Mil Gracias

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A few cool things happened last week. The first being that Rick Bayless saw my cookbook project and gave it a shoutout on Twitter! Nice, right?

 Besides sharing a name,Emily Bayless & I share having made evry recipe n Mexican Everyday (n 1 yr)!Check out her recap: ow.ly/8vwLR

Too bad my poor punctuation gave him the false impression that my name is Emily Bayless. I feel bummed about that because Rick and his colleagues are so nice. Not only did he tout my project, he also dm’d me congratulations directly at the midpoint of the project… and both the producer of his television show and one of the photographers/testers who worked on the cookbook e-mailed congrats through the blog.

Can you believe that? These are immensely talented people and they were so kind to take the time. After spending a year in that cookbook I have so much respect for everybody involved in making that TV show and those books. Now that I know how much it takes just to cook all the recipes (and simple ones at that!) I cannot even imagine the effort it is to produce a quality cookbook and to get social media pats on the back from the people who made it all happen? It felt awesome.

So once again, I must thank you guys! Thank you for all the encouragement. Thank you for the tips and advice. Thank you to my friend Dahlia who helped me to do some food styling when I couldn’t stomache taking one more crappy picture of the delicious food I was turning out. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! On Monday I’m launching a new food project. If it turns out half as fun as this one, it’ll still be a raging success.

Nobody’s Perfect: The Underside of Joy by Sere Prince Halverson

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Note: This is a sponsored review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

Sere Prince Halverson’s first novel opens with the sudden death of the protagonists husband. At first glance I thought this novel would be about the journey of grief, but death is just the beginning of a crisis that isn’t always what it seems. This book is about the truths that lie beneath the surface.

One of the major themes of the book is the breaking of unhealthy family patterns and Halverson manages it masterfully. The principal plot point is a heart wrenching custody battle in which everybody is right and everybody is wrong. As the novel progresses Halverson uncovers slowly the motivations and anxieties of each character, showing us the tragedies that shaped them and the desperate, dysfunctional and disparate ways they are fighting not to repeat their own histories. Despite its heavy subject matter, this is essentially a hopeful novel. By the end you are cheering the characters on, urging them to be brave enough to trust each other and make things right.

A second principal theme is the question of what it means to be a good mother. As an adoptive mother myself it’s a question I’ve wrestled with myself quite often and I appreciate that the book brings up topics such as postpartum depression, psychosis, step-parenting and adoption in a way that is evenhanded and fair. There is so much talk about “bad mothers” it is nice to see a work that explores the different ways to be a good mother.

This book is not perfect, I found some of the dialogue to sound a bit unnatural but overall I enjoyed it immensely and I’ve found myself thinking about the themes even after I finished. The sure sign it’s a worthy investment of your reading time.

To learn more about the Underside of Joy and join in on the BlogHer bookclub. Click here.

Big Eat Day 10-Business with Shrimp on the Side

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I’m eating 100 Items off of 7 X 7s SF Big Eat List. You can see the rest of entries to this series here.

Can I share a pet peeve? It pisses me off when bad food is served at work conferences. I know from experience that conference food is expensive and I’m filled with indignant rage when I am sequestered into eating crappy-yet-surely-high-cost food. This goes double when I’m in a city where delicious inexpensive culinary delights abound. I ran into this recently in San Francisco. SAN FRANCISCO. Land of delicious food. It was ten kinds of wrong.

Is bad food a serious problem in the scheme of life? Absolutely not. Is it solveable? Heck yeah! When confronted with the steam tables of wilting vegetables, dry chicken and goopy salad dressing I had to say “Enough! I will get fat on good food, not mediocre food“. I dramatically(in my head) unpinned my nametag and set off for the nearest Big Eat locale. There were two within walking distance: one was a gigantic alcoholic drink at a nearby bar. That sounded fun and extremely inappropriate. Instead I chose to head down the street for some Soul Food.

#27-Po’Boy at Brenda’s French Soul Food

Black-eyed Peas and Brenda's Soul Food

Black-eyed Peas and Brenda's Soul Food

Brenda’s is a small shot gun of a restaurant that’s decorated in a sort of modern nod to New Orleans. I like modern stuff and NOLA so Brenda’s and I got off on the right foot. Also right away they brought me a dish of toasted Black-Eyed Peas. Yum!

Watermelon Iced Tea and Brenda's Soul Food

Watermelon Iced Tea and Brenda's Soul Food

At this point I was really in a pleasant mood. With a full-time job and a small child I don’t get to spend a lot of time by myself and yet here I was in the middle of the day. In San Francisco! And it was sunny! And there were toasted black-eyed peas! I was euphoric, so I decided to splurge on watermelon iced tea. A good choice, it was just sweet enough. I patted myself on the back and left with nothing else to do began to grin at random in an annoying manner at all the other patrons. When the waiter came I assaulted him with my good mood and ordered the po’boy triumphantly and gleefully. PO’boy! Yay!

Shrimp Po'Boy at Brenda's Soul Food

Shrimp Po'Boy at Brenda's Soul Food

I really have no idea what a po’boy is supposed to taste like but I liked this one, the bread was very squishy and soft, the shrimp were crisp and there was a mayonnaisey, slightly spicy sauce. I like bread, mayonnaise, shrimp and spice, so there’s really nothing going wrong there for me.

The sandwich was also served with pickled watermelon rinds (strange but good), cole slaw (nice and crisp) and french fries ( a win every time). I ate it all with satisfaction.

Verdict: Go to Brenda’s. Enjoy a po-boy. Call me in the morning.

A Year of Dates

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Last year Arnold and I committed to go out on a date once a month. Thanks to our kind and generous circle of friends we were able to make that happen! It was hard at first to leave our little guy at home but once we got over our separation anxiety we had a great time. When it was just the two of us we took for granted our endless hours of freedom but now that “dates” are a limited commodity we take them seriously. It was a veritable sushi, froyo, musical, movie explosion

This year I hope to continue our monthly dates but I’d also like to add some quality time “playdates” with the other special guy in my life. I’m not thinking of elaborate activities, just setting aside an afternoon a month that is just devoted to us spending time together, counting the blue cars and perhaps eating some ice cream.  Two monthly dates might be more to balance, but I now get how the happy times together help you get through the rough days. And besides, with a face like his, how could I not?

The Emily Bayless Project: The Superstars

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Rick Bayless Everyday Mexican

Over the course of 2011 I cooked every single recipe in Rick Bayless’ amazingly delicious cookbook “Everyday Mexican”, I re-counted the story of each recipe on my blog here. As a self-proclaimed expert on this cookbook I cannot recommend it enough for home cooks. The recipes are: simple, healthy and extremely rewarding.

My motivations for starting this project were vague (bragging rights?, compulsive checklist disorder?) but the outcomes were definitive and many. Thanks to the project I have a much better grasp on general kitchen technique as well as simple Mexican flavors. I can whip out a delicious meal in the time it takes you to translate Cien años de soledad. Improved kitchen prowess aside the best part were the memories I made in the process. The project gave me an excuse to spend lots of time with people I love. At least half of the recipes in the book were shared with our friends and family. Albondigas are not just meatballs, they are the memories of New Years Eve 2010, Puerco a la Mexicana reminds me of Elian’s annointing. I could go on and on. the cookbook is now not just an instruction manual, it’s the record of a year well spent with people I love.

I am now officially addicted to cookbook projects and have something new in mind for 2012 but before we leave the Bayless behind, I’d like to take a look back at the highlights!

Most likely to Make on the Regular-Tacos de Acelgas and Enjitomadas con Crema y Queso Anejo

Special Ocassion Treat-Albondigas These are so good that when Arnold warmed up the leftovers I asked him what he cooked that smelled so delicious!

Major Fail-The tuna. Screwing up that beautiful sashimi-grade tuna broke my sushi-loving heart.

Best for a group-Tortas or Tinga Tacos. The tortas are fun to put together as a group and the Tinga is a set it and forget it taco treat.

Favorite Recipe-Pollo en Escabeche de Cebollas Caramelizadas, Zanahorias y Jalapeños. This recipe was so good. I want to eat some right now. Do you want to eat some right now? Well you can because here is the recipe!

This recipe serves four. I like it with rice or tortillas on the side. Rick says it’s also good with fried black beans and potatos.

Ingredients

  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp ground allspice
  • 2 tsp dried organo
  • 4 (2 bls total chicken breast halves, bones and skin intact-this is important, don’t get skinless/boneless)
  • 1 white onion, cut into 1/4 slices
  • 2 large carrots, sliced 1/4 in thick on a diagonal
  • 4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
  • 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 to 4 canned pickled jalapeños
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  1. Combine black pepper, alspice, oregano and 1 tsp salt. Sprinkle half the mixture over the chicken.
  2. Health oil in a large skilled over medium. Cook the chicken skin skide down, turning once until richly browned. Remove to a plate, leaving behind the oil.
  3. Add the sliced onion and carrots to the skillet and stir until the onion is browned. Add the garlic for  1 minute, then add the remaining spices, vinegar jalapeños and broth. Nestle the chicken pieces skin side up in the mixture, cover the skillet and simmer until the chicken is cooked through (15 minutes).
  4. Taste the broth and season with salt if appropriate. Buen provecho!!!
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