The Gallery of Sandwiches: Round 3

OK, next in line is the sandwich of my childhood.

This is decadent, and terrible for you, and oh so very delicious. Where does it come from? Point Loma Seafoods, which is first and foremost a fish market, but in addition to having every kind of extremely fresh fish (they are actually directly attached to the fishing docks), they have ridiculously good food. As far as I'm concerned, the only thing to go for is this, the classic fish sandwich. Here is whats in there... fresh fresh fish, breaded and fried (mmm... fried), put on super fresh fresh soft sourdough bread, and slathered with deliciously decadent tarter sauce. (if you're getting one, you should get it 'sloppy' with extra sauce. I mean, by by the time you're eating something deep fried, what are you clinging to- go ahead and have the sauce ;-).

And, here is the glamor shot:


The other perk is that while you eat, you get to sit and watch the boats... ah, so scenic!

Miso-Glazed, Sake-Drenched Chicken (and asparagus)

Well, this was a delicious Asian-inspired dinner that I pretty much made by dumping stuff in plastic baggies and then throwing everything on the grill. What else can you ask for?

Basically, I was needing a change of pace from the lentils (and more lentils) I've been surviving on of late. I am not a huge fish-eater, but there is one piece of fish I always remember as the best fish I've ever had (except for the grilled yellow-tail, straight from the ocean, with nothing but lemon pepper on it which was the summertime dinner of childhood where I grew up. anytime I think of that, I'm immediately sitting at a picnic table in my neighbor's backyard, finishing dinner before we can play hide-and-seek in the twilight). Basically, the more recent fish was cod, marinated in miso and sake. I looked all over for a recipe, and got a bunch of stuff (well, mainly I had to go get the sake, I love having miso on hand because stick a little blob in a tupperware with some cooked noodles, and you can just take it to work, add water, and microwave for a ridiculously easy and non-spillably portable lunch).

However, I really wanted it yesterday, but I didn't have any fish. So, I decided to give it a shot with chicken. Basically, I took a frozen chicken breast, still frozen. Put it in a plastic baggy. In there, I put a spoonful of miso paste, about 2 tablespoons of mirin (cooking sake), a dash of soy sauce and a dash of sesame oil. Then I let it sit. Now, I planned to eat it that same day, but I ended up with other plans, so it actually was in the fridge for a little more than 24 hours.

For the final prep, I just pulled it out and tossed it on the grill. I also found these thin asparagus spears on an awesome sale at Ralphs, so I threw those on too. Before throwing those on I tossed them in a little sesame oil with red pepper flakes. And, here it is...


Can I just say O...M...G! :-). It was amazing. The chicken was very moist and flavorful and since there was only a small splash of soy sauce the taste of the miso and mirin really came through. And, the asparagus was fantastic- the sesame oil gave it this really nice nutty flavor. All in all, it was one of those things you make where with every bite you get more and more excited, and feel like if you ordered it at a restaurant, you'd be thrilled with it. You should try it!

Makeover time!

I have had a table next to my couch, hidden until magazines and candles, and random table-next-to-the-couch-stuff. The unfortunate truth about this table is that it is very very ugly. It was rescued from the hallways at work where someone had been using it as printer table. This is a utilitarian table, designed solely to be hidden under more important things. Its kind of sad, really.

The other day, I got a craft urge, which for some reason is the kind of thing that happens to me when I am very stressed and busy. Like, I have 3 free hours, I'm going to decorate a table! And decorate I did. Now to be very straight forward, I have no experience in this, I had no idea what materials to use, and didn't even know what the thing I wanted to do was called. Cue the etsy message boards, where you can get advice on pretty much anything. They told me that it was called decoupage. Now really, many people take this to the level of an art form, and you can make really amazing things. I have made something much less fancy, but I'll say, I think its pretty cute. I used ModPodge and a LOT of squares of paper. I was going for a kind of funky, non-perfect look which is fortunate because I don't appear to be capable of cutting paper even remotely straight.

At any rate, here is the result- it even matches my red themed living room! Check it out! I have to seal it, but haven't decided on the perfect way to do it (I got a lot of conflicting info). Anyone with any ideas by all means let me know! No more boring table, thats for sure!!

The Gallery of Sandwiches: Round 2

Ok, this would be sandwiches, the West Coast edition.

Having posted on the Primanti Brothers and their french fry filled insanity, I feel the need to represent the sandwich that lies closest to my heart. A sandwich I crave, would wait in traffic, or a ridiculously long line on a Saturday at lunchtime for. These are the kind of sandwiches people get homesick for after they leave LA. So- where does it come from? Bay Cities Deli... mmmmmmmmm... a Santa Monica institution.

Now, I could wax poetic about these sandwiches for quite some time, but I'll try to restrain myself. Basically, the excellence starts with really awesome ingredients (mmmm, pepper turkey and soft fresh muenster). Then, they add a bunch of mysterious stuff. I don't know what it is, exactly, which is why the only way for me to order it is with "the works". There is mustard. There is vinegar. There is some kind of crack-filled hot pepper salsa/relish stuff. It is a messy, messy situation. Fortunately, they know it. Therefore, they have encapsulated all of this goodness into this amazing crusty fresh bread. The bread might be a bit too tough for any other kind of sandwich, but for this, for this it is perfect. It is, I do believe, the best sandwich ever.

(disclaimer, this photo was blatantly stolen from my friend Valerie, who is one of those poor souls who, having moved away from LA, must pine for Bay Cities from afar).

Mujadarrah: Lentils, Rice, and Carmelized Onions

The other day, I was on the look out for something very very simple, made from ingredients I had on hand, that was also new and delicious: enter Mujadarrah (or, depending on your spelling preferences, Megadarra, Mjaddarah). It is a basic dish and seems to be common in a variety of places in the Middle East.

Here are the ingredients (get your pen, its a long list!):
lentils (I used green)
rice
onions (as many as you can get)
olive oil
salt and pepper
(some recipes called for cardamom, some didn't- I didn't have it so it isn't in mine)

this is hacked together from a variety of recipes on the internet:
heat some oil (I used a tablespoon or so, the recipes call for up to 1/4 cup), slice onions (I used 3 small onions) and cook in oil until soft. Cook on low/medium until really brown and caramelized- this is going to take a while!

In the meantime, put about 5 cups water in a pot, boil it, and put in 1 and 1/4 cup lentils. Cook about 20 minutes or so, then toss in the rice (I used brown rice, so tossed it in a little earlier and also added some more water) along with a bit of the onions and salt and pepper. Cook about 30 more minutes until rice and lentils are cooked. Serve with sauteed onions on top.

I might have thought that this would be overly bland, but the caramelized onions really were nice and flavorful, and it let you focus on the flavors of the lentils and rice. I like it! The only problem is, anything that involves caramelizing that many onions is not a quick dinner!

(In case you're wondering, the bread in the background was another attempt at flatbread, which went way better than the roti did, I actually liked it a lot. It is cumin/sesame flatbread from over at Kahakai Kitchen- check it out!)

Ode to Brussels Sprouts

I'd just like to take a moment to give a shout-out to brussels sprouts. This is one of those things I truly believed I hated until pretty recently, but I am now completely obsessed with.

First, a little background... according to my wonderful wikipedia, they are relatives of the cabbage and date back to ancient Rome. The thing that really blew my mind was this picture of how they grow :

I had no idea thats what they looked like! I imagined them as teeny cabbages right near the ground. So, you learn something new every day (or, at least on the good days).

Now, what do I do to the sprouts that has completely changed my mind? Roasting! I'm pretty sure there is no veggie that I don't think is better off roasted (at least now, during my big roasting kick). I like to maximize the surface area, so I quarter them and toss them with olive oil, salt, and pepper like this:

Then, put them in the oven at about 375-400, and roast until they look like this...

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... they are brown, and a little crispy, and kind of roasted and nutty. SO GOOD!

The Gallery of Sandwiches: Round 1

Recently, in between meetings and looking at dinosaurs, I had what may be the largest and most extreme sandwich I have ever encountered.

Where did this all happen? At a Pittsburgh establishment, Primanti Brothers. As you can see here, its a pretty small place, and you can watch as they make everything...

And then, they deliver this very tall sandwich, on very soft bread...

But, I really think you should see the cross-section to fully appreciate the situation...
What is that in there, you ask? That would be french fries and cole slaw. Yup. A combo which turned out to be both a little intense and very delicious. Pretty much everything you'd want from an epic sandwich.

Balsamic Lentils... Holy Smokes!

This recipe comes courtesy of The City Girl Cooks who picked it up over at Savory Spicy Sweet which is quickly becoming a favorite, as it was also the source of the very delicious butternut squash gnocchi from a few weeks ago.

Anyhow... I consider myself something of a lentil connoisseur (seeing as how they are both healthy and cheap, two criteria which top my list), and these lentils are, to say it briefly, completely awesome. My first thought upon tasting them (well, first of all after "woah!") was basically, "and, why don't I use balsamic vinegar on absolutely everything?". They have sausage, which I almost never cook with but I decided just to try the recipe as is and it was really good and hearty. It could be easily veggie-fied, either by just leaving it out (it would be really flavorful just by itself) or else substituting veggie sausage.

Here is my take on it...

What you need:
some olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves of minced garlic (probably 2-4 depending on taste)
red pepper flakes, to taste (I like a lot, probably used half a tsp- 1tsp)
3 links fully cooked chicken sausage, sliced- I got some garlicy sausage from TJs
2T balsamic vinegar
14oz can diced tomatoes
chopped fresh basil (could sub dried basil, in which case you should put it in at the same time as the pepper flakes)
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup dry lentils
1 1/4 cup water
5 oz fresh spinach or so, roughly chopped (I threw in almost a whole bag and did not chop it because I am lazy)

What you do...
Heat some olive oil in a pretty decent sized saucepan/pot (I just used my olive oil mister- all you need it for is browning the onions). Add the onions and cook until softened and a little brown.
Add ~1T balsamic vinegar, garlic, chicken sausage, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and sauté a couple minutes more.

Then, add the lentils, canned tomatoes, and water, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for around 25 minutes or until the lentils are just about done. Add spinach and chopped basil and cook 10 minutes more, until spinach is wilted and lentils are tender. Stir in remaining balsamic vinegar, garnish with extra basil, and serve.

This was seriously delicious. The balsamic vinegar really brought out a great flavor in the lentils, and it smelled absolutely fantastic. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Sunday Cinema: Working Girl

I have this strange and secret penchant for movies in which someone normal (or even better, someone who is the underdog) somehow gets in a situation where they pretend to be someone more powerful or famous or whatever. Usually, the underdog proceeds to prevail over pretty much everyone in the movie, kicking ass, taking names, and falling in love during the last 10 minutes. There are a lot more of these movies than you might think, for example: Secret of my Success, Don't tell Mom the Babysitter is Dead, Big. Movies like Harry Potter, Princess Diaries, and What a Girl Wants are a similar but slightly different genre, in which rather than pretending, the underdog inadvertantly finds out they are secretly special. They then proceed to do all the same things as the underdogs in category A.).

Anyhow, I have recently watched (twice!) one of the more fantastic examples from this series of fine films: Working Girl. During these recent viewings, I've gained a lot of appreciation for this excellent piece of cinematography. In particular, and in no particular order:

1. The 80's gear is out of control. This is not the kind of 80's gear that gets sported by hipsters in an attempt to be ironic. This is massive hair, amazing eyeshadow, enormous shoulder pads, and insane red glasses kinds of 80's gear. See below:

2. It has Sigourney Weaver. Sigourney Weaver is just awesome. It also has Alec Baldwin. Both of them do an excellent job of playing people you can't stand, although for different reasons.

3. It has Harrison Ford. This is not just any Harrison Ford, it is Harrison Ford from the late 80's, which I believe could be construed as the peak of his Harrison Ford-ness. Check it out:

(ok, I realize that Harrison didn't wear his Indiana Jones outfit in this movie. However, I really think that we can bend the rules just a little, just for this)

The busiest cat in the world.

I know you've been dying to know what little Charlotte has been up to.

I've been traveling a lot for work lately. Fortunately, she is my right hand man and can help me prep for the trip. You can see here that she is reviewing some paperwork, taking notes, and using the phone- all while looking exceedingly glamorous. If she had hair, she would be flipping it. Who could ask for anything more?

Wheaty Veggie Pizza

This happened a few weeks ago but I'm just now posting it... for some reason the other day I got a bee in my bonnet about making pizza dough. I had a second bee in my bonnet about trying to make something somewhat healthy, so started looking around for whole wheat dough recipes. Obviously, the internet has everything, so I found one in short order. It was also purported to be both easy and fast, which is hard to argue with.

Here is my version

2 c. whole wheat flour
1 little packet active dry yeast
3/4 tsp. salt
1 c. warm water
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. honey

Preheat oven to 425. Mix flour, yeast, and salt in a pretty big bowl (I also included a little dry oregano, basil, and garlic powder). Then mix in the liquids (water, oil and honey). Cover the bowl with a damp cloth, and set it somewhere warm for about 10 minutes to rise.

After it has risen, punch it down and press into a greased pan- not having a pizza pan, I used a rimmed cookie sheet which worked just fine. One nice thing about this was that there was no rolling, it was totally possible to spread it out just by pushing with your hands.

Now, top with whatever you want. I used sauce, a layer of spinach, onions, peppers, cheese (I really like the Trader Joes Quattro Formaggio), and some leftover tomato sliced on top. This thing weighed a ton. Bake it at 425 degrees until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted- while the direction said 15-20 min, mine took at least 1.5x that if not twice as long.


This was pretty good. The only issue, to me, was that the crust lacked a certain chewiness that I like in a good pizza crust. It was definitely easy, and definitely fast. Basically, it wasn't the ultimate pizza but it did do the trick.