Vocab Quiz

Cheesy Pennies Vocab Quiz #1

Dessert
Desert
Class
Flaky
Short 
Poach
Cloven

Two of the words on the list are homophones* of each other.   The other words are homographs**, with both negative and positive connotations.   Use each word in a sentence to demonstrate these characteristics.

Extra credit:
Illustrate your work.


Answer:
Dessert and desert are homophones.  Example sentence:   Four friends decided to take a holiday dessert course together, but three of the four friends deserted me, so the last friend went by herself.

The rest of the words are homographs.  Example sentences:

The instructor, noted pastry chef Robert Wemischner, had just begun showing the class how to properly laminate puff pastry, when Pam, who had risen from her sick bed so as not to abandon me***, walked in the door.
Pam is a class act!

When done right, homemade puff pastry is wonderfully light and flaky.
In the kitchen rolling out dough, we agreed that our flaky friends really missed out.

We learned an easy, foolproof formula for a great short crust. 
Napoleon was a short French megalomaniac.

Our friendly classmate, Lowell, kindly allowed me to poach some of his wine****.
It is sheer genius to poach pears (or any kind of fruit!) directly in rich, buttery caramel sauce.

The devil is said to have cloven hooves.
If you steep a dozen whole cloves and a vanilla bean with the liquid in your custard base, your ice cream can be cloven*****.

Next week's quiz:  Elegant synonyms for "super fattening."  Credit will be given for having edible examples for the instructor.

Robert's Cranberry Nut Tart
My favorite recipe of the night.  The crust is buttery, with a slight tang from the citrus, and is perfectly matched with the sharp flavors of cranberry and the crunchy, nutty caramel topping.  I will happily be making this again.

Crust
1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. grated orange or tangerine zest
1 1/2 c.  of flour
pinch of salt

In a mixer or food processor, cream butter and sugar until light and smooth.   Add egg, vanilla, and zest, and continue to blend until combined.  Add flour and salt, and mix or pulse just until the flour disappears, about 30 seconds.   Scrape the bottom and sides to make sure you got all the flour.   Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, compressing to remove excess air.   Divide dough into two parts, cover each in plastic wrap, and flatten slightly and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.    Roll out to about 1/3 of an inch thickness, then line your tart pans, pressing the dough into the pans so it is evenly thick all around.   Prick the dough with a fork, then chill while you make the filling.

NOTES:  The recipe makes enough for two normal sized tarts, so you will have one extra wrapped disk of dough to use for something else.   You can keep it in the fridge for several days, or freeze for later.  You can also freeze the dough in the molds, tightly wrapped, for several weeks.   In case you didn't notice, the recipe uses a ratio of 1, 2, 3, 4.   The sugar is 1 part.  The butter is 2 parts.  The flour is 3 parts.  And the egg is one egg for every 4 oz of sugar.  

Cranberry Nut Filling
1 c. lightly toasted pecans, walnuts, and/or pistachios, chopped.
1 bag fresh cranberries, rinsed and drained.  For more textural contrast, use a combination of fresh and dried berries here.  We did!
1 stick butter
1 c. brown sugar, packed
1 c. heavy cream
2 tsp. vanilla
Generous pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350.  Place the toasted nuts and cranberries into a heatproof (stainless steel) mixing bowl.  In a heavy saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar and cream, and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat, add the vanilla and the salt, and pour over the cranberry nut mixture, stirring quickly but thoroughly to blend the mixture evenly.  Immediately pour the mixture into prepared tart pan and bake, on a baking sheet placed on the lowest rack of the oven, until the filling is boiling.    Remove from oven and cool to room temperature before serving.

I happen to love the cloven ice cream with this one.   But it also went very nicely with the chocolate semolina pudding, too.




* Words that sound the same, but are spelled differently.
** Words that are spelled the same, but mean entirely different things.
*** That, and she really wanted to find out about these caramel poached pears.   And she swore up and down that this idea alone was worth all the effort that it took to get out of her jammies and get into her car. 
**** I think he felt sorry for me because I had no friends at the beginning.
***** This may not be an actual word, but it is an outstanding idea, particularly when paired with the pear dessert.  Hey, look at that!  A bonus homophone!

Don't be a hater

Unless you make a really funny website about it. 
For example, www.ihatecilantro.com.

This site has everything.  

Testimonials from everyday people:

"My main beef is cilantro being added to foods where it really shouldn't be and with no warning on the menu."

"I took one bite and told my husband that somebody had accidentally spilled Ivory liquid in the salsa."

"Cilantro is ruining my life."

"I was often surprised to discover cilantro sitting ever so deceptively upon my whitefish."


"I don't know what antichrist has led the proliferation of this devil-weed into every restaurant and indeed almost every dish in America, but whoever they are, they should be shot in the street."
 
"I hate you PLU code 4889!!"

Plus T-shirts, coffee mugs and messenger bags.  Photos of innocent animals being victimized. Numerous pie charts.  And of course, haiku*:

What's that awful taste?
Is this the flavor of death?
No, it's cilantro.

Awful cilantro
You ruined my fajita
Now I have no lunch

I'm tempted to post a short response:

Leafy herb of green
Controversy incarnate
An acquired taste

* There are actually 18 pages of anti-cilantro rants in the form of haiku available, with more being added every day.  

The Easter Bunny. Why does he even bother hiding the eggs?

My niece is studying poetry in her 1st grade class at school.   Here are two of her original pieces:

Christmas.
Why does Santa Claus come on Christmas?
I mean, like we could celebrate it without him.

Disneyland.
Why is Disneyland like 1000 dollars?
Is it because the castle lights up in the winter?
Or is it because they want a lot of money?
Or is it because they like it?

(the figures in the illustration are my niece and Minnie Mouse)

Frankly, although I am beyond impressed with her grasp of the genre, I'm a bit concerned that the bleak state of the Michigan economy may be having some unintended consequences.

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater Revisited

I don't know Peter.  Or the wife he couldn't keep.   I also don't think very highly of putting live people into pumpkin shells as a divorce prevention method.   What I am a fan of is pumpkin eating.   Specifically, pumpkin bar eating.

So let me rephrase:

Sharon, Sharon, pumpkin bakin'

Made these bars, and meant to take 'em

To the potluck, but she cheated:

Kept half the batch.  And those she eat-ed.  

Pumpkin Pie Bars
A recipe from my mom, who got it from a neighbor well over 20 years ago.  And yes, it has topping.

Crust
1 pkg yellow cake mix, less 1 c. reserved for topping
1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350.  Reserve 1 c. of cake mix for topping.  Pour remaining mix into a bowl, add egg and butter. Mix well. Pat evenly into 13x9 pan.


Filling
1 c. canned pumpkin
2/3 c. evaporated milk
2 eggs
3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. salt

Blend all ingredients well, and pour over crust.


Topping
Reserved 1 c. cake mix
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 c. cold butter, diced

Blend dry ingredients together, then cut in the butter with a pastry blender or a fork.  Sprinkle over filling.

Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, or until topping is golden brown and filling is set.  Cool, cut into bars, and serve.

I recommend serving these on a very nice platter with a good amount of space in between the bars.  It looks lovely, and no one will notice that you left quite a few of the pumpkin bars in the pan.

Foodie Girls Lunch Brigade - Episode 21

For a bunch of moms driving cars that seat 5-7 adults comfortably, the FGs are doing pretty well at finding the right spots around town to park our large vehicles for a meal*. A few days ago, EaterLA published a Heat Map of "where to eat now" with a highly subjective list of the eight most buzzed about Los Angeles restaurants. We'd already been to one of them! And, the day the list came out, we went to another one (see below). I'd say that means that the FG's know where to eat before now.

At least 25% of the time.

Episode 21 - We linger at Tinga

After our outstanding lunch at Lazy Ox, FG 10 emailed to confess that she'd gone straight from rice pudding overload to a meeting over dessert (something with chocolate, olive oil and sea salt) with a client. Naturally, she came out of the meeting with new gourmet taco place for us to try. A friend had connections and the food was supposed to be terrific. When a glowing report came out of Jonathan Gold a week later, the die was cast. Ding-a-ling-a-ling-a, we were heading to Tinga!

The aforesaid connection was enough to get us a reserved end of the long communal table, and a super cheerful waitress named Ruth helping us order. It wasn't too hard. After all, there were eight of us and the menu was pretty compact.

"We'll take every taco you've got, the quesadillas, and that pupusa special. And the corn. Rice and beans, too. And guacamole all around. Did we miss anything?"

Given the amount of food that showed up, I doubt it.

The horchata is the creamy one in the middle. Tinga also makes their own watermelon lemonade, blueberry ginger lemonade, and jamaica. I loved all three, but if pressed would say the blueberry ginger was my favorite.

Ruth started us off with samples of their house made horchata, a cool, slightly sweet, creamy shot of cinnamon and vanilla. It was like liquid rice pudding...a very good thing in our book. They offer a "dirty" version with a hit of espresso thrown in that I imagine would be incredible. That one little sip told us just about everything we needed to know about Tinga -- what came out of the kitchen would be hand-crafted, made with great ingredients, thoughtfully prepared, and completely fresh.

The plates of chips, salsa and guacamole that came out next totally proved that point. The thick-cut chips were freshly fried, the guacamole sang with tangy lime juice and a bite of jalapeno, and the salsas, too, were bright and tasty.

The salsas on the side came in cunning little corn husk shells. Cuteness points.

The gourmet part came next, with the arrival of the quesadillas.

One was filled with a mix of mushrooms that had been cooked down to the point where their earthy flavor was concentrated into a pate...with jack cheese melted on it...in a grilled, house-made flour tortilla with avocado sauce and crema. Yum! Rich, hearty finger food that was sophisticated at the same time. The other was filled with a mix of chorizo and goat cheese, a salty/spicy/pungent combination that really worked for some of us. It turns out that if you don't like goat cheese though, this will not be your favorite.

Ruth and friends were back, this time with cups of our favorite item of the day: the elote special side order: Grilled corn, with creamy lime, chili and poblano puree. The corn had been roasted so there were nice brown bits full of caramelized sweetness, and that dressing had heat, tang and something else that brought all those flavors together. We could not stop eating it, even though there was a suspicious parade of taco plates leaving the kitchen and heading our way. Thank goodness for that long communal table!

After the winning first rounds, the tacos were a bit disappointing. Not that they weren't very good. The flank steak was well seasoned. The chicken had been marinated in something yummy. The condiments, like pickled onions, shaved avocado, bright green mint/tomatillo sauce, and a meaty dipping gravy, were uniformly tasty and definitely all made from scratch. The corn tortillas, too, were hand-formed and full of flavor. But memorable, like that corn, or the horchata? Not really. The only exception was the conchita pibil, made from pork long marinated in Seville orange juice and chiles, slow roasted in a pit, redolent of spice and almost baby-food tender. Fabulous!

We almost, but not quite, forgot that we'd ordered the pupusa special, another dish where chorizo was the star. At first bite, this was wonderful, too, but almost immediately we decided it was far too salty to finish. We may also have been predisposed to forgo any more food by Ruth's promise to bring us dessert. I am a big fan of this new trend of people just bringing us dessert!

"Me, too!" says one of the hundreds of stuffed crows hanging around the place in honor of Halloween

Dessert came, and it was GOOD! Dulce Nachos: warm tortilla chips smothered in a rich, sweet/salty caramel sauce, sprinkled liberally with cinnamon, with vanilla ice cream on top. What's not to love about that?

When we finally arose, groaning, from our stools, there were smiles all around and a big cheer for Ruth, who was awesome.

The bill was steeper than one would expect for a taco lunch, about $30 per person including tax and tip. With the taco plates starting at $6.50, and the quesadillas at $10, plus $5 per side, you are definitely putting your money where your mouth is here. But in a town that now seems to have a $12 burger joint on every corner, this may just be par for the course in this new way of eating. I'd say that the venerable Mr. Gold got this one exactly right when he said, essentially, that there's a place in the pantheon of LA Mexican food for "artisanal tacos, which is to say expensive, clean-tasting, carefully crafted tacos served in design-intensive dining rooms, and made with first-rate ingredients." It's a far cry from the hallowed street taco vendors, but a welcome addition to the neighborhood.

FG Final Verdict? Tinga is ON the list.
Pricing Info: Tacos : $6.50-9.50, quesadillas $9-11, small dishes about $5.
FG Value Rating: Verging on Get Real.

* And to our credit as eco-conscious Angelenos who are nervous about getting lost going to all these new places, we almost always carpool. So all those extra seats come in handy.

Why Mom will be praying on Tuesday

Mom asked me this morning what I thought about the upcoming election, and after our mutual "tut-tutting" over the horrible ads and out-of-control spending on the governor's race, talk turned to the overall mood of the country, and how vicious the attacks on the president have become.

Mom:  Can you believe this, Sharon?  Don't these people know how bad things would have been if McCain and that Sarah Palin were in charge?   I mean, look at Michelle.   Everything she's done for the country.    A billion dollars of business, of jobs, and stimulus for everyone, created from nothing, right there, and no one gives her credit.  It's like they have blinders on or something.

Me:  No, they sure don't give her enough credit.  Wait.  What?

Mom:  They say that people have spent over a billion dollars to dress the way she does.  And that's in less than two years!  And you know why?  Because she dresses so nicely.  Classy.  Simple.  Affordable.   She puts on an outfit, and it sells like hotcakes.  Tell me Sarah Palin or that Cindy McCain could do that!

Me:  They couldn't.  You are totally right.

Mom:  I'm telling you.   The woman is a boon to the entire nation, and all they can do is tear her husband down.   And don't get me started about that garden and the obese children.   I mean honestly.  Would Sarah take time to think about anything organic?  Please.  So, I've just been saying my prayers for Barack and hoping people will stop and think a little before they vote on Tuesday.

You heard her, folks.  Stop and think a little before you vote on Tuesday.

Not the band, the muscle spasm or the House episode. The other kind.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Jerk may refer to:

• Jerk (album), an album by hHead
• Jerk (band), an industrial metal band from Sydney, Australia
• The Jerk (dance), a 1960s dance craze based on the Don Julian song
• Jerk (physics), in physics, the rate of change of acceleration
• Jerk (play), a 2008 puppet play written by Dennis Cooper
• The Jerk (1979), a comedy film starring Steve Martin
• "The Jerk" (House episode), a third season episode of the TV series House

Jerk may also refer to:

• The second phase of the "Clean and jerk", a weightlifting exercise
• Hypnic jerk, an involuntary muscle twitch during the transition from wakefulness to sleep
• Jamaican jerk spice, a style of cooking native to Jamaica in which meats are dry-rubbed with a fiery spice mixture
• Jerkin', a 2000's dance
• Soda jerk, a person who operates a soda fountain

In this case, it's the Jamaican usage I'm going for.

Jerk-Marinated Pork Tenderloin
from Seriously Simple, by Diane Worthington

Marinade:
6 scallions, white and light green parts only, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 to 2 jalapeno, serrano, or Scotch bonnet chiles, seeded and finely chopped (to taste...I used 1 jalapeno)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. packed brown sugar
3 Tbs. canola oil
1/4 c. fresh lime juice

2 pork tenderloins, about 1 lb. each
2 Tbs. canola or olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 c. chicken broth
1 tsp. fresh lime juice
3 Tbs. coconut milk (I didn't have this, so used regular cream instead)
2 Tbs. finely chopped cilantro
In a food processor or a blender, combine all marinade ingredients.

Put the tenderloins in a Ziploc bag and pour in the marinade. Zip closed, then massage a little to make sure the pork is completely coated. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or as long as overnight.

Preheat oven to 375. In a large oven-proof skillet, heat the canola/olive oil over medium high heat until hot but not smoking. Remove pork from marinade, scraping to remove any that may still be coating the pork. Pour marinade into a bowl and add 1/4 c. of chicken stock and set that aside for a minute. Season the pork lightly with salt and pepper, then add to hot pan and sear until just lightly brown on all sides, about 1-2 minutes per side. Add the reserved stock/marinade mixture to the pan (it will sizzle), and put the whole thing into the oven.

Roast for 20-25 minutes, until oven thermometer registers 160 degrees. Check every so often to make sure the pan liquid doesn't burn. If it looks like it might, add a little water. Don't overcook, as the pork will continue to roast a bit as it rests. Remove the pork to a serving platter and cover with foil. Let it rest for 10 minutes, and then slice.

Meanwhile, put the skillet back on the stove and add the remaining 3/4 c. chicken stock, the lime juice, and the coconut milk/cream. Cook over medium high heat for 2-3 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Stir in the cilantro. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Pour over the pork slices, and serve immediately. This went really well with mashed potatoes at our house, since it gave us something else to put this yummy sauce on.