another weekend and a recipe.

A couple of weeks ago we made a quick weekend trip to New Mexico to visit some of my family members.  It was really fast, but we also had a really good time visiting my grandpa, petting/riding horses, and having a cookout with lots of people I haven't seen in almost ten years.  It was also super fun to spend time with my sister and watch our kids play together!  Hopefully they get to be friends as they get older.

I hardly took any pictures while we were there because we were too busy, but here are a couple.

Not interested in horses.

My mom reminded us that there was a time when Theo did not appreciate sunglasses.

He hid under his blanket because Jon kept poking him.  And then he fell asleep under the blanket.

Anyway, before we left my uncle sent us home with a giant bag of dried beans.  It was pretty timely, because I have been making a lot of "refried" beans lately.  At first it was for a burrito dinner, but I discovered that I liked it as a dip for tortilla chips even better.  So I made it again and again, and now it's time to share the recipe.


Kristin's Refried Beans

6 ounces bacon, cut into 1/2-inch stripes
1 small yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon cumin
kosher salt
2 cans pinto beans (drained) or 3 cups cooked beans

1. Cook the bacon strips in a heavy-bottomed pot or pan over medium-high heat until bacon is crispy.  Remove bacon strips, set aside.
2. Place the diced onion into the pan with the bacon fat.  Cook the onions until translucent, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Partially deglaze the pan with the liquid that draws out from the onions.  Add the garlic and cook 1 minute, then add the spices and a big pinch of salt to the pan.  Mix together and cook for 1 minute.
3. Add the beans and 1 to 1.5 cups water to the pot.  Add another big pinch of kosher salt.  Bring to a boil, cook the beans for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. When most of the water is gone, take the pan off the heat.  Mash the beans to desired consistency. Add the bacon back to the dip.  Add salt to taste.  Serve with tortilla chips.

Kristin's notes:
1. Okay so I totally made this recipe up, and I have no idea if I broke any rules.  I also am not 100% sure of the water measurements in step 3, I mostly just eyeball the pot and use whatever amount looks fine.  I definitely never use more than 1.5 cups, though.  (Sorry!  Comments like this always enraged me in the past when I was trying to learn how to make certain foods, and it turns out I do it too!  Just trust yourself!!)
2. You can mash the beans by hand or process them in a food processor or blender.  I do it by hand because I don't want the dip to be completely pureed, and I can control that better when I mash by hand.
3. You don't have to add the bacon back to the dip at the end (the crispiness of the bacon is lost when added to the beans), but it definitely doesn't hurt it.
4. You DO have to use bacon fat in the dish because olive oil just doesn't cut it.  Trust me, I've made it both ways and the bacon way is the best way.
5. No picture for now, hopefully I'll be able to take one that doesn't make it look gross one day and add it back here.


Enjoy!  We sure love this dip around here, and it's also nice knowing that the only thing that's bad for you in this is the bacon fat/bacon.  Can't say the same thing for the canned refried beans.  Never buying those again!!

one pot, three eats.

Back in July I tried out two more Ina recipes, and I meant to blog about them but forgot.  Oops.  Anyway, here's my report, including two photos with some out of control highlights.  Oops again.

The first, Fennel & Garlic Shrimp.  Fish and seafood recipes always look and sound delicious but also intimidate me to death.  Why is that?  But I am getting more and more comfortable with shrimp, so.  This was the first time I've cooked with fennel.  I mentioned not too long ago a recipe for roasted pork loin that calls for fennel, but I've always left it out because the first time I planned on making it I couldn't find any fennel.  Well now I'm thinking it's finally time to add it back to the original recipe.

Anyway, I'm all over the place.  The shrimp was good.  The fennel loses its "licoriceness" when it's cooked down.  Make sure you have some good bread to sop up all the garlicky, shrimp juices right out of the pot.

The second dish was boeuf bourguignon.
Fancy?
No, it's just beef burgundy.  But!  It's amazing!

I made this on July 14th, thinking I'd be quite Frenchie making such a dish for the holiday.  And then Nice happened and I ate my soup in horrified shock and felt pretty foolish.

But still, it is the best.  Here's the recipe!

Boeuf Bourguignon, from Barefoot in Paris

1 tablespoon good olive oil

8 ounces good bacon, diced

2 1/2 pounds beef chuck cut into 1-inch cubes

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 pound carrots, sliced diagonally into 1-inch chunks

2 yellow onions, sliced

2 teaspoons chopped garlic (2)

1/2 cup Cognac or good brandy

1 (750-ml) bottle good dry red wine, such as Burgundy

2 to 2 1/2 cups canned beef broth

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, divided

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 pound frozen small whole onions

1 pound mushrooms, stems discard, caps thickly sliced

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven, such as Le Creuset.  Add the bacon and cook over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the bacon is lightly browned.  Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon to a large plate.

Dry the beef cubes with paper towels and then sprinkle them with salt and pepper.  In batches in single layers, sear the beef in the hot oil for 3 to 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides.  Remove the seared cubes to the plate with the bacon and continue searing until all the beef is browned.  Set aside.

Toss the carrots, onions, 1 tablespoon of salt, and 2 teaspoons of pepper into the fat in the pan and cook over medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minutes.  Add the Cognac, stand back, and ignite with a match to burn off the alcohol.  Put the meat and bacon back into the pot with any juices that have accumulated on the plate.  Add the wine plus enough beef broth to almost cover the meat.  Add the tomato paste and thyme.  Bring to a boil, cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid, and place it in the oven for about 1 1/4 hours, or until the meat and vegetables are very tender when pierced with a fork.  Remove from the oven and place on top of the stove.

Combine 2 tablespoons of the butter and the flour with a fork and stir into the stew.  Add the frozen onions.  In a medium pan, sauté the mushrooms in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned, and then add to the stew.  Bring the stew to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.  Season to taste.

Kristin's notes:

(1) The broth!  It's sweet and light and perfect.  If you want the soup to have a thicker consistency, add more butter and flour, but I think it's excellent as it is.

(2) The cognac!  I was so terrified to light a fire in the kitchen, I made sure Theo was deep into his nap before I got to the fire stage so I wouldn't have any distractions.  It turns out I had nothing to worry about because I used less than half the cognac called for, and the flame didn't even come out of the pot.  whomp whomp!

(3) Frozen pearl onions!  Apparently these things are seasonal because I went to five dang stores to find them.  Good old Trader Joe's saving the day.

(4) The wine!  Okay, so I've read all kinds of conflicting things on how long it takes alcohol to burn off and whether or not it actually happens, blahblahblah.  I deviated from what I would normally do and used a de-alcoholized wine in this recipe.  This was only because I'd planned on Theo eating the stew and wasn't interested in researching if the cooking time was long enough to cook off the alcohol in the stew.  Which is not to say I thought I'd get my kid drunk if I'd used regular wine, but whatever.  Life as a teetotaler gets weird when it comes to cooking, I'm fine with cooking with alcohol, some people are not.  Do whatever you want!  Replace the wine and leave out the cognac if you so choose.  (Postscript, when it comes to de-alcoholized wine, Fre and Ariel both work great, but use whatever you can find.  I've heard grape juice can work too?  Who knows.)

(5) The stew is better the second day!

Fun fact: used the same pot to cook both these dishes AND bake the bread we ate with them!  All hail the enameled dutch oven.  Maybe one day I will dedicate an entire post to it.  Like a weirdo.

SLO 2016. (where we ate)

Most of our eats happened in downtown San Luis Obispo, and one was in Morro Bay.  There are a couple of repeats from last year, and pictures this time!


Hofbrau, a repeat, and located in Morro Bay.  We visit this place every year, and with good reason.  The French Dip Roast Beef Sandwich is to die for.

Looks humble, tastes amazing.

After the meat slices and your choice of cheese are put on the bottom half of the roll, the top half is dipped into the jus before it's placed on top and then the sandwich is pressed for a couple of minutes. It is a miracle of meat and the best roast beef sandwich you'll ever have!


SLO Donut Co, our other repeat, and home of our first round draft pick for Maple-Bacon Donuts.  As was the case with Lamar's and the glazed donut, our search for the best maple-bacon donut started and ended here.  It's a little insanely priced at $3 a bar, but because we only get to eat them once a year, everything was justified.

And now, our downtown SLO eats for this year:

Old San Luis Barbecue Company: Normally for barbecue we go to F.McLintock's during Farmer's Market Thursdays, but we were not there on a Thursday this year and we wanted to try something new.  Old SLO BBQ is a walk-up window joint just a few doors down from McLintock's.  And it does NOT disappoint.  Without a doubt, order the Tri-Tip Sandwich.  We ordered one to share and I think secretly we both regretted only getting one right after we each took our first bite.  It is an amazing steak sandwich, and it was so good I didn't even think to take a picture.  We also ordered their french fries and garlic bread - good accompaniments to the sandwich.

El Matador: Good Mexican food, and their bottomless chips and toppings bar is a nice feature (don't assume all of the green sauces are non-spicy guacamoles though, poor Theo had his first negative experience with too-spicy foods.  the tears were silent, but big and fat.)  I ordered two carne asada tacos and they were delicious, non-greasy, and didn't leave me feeling twenty pounds heavier or sluggish.

Splash Cafe: This little place is right in between Pizza Solo (which we visited last year and enjoyed) and the Barnes and Noble (which we frequent heavily on our trips).  We ordered a cup of their chowder and their fish tacos (Baja style!) and both were very good!

But as I passed the other diners, I kept seeing all of these amazing sandwiches that people had ordered and suddenly regretted that I had somehow become completely blind to the sandwich portion of the menu.  So!  We went back another night and I ordered the Smoked Salmon Panini and it.was.so.delicious.  Regret instantly eliminated!!


And so, I officially bring our 2016 trip to SLO to a close.  Fin!

love lamar's.

One of my pet peeves are all the #National[insertfooditemhere]day s.  There is one every week, I swear.  And I've always had a suspicion that a lot of them are made up, which is what peeves me.  This suspicion was confirmed a few months ago, I think in December or January, when I saw #NationalDoughnutDay on Twitter, and I knew full well that it was NOT National Doughnut Day that day.

That's because National Doughnut Day is the first Friday in June, and I know this because it is the anniversary of the day that I discovered Lamar's Donuts.  And you just don't forget the day you have your first Lamar's.

Jon and I went on a sort of doughnut (donut??  I still don't know which spelling to use) quest last year, which all started and ended with Lamar's.  We tried other doughnuts after Lamar's, but we really found the best one first and nothing else lived up to them.

(For the record we will, on occasion, hit up Bosa Donuts.  But this is only in the event that a doughnut craving hits later in the day - Lamar's closes at 2:00 pm, our closest Bosa closes at 10:00 pm.)

Anyway we went to Lamar's last Friday to get our free doughnuts and also a bag of doughnut holes.  Here are some pictures!

The doughnut bellies were full that day.  Full and happy.

Also: obviously the best case for us needing to evolve to have a third arm is so we can hold a doughnut hole in each hand and also our drink.

Cheers to you if you are lucky enough to have a Lamar's near you.  For on National Doughnut Day, we celebrate like kings and queens.

a weekend and a recipe.

We spent our Memorial Day weekend in SJ with Jon's family.  It was a circus of bean bag tossing, animal chasing, and endless "wait, is that my kid waking up from a nap?  who's kid is that?"s.  Theo was particularly fond of the new chickens and the trampoline (not my kid at all) and of course the occasional reprieve from the big group of people where he'd settle in our quiet room with his blanket and a show (okay, yes he is my kid).

The weather could not have been more perfect, and I think what I loved most about the entire visit was seeing Theo roam free in a huge yard almost all day every day.  Not once did I have to worry about heat exhaustion or sunburn or expediting skin cancer or any of the worries we have here in the desert.  Of course, it made it all the more heartbreaking to come back here and confine the kid to the indoors during sunlight hours.  (But hey, more strength for my case for moving!)

Also, this rocking horse:

This gem was ridden by Jon's dad when he was little, Jon and all his siblings, and during our visit, all of the smaller-sized kiddos.  The other day Jon found a picture of himself riding the horse, so I'm excited to print out a picture of Theo on the same horse and put them side-by-side.



Lastly, a bit of our trip lingered with us in the form of a recipe.  One night we had cobbler for dessert, and it prompted me to make Ina's Peach and Blueberry Crumbles for the first time.  And then a second time, because it was THE BEST dessert I've had in a long time and I needed more.  Ask Jon how many times I kept saying "oh my gosh" when I ate it the first time.  (It was like, 30 times.)  And now, you can make it, too!

Peach and Blueberry Crumbles, from Barefoot Contessa at Home

For the Fruit

2 pounds firm, ripe peaches (6 to 8)

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup fresh blueberries (1/2 pint)

For the crumble

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 pound cold unsalted butter, diced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Immerse the peaches in boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until their skins peel off easily.  Place them immediately in cold water.  Peel the peaches, slice them into thick wedges, and place them in a large bowl.  Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, granulated sugar, and flour.  Toss well.  Gently mix in the blueberries.  Allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes.  Spoon the mixture into ramekins or custard cups.

For the topping, combine the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  Mix on low speed until the butter is the size of peas.  Rub the mixture with your fingertips until it’s in big crumbles, then sprinkle evenly over the fruit.  Place the ramekins on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the tops are browned and crisp and the juices are bubbly.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Kristin's notes:

(1) This recipe is easily halved.

(2) I double the amount of brown sugar in the topping.  Obviously.

(3) Use ALL of the crumble when distributing them to all the ramekins.  It initially may seem like too much, but you can never have too much crumble.  Just pile it all on!

(4) Our freezer is currently chock full of peaches and blueberries that I bought at the store and then prepped for freezer storage.  They work just as great as fresh fruit!

(5) Peaches and blueberries are in season over here, so stock up and make room in the freezer for when the crumble craving hits in the future.

(6) We didn't have any vanilla bean ice cream when I made this the first time, and it was still good without.  But it's WAYYYY better with it!

bread bread bread bread.

I mentioned a few months ago that I hoped to work on my bread-making after becoming inspired by the Air chapter of Netflix's COOKED (highly recommended, go watch it!!).  Here is an update.

I stuck with four recipes, which I'd like to cover one-by-one:

Ina Garten's Honey White Bread  - cookbook  recipe and video
Jim Lahey's No Work Bread  - cookbook  recipe and video
Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François's Bread in 5  - cookbook  recipe  video (recipe is slightly different, but method is the same)
Chad Robertson's Tartine Bread  - cookbook  recipe  video

(none of these links are affiliate links.)

The first three recipes can be found in the books pictured above, and the fourth in Tartine Bread, not pictured.  I've also included links through which to access the recipes online, however I strongly recommend reading the recipe passages in the cookbooks themselves.  They provide additional commentary and insight that is extremely helpful and informative to that particular recipe's bread-making process.  It is also sometimes helpful to see someone carry out the recipe first, so I've provided links to videos that might be helpful as well.


Ina Garten's Honey White Bread

I think this is the bread recipe whose method is most similar to the one our moms used when we were little.  There's kneading and loaf pans involved - it's all very familiar.  I accidentally fell into the goal of making all of the bread we eat this month, and this is the one I have turned to every week or so.  It's your every day sandwich bread, and in our house it's most commonly used for grilled cheese and french toast.  This bread is simple, delicious and goes from ingredients to in your mouth in about three hours, which is the best turnaround time anyone can ask for.

Jim Lahey's No Work Bread

This is a great starter recipe for people wanting that artisan-like bread.  It does require a little planning ahead: from ingredients to in your mouth takes a little less than 24 hours.  But it's worth it, if not just for the beautiful crackling you'll hear from the bread when you remove it from the oven and let it rest.  Some people might read the "no work" or "no knead" label and think of it as an annoying step that has magically been taken out of the process.  I prefer to think of it as "DO NOT WORK" or "DO NOT KNEAD."  Not only is it not necessary, but it would result in a poor loaf of bread.  This is the case for these last three breads: keep the air/gas inside the bread!

Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

Sometimes I can tell that I might want some bread in the next couple of days or so and have a little bit of time in that moment to prep for that future hankering.  This is the best recipe for that scenario.  The dough really does only take five minutes to make, and then you toss it into the refrigerator for the next two weeks.  You can make bread from this dough at any time during those two weeks.  I like this bread because it helps me practice my bread loaf slashing, which is somehow really hard to learn to do!  The master recipe of this method can be used for multiple types of breads - boules, baguettes, peasant loaves, etc.  The groundbreaking moment I had with this bread recipe is when I discovered a variation in the book which teaches you how to bake your bread in a slow cooker.  The resulting loaf obviously isn't as desirable as the one made in the oven, but for the 115 degree days this summer when I want homemade bread but don't want to turn on the oven, being able to use a slow cooker is basically a miracle.  This recipe is my go-to for an every day boule.  Perfect for our family's dinner, and on baking day it's ready in just over an hour.

Tartine Bread

This is like, the mother of all breads, no?  There are all kinds of sourdough starter recipes out there to choose from, but when you actually get down to the bread making, I like Tartine's method the best.  It's high maintenance compared to the other breads, but it's also rewarding.  I even made a video of me forming a loaf using the Tartine method!  I'm soooo hip you guys.

A video posted by kristin (@krstnhd) on May 14, 2016 at 11:40am PDT

Okay, but here's where I get real with you: I've completed this recipe twice, and neither times were the loaves even close to being perfect.  I mean, they were edible.  But just barely.  Not to mention, I had a hell of a time with the sourdough starter process.  I killed so many starters, and the first attempt nearly killed me with its vomitous smell (I traced the problem to our tap water... is it poisonous?!).  I'm taking a bread on the sourdough baking for now - I think I need time to recuperate and scribble together all of the notes and observations I made during the experiments.  Then when I've built up my courage and gumption again I'll get back at it.

So that's the bread story around here!  It has been a fun couple of months, and I'm going to try to keep things going even through the summer.  A/C don't fail us please!

Roast Loin of Pork (with Fennel).

One of our #1 favorite dinners for the last year or so has been Ina Garten's Roast Loin of Pork with Fennel.  I've made it countless times because it is easy and delicious.  This is surely grounds for posting on the blog, but I've never done it because I don't find Pork Loin to be particularly photogenic and I've never taken a good picture.  So I just snatched one from the Internet instead.

Here's a secret if you're thinking about exploring more of Ina Garten's recipes: Most all of the recipes featured on her television show are from her cookbooks, and every recipe that appears on her show also appears on the Food Network website.  AND, many recipes come with a video clip in which she creates the dish herself.  I've found the clips to be very helpful when I've come across gaps in my understanding of how the recipe works.  So!  For all the negative things I have to say about Food Network these days, their Barefoot Contessa resources on their website are probably the only thing I actually love about them.  Use the site to your advantage and do some exploring!

ANYWAY.

If video clips help you get a better grasp on how to navigate recipes (like me) here's a link to the a video clip of Ina making this amazing dish.


Roast Loin of Pork with Fennel, from Barefoot Contessa Parties!


Ingredients:

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

1 3-pound boneless pork loin, trimmed and tied

3 small fennel bulbs, tops removed

10 carrots, peeled and thickly sliced diagonally

10 small potatoes, quartered

2 onions, thickly sliced

4 tablespoons good olive oil

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

With a mortar and pestle or in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, grind together the garlic, salt, and thyme leaves.  Add the mustard and combine.  Spread the mixture over the loin of pork and allow it to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the fennel bulbs into thick wedges, slicing through the core.  Toss the fennel, carrots, potatoes, and onions in a bowl with the olive oil, melted butter, salt, and pepper.

Transfer the vegetables to a large roasting pan and cook for 30 minutes.  Add the pork loin to the pan and continue to cook for another 30 to 50 minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the middle or the pork reads exactly 138 degrees.  Remove the meat from the pan and return the vegetables to the oven to keep cooking.  Cover the meat with aluminum foil and allow it to rest for 15 minutes.

Remove the strings from the meat and slice it thickly.  Arrange the meat and vegetables on a platter.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Kristin's Notes:
(1) I divide the recipe in half for our family, and everything fits just fine in a 9x13 baking dish.
(2) Use the freshest, most local vegetables you can get  Of all the times I've made this, there was something special about this last time - we are certain it was the farm-fresh vegetables we picked up last weekend at Schnepf Farms!
(3) Use fresh thyme.  Dried thyme just doesn't cut it here.
(4) The fennel can be left out.  The first time I made this, I couldn't find fennel at the particular store I was at, so I didn't include it.  To this day, I've never made the dish with fennel.  Maybe one day!
(5) Okay, more on the vegetables: don't skimp out on them.  They are seriously the star of the dish for me.

COOKED, a netflix docu-series.

At the beginning of this week I got a chance to watch COOKED, a new Netflix docu-series based on the book Cooked by Michael Pollan.  Going into this I was thinking two things.

The first was, how terrible is this going to make me feel?  I have attempted and failed to read all of Pollan's books, as the number one barrier for me has been fear.  The fear that I will finish the book feeling completely awful about all of my eating and cooking and shopping decisions.  The fact is, I buy groceries mostly from a supermarket (gasp!) and I also by from the middle aisles of the store (double gasp!!).  A second fact is, I have access to some locally and sustainably sourced food products, which indeed is a rare luxury.  But the third fact is, we have a budget and can't afford to eat the best every single day of our lives.  And while I've accepted that these facts exist for now and try not to think about how I'm funding corporate farming, it's hard not to feel guilty every once in a while, especially when reading a Pollan piece.  (For the record, I have read his mini-book, Food Rules, which is short and sweet and on my bookshelf.  It is an enjoyable and educational read and has never made me feel quite so bad.)

The second thought was, i bet the cinematography is going to be gorgeous.

Concerning those two thoughts:
(1) I did not feel like a horrible person afterwards.  I didn't feel talked down to or lectured, and I felt like completely doable changes were suggested to audiences (such as, have a home-cooked dinner just one more night a week, or save the money you'd use on one night eating out and instead use it to buy some really good ingredients to cook at home.)
(2) The cinematography was gorgeous.  This is something that I have appreciated and craved more and more with food television - I am finding that I live for the close-up, macro shots of the flour dust and the wine swooping into the glass and the pot of water coming up to a rolling boil.  Those sequences give me life, you guys.  Some people call it "food porn," (which is a phrase that I really hate but can't think of a better one) but I like to call it "what food television should be."  (If this is also your jam, check out the "color recipe" videos on Youtube which I have mentioned before and always revisit when I need a quick mood-boost.)  Last year's Netflix food-related docu-series, Chef's Table, also had beautiful cinematography, and I'm hoping they are slowly but surely setting a standard for food television.


I thought COOKED was great.  I was informative and educational, and you get to learn about how different communities around the world treat their food staples and diets.  By far my favorite chapter was AIR, which was all about bread.  It was fascinating to learn about bread in different contexts - like how in Morocco they don't cut their bread with a knife because it's considered too violent an act against something so precious, how processed loaves of bread are such a gross mutation of what the original thing is and it's no wonder people have gluten intolerances, and how using yeast to make your own bread is still a shortcut of food-processing that isn't necessarily ideal (but making your own bread is way still better!!).

When I finished AIR, I was so inspired and motivated and immediately wanted to make bread.  It has added a goal for the year that I wasn't expecting, but I'm very excited to work at it.  Bread making is intimidating and arduous and requires a knack for waiting that I think I've lost due to having Amazon Prime for way too long.  But I'm ready to try!  Hopefully I have a update on my bread-making progress soon.

Anyway, I highly recommend giving COOKED a go.  If for nothing else watch the opening credits, which are absolutely beautiful (that cinematography I was talking about) and, depending on your headspace at the time of watching, might make you emotional.  You can watch a trailer for the series here.

orange county. (where we ate)

We ate like kings while we were in California last month, and honestly that was all I asked.  Here's where we ate, what we ate, and our recommendations for anyone in the area who's hungry.




University Center at UC Irvine
First off, this area was amazing.  So many cool places to eat and hang for those students.  (If only Mill Ave at ASU was a center instead of a dirty street with questionables lurking and waiting for a good grope)(still recovering from that)  There are lots of different kinds of offerings, and pretty much any cuisine you could possibly be in the mood for is here.  Especially abundant were various Asian cuisines, the need for which is obvious as soon as you look around at who is at the center, too.  We visited three places:

• Slapfish Seafood: I ordered the lobster roll, and Jon had their clam chowder.  Both were so incredibly delicious.  The lobster roll was fresh and lemony and Jon couldn't stop thinking about the clam chowder pretty much for the rest of our trip.

• California Gogi Korean Grill: I was craving some Korean food and ordered the beef bulgogi bibimbap.  It hit the spot just right, and I have to admit that I was disappointed to have to share some with Theo.  The establishment is set up Chipotle-style (is Chipotle the precedent here??), like many new restaurants seem to be nowadays, so it's easy to pick out what you want.  Much to my delight, they had both cucumber kimchi and classic kimchi.  Kimchi is creeping its way into the mainstream so it's less daring, but it's never a bad idea to order both kinds.  Never.

• Mendocino Farms sandwich market: Jon ordered here while I tried to keep Theo away from my bibimbap, and then when I was done we joined him here.  It was a fun place with lots of seating and even a corn hole game set up.  There was also a large, comfortable couch in the center of the place where a few students were set up.  If we had another day to stay, I would have liked to come back here to order something for myself.

Irvine Spectrum

We went to this outdoor mall area when we were bored, when Theo needed to get out of the hotel room, when we just wanted to walk around and avoid going back to the hotel room.  It was a fun place with a ferris wheel, carousel, and a train for the kiddies.  Theo loved to stare at the carousel.

• The Melt: This place was honestly a disappointment.  We went twice to give it another shot, but we weren't really wowed.  We did like the "well dressed" fries with cheese and bacon, but both of the sandwiches we ordered during the two trips (the mac daddy grilled cheese and the cheesesteak grilled cheese) were too one-note.  Nothing stood out flavor-wise, and it just was just boring.  Definitely a bummer.
• Umami Burger: Okay, to say I loved this place probably doesn't really convey anything, but I loved it.  Honestly, now I'm a disappointed that Scottsdale is getting a Shake Shack instead of an Umami Burger.  I just want to eat Umami Burger for the rest of my life.  We visited twice (!!) because towards the end of the trip I was just like, "we have to go back."  We ordered: Ahi Poke, Truffle Fries, the Umami Burger, the Throwback Burger, and the Manly Burger.  Both of the sides were perfect, and Theo 100% recommends the Truffle Fries.  (Also, I was in love with their special ketchup.)  The Umami Burger is good - it's got a big ole shiitake mushroom in the middle and when I bit into it, it was an explosion of juices.  The Throwback Burger was the first double patty burger I've ever eaten, and it was probably the best one to lose your double-patty virginity with.  It had miso mustard and soy pickles, and though the miso and soy flavors were slight, the burger wouldn't have been as good without them.  But easily the best burger we ordered (twice) was the Manly Burger.  It is soooooooo so so much better than the others.  Honestly, if you order multiple burgers that you're sharing with someone else (as we did), eat the Manly Burger last.  The other burgers are definitely good, but once you eat the Manly Burger you won't want to eat anything else.  The onions strings and the bacon lardons just take it to a whole other level.  And if you think well I've had burgers with onion rings and bacon strips before, I say to you: NOT THE SAME THING.  Order the Manly Burger.  Twice.  Eating it is the least ladylike thing I have ever done, and I don't even care.  If you can, go to Umami Burger before it becomes a full-on national chain.  That doesn't necessarily ensure the quality or taste diminished per se, but why take the risk?

4th Street Market in Santa Ana

Another thing Phoenix needs: a food hall.  LA has Grand Central Market, Orange County has 4th Street Market.  Inside there are 16 different places to eat and it's a cool space to hang.  We ate an entire day's worth of meals here (breakfast and dinner), and we didn't love everything we ate, but it was still such a fun place to be.  I only wish we could have eaten at every place there!

• KTCHN DTSA: We ate here for breakfast and ordered the breakfast sandwich and the BLT-E (me).  My sandwich was probably the hardest thing to eat because it was so tall and my jaw can only open so wide.  But it was delicious.  The pork belly was perfectly crisp and chewy, and now I need to figure out how to get pork belly into every single breakfast item I ever eat.

• Waffles Inc: Every food item on the menu here had a waffle incorporated somewhere.  Jon ordered a waffle empanada - a "wafflenada."  All I have to say is: thank you, Leslie Knope, for making the waffle super cool.
• Noodle Tramp: I ordered the Khao Soi, a Thai noodle bowl.  I ordered the smallest size - a Regular - and it was a little too large for my liking.  The bowl was good, but I finished feeling like I would have liked it much better if it had been smaller.  And had more sprouts.
• Torch S'more Co: We were pretty excited for this.  A friend of mine told me that she had an idea for a s'mores bar business (which is an amazing idea), and after hearing about this place we were like, "awesome!  let's see how this would play out!"  Sadly, the execution just wasn't up to our expectations here.  But the idea is still awesome, so we will be on the lookout for the perfect manifestation of it.

South Coast Plaza
A restaurant I wanted to visit was in the South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa (right across the street from where we missed Ina by a week!!!)(insert crying emoji).  Walking through the mall to the restaurant was hilarious because we kept passing stores like Balenciaga, Harry Winston, David Yurman, Prada... All during that walk my mind flashed back to all of their ads from the mid-2000s that I always saw in Vogue magazine.  But I kept asking Jon, where are all the stores for us poorsies?!  We kept seeing people carrying bags from the affordable stores, but we just didn't see them in the area of the mall we were in.  I did find it interesting that most of the high-end stores had their doors wide open.  In the mall I went to growing up, the high-end stores always had their doors closed.  To me the message was, you've got to be rich enough to open this door.  I guess the difference is that most of the people who go to South Coast Plaza are, in fact, rich enough to open the doors, so why not have them already open?  Anyway, we are talking about food.

• Marché Moderne: I was most excited to go here, if only to try to baptize Theo (and Jon) into the wonderful worship of good cheese.  Our cheese plate had Pecorino Ginepro, Bayley Hazen Blue, Chaource Aoc (a soft cow's cheese), and a fourth kind whose name I don't recall, but it was an off-menu cheese that our waiter suggested and by far the stinkiest cheese I have ever eaten.  The blue cheese was our favorite, and Theo was significantly less enthusiastic about it than us (please appreciate his face below as it morphs from happiness from getting food, to realizing a mistake was surely made).  Then I ordered a charcuterie plate which was amazing and really hard to share, and Jon ordered a steak with potatoes (basically his favorite meal ever, but probably the fanciest form of it) with the most delicious Armagnac jus that I kept reaching across the table to steal with my bread.  This was easily my favorite meal of the trip, and probably the best lunch I've ever had in my life.

Other places we ate

• Pokinometry: I was bonkers excited to try this place out.  The world is going poke-crazy, and I am okay with it.  The first time I had some poke salad was when we were in Hawaii, and I only got a little bit because I was pregnant, but I think I regret not getting more.  Anyway, if you have an aversion to raw fish: GET OVER IT.  I mean that in the nicest way possible, because you are seriously missing out!  Anyway, Pokinometry is also set up Chipotle-style, but don't let that deter you.  And don't let the long lines and lack of seating and hard to find parking scare you off either.  It's worth it!  I recommend filling your order with everything but the onions, wasabi and ginger (last two can be on the side if you want).  The happiness you get from your meal will fill the sadness and longing that comes when you drive to Pokinometry and see the top of the Matterhorn on your way there.
• Paris Baguette: This bakery is actually inside Zion Market, which is a Korean market.  It is confusing, but also hilarious because you have to walk past an entire aisle of just kimchi to get to the French pastries.  I came here only a million times and loved to see the cute Korean girls behind the glass perfectly frosting the perfect cakes that perfect people buy for their perfect child's perfect birthday parties.  Our favorite treat was the pain au chocolat, obviously.  We ordered many many many of them.
• Manassero Farms Market: We signed up for a lunch and cooking demonstration at this cute farmstand in Irvine.  The setting was super cute and the food was amazing.  To start we had toasts with sliced radishes.  Then the main course which included a salad of kale, butternut squash, red potatoes, and vinaigrette and sandwiches with caramelized onions, smoked gouda, pork confit, and mustard.  And finally, the dessert was this crème brûlée served in the cutest way - in a tiny hollowed out pumpkin with a ghost cookie coming out the top.  The entire lunch was so delightful and delicious.  Again, we wish we had something like this nearby.

• First Class Pizza: This was a place I wish we'd visited twice (instead of visiting the Melt for a second time!).  We ordered two pizzas: The Porker and Ultimate Thin Crust.  The Ultimate Thin Crust had pepperoni, parmesan, sliced pepperoncini, and FCP's special seasoning.  It had the perfect amount of spice and heat, and the level crunchiness was just right.  The Porker was a doozy with pepperoni, bacon, canadian bacon, sausage, and meatballs.  We liked this pizza, but after we fed Theo some of the meatballs and ate parts of the pizza without them, we decided that the whole pizza would have been so much better sans meatballs.  They just didn't seem to fit with the texture and taste of the other ingredients.

Orange County, we love to eat you.  And we'd love to eat some more of you another time.

downgrade / upgrade: cinnamon rolls.

Growing up when school was cancelled for a snow day, my mom would make those cinnamon rolls that popped from a can.  (The can literally pops, you know the ones.)

Here where we live there are definitely not going to be any snow storms, and if there were it would probably be the end of the world and there wouldn't be any time to make cinnamon rolls.  Instead we get dust storms and rain storms, which don't sound as awesome as snow storms, but every once in a while a good hard rain comes and makes you feel alive*.

Today we had one of those storms and I decided to make cinnamon rolls.  In terms of the tradition, the snow storm was downgraded to a rain storm, but the cinnamon rolls from a can got upgraded to cinnamon rolls from scratch.

I admit that when I made cinnamon rolls a few weeks ago I was a little disappointed.  They tasted good enough, but they weren't as spectacular as ones I'd remembered making before.  So this time I combined my favorite parts of a few recipes and the result was a batch of rolls that I am pleased with for now.



Kristin's Cinnamon Rolls

For the Dough:

1 cup whole milk

one 1/4-ounce packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)

1/4 cup plus 1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 2 tablespoons more (softened) for the bowl

1 large egg yolk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3-4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

For the Filling:

All-purpose flour, for dusting

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for the pan

1 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons ground cinnamon

For the Frosting:

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

8 tablespoons butter, softened

1 3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon lemon juice

Make the dough: Warm the milk in a medium saucepan over low heat until it reaches about 100. Remove from the heat and sprinkle in the yeast and 1/4 teaspoon sugar. Set aside until foamy, 5 minutes. Whisk in the melted butter, egg yolk and vanilla.

Whisk 3 cups flour, the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, the salt and nutmeg in the bowl of a stand mixer. Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture. Mix on low speed with the dough hook until thick and slightly sticky. Knead on medium speed until the dough gathers around the hook, 6 minutes. (Add up to 1 cup more flour if necessary.)

Remove the dough and shape into a ball. Butter the mixer bowl and return the dough to the bowl, turning to coat with butter. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm oven until doubled, 1 hour 15 minutes.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 10-by-18 -inch rectangle with the longer side facing you.  Spread with the 6 tablespoons softened butter, leaving a 1/2-inch border on the far long edge. Mix the sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over the butter.

Brush the unbuttered far edge with water. Roll the dough away from you into a tight cylinder and press on the long edge to seal.

Slip a long taut piece of thread or unflavored floss under the roll, about 1 1/2 inches from the end.  Lift the ends of the tread and cross over the roll, pulling tightly to cut off a piece.  Repeat, cutting every 1 1/2 inches, to make 12 rolls.

Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking pan; place the buns cut-side down in the pan, leaving space between each. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, 40 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake the buns until golden brown, 25-30 minutes. Cool in the pan 15 minutes. Meanwhile, make the frosting: Beat the butter and cream cheese until mixture is light.  Add the sugar and beat until smooth.  Add the vanilla and lemon juice.  Frosting can be stored in the fridge until ready to use.

Kristin's notes:

(1) You can use a glaze instead of a cream cheese frosting, but... the cream cheese frosting makes all the difference.  It definitely takes the rolls to a whole new level of indulgence, but it is so much better.  The slight acid from the lemon juice in the frosting works so well with the sweetness of the rolls.  Just trust me.

(2) Every recipe I've tried has called for the 12 tablespoons of butter when you're ready to fill the rolls, which is an insane amount.  And honestly, every time I have made cinnamon rolls I have never used 12 tablespoons.  At most, maybe 6.  I just do enough to cover the surface of dough that's to be topped with cinnamon-sugar.  But if you want more butter, hey.  More power to you.  It certainly can't make these babies taste worse!

Cinnamon rolls are the best.  They are also probably the worst for you, but if you live in a place that doesn't get much rain/snow, then this tradition won't kill you anytime soon.

* Speaking of feeling alive, at one point today there was this huge crack of thunder that came out of nowhere, shook our house, and had me so freaked out I swore loud enough that our neighbors might have heard it.  I can't even explain how startled/shocked/scared I was for two or three seconds, except by telling you that I was all shot up with adrenaline and shaking for twenty minutes after it happened.  So I guess my fight or flight instincts are off and I just yell out expletives and stand in one place shaking.

(Theo was totally unfazed, by the way.  Thinks he's super brave or something.)