nectarines, glazed and grilled - it's a picnic!

We grilled this one on the George, which is why it's lacking those purty grill marks. Still tasted delish!

I'm taking a break today from my camping posts to participate in a virtual picnic! Louise from Months of Edible Celebrations has organized this fun little get together to scarf down great recipes from some mega talented and interesting ladies and gents in the blogging community. What a treat!

I'm going to a picnic and bringing nectarines!

My favorite kinds of picnic foods are fresh tasting and quick to prepare. There is basically no prep work involved in this dish besides cutting and pitting the nectarines. Just pop them on the grill (there may even be a BBQ at the picnic location, so you can do it there!), baste them with a little spiced honey, and top with whipped cream, ice cream, or creme fraiche. There isn't even a recipe! Simple, simple, simple!

*Nectarines - Glazed and Grilled*
Nectarines
A Bit of Butter
Honey
Cinnamon
Whipped Cream, Ice Cream, or Creme Fraiche

Halve you nectarines. Brush them with butter and put them flesh side down on the grill. Once they get a bit of a char, turn them over and brush them with some honey and a sprinkle of cinnamon. When they are warmed through, they're done!

Top with the cream of your choice. I like mine plain.

Dig in! It won't fill you up too much to enjoy ultimate frisbee and a three legged race afterward. :)

Now that I think about it, this would be a perfect camping dessert! I'll remember this for my next trip in September. I can't wait to see what everyone else brings!

More camping dinners tomorrow morning :)

japanese curry

It's risky cooking for my dad. He's yin, always choosing meat and potatoes over all other conceivable option. He'd rather eat in and watch the game on TV.

Me: "Dad, what do you want for your father's day dinner?"
Him: "Hamburgers."
Me: "Aw, I want to make you something special! If you could pick anything in the world, what would it be?"
Him: "Pizza."

I'm yang, preferring fresh tasting Cal Med fare or other interesting flavors. I adore eating out and consider myself a budding foodie (probably not apparent by these simplified meals, but I'll get to the good stuff soon!).

Him: "What's on your agenda tonight?"
Me: "Bran and I are going out to dinner at a place called Simon. The chef is Kerry Simon, Iron Chef America champion! He's creating a 4 course tuna tasting menu with wine pairing. I'm so excited!"
Him: "You had me until 'out to dinner.'"

My Funky Potato (would be an awesome band name, right?)

So you can see why he might be a bit apprehensive about this Japanese Curry business. Brandon did vouch for it- we have made it on other camping trips and he quite loves this meal- but it was very out of my dad's comfort zone. It didn't help that it's not the most visually appetizing meal in the world, though it smells divine! Dad, the trooper that he is, gave it a shot...

... and he liked it!

In fact, everyone liked it! It's quite a feat to successfully feed 14 hungry campers with a meal that only one had ever even tried before. Even the kids were fans. You'll like this. It's easy, warm, soul soothing. Perfect for camping. It will be an instant comfort food. I promise.

*Japanese Curry*
equal parts:
yukon gold potatoes, diced
carrots, diced
onions, diced
chicken, diced

oil for sauteing
water for boiling

1 (or more) box prepackaged Japanese curry*

white rice

*available in the Asian foods section of most big markets

*equipment*
1 high sided pot (such as a dutch oven)
something to make rice in
serving spoons

Saute your meat and onions in a big pot in a few tbsp of oil or butter. When the onions are soft and meat slightly browned, add in the rest of your diced veggies and add just enough water to cover the ingredients in the pot (about 3 cups). Cover and bring to a boil.

When the potatoes and carrots are just tender, add the broken up curry to the pot. Stir to mix. Let cook 5 more minutes.

Serve over rice.

pom

I remember the day like it was a few weeks ago (because, well, it was a few weeks ago). I got a suspicious email from someone named the POMblogger. Since I get at least 50 pieces of SPAM a day, I was thisclose to just hitting the delete button, but then I read the title.... Hello from POM wonderful! I thought to myself "I like POM.!" Then I was like, "hmmm, blogger?" I have a blog. I wonder if the two could be related.

When I opened the email, I was very surprised to see that Janny, blog searcher-outer extraordinare, had stumbled across my blog. The email stated that she wanted to send me a free sample of their juice! I thought to myself for a split second that she must have mistaken my blog for someone else's, but then she commented on some of my content and I knew it was my blog she had been reading. Do you have any idea how cool that made me feel?

The awesome thing is that I already knew that I liked POM. I'm a huge fan of cranberries and cranberry juice, which is what is most closely resembles, though a bit thicker and more flavorful. My mind went kind of wild when thinking about the possibilities of what I could make with it.

I have some great cocktails in my arsenal that feature pomegranate juice, though the alcohol may negate the many health benefits, but c'est la vie! You can be healthy and tipsy at the same time, right?

*Pomegranate Grenadine*

1 cup pomegranate juice
1/2 cup sugar

Combine the two ingredients in a saucepan and let boil for about 10 minutes or until the liquid has reduced by half. Let cool.

Use this in any way that you might use regular grenadine. For instance, in a...

*Laverne and Shirley*
...because she is a bit saucier than good old Shirley Temple
2 oz good vodka
1/2-1 oz pomegranate grenadine
7-up
pomegranate seeds

Shake the vodka and grenadine with some ice. Pour over a glass full of ice and top with 7-up. Garnish with a spoonful of pomegranate seeds.

sushi nishi-ya

Do you remember the infamous Soup Nazi of Seinfeld fame? Here is his description via Wikipedia:

A stone-faced immigrant chef with a thick Stalin-esque moustache, he is renowned throughout Manhattan for his soups. He demands that all customers in his restaurant meticulously follow his strict queuing, ordering, and payment policies. Failure to adhere to his demands brings the admonishment, "No soup for you!", whereupon the customer is refunded and denied his or her order.

Sushi Nishi-ya in Glendale stars the same idea of that character in the form of a much gentler, though still imposing, superbly talented Japanese sushi chef. Behind the bar in this teeny-tiny, mom and pop run strip-mall sushi joint, he won't refuse service as the soup nazi would. However, he will tell you what you can order and when you can order it. His motto is you get what he gives you, in essence. Read the sign. The chef is the boss. His first question is, "is there any type of fish you don't like?" And from there, he takes charge. He even instructs you with which dishes you may use soy sauce.

If you put your faith in him, you will not be disappointed. Everything is extremely fresh and meticulously prepared by the sushi chef. Even the wasabi is freshly grated.

Because the restaurant is so intimate, I felt a little sneaky and disrespectful snapping pictures, so I only got a few and the ones I did are blurry and annoying, but I'll post them anyway.
If you are thinking about going to Nishi-ya and want to be surprised at the omakase, I would suggest not reading the following blurb. The sushi chef picks out the fish from mongers several times a week, so it does change up based on what looks best, but of the 3 times I've eaten here, it has only varied slightly. I know it seems silly, but the whole experience is kind of fun and adventurous to go into blindly, so read or don't read, it's your choice!

- marinated maguro from Boston
- fresh hamachi from Osaka (one belly, one back)
- smoked and fresh salmon with kelp from Scotland
- fresh scallop from Okaido
- blue crab hand-roll from Maryland
- fresh albacore with Ponzu sauce from Japan
- toro from Spain
It is fantastic every time I have it. The only negative I can fathom is the portion size, which is admittedly small for the price, but when it comes to raw fish, quality is far more important to me than quantity. If you eat the sushi and drink a beer, you will be more than satiated.

Good quality sushi, well-prepared and served by an informed and talented sushi chef in an intimate setting. Service is great and there's rarely a wait, but you may want to call ahead to ensure your seats at the bar.

mostly pantry puttanesca

Puttanesca Recipe + Picture of a Kitty= HEAD EXPLODIE! Are you totally creeped out right about now? I promise you, no cats were harmed in the making of this puttanesca. I have gotten fairly lazy with the picture taking and wanted to post this awesome recipe, and blogs require pics, so meet my other cat, Maeby. My friend and teammate (Go Jedi Masters!), Mustafa, let me borrow his lens, and this is part of that experiment. I must get me one of those.

So anyway, I did a quick look over teh interwebs today and found this little doosie on the origins of Puttanesca (via NY Times):

Ostensibly a sauce invented and made by prostitutes, it is said that pasta puttanesca was designed to lure customers with its aroma. Other explanations have more appeal to the minimalist cook: that the prostitutes were too busy to cook much, or that they had no storage for fresh ingredients and cooked entirely from the pantry. My favorite legend has it that it was a favorite not of prostitutes, but of women who wanted to serve a quick meal at home in order to move on to other things.

So yes, no picture this week. But you should still make this recipe. Because whores like to make it. Wait, what does that make me?

Bran and I have been eating really late lately. He gets home after 7 every night :( and if we want to drive by a house that has just come on the market (we're house-hunting!) or do anything else that necessitates light, we have to do it in that window right after he gets home. That doesn't leave much time for cooking. And to be honest, I have a busy schedule of watching reruns of Beverly Hills 90210 to tend to after I get home from work, so dinner sometimes gets pushed aside.

So at about 8:15 last night, the question came up about dinner. Of course we hadn't been to the store in a week and Bran said he was craving pasta with red sauce. So, I started throwing things into a pot. We had 2 cans of this, one can of that, some of these, a few of those, some veggies that were almost past their prime... Voila! It isn't a true version of puttanesca (with the omission of anchovies and the added veg), but it's what it most closely resembled.

*Mostly Pantry Puttanesca*
1 medium brown onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, crushed
5 uncooked Italian sausage links
2 14oz cans diced tomatoes
1 14oz can tomato sauce
2 tsp red pepper flakes
1-2 tsp dried basil
2 heaping tbsp capers
1/4 cup chopped kalamata olives
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
2 cups baby broccoli, chopped into large pieces

Heat your pasta water! I always forget to do that.

Cover the bottom of your pan with a thin layer of olive oil. Put in your onions and sauté until they are transparent. Add in the garlic and sausage. Cook through.

Add in all of your other ingredients. Let simmer with the lid off until your pasta (I like spaghetti here) is cooked or about 15 minutes.

Eat it up. Yum.

mango jicama salad

LOST is one of my very favorite shows ever and I'm lucky enough to have a small group of friends who love it as much as I do. We make every Wednesday a celebration. It's the perfect mid-week perk up! That is, until you realize that it's already 9:40 and your DVR didn't record the show! This meal made up for our technological mishap. Imagine if we had ordered in bad chinese. I would have been pissed!

Being that this was a party, and we are in our very last days of the winter, there is nothing better to ring in the first days of spring with than fruit. I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of fruit in savory salads, but this one is different. It's not quite sweet, not quite savory, semi salty, very tangy, slightly spicy. It's crispy, fresh and just plain yummy. I paired it with a delicious chile lime marinated chicken breast, grilled quesadilla and a chilly glass of Gewurztraminer. Perfect LOST night vittles.

*mango jicama salad*
3 mangoes, diced
4 ears of corn
1/2 large red onion, diced
1 pound jicama, diced
handful of cilantro, chopped
3 limes
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp Mexican fruit and veggie seasoning**
salt and pepper

Grill your corn until you get nice dark grill marks throughout. Corn doesn't need to be cooked for long. In fact, if it's really good corn, it can usually be eaten straight off the cob. I digress... Let your down cool down and cut it off the cob.

Once completely cool, mix together your corn, mango, red onion, jicama and cilantro. Top with the lime juice, olive oil, and fruit and veggie seasoning. Salt and pepper to taste.

This is even better if you can make it ahead of time and let it meld together in the fridge.

Fresh and tasty!

**If you can't find or don't have the Mexican fruit seasoning, you can sub in chile powder or a pinch of cayenne pepper.