Cooking Blitz

Dumpling Production Central

Yesterday, Dr Colin and Mandie were married. As part of the weekend festivities and since all of their friends arrived in town on Friday and Saturday, Dr Colin asked me and Phineas to cook dinner for an informal gathering. So, aside from my San Francisco hiatus, we've been in a cooking frenzy preparing a Chinese banquet/buffet for the last 2 weeks.

The pan fried dumplings really went fast

We had a freezer full of wontons and dumplings and an array of sauces in the fridge, all ready to be popped into oven or pan or used to garnish. I think the dishes that disappeared fastest were the dumplings and also the deconstructed peking duck - a modern take on the classic. I fried leftover wonton wrappers into crispy rounds and then topped them with duck confit, hoisin, scallion and crackling duck skin.

The major catastrophe of the night was when the oven died. Just like that it stopped working. Thank goodness there's a second oven and a rather hearty toaster oven!

Wonton Production

We ended the evening with Chocolate covered strawberries, wontellas, which Miss Julia helped me make last weekend, and pineapple. A sweet ending to a great evening.

After the wedding, all the family who had flown in from Jamaica, Miami, Toronto and Pennsylvania came over for leftovers. By the end of the evening all that remained was 2 strands of lo mein noodle and a snow pea sitting in an otherwise empty bowl. Mission accomplished.

'eatings from the Left Coast

Since I was in San Francisco, I had dim sum for lunch every day. I figure its good "training" for Hong Kong and Taiwan.

UUH-MAZING pea shoot and shrimp dumplings

Before you go thinking this is glamorous, let me remind you that traveling for work is not the same as traveling for fun. The vomiting 3 year old sitting next to me during the flight and the excruciating pain from wrenching my back lifting my laptop, and then still having a job to do in spite of it more than made up for the fringe benefits.

Amazingly fresh har kow

Then again, it was really excellent dim sum.

Greetings from the Left Coast

Whomping Willow, San Francisco

Easter Dinner

The problem with blogging about food and cooking is that I remember to take photos of the work in progress, but not the final product before it is devoured. For example, my dad asked me and Phineas to recreate one of our favorite dishes from our Italy trip - pappardelle al porcini - for Easter. Phineas made the pasta and I made the sauce.

Here is the pasta dough in various stages:

Phineas making the pasta dough.

Rolling it out and cutting it into ribbons.

And then here are the remains.

After the hoard has gorged.

See, there is no picture of the beautiful bowl of pasta, all sauced and garnished and steaming hot. I just can't seem to remember to photograph my finished works before devouring. I 'lose" more blog entries this way...

Four Eyes

So I officially have joined the four-eyes crowd.

My photo skills do not include self portraiture.

I feel like my IQ goes up every time I slip my new glasses on.

Thanks to Magenta for helping me pick out my stylin' new specs, and Phineas for finding them on-line at an affordable price.

Chocolate Covered Love

Yesterday was Calliope's birthday. As a special treat, Orpheus and I made chocolate covered strawberries for his mom, the birthday girl.


Orpheus is a wonderful little chef. He is great at measuring and stirring, and he listens to directions very well. We always begin our cooking projects by remembering the 3 B's of cooking: Be Careful (let grown-ups do the grown-up jobs like cutting and touching hot pots), Be Prepared (read the recipe so we know the steps and have all the ingredients), and Be Clean (clean our hands and our work area, and clean up after ourselves).

Anyway, here is our master recipe for Chocolate Dipped Strawberries.
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate morsels (extra for nibbling)
1 quart strawberries

- Wash your strawberries and carefully pat them dry.
- Pour the morsels into a bowl. Sample a few to make sure they are good before you put the bowl in the microwave.
-Microwave on med-hi for 2 minutes and then take the bowl out and stir. Microwave and stir as much as needed, in 1-2 minute intervals, until the chips are melted and smooth.
- Dip the strawberries one at a time into the chocolate. Use a bamboo skewer or fondue fork to do the dipping if you want. When you lift the strawberry from the bowl slowly twirl it around to catch any dripping chocolate.
- Put strawberries on a pan in the fridge so the chocolate will harden.
- Lick the spoon that you used to stir the melting chocolate.

Done.

Happy Birthday, Magenta!

"The secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly and lie about your age." - Lucille Ball