Valentine's Day and Anniversary

So, one post every three months, eh Internet? And I still owe you like ten posts about our amaaaazing Mexico vacation, I know. Kinda thinking that's not going to happen at this point - but I have related food news to share! Good enough? No?

I think it's a testament to the incredible teachers at Mexican Home Cooking school that we have cooked half a dozen recipes from our dandy little books since returning home, and enjoyed every one. We have a jar of preserved chipotles in the fridge, ready to be chopped and mixed with cream cheese at the first sign of company. Josh's incredible grandma Sylvia's 90th birthday was a couple weeks ago, and we took the day off and drove North with bubbling pots of arroz con pérejil (parsley rice), frijoles negros (black beans), and pipián rojo con pollo (chicken in a mild red sauce with cinnamon and clove), plus tortillas and suspiros de novia (sighs of the bride, fried flour cakes soaked in lime syrup. Dinner with Bum (funny nickname, I know!) and Josh's parents was lovely, and everyone seemed to like the food.

Then came our anniversary, and the one restaurant we actually wanted to try was closed - for the whole week of Valentine's Day! Who does that?! So since it was a weeknight we decided to cook in. I headed to Central Market for the fixins of a quick, but luxurious weeknight meal: scallops (thanks for the tips, and freebies, Seafood Guy!), Swiss chard, chocolate truffles, and BACON! Here's how it went down: Josh cooked bacon bits while I seared off the scallops and put a salad together. Then he took the bacon out of the pan and I added the clean chard, dressed the salad with homemade ranch, and we set the table together - including a bottle of the wine we drank at our wedding four years before.

The food was delicious, if I do say so...scallops cooked perfectly, simple chard with bacon bits, and a salad that tasted like a BLT. But there was something else, too, something about being in our house, in the Northwest, in the U.S.A., with no plans to move any time soon - this was the first time we've had that in our marriage. It felt settled and lovely and calm, and was definitely the best anniversary we've had yet.

Three days later comes Valentine's Day, like clockwork. We decided to avoid the restaurant crush (well, I reluctantly agreed when Josh promised to make my Mom's famous key lime cheesecake for me) and eat in. It being a long weekend, and a special day, we decided to make mole poblano.

Mole poblano. moh-leh-poh-blah-noh. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm...you've had this, right? This sweet and spicy, deep dark meat-in-sauce Mexican tradition, complete with a bar of abuelita chocolate? Holy majoley. It was one of the best dishes we made and ate in Tlaxcala, and hey - meat and chiles and chocolate? Perfect for Valentine's Day.

Thing is, those flavors are complex because they're made of a zillion ingredients, each requiring its own step in cooking. Here's a smattering:
*wipe down, cut open, seed and flay fourteen dried chiles
*fry each of the following, individually and quickly, in the same oil: plantain slices, raisins, toasted sesame seeds (you did remember to toast those, didn't you?), cumin, anise, clove, cinnamon, peanuts, almonds, and more..
*puree those with toasted tortillas and bread, then fry the puree and stir constantly for half an hour
*puree the chiles in stock and stir it into the other puree, then stir for half an hour
*stir some other crap in there and stir for six days
*add the chocolate and repeat

Okay, so it's not six days. But while Josh occupied himself otherwise, I did end up standing at the stove, stirring, for the better part of two hours. But Internet? It was worth it.I can't describe the deliciousness. It's not the easiest dish to photograph, but the combination of those quick-fried and long-simmered nuts, seeds, and spices with the delicate heat from ancho and mulatto chiles and the depth of the chocolate - all we added was a little shredded lettuce and a corn tortilla, and our Valentine's luuurve was doing a little simmering of its own.

And the cheesecake? We shall not speak of the cheesecake. Suffice to say that it is NOT Mexican, it is NOT healthy, and it is NOT in the house anymore since we ate every last crumb of it almost immediately.

Salud, people.

Aprendemos cocinar, part 3

In December 2009, Josh and I learned to cook in Mexico. Here's the latest installment of our story.

We arrived at our vacation destination not at 7pm on Christmas, as planned, but around 1:30am December 27th, thanks to Aeromexico. Well-fed and relieved to have arrived, we drifted off into a deep sleep, with an alarm for 8:30 and a 9:00 start time. For some reason, Maria (Jon and Estela's household helper) brought coffee to our room at 6:30 in the morning, so we thanked her and went back to sleep. Just half an hour later, Jon came in to tell us that breakfast was served - turns out in our exhaustion we'd forgotten to change the time zone on our phones. WHOOPS!

Still, everyone was quite forgiving. We beat feet to the outdoor breakfast table, not knowing what to expect. Here's what greeted us:Ham and cheese between two tortillas, with salsa verde, avocado, onion, and kiwi on the side. YUM.

But before long, eating gave way to cooking (with more eating to come, of course). We walked in to the kitchen to see an incredible spread laid out for us. It was unbelievably beautiful and inviting - and have I mentioned lately that you should visit www.mexicanhomecooking.com? Cause you should. Or you can find them on Facebook. Here's what's in store:

I'm sorry my camera and my photography skills aren't better, because that kitchen is so gorgeous and the photos don't do it justice.

On to the food! We made seven or eight recipes every day, and the first day included a couple really fun ones. We began with nopalitos, which are cactus leaves grown right on the property. They are spiny and irritating, but delicious and healthy to eat.
You start by laying a knife flat against the leaf and moving it from side to side to remove the spines, being careful to impale each of your fingers individually with the barbs. Okay, just kidding - but I recommend buying them cleaned. We made ensalada and sopa de nopalitos before moving on to the heavy lifting.
When was the last time you cooked a squash blossom? We used them several times, and lamented the, you know, seasons of Washington - gorgeous, floral produce is available year-round in Tlaxcala.

Next up? Tortas de Papas con Espinaca, or potato pancakes with spinach. Only instead of spinach we used shrimp! FLEXIBILITY, people.
Jon taught us the prep techniques while Estela ran the frying, charring, and sauteeing station at the stove. Oh, and by the way, the torta recipe is available for free on the website!

On day one, we also made an almond chicken dish with tortillas blended right into the sauce, and mushroom soup, and these incredible fried flour dough cakes with vanilla sugar pressed into them. We ate lunch with our compadres and co-students - Tim and Athena from Santa Barbara, and Robin and Diane from Sitka, Alaska - before heading out to the Xochitecatl and Cacaxtla archaeological sites for the afternoon. And at the rate I've been posting these stories, you should hear about that in midsummer.

Aprendemos cocinar, part 2

It's Christmas Day. Christmas morning, that is - 7:00am. Josh and I have been up since 4:00, all packed up, passports in hand, having ridden a shuttle bus two hours to the airport. We're at the Aeromexico check-in counter...

and we're alone. There's no line, no one milling about, no employees behind the counters. Just Josh and me and signs with the Aeromexico reservation hotline. Which I call, asking when we can expect to check in for our 9:00 flight.

"Um, we don't have any departures leaving Seattle today."

"Well, I'm holding a flight confirmation that says we're going on vacation to Mexico City. Confirmed November 18th for departure today, Christmas, at 9:00."

"Oh, that flight was changed. You're leaving tomorrow."

"Changed when?"

"December 11."

*Head explodes.*

I mean, seriously. SERIOUSLY! It is the two-thousandsies, and the airline had my credit card number, email, cell phone, and (presumably) access to Google and Skype. But they just cancel a flight and don't let us know. Luckily, our friends at Mexican Home Cooking are incredibly flexible, and the airline was at least willing to make our return flight one day later as well. We'd get our whole vacation. But the bus home cost more than a hotel room at the airport, so we checked in for the night and set about trying to enjoy Christmas Day in Seattle.

First up was to hop on the city's newest attraction, light rail from the airport to downtown.We had the (new, clean) car to ourselves, and $2.50 and 30 minutes later we were in Chinatown. The lines for dim sum were outrageous, and we waited 45 minutes, standing smashed against hungry Chinese-American, Jewish, and all-around heathen masses, before we sat down to some good old fashioned fa-ra-ra-ra-ra.
He's, um, smiling at me!

The rest of the day was pretty boring, as we waited out our sentence. The next morning started early again and we were glad to see staff at Aeromexico. We checked in and passed through security, no problem, and got right on the plane, on the tarmac.

And stayed there. First, there was an indicator light on that wouldn't go off. Out to the runway, back to the gate a couple times. They fixed that, or so they said, and then had another little problem - some little insignificant part wouldn't work. It was called, um, the STARTER.Okay. End of rant. We got off the plane and finally took off six hours past schedule, flew five hours with no food and one drink service, and landed in Mexico City long after the last bus to Tlaxcala had departed. We called Jon (our home cooking host) with a calling card and he directed us to an authorized taxi to Tapo bus station. An unofficial taxi driver tried to scam a fare out of us, but Josh stayed strong and we found the ticket counter. We didn't find any food though, as the bus was leaving five minutes later and we couldn't miss it. On the bus we got to see Enemy of the State in Spanish, but we didn't get to see any toilet paper. What's up, Subway napkins?!

The bus got us to Tlaxcala station, where we called Jon again and he told us his taxi driver would meet us inside in 15 minutes. We were so hungry though, too hungry to take photos in the shut-down bus station - not a bad way to start a culinary vacation, but still - hungry enough to poke our heads outside the door and see a hot dog stand. I knew enough Spanish to say "Uno con todos, por favor," and Josh and I tucked into the best hot dog of our lives. It had tomatoes, and onions, and mustard and mayo and, best of all, bright green pickled jalepeños right on top. We just died and went to heaven.

Soon we saw a short man holding a sign for Mexican Home Cooking. We were reasonably certain he wasn't after our kidneys, but that certainty faded when we turned onto the second of three dirt, um, roads? Pothole collectives would be more accurate. Turns out the driver was our buddy Yair, who took us all over creation that week, but at the time he was a wee bit scary!

You've already seen some of what we arrived to. Jon welcomed us with a fire in the fireplace of our room, and when he heard we hadn't eaten he produced bowls of creamy oyster soup, then spicy beef stew with the bones still flavoring the broth. And immediately, we were transformed. Those spoonfuls of homemade dinner melted the terrible travel right off our skins, and brought us back to Earth.

And that's why we chose this kind of vacation in the first place, because cooking and eating is so fundamental to the kind of joy we want to bring into our lives. A cup of the right soup, or hot chocolate, or a bite of Mom's macaroni and cheese* can make a bad day beautiful, and our trip was gorgeous from there on out.

*with collard greens! HOLLA!

Aprendemos cocinar, part 1

Well hey there, Internet. What's up? I'm sorry I haven't responded to your emails lately, or your calls. I've been following you on Facebook but just not up to chatting. Life is crazy now, with a new job and the holidays, and Fuji the cat and lots of hopes for a baby. But most of all, I just haven't felt like sharing. On the good days, life is pleasantly boring: chatting with friends on the way to work, learning to navigate my new job, cooking dinner and spending time with Josh. Boring! And when life isn't good, well, I just don't want to advertise that to the world.

Which brings me to Christmas Day, 2009.

NOT. BORING.

Josh and I have never had a vacation. Thanks to Mom and Dad we had a couple days at a nice B&B after our wedding, and we've taken weekends in Kyoto before, but never a full-on vacation, until now. After the turmoil of the last year, and much-needed visits with our parents in November, we decided to use some of our savings to get away for Christmas.

Where to go was an easier decision than I expected. See, we're not really beach people, Josh not liking bright sunlight, and when we've had time off together before we've ended up wondering what to do with ourselves. Especially in a strange city, everything is a bit expensive and confusing, right? So I wanted a pre-arranged trip. And since the only thing we both really like to do is cook and eat, a culinary vacation was the way to go. With just a little research, we found our heaven away from home: Mexican Home Cooking in Tlaxcala, Mexico.Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Don't you feel more relaxed already?
Me too. We had tickets to arrive on Christmas and leave New Year's Eve, with five days of relaxation, morning cooking classes, and afternoon sightseeing in between.And we got those five days, in spades! I have tales of dozens of chiles, tortillas with ham and salsa verde dripping with fresh cheese at breakfast, stories about which dishes enhance "marital function" according to Madame Estela. Sadly, first come stories of cancelled flights and Seattle dim sum - and a bus station in Ciudad Mexico around midnight.

It was all worth it, though, and you can see why for yourself. Check out a couple more pictures, and Jon and Estela's web site (www.mexicanhomecooking.com, if you haven't been there already!), and I'll share more soon.




P.S. Happy New Year everybody. Here's to sabor (flavor,) especia (spice,) and amor in 2010.

Fuji climbing

Remember when Josh climbed Mt. Fuji? It wasn't that long ago, just over two months, when he got up at 3:00 and headed off to conquer the mountain.

Well, Fuji is back, and this time Fuji-san is doing the climbing. Internet, meet Fuji the Cat.I realize it might look like he's trying to get down, but the handsome kitty spent about five minutes up there, kneading Josh's shoulder and purring. Fuji-san knows he's a climber! Here's how he looked up until Monday, ever since his original owner passed away. Before Josh and I moved to Japan, we had a little cat named Luna, a stray who adopted me without mentioning that she was pregnant, and had a seizure disorder. We loved her to pieces though, and were sad to have to leave her behind with a friend when we moved. Luna's gone now, and we knew we wanted another grownup cat. I walked in to the Kitsap Humane Society and saw him right away - for both Josh and me, it was love at first sight. Please spay or neuter your pets, give to the Humane Society, and consider adopting an adult cat instead of a kitten!

I suppose I should apologize here for not blogging more, and I really am sorry. It's just that I haven't felt like writing these last few weeks. I'm trying like hell to get a job and pick my career back up, with incredibly frustrating results - of the two positions I've interviewed for, I've come in second both times. I'm facing the possibility of 20 hours/week commuting, or finding a job outside my career in the area just to pay some bills.

And yes, I know how incredibly lucky I am. We've got a nice house and a nice car, savings in the bank and a couple 401Ks and IRAs to our names. Our healthcare is comprehensive and free (thanks for those tax dollars!) and we've got good friends and supportive families to buck us up when we get discouraged.

But of course I do still get discouraged. I've got a bunch more cover letters to write and resumes to send tomorrow, and I'm sure the right thing will come along in the end. For now, though, I'm going to go curl up with the cat.

Emily Roasts Everything

So Costco. I had been to this place, this giant Buy 'N Large, this magical warehouse of the two-gallon mustard jug. There's one near the house and I visited with Irish, and figured out that I could get some good deals. We made a plan to go back together this weekend to stock up my pantry.

Then I got there and paid for a membership, and realized I needed to give Irish and Steve permission not to witness my consumer freakout. I must have spent three hours wandering around that store, and I filled one of those giant carts. I got rolled oats and tomato paste, band aids and deodorant and hydrogen peroxide, pepper jack cheese and butter and fifteen POUNDS of OxyClean. (This house needs it). And then I got to the produce section. And I go nuts.

See, we're both going to be working soon, God willing, and we still want to eat healthy. I need to break the habit of spending two hours a night cooking dinner, but I don't want to sacrifice our fresh veggie standards. So at Costco today I bought two pounds each of Brussels sprouts, haricots verts, and sugar snap peas; twelve Honeycrisp apples, and three pounds, yes three POUNDS of garlic. And then I got home and turned on the oven.I started with roasted garlic, of course, and only got to about half the bulbs in there. I did twelve in muffin tins with just a tiny drizzle of olive oil, and four bulbs poached in olive oil so I could save the oil too. The oil-poached ones are beautiful, and delicious.
Gorgeous, right? I took the cloves out of all SIXTEEN HEADS, ugh, and ground them up into a garlic paste for dressings, marinades, and spreads this week. Yum!

Then with the oven still roaring, I roasted half of the haricots verts with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and stashed them in the fridge for dinner tomorrow. I remembered I still had some regular green beans, trimmed and washed them and roasted them with red onion and (yes, more) garlic. That mixture ended up in a whole wheat couscous salad for tomorrow's lunch, with tomatoes, sugar snaps, and leftover mustard sauce - more on that later.

But I still hadn't made anything for tonight's dinner yet. So out came the three pound salmon fillet, also from Costco, and a quick glaze of mustard, soy sauce, roasted garlic paste, honey, paprika, thyme, and rosemary. I glazed a third of the fish with half the sauce and tossed the rest into the couscous, then prepared all the Brussels sprouts for a quick roast. They burned a little, but tasted great as usual. I'm not very good at cooking fish, but this salmon was delicious and I hope I can find good recipes for the rest of it.
Once again, my photos are not so good - apologies there. For now it's time for me and the oven to take a break, and reap the benefits tomorrow.

Sloppy Jogindra

I'm bummed I didn't take photos of the first meal I made in our new house. Josh and I have gotten a little, um, fluffier during this move, so we're trying to stick to lots of vegetables and lean proteins for the next couple weeks. Lame for an "eats everything" blog, I know, but bear with me.

So last night was spicy buffalo-style chicken strips sauteed with red onion and served on top of a big spinach salad. I made buttermilk dressing with just a little mayo to make it tasty. But I was tuckered out from moving, so we just ate and went straight to bed.

Which brings me to tonight's dinner, and the silly title of this post - I made soy sloppy joes flavored with garam masala, one of our favorite meals. Figures I took photos of possibly the most unappealing, unphotographable meal I ever cook and passed up the gorgeous colorful salad, huh? Ah well. Might as well get it out of the way: Kinda looks like somebody booted on our hamburger buns, doesn't it? Big old pile of vom. I SWEAR it's delicious. Just to clear your visual palate, I offer the roasted broccoli, roasting:
That's better, right?!

I really am sorry I can't get a better photo of this meal. It's so filling and nutritious, and sticks to your ribs more than many vegetarian sandwiches. The flavors are warm and spicy and sweet and comforting, and it comes together in less than half an hour. So if you don't mind closing your eyes, try this sometime.

Em's Garam Masala "Sloppy Joes"
2T olive oil
1/2 red onion, diced
5 big mushrooms, sliced thin
3 cloves garlic (or more if you love it), minced
1-3t garam masala, or to taste
1t smoked paprika
1/2t marjoram*
1 package Morningstar Farms Grillers, still frozen is fine
Big splash of red wine
1 8oz can of unsalted tomato sauce
1 6oz can of unsalted tomato paste
1-2t jarred hot sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil over medium and add the onion, mushrooms, and garlic. Saute 5 minutes or until onions and mushrooms are softening and garlic is fragrant. Stir in garam masala and cook 1 more minute, then add the marjoram and soy "meat." Cook a few minutes or until soy grillers are thawed and cooking, then pour in a glug of red wine and stir well.

Once the wine has almost completely reduced (there should be very little visible liquid), add the tomato sauce and paste and stir to incorporate completely. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to low and let simmer for at 5 minutes.

Season to taste with salt, pepper, and as much hot sauce as you like - I shook in about 5 glugs and it had a nice spicy kick. Serve hot over whole grain hamburger buns or toast - yum!


*Strange, right? But I had marjoram in my spice drawer and I never use it, and just a pinch tasted great in here.