Not a ton of content today, just a friendly reminder to be your own private chef. Wake up with a hard-to-satisfy craving? (no, not that kind) Just call on your internal private chef to whip you up a bespoke meal. All it takes is a little lazy preparation. it helps to do a little experimental shopping here and there.

See a vegetable someplace that you’ve never eaten? Grab a few. See a sauce that looks good but has no english on the package? Pick up a little bottle. Once you’ve done this for a few months, just when convenient, you’ll have a much more solid idea of the things you love and what they’re made of, or what they *could* be made of, in a pinch. Just take a chance- most of the most interesting stuff out there is cheap as chips, and that’s cheap, jackson!

This morning, with a fridge full of next to nothin’*, I unearthed a lonely king oyster mushroom, a nub of veggie chicken, some snap peas, the last of a sad bunch of cilantro, and a little scrap of pancit noodles.

This all went into a smoking hot frying pan with a couple of fine-chopped thai chilies and 2 cloves of garlic. Finished off with a sauce made from peanut butter, kimchee starter (my new fave thing- I’ll post about it once I get a little more info), china hot oil from the Dol Ho dim sum place in Chinatown, and a little lime juice and Maggi.

A few minutes later, a full-color version of the dish above was ready and waiting, along with a pint glass of Blue Bottle coffee, dripped from a Melitta cone. I couldn’t have bought this dish anywhere in the city. Making it it took 5 minutes, and was no harder than: Choose stuff, chop stuff, cook stuff, mix sauce, stir fry stuff in sauce, eat. Needless to say, it was just what the doc ordered. The smell even roused my hung-over housemate from his bed of pain.

…and just think what I can whip up once I actually restock the place!

* I realize that a lot of people wouldn’t call having all this crap “next to nothin’”, but what I want to foster in folks is a certain element of constant exploration, where you might be picking up random food items regularly enough to find yourself having bottomed out your fridge with a few things like these still hanging around.

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You should know that I am a huge fan of bourbon. In fact, you should be a huge fan of bourbon, too. The carmelly sweet liquor is warming and delectable. It simultaneously makes you feel classy from some by-gone era and tough, like you could take on everyone in the bar if say, some crazy movie-scene type brawl broke out.

But bourbon is a great entertaining liquor because of the endless classy cocktails you can put it in. (As well as the low class cocktails).

I offer for you here two whiskey cocktails for summer, one high class, one white trash.

First off, by way of Portland, a fabulous trailer park classic:
The Whiskeytini

The whiskeytini is served in a martini glass (for effect)
Chill the glass with ice, then pour in one shot of whiskey.
Top with PBR (to desired height) and add a thin, round slice of lemon (the same way you would add a round slice of apple to a washington apple)

That’s it! Cold, refreshing and tounge-in-cheek. Best served at theme parties or on the porch on a sunny afternoon.

The second cocktail has a name, but I can’t steal it as this isn’t my recipe. I’ve modified it slightly from the original, but it is still tasty. I must give credit to Bourbon and Branch for the original. I don’t get to that bar often, but I missed the drink enough to try it out myself.

In a collin’s glass grate about a teaspoon of fresh ginger
Add two shots whiskey and muddle the ginger into the whiskey
Fill glass halfway with fresh pressed apple juice (no sugary juice here… try to go as pure as you can… juicing yourself is the best way to go)
add a handful of ice cubes and top off with 7-up or tonic (for a less sugary version)
To finish add two dashes of cinnamon, stir and serve.

Voila… two conversation piece cocktails for any summer gathering.

Filed under: Recipes, Ingredients, Cocktail Hour
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I’d like to counter my last post of discussing the sour with a discussion about sweet and sweetners.
I have recently toyed with the idea of going on a cleanse. I have always avoided cleanses like the plague because well, the thought of giving up what I love to eat for any period of time (even if for a health reason) just kills me. Food is my drug… I want it all. I want it now. And I will NOT LET ANYONE STAND BETWEEN ME AND IT.

This is my inner fat kid talking. When I’m not eating food, I’m thinking about when I’m going to be eating it and what I’m going to eat next. People I hang out with are frequently amused at my ponderings over meal options and my sudden frequent outbursts of “I’m hungry.” I attribute this to a high metabolism and often low blood sugar.

The latter is something I try to manage, and lately I’ve been thinking about it more. I’ve also been thinking about some stomach problems I’ve been having, which as led me to the issue of doing a cleanse. While I usually try to be mindful of the organic, and the hormone free, I don’t always pay attention to ALL the ingredients I consume in my food. And one of my serious offenders is refined sugar. Especially when paired with my multiple-cup-a-day coffee habit. I used to try to make myself feel better by using sugar substitutes, despite the fact that I know they are more chemical than good for you. Equal has aspartame and Splenda has chlorine. Blah, blah, blah. I used to ignore it but eventually I couldn’t help but feel guilty enough to switch back to real (albeit processed) sugar. I just never developed a liking for the raw stuff. Who knows why? Bigger pieces take longer to melt deliciously into my steaming cup of joe?

Now, though… I know I need to cut back. I’ve been having hypoglycemic attacks more frequently, which always means I need an adjustment of my diet. (I could tell you horror stories about blacking-out from a redbull, but suffice it to say I don’t tolerate loads of sugar well). And while I’m warming up to the idea of a cleanse, the cold turkey approach just isn’t gonna work for me. I will do a slow cutback of one ingredient of a time. Starting with Sugar.

So what to do when you know you can’t visit load up on chemicals and don’t care for the raw sugar route?
Let me introduce you to my readily available ingredient of the month:

Agave Nectar.

Now I know this stuff has been all over food blogs for a while, but I’ve only recently realized that you can buy it just about everywhere. It’s perfect for sweetening because it’s thin enough in consistency to dissolve in a cold liquid or just toss into some oatmeal.

It’s also perfect for cocktails. (Something I’m always experimenting on making with less sugar).
I have yet to try it out in baking, but so far it does great in coffee, oatmeals, and cocktails.
I’m all stocked up on the Trader Joe’s version, which is reasonably priced.

There’s also another food item we all love that you can substitute with agave nectar: honey. What with the bee shortage … agave nectar is a (currently) more sustainable sweetener.

I’ll leave you with this cocktail recipe, courtesy of one of my favorite fashionistas, Julianna:

Makes enough for a poolside party
A bottle of tequila (I’m a huge fan of Cazadores because the locals in Puerto Vallarta tell me it’s the best bang for your buck in America but any tequila will do)
two jalapenos
A large jug/jar/pitcher
Agave nectar
fresh orange or mango juice

Pour bottle of tequila into the jug or pitcher and dice up two jalapenos (be sure to remove the seeds and if you are not used to handling peppers be careful not to get juice in your eyes or near your face)
throw the diced up peppers into the tequila. Soak overnight.

To make a drink fill any tumbler with ice… pour two shots of the tequila over ice and the add juice to fill the cup. Stir in one tablespoon of agave nectar and serve.

The nectar and juice work beautifully to offset the spice of the tequila and jalapeno. It’s great for hot weather and somewhere in the back of my head I believe it’s actually healthy! (Why wouldn’t fruits and veggies and natural plant juices be?)

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A totally underrated yet magical fruit that you should use more of is something I have only recently come to cherish. It is the Meyer Lemon and I am in love. I moved into a house with a tree brimming with such sweet/tart fruits right when it was in the peak of it’s season. Some weeks I had to pick close to 20 lemons, just to keep them from falling off and rotting on the ground. I would have offered them to my neighbors, but it seems that they are a common addition to every yard on the block. Saddled with an abundance of fruity goodness I set out to explore the numerous ways I could use the lemons. The results were interesting, varied, always tasty and eventually so plentiful that my husband asked if we could take a break from the lemons for a while.

The meyer lemon is an interesting lemon, because it is thought to be a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange. This gives is a slightly rounder and sometimes more orange outside than a normal lemon would have. They are also sweeter and slightly less acidic, traits I accidentally discovered on my first adventure with them: Lemonade.
Now, with normal lemons you have to dilute the juice with a larger ratio of water and sugar. With the meyer lemons, I tried to use my normal lemonade ratios, and resulted in a watered down sugary sweet mess. I think the meyer lemons are best left to cooking and baking, and lemonade is best left to the original with it’s super tartness and pucker.

My favorite use of meyer lemons is in a modified lemon curd, which can be used for everything from filling cupcakes to baking tarts. Lemon tarts are particularly delicious when made with meyer lemons, although any dessert with them is great. Meyer Lemon sorbet, meyer lemon bars… the list is long (and I got through most of it). I even experimented with making gluten-free crusts on the tarts. They weren’t as flaky and buttery as a normal tart crust, but they were passable. It seems with so many lemons to spare, any dish was a possible canvas for lemon.

In cooking, and citrus marinade is fantastic. I’m a fan of citrus marinated tilapia over quinoa with green beens.

For salad dressings squeeze a little together with some olive oil and a champagne vinegar black pepper and other seasonings to taste.

I won’t go into too much detail on the specific recipes, but just know that these are a great addition to your grocery list to experiment with. A little zest or scraping in a cocktail, a little squeeze over some pasta… it can be your secret weapon (or as in my case, your little love affair).

The season has dwindled for now, but I’m looking forward to fall when I can start my day with a meyer citron presse (hot water with a squeeze of lemon) and end it with a slice of meyer lemon tart. Life does give you lemons sometimes and it is the best thing that could have happend to me.

Filed under: Random, Ingredients
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