Family Secrets

This could go 1 of 2 ways.

I could be:

A) exiled from the family for sharing trade secrets

B) adored and revered for flattering the chef

I'm rooting for B.

Whenever the fam bam gets together for any sort of shindig, 80% of us make it a point to pressure Mike & Alayne, my mom's cousins, to prepare baked mussels. If you could taste these, you'd know why. Something magical happens under that broiler and creepy mussels and weird mayo come together to create a genius taste treat delight. 

These are a very rare treat. You can order them in most sushi restaurants now, but it's never the same as when they are had at a rare family gathering. Awww... feelings!

While Mike's magical ratio for the sauce is a mystery to me, the ingredients are not so secret. I made them with light mayo, which may seem like a terrible idea, but really makes a minor difference if you choose your light mayo brand carefully.

Also, we got out mussels from the frozen section of an asian supermarket. If you can get them fresh, KUDOS to you. But frozen is great. I think these are from New Zealand.

Here goes.

Baked Mussels

makes one metric shit ton

a lot of mussels... like two dozen?

1 c. reduced fat olive oil mayonnaise

1 tbsp sriracha

2 tsp sesame oil

2 tbsp sesame seeds

First, defrost the mussels and rinse well. Get any dirt off and rinse out any freezer sauce.

Remove mussel from shell. They pop right off without tools - just use your hands. That leftover part is a muscle, leave that there.

If you're a barbarian, leave the mussel whole and simply replace it in the shell. If you take lady like bites or want each mussel to go further, cut into bite-size pieces (2's or 3's). Replace in shell.

Line em all up on a foil lined baking sheet.

Mix together mayo, sriracha, and sesame oil.

Taste! You want it spicy to your liking, with sesame flavor behind it all. If you like it hotter, make it hotter!

Spoon 2-3 tsp mayo mix on each mussel. Health food!

Then sprinkle all with sesame seeds.

Broil for 20 minutes, or until bubbly and brown, but without burning the edges of the mussel shells too much.

I would have taken a picture of the golden goodness, but a camera died and I had priorities. Like eating these suckers. 

It's not health food, but it's delicious. And this amount easily serves a ravenous group of 8. 

I suggest these as an appetizer, or as a side dish with something healthy, like cucumber salad. 

Please don't exile me for sharing family secrets!!

PS I'm going to China for a few weeks, be back when I'm back!

BeErs, Beets, Battlestar Galactica.

Well, two for three. Or 1.5 for three. I did a little play on words with Beers and Bears there.

What did you do this weekend?

I did this:

Souvees!

Leah, Bjorn, our friend Erin (shout out!) and I headed to an International Beer Festival in Thousand Oaks. We were hoping for some good cougar sight seeing, but we only had one possible D list celebrity sighting instead. I'll take it. It was a really nice California evening with wonderful and entertaining company. And some yummy beers! Bears! Beers!

Today I cooked one of my very favorite vegetables. Kimberly Doyle loves this vegetable one million times more than I do, so I dedicate this blog to YOU, momma! I hope you read this. Will someone tell her to read this? Tell Doris, too.

First things first. Put your kitty apron on.

loooooking crazy.

 We have a great farmers market in Camarillo, and I picked up these gems last week:

Red and Gold, like Gryffindor

Roasted Beets

My favorite way to prepare beets is roasted. I think you get a lot more flavor and concentrated moisture than when you boil them. I like to eat them slightly warm on a salad with a strong cheese (goat, bleu, gorgonzola) and balsamic vinegar. Golden, red, whatever, they are ALWAYS good. Yes, Kim, ALWAYS.

Note: This time I tried putting all the beets in one foil pouch to cook them but I recommend individually wrapping the beets snugly in foil in the future. The skins will come off more easily that way.

Ingredients

• Beets (try to pick out beets that are equally sized for equal cooking time)
• Foil
• EVOO
• Salt
• No desire to maintain a manicure

Directions

• Wash and trim beets
• Drain dry
• If necessary, cut beets in halves/thirds so that all are the same size
• Wrap each beet individually in a sheet of foil with a tiny drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of salt
• Wrap tight so that any leaking juices don't burn in the oven
• Place on a baking sheet
• Bake at 375 for 45 minutes (this time is for lime-sized beets... use your judgment)
• To test for doneness, unwrap one beet (BE CAREFUL!) and stick a knife in it. If it slides out easily, it's done!
• Let cool 15-30 minutes, depending on how impatient you are
• Unwrap and skins will slip right off!
• Slice to your preference and serve

Arrrreee ya done?

INTERMISSION. INTERMISSION. INTERMISSION. INTERMISSION.

Oh, hey sprinkles! You gonna help cook?

Where ya going?

Oh.

RESUME BLOG POST. RESUME BLOG POST. RESUME BLOG POST.

And no salad is complete without a homemade vinaigrette, right? I rarely like balsamic vinaigrettes out of a bottle. And I don't like the excessive oil. So I make my own.

Basic Vinaigrette

Can be adapted one trillion different ways. My favorite way is to add 1 tbsp of nonfat plain greek yogurt to make a creamy balsamic. Amazing!

Ingredients

• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp very finely diced (or grated) red onion
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1.5 tbsp good dijon mustard ( I recommend Annie's or Grey Poupon)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 c. balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together, in order, with a whisk. The mustard will make the oil and vinegar emulsify.

And now you have all the skillz to make a fancypants salad. Like this one:

Lettuce, red onion, red and gold beets, goat cheese, chicken, vinaigrette.

Wonderful way to end the weekend! Who am I kidding... every day is a weekend right now. Gotta get a job...

So now I look like I murdered someone....

And the kitchen looks like a crime scene.

But it was totally deliciously worth it.

Wednesday, Thursday, Leahday

It's a holiday.

Well, sorta.

Tonight I cooked a vegetarian meal to celebrate my sister Leah's birthday! I had to convince her to come and she was also sick (read: neti pot), oh, an my dog kept trying to kill her, but the evening was a success in the kitchen!

Let me sharesies! Tonight's menu:

Spinach Enchiladas Suiza (The Vegetarian Epicure)
Fiesta Lime Rice (www.skinnytaste.com)
Green Salad with Creamy Cilantro Tomatillo Dressing (www.skinnytaste.com)
Lemon Ginger Snap Cheesecake Cups  (www.skinnytaste.com + my own little twist)

Well first off, I almost did it again. I almost cooked a full meal without taking one photo. But my mom reminded me. Good ol mom.

What was left of salad dressing ingredients. 

Yup... there's the salad dressing. 

Creamy Cilantro Tomatillo Dressing, care of Skinny Taste, over a mixed green salad with carrots, radishes, bell pepper and tomato. Can't complain!

Then I got my shiz together and remembered to use my camera. (Mostly)

The cookbook from which I got the Enchilada Recipe was a dinosaur. I swear this book has not seen the light of day for decades.

Enchilada ingredients!

Yep. 1972.

My mom has both volumes of the book. The Enchilada recipe was from the second, both published in 1972.  These books have clearly not been cracked for years, because I found a notice in one of them from my elementary school about the Kindergarten schedule, circa 92.

Another sign these books are super old is this tasty ingredient used heavily throughout. YUM:

Yeah, that says MSG. For a broth recipe! Ha!

Spinach Enchiladas Suizas

• Cooking spray
• 3 12 oz. bags of spinach
• 2 tbsp EVOO (thanks, Ray Ray!)  PS, One time I was watching Martha (as in Stewart) on the Today show and she said EVOO and immediately corrected herself because she totally used Ray Ray's phrase. Like OMGGGGG
• 1/2 bag of the pre-chopped onions from Trader Joe's (i.e. 1 large white onion, chopped, hold the tears)
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 pound swiss cheese, grated
• 1/2 pound 2% monterey jack or pepper jack cheese, grated
• 24 corn tortillas

• 2 cups reduced fat sour cream
• 2 cups reduced fat milk
• 1 cup diced green chiles

Directions, first visually, then written:

Why does anybody need this many wooden spoons?!!?

The worst food item ever created. Crush your own garlic people. This stuff is awful.

This, is NOT awful.

That's a lot of food storage.

Do this. Three times.

My FAVORITE ingredient. Ever?

All ready!

I use extra thin for less calories. Each= 40 calories!

Rolled up, in the tub!

Ahhhh cheesy bath. Weird.

• In a large saute pan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil
• Soften onions and garlic
• Add as much spinach as you can fit, stir, let it wilt down. Continue until all spinach is incorporated.  Season with salt and pepper.
• Once most liquid has evaporated, you are ready to make your enchiladas!
• Spray 1-2 casserole dishes with cooking spray
• Heat tortillas in microwave with a damp towel so they are pliable
• Fill each tortilla with 2 tbsp spinach and 2 tbsp cheese, roll up tight!
• There will be some extra cheese for the sauce, but fit all your spinach in the enchiladas
• For the sauce, warm milk on the stove until warm. 
• Stir in sour cream, remaining cheese, and green chiles
• Pour over enchiladas
• Bake 25 minutes at 350 or until all melty and hot
• Serve with lots of Cholula

 I cannot tell you enough how I love recipes from www.skinnytaste.com

Fiesta Lime Rice was limey and creamy from the black beans. Such a great partner to the enchiladas! 

And for dessert, Lemon Cheesecake Yogurt Cups via skinnytaste, but instead of the Vanilla Wafer that she calls for, I used the Triple Ginger Snaps from Trader Joe's... YUMMMM

Topped with half a ginger snap and blackberries

These were just like lemon cheesecake, but they are made with nonfat greek yogurt and low-fat cream cheese so they have a lot less guilt with them.  These are about 110 calories each!!

For the birthday girl!

"Take a picture of me!!"

Back in the Saddle Again

Greetings Earthlings!

Today started like this:

About damn time. That's right, It's back to Weight Watchers with me. I had huge success with WW in middle school, and again after the freshman 15. And I'm bacccckkkkkk. Between sixth and seventh grade I lost about thirty pounds. Thirty pounds!  Most sixth graders only weigh thirty pounds, right? (I have a really hard time judging kids' ages...)

After my first year of college (read: binge drinking, cafeteria, no mommy) I lost twenty pounds over summer. The only problem was I wasn't done growing and maturing so my habits didn't stick. I didn't know what it meant to cook for myself or what healthy living meant. I really didn't know how crucial fueling your body right and exercising is to your longevity.

My philosophy is that we were given this one body and we only have one lifetime to treat it right. Don't get me wrong, I have done many many terrible things to my body (including starving it with diet root beer and carrot sticks then binging on cookies the next day for an entire summer in high school).  I still occasionally do terrible things to my body like eating processed food and drinking too much diet coke. However I now have the maturity and sensibility to understand that when I eat pure, whole foods I feel better! When I exercise, my head is in the right place and I sleep better at night.

My goals are to relearn healthy habits, especially in terms of portion control. I don't think I will ever look at food purely as fuel... I see cooking and food presentation as an art, really. My relationship with food is a little abnormal, and I know I have room for improvement. I already have healthy food habits and decent exercise habits, but it's time to hone in on them, put my nose to the grindstone and drop the extra pounds I'm carrying around. I dug through old family pics this morning to find some of me at my chunkiest in the last ten years. Trust me, some were a lot worse, but so much that I refused to even look twice at them.

Don't mind Leah, my sister, in the right picture. She must have been in a Posh Spice phase. Ps my momma is a lifetime weight watcher and she looks nothing like this anymore. She's svelte and buff as shit these days (she's my inspiration!). These pics are circa 2004/2005, right in the midst of the freshman 15. I don't want to go back there.

Remember when I mentioned mascarpone cheese the other day? Let me follow through with a promise! Now you're probably thinking, HOLD IT THERE SISTER, I thought you were on a diet?! The great thing about WW (weight watchers) is that nothing is "off-limits", you just have to budget for it. And my dad took care of all the leftovers for me, so really, the best tip is to have a human garbage disposal in your home to eliminate any temptations for overeating. 

Ginger and Fig Mascarpone with Puff Pastry

adapted from Fig and Gingered Mascarpone Napoleons, Gourmet, 2001

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. Mascarpone cheese
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp candied ginger, diced
• 1 large or 2 small fresh figs, stems removed and chopped 
• Puff pastry cookies
• Pretty fig, sliced for topping cookies

Directions

• Mix together mascarpone, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, candied ginger and chopped figs

• Chill in fridge for 20-30 minutes at least
• When ready, dollop 1-2 tbsp of cream on top of cookie and a slice or two of fig, like below

If you stopped reading this a bit ago because you don't like figs, I understand. Texture is gross. Replace figs in the recipe with nectarines, peaches, plums, strawberries, or mango. Also the sugar could be easily replaced with agave or honey to taste if you are watching your sugar intake. It's probably a better choice anyway!

That's what I love about cooking. You can never be wrong. If it tastes good to you, then it's good.

Here's something that's never good:

The number of bruises on my body. 

Moving totally wrecked me. Always does. Gotta stop moving so much. Good thing unemployment is so low-impact. (Bitter).

 And on that note, Monster.com awaits me.