on top of pan and carefully flip cake over. Tap bottom of pan, lift and carefully peel off the parchment paper. Let cake cool for an additional 30 minutes before moving to serving platter and frosting. If you are impatient and don't plan on frosting the cake, after the initial 20 min cooling time, have your cake stand ready. Place one hand on top of cake and carefully flip over onto your hand, remove parchment paper and carefully flip back over onto cake stand.

NOTES: No buttermilk in the house? No problem! Easily make your own. Place 1 tablespoon of white vinegar in a measuring cup. Add enough milk (whole works best but I only ever have nonfat so that's what I use) to make 1 cup of liquid. Stir well to combine and let sit at room temperature for 5 minutes. Viol à! Buttermilk!

I know 2 oz sounds like a lot. Personally, I love red velvet that is deep and rich in color. Mauve colored red velvet is not as attractive to me. If you're going to make red velvet, then make "red" velvet. Know what I mean, jelly bean?

There are people who treat cake as a vehicle to deliver frosting. I am not one of them. Not that I have anything against frosting, I often prefer cake sans frosting. However, I realize I'm in the minority so when baking it for others, I always frost red velvet with buttercream, just like mom did. If you want to frost your cake, you can find an excellent buttercream recipe here. And if you are a fan of southern style red velvet and prefer cream cheese frosting, you can find that here.

¡Buen Provecho, folks!
Ani

{ iPhone } It might look uncomfortable but...

2011-04-01T21:13:00.001-07:00

This is one of Starbuck's favorite positions to sleep in. I have to resist the urge to go up to her and rub her tummy.

{ photo } Teaser to upcoming post on my Chile Verde experiment

2011-03-26T22:20:00.001-07:00

I'm working out my own recipe for Chile Verde (Mexican pork stew). Here's the basis for the sauce: tomatillos (which I've never worked with), anaheim chile (lighter green that I grew up eating all the time) and the dark pasilla (which has become my go-to chile for chile rellenos). A few more tweaks and it'll be ready for primetime.

{ LIfe with a Dog } Buh-bye winter coat! Mama loved you but I HATE brushes!

2011-03-26T15:36:00.001-07:00

Here I am thinking we're gonna have fun because Mama let me get up on the patio table. But nooooooo... She wants to take more pictures! Sigh. Here we go again!

The last three trips to get Starbuck trimmed, I opted to start training her cocker spaniel skirt. That's when the top of her back stays short and from mid-way down the side of her is trained to grow longer, with a big fluffy chest and column looking legs. I love the look. But Starbuck HATES to be brushed and I was on the losing end of the battle. In fact, the mats in her arm pits last time were so bad, the groomer shaved them. It wasn't noticeable but it was one less place I had to try to attack with the brush.

Nothing worked. I tried treats, chew toys, food. She couldn't be distracted from the various brushes I tried on her. They all were too enticing and begged for her to mouth and chew and bite them instead of the fun treats before her.

Told the groomer today that I am so over brushing.

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Now, I think it's a little too short but at least it will save us some heartache. Besides, the lovely thing about hair... it grows back. And fast!

Listening to some tunes at Claire de Lune

2011-03-24T21:47:00.001-07:00

{ Sharing the Kitchen With… } Nathan teaches me a few dishes from Trinidad

2011-03-23T00:36:00.001-07:00

{Our Saturday afternoon Trini creations from scratch consisted of, clockwise from top: Curried Goat, Doubles (Curried Channa served on Bara, a fragrant bread made colorful with the use of turmeric), Chicken Curry, and Paratha-Roti, or more commonly known as, Buss Up Shut. This photo only, © PADILLA BOWEN PHOTOGRAPHY }

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of sharing the kitchen with my good friend and fellow photographer, Nathan Padilla Bowen of Padilla Bowen Photography as he showed me a few of his favorite dishes from Trinidad. It was amazing to me how three curry dishes all with similar ingredients could taste so radically different and scrumptious. What a treat it was!

{ The basis for most authentic Trini food is "green seasoning" that I liken to sofrito or even a kind of chimichurri. Trini households make this condiment fresh daily. Nathan's ultimate recipe for it differs slightly from the recipe at the end of this post but it's quite similar: onions, red bell peppers, cilantro, garlic and a few additional fresh herbs. It's really quite fragrant and visually lovely. }

I've known Nathan's wife Jessica since before they were married when Jess was working at the La Jolla Playhouse in the marketing department as the assistant marketing director. For several years, I only knew her as a name in my inbox and a voice I heard once in a while on the phone. At the time I was a Features Photo Editor working primarily with the local arts community so our conversations consisted mostly of dress rehearsal times and photo ops.

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{ After tackling the green seasoning, next up was getting started on the yeast-based dough for the Bara. This dough was an absolutely gorgeous yellow made so by the addition of turmeric. After allowing it to rise a few hours, I divided up the yeasty goodness into golf ball sized pieces and then hand formed them into small disks. Nathan pan fried them as fast as I could make them. }

A while later, she told me she was getting married and having been told by a photographer I helped to supervise that I made my own jewelry, she asked to see some of my work prompting our first face to face meeting. She ordered something for the maid of honor and chandelier earrings of pearls and Swarovski for her wedding day and in doing so, became by first ever paid jewelry customer. We became fast friends that day.

{ Goat shanks needed cleaning. This was my task. I removed excess fat and any skin, then cubed it. Followed by the addition of half of the green seasoning. It was then placed back into the fridge to marinate. }

Jump forward several years and our friendship has grown to include her lovely husband. Recently, Nathan quit his job (custom cabinetry) to follow his bliss and run his own business – photography. Besides being delighted watching him grow his photography business and develop his style, we now share three awesome interests: photography, cooking and the thing that started it all, a profound respect and admiration for his beautiful wife.

{ While I worked on the goat and then cleaning the chicken, Nathan got started on the Curried Channa. The aroma that rose up and out of that pot were intoxicating! After combining all the ingredients, the pot was placed in the oven to braise all afternoon. )

Nathan loves to cook and I've had the pleasure to share many weekend afternoon brunches and early evening dinners at their Encinitas home. Usually, Nathan is in the kitchen cooking while Jess is in charge of keeping the glasses filled and guests entertained.

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{ Next up was the goat since it's a tougher cut of meat, it would need a good amount of low-temp braising. There is nothing more amusing than two cooks in the kitchen. Unless of course those two cooks also happen to be photographers vying for their own "time with the food." Here's Nathan grabbing a photo of the curry with his own camera after he fumbled a bit with mine. Funny how, even though we have the same brand camera though slightly different models, we felt most comfortable with our own camera in our hands. Deny it if you like, but photographers definitely get used to their own equipment, customizing settings to their individual shooting styles. }

One of those evening dinner parties a few years ago introduced me to Trini food. Nathan's love of Trini food began after he and Jess spent some time in Trinidad with some friends. He introduced me to "buss up shut," the colloquial term for Paratha-Roti, a flatbread similar to Mexican flour tortillas in taste called "buss up shut" because after it's pulled from the hot griddle, it's busted up and looks like a torn shirt after doing so. I also learned about curried goat, curried chicken and curried channa (channa is chickpea or garbanzo bean depending on where you are from). And now, thanks to a really fun day playing sous chef in Nathan's kitchen, I'm excited to try some of these ethnic dishes at home on my own. I'm also thankful for getting to know Nathan better. As we prepared the evening's meal, we spoke about recipes, our favorite knives, and, a-hem!, scary condiments. One of which he was dying to show me. While he was out ingredient shopping for the meal, he had come upon fish sauce that he HAD to buy he said. He excitedly pulled it from the cupboard and in doing so, marred me for life as a thousand little bitty eyes stared back at me! If you read this blog much, you now my distaste for fish. And this tiny bottle had actual teeny tiny fishies floating around in it. Not fearing that this will date me, let me just say, it like, totally grossed me out!

{ If you notice on the very first photo of this post, the Double is topped with a bright orange sauce. This is a papaya-based hot sauce that Nathan whipped up basically from memory. In Trinidad, it's four-alarm hot. But with my wimpy, I repeat, WIMPY, tastebuds, he refrained from what he assumed were several habeneros to a mere two of these heat bombs. I loved the sweetness and slight heat. Slight heat that is until I was several bites in and the inside of my mouth started to tingle. Yes, I'll say it again, W I M P Y! }

As this is the first installment of my new occasional feature, "Sharing the Kitchen With…", I'm excited to share the recipes we made and some of his stories. Here's a brief recap of some of our conversation:

Afotogirl: What is your earliest culinary memory?
Nathan: Well, it's difficult to determine 'earliest' from such young memories, but I remember one very clearly: It was making 'Gingered Meatballs' from the authentic 'Peanuts Cookbook' when I was maybe five or six years old. It was a huge adventure where my mom took me to buy the ingredients and I measured and mixed and made the meatballs myself. They were fantastic! The cookbook was a little green hardback thing with maybe two dozen kid friendly recipes. I distinctly remember the comics inside. one specifically where Linus offers to get Lucy some toast, and brings her a slice of bread. She screams "Raw toast? You brought me RAW TOAST!?" I thought that was hilarious.
When did you first realize that you enjoyed cooking and what is it about it that appeals to you?
Whew, again so early in life. I distinctly remember wanting to grow up and be a chef at a very early age. Somewhere along the way I learned the difference between cooking for fun and cooking for money. I cook for fun. I also have no respect for recipes or consistency. I use recipes all the time, but I often find myself diverted from the exact preparation either by circumstance or adventure.
Do you have a favorite dish or speciality you love to make?
The easy answer? Whatever I'm inventing from scratch at the moment. If it doesn't turn out well, then it's not my favorite anymore! Okay, so that's a cop-out answer. You hear this from a lot of people who cook, that it always comes down to the simple things, eggs, pasta, potatoes, chicken, steak...simple foods cooked with love that everybody can love together. An easy favorite for me is small ciabatta rolls sliced in half the flat way, doused with plenty of olive oil and a smidgen of garlic, salt and pepper, then grilled on the cut side only . We lovingly call it 'toasty bread' here at home and it's always a huge hit.
We're cooking some dishes from Trinidad today. Trini food isn't something you hear much about here in San Diego. What turned you onto it?
A trip to Trinidad & Tobago in 2005. Eating real Trini food in friends' homes and small village establishments is a very unique experience. The chalkboard menu on the wall was only a suggestion of what they might actually be serving today. Funny story: It's the only place in the world where, when we asked nicely for an extra plate to share our various dishes (a table full of them), the girl thought about it for a moment, looked wistful, smiled slightly and said "NO". What!? Did she just say NO? Not even an attempt at explanation or an apology. Just NO. Ha Ha! Only in Trinidad. They also have a fantastic bottled soda called LLB. Last time I checked you can't get it here in the states. It's actually based upon an Australian concoction as far as I know. If you look up a recipe you can fake it at home well enough. Highly recommended.
Is there a dish or particular cuisine that you haven't tried yet that you'd love to try?
As you already know, I'm rather fearless when it comes to food and cooking. Anthony Bourdain is practically my hero. So, well, I've never cooked a whole animal head, preferably in a real pit fire. That would be pretty fun. Of course it would be even better if it's something big and scary, too, like a buffalo head. I can think of a pretty short list of people who would actually come to that barbecue though.

Yeah, Ok, so I think I'd be game for it. (Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.)

{ Last to be cooked was the roti. Nathan used a cup dipped in ghee (clarified butter used often in Indian cuisine) to "abuse" the roti as it bakes on the griddle. This helps the bread "break up" after it's pulled from the griddle creating what is known as "buss up shut" as it resembles a torn up t-shirt if abused properly. }

Green Seasoning

1 1/2 cups chive, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup parsley, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup fresh thyme

1/3 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped

4 whole garlic cloves

2 - 3 tablespoons water

Put all ingredients into a food processor. Pulse until very fine or pureed.
Refrigerate and use within a week.
To help it keep longer, sub 1 tablespoon of the water with 1 tablespoon white vinegar.

Doubles (Bara & Curried Channa)

serves 8

FOR THE BARA

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon instant yeast

FOR THE CHANNA

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, sliced

2 tablespoons curry powder

1 1/4 cups water

2 cans chickpeas

pinch of ground cumin

1 teaspoon salt

hot pepper to taste

1 cup vegetable oil (for frying)

For bara: In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, turmeric, cumin, sugar and yeast. Add enough lukewarm water to make a soft dough. Mix well. Cover and let rise for 1 1/2 hours.
For channa: Heat oil in heavy bottomed pot. Mix the curry powder with 1/4 cup water to make a paste. Add onions, garlic and the curry paste to the hot oil. Saute for a few minutes. Add the channa, stir to coat well. Cook for 5 minutes. Add 1 cup of water, pinch of cumin, salt and hot pepper to taste. Cover, lower heat and simmer until peas are soft. Add more water if needed. Adjust seasoning. Once the peas are soft and moist, use a potato masher or fork to mash the peas. This will make it easier to spread on the bread.
Punch down dough. Allow to rest 10 - 15 minutes.
Pinch about a tablespoon of the dough, form a ball then using floured hands, shape into a flat disk about 4" in diameter.
Fry a few at a time in hot oil. Turn once and drain on paper towels.
You can spread the channa on the bara and fold to make a taco or place channa on one bara, top with another to make a sandwich, or "double" as this is known in Trinidad. A hot pepper sauce or mango chutney goes very well with this dish.

Curried Goat

serves 6

2 lbs lean goat meat

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 cup onions, chopped

2 teaspoons garlic, minced

3 tablespoons green seasoning

2 tablespoons cooking oil

3 tablespoons curry powder

2 bay leaves

1 1/2 cup hot water

Trim and wash the goat. Cut into bite-sized pieces. Place in a large bowl. Season with salt and black pepper. Toss in garlic and green seasoning.
Heat oil in a heavy pot. Mix curry powder with 1/4 cup water to form a paste. Add bay leaf and the curry paste to hot oil and sauté for one minute. Add meat and garlic. Sauté for 10 minutes, stirring to coat.
Add water to meat. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on low heat until meat is tender. About 2 hours. Adjust salt and pepper before serving.
Serve on a bed of rice with roti.

Curried Chicken

serves 6

3 lbs boneless chicken thigh

1 teaspoon garlic, minced

2 teaspoons green seasoning

1 teaspoon salt or to taste

1/2 teaspoon hot pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 tablespoons curry powder

1/2 cup tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup onions, chopped

1/2 cup hot water

Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. Season with garlic, green seasoning, salt and hot pepper. Marinate for 30 minutes.
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pot or large skillet. Mix curry powder with 1/4 cup water and make into a smooth paste. Add to hot oil and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add chicken, stir to coat. Cook for about 10 minutes.
Add tomatoes and onions. Cook for 1 minute. Stir in 1/2 cup hot water. Lower heat to medium. Cover and cook until meat is tender. Add more water if needed. Adjust seasoning and hot pepper to taste.

Paratha-Roti (Buss-Up-Shut)

4 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 ounces ghee (clarified butter)

1 3/4 cups water

Sift first three ingredients. Add enough water to form a smooth soft dough. Knead well and leave for 1/2 hour covered with a damp cloth.
Knead for second time and divide into four balls (loyah). Flour board and roll out dough to the size of a dinner plate, about 8-9 inches.
Spread with ghee and sprinkle with flour. Starting at center, cut dough to edge. Pick up one edge and carefully begin rolling tightly all the way around to form a cone. Repeat with other three portions.
One at a time, press peak of cone straight down to flatten until all four cones have been flattened. Let rest for 30 minutes.
Sprinkle flour on board and roll the bread out to very thin with a rolling pin. Spread some ghee out onto a hot griddle or baking stone. Bake bread, coating dough with ghee on both sides as it cooks (about 1 1/2 minutes on each side).
Remove from baking stone and hit with wooden pallette until flaky or wrap in clean cloth and mash up to create the appearance of a torn up shirt ("Buss-up-Shut").

{ quote } "It is not impossibilities which fill us with the deepest despair...

2011-03-22T09:29:00.001-07:00

"It is not impossibilities which fill us with the deepest despair, but possibilities which we have failed to realize." Writer and Poet, Robert Mallet

Ain't that the truth! Here's to realizing more of the possibilities. . . one at a time.

{ link } Tiramisu, Part 2

2011-03-18T23:59:00.001-07:00

Remember the photo I teased a few weeks ago for my upcoming Step by Step collaboration with food writer Maria Desiderata Montana? Well, it finally published in the U-T this week. Here is the link to Maria's story and recipe. Enjoy!

{ life w/a dog } play ball!

2011-03-14T19:45:00.001-07:00

Just walked in from work. After greeting me at the backdoor, Starbuck ran back to the living room, grabbed her favorite ball and waited for me to get the hint. How can I resist that? Guess dinner preparation will have to wait.

{ recipe } Kahlua Braised Chuck Roast

2011-03-08T00:10:00.001-08:00

Mmmm. Pot roast.

The surprising thing is that even with all of these years of cooking under my belt, I’ve never made it myself. I’ve enjoyed my mom and dad’s often.

But not everyone likes it. I’ve heard it described as a dry hunk’o’meat with veggies that taste just as muddy as that dry hunk’o’meat rather than tasting like roasted veggies.

So when I noticed that the boneless chuck roast was on sale while grocery shopping a couple of weekends ago, I passed it over, opting for boneless chicken breasts instead. But while standing at the checkout, images of machaca burritos started dancing in my head. On impulse, I went back to the meat counter and picked out a roast with absolutely no idea how I was going to prepare it.

Once home, I waffled back and forth on how to proceed. I pulled out cookbooks and found that most of the recipes were fairly similar and very traditional. Feeling adventurous, I returned the cookbooks to the shelf and headed to my kitchen, mid-day coffee in hand.

Needing inspiration, I opened my spice drawer and started rifling through the plethora of bottles and packets. Visitors who often open the drawer looking for utensils only to find several dozen spice bottles laying on their sides stacked two layers deep, have gasped in amazement at the assortment. I love spices, yes I do. I love spices. How about you? Oops. Momentarily off-track. Uh-hem!

A few months ago, I brought home achiote (annato) seeds from the Mexican market down the street. I was prompted to pick them up after a second viewing of Ten Minute Cooking School in the bonus features of Robert Rodriguez’ “Once Upon a Time in Mexico.” Achiote is the main spice in his Puerco Pibil (also known as Cochinita Pibil) recipe – next on my list to make since that's why I bought the achiote in the first place!

Traditionally, achiote paste is used for chicken and pork but I got to thinking, how would it pair with beef?I pondered that as I sipped more coffee. Coffee. Hmmm. Coffee and beef? Coffee, beef and achiote? Well, Major Tom, I think we have a plan.

After accepting this unorthodox combo, I just dove in and hoped for the best.
The result? Out of this world!

The achiote gave the meat a gorgeous red color and the kahlua added to the earthy flavor of the seed. It’s definitely going into rotation here in the afotogirl household.

And, guess what was even better than the pot roast? The machaca burritos I made two days later with the leftover meat. Yum!

Kahlua Braised Chuck Roast
I made this dish over the coarse of two days because I wanted to make sure that I could remove ALL the excess fat. By cooking one day and leaving it in the refrigerator overnight, the fat was easily separated from the sauce.
Serves 4-6

FOR THE DRY RUB

2 tbs achiote entero (whole annato seeds)

1 tbs California chili powder

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tbs whole Mexican oregano

1 tbs granulated onion powder

1 tbs granulated garlic powder

2 tsp sea salt

2 tsp coarse ground black pepper

1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

4 lb boneless chuck roast

2 tbs olive oil

1 medium onion, coarse chopped

1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes

1/2 cp Kahlua

2 cps chicken stock

2 dried bay leaves

Preheat oven to 425˚

Put the first nine ingredients into a coffee grinder (uh, one you aren’t gonna use for coffee again, of course). Grind to a fine powder.

At medium heat, heat 1 tbs olive oil in a dutch oven (see note). Turn the meat out onto a work surface and pat the meat dry. Pour half the spice onto one side and rub it into the meat, into any crevices and down the sides of the roast. Flip and repeat with the other half of the spice.

Once the oil is shimmering, carefully place the roast into the pot and brown on all sides. Remove meat to a platter and set aside.

Add the rest of the olive oil (more if needed) and once hot, add onions to the pot along with any remaining rub. Sweat the onions for 1 minute. Add kahlua and stir with a wooden spoon to release all of the brown bits stuck to the pot. Add the chicken stock and tomatoes. Return the meat to the pot and add the bay leaves. Cover.

Place in hot oven at 425˚ for 1 hour. After 1 hour, flip the meat. Lower heat to 325˚ and continue to braise for 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until the meat is fork tender. Remove pot from the oven. Carefully lift the meat out of the pot and place on a dish to cool. Remove the bay leaves. Using a slotted spoon, spoon out as much of the thickened tomatoes as possible and place in a container to cool. Place the remaining liquid into a bowl to cool. Once everything is no longer hot to the touch, place in the refrigerator overnight.

Remove all ingredients from the refrigerator. You’ll notice that all the fat in the sauce bowl has risen to the top and solidified. Using a spoon, carefully remove the fat and discard it.

Return the sauce to a dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot, add back the tomatoes and stir to incorporate. Cut the meat into large chunks and stir into the sauce to heat through.

Serve over rice and your favorite fresh steamed veggies.

Note: I used a dutch oven though any deep, heavy bottomed pot with a TIGHT fitting lid will do. The lid needs to be tight because the sauce will actually increase in amount due to the trapped steam and condensation which, by the way, helps to make the meat tender by self-braising. That's the beauty of a dutch oven.

What to do with the leftovers?

Make machaca burritos or tacos. Remove meat from sauce. Shred. Add vegetable oil to a hot pan. When shimmering, add diced bell peppers, sliced or chopped onions and sweat. Add the meat and one egg per person.

Scramble until combined and just set.

Add to a warmed flour tortilla for a breakfast burrito or to warmed corn tortillas for lunch.

You can also skip the egg and simply shred the meat and heat. Place into a warm tortilla and top with a little of the left over sauce. Add some fresh cilantro, chopped onions and some crumbled queso fresco. Also, the leftover sauce is yummy on eggs over easy or as a topping for an omelette.

¡Buen provecho!

Until next time,
Ani

{ Life w/a Dog } this looks so uncomfortable

2011-03-05T21:15:00.001-08:00

She sleeps like this a lot... On her back, paws up in the air, head tucked to the side. So cute.