The After Party...

 ree [the pioneer woman], elise [simply recipes], jaden [steamy kitchen]

Wow.  I don't even know where to begin.  I don't want to make myself sound like a total kiss @$$ or a name dropper but seriously.  SERIOUSLY, HONESTLY, TRULY.  These are 3 of the most amazing women in the blogger world.  I don't really follow many blogs outside of the food world  but working with them the past four weeks has been an amazing experience for me.

Alana Kellogg asked me, "What's in it for you? Why are you doing this??"  Honestly, there are so many food blogs that I've been following for years that have brought me to the point of where I am today [i actually know how to boil water without burning my house down!] that I felt like i OWED them one. When Jaden asked me if I wanted to help them out with this party, I *JUMPED* at the opportunity, in hopes of giving back for all that I had received.  

Sadly, that was not the way it turned out.  I learned so much from these 3 women! From Jaden, I learned that thinking 10 steps ahead of your game isn't enough and that in order to grow you need to keep your brain popping with new ideas; from Elise, I was in awe of her analytical genius - from the technical to the social and how she connected the dots amongst her vast resources; and from Ree, i learned that you need to be true to who you are and your "voice" [and I was so completely charmed by her!]. I know there were times that I looked vacant or just plain stupid when they asked me a question and I was unprepared.  I was just trying to process everything they were saying.  What can I say?? I'm slow.

Michael, my boss, greatest boss ever

Lastly, I couldn't have made it through this event without the support of my boss.  GREATEST. BOSS. EVER.  You should all be jealous of me. I know he was giving a lot of people a hard time at the door as he was checking people in and giving them their bags as they were leaving.  I really apologize for that but he really is the most helpful boss EVER.  Plus how many bosses do you know let their underlings boss THEM around???  It really was the greatest evening for me.

Party go-ers enjoying the San Fran evening outside

So once again, i got back more than I gave. 

The Non-Post Post

Sorry, my 3 friends who read my blog.  Things have been crazy busy for me this week!  I'm heading out of town tomorrow. Can you guess where??  

I'm excited to finally meet some people I've only talked to over the phone or via email [no, i'm not going to the BlogHER Food conference...not really, in any case]...but I will be within stalking distance!

I hope to update you when I get back!

Jenny Stalker Series V, Financier

In my 5th installment of the JENNY STALKER SERIES, I chose to stalk someone I had just "met".  This is not what I had initially planned to do.  I was planning to go through my list of bloggers systematically one by one.  Three little words changed all of that. Luckily, my next victim is a teacher. My 11 year old mentality should've could've been the perfect fit.  The only problem was the time difference.  She's about 9 hours ahead of my Pacific Time Zone.

After my last Stalker Series post with Zen Chef, I discovered that I was being followed by a fennel.  Right. Specifically, a fennel head with GLASSES was following me on twitter. Her name was @ColloquialCook. And she lives in Paris. Sense any jealousy on my part? You're right. Heck, she could live in a shoebox ANYWHERE in France and I'd still be pea green with envy.

I was really excited because I had stumbled upon a cookie post she had done a while ago and i had bookmarked it to make for Christmas.  Since I believe in fair warning [and let's face it...it's pretty damn creepy to stalk someone without letting them know you are], I sent her a message informing her that she's on my list to be stalked.  She replied with a VERY nice response but what caught my attention were the last 3 words which left me speechless!

The 3 little words were "Bring it on". Many thoughts came and went through my mind.   

1.  Does she KNOW who she's talking to?  There are a few screws loose in my head.

2.  Does she not realize that I am cooking/baking challenged????

3.  Does she not realize how NEEDY I am??  I'm the youngest child...I need attention...LOTS of it.

The answer to that was obviously, "no" because I'm sure that ZenChef was way too nice to tell her what a true pain in the butt I was during his stalking.

Well, that was HER problem.  She asked for it. The challenge was trying to pick the appropriate recipe for me to try. The answer came when I had asked twitterland for suggestions for nut flour options for my financiers. @ColloquialCook came to the rescue...for my stalker series AND my financier recipe.

Challenge 1:
Metrics: Her recipes had the weight measurements vs volume that we Americans love to use.  As much as it pains me to admit it, the darn frenchman was right again when he said that baking by weight was better and more precise than by volume so I've actually been converted for awhile.  The challenge came when I tried to figure out how to convert Celsius to Farehnheit:

240

x 1.8

192.0 [ …carry the 3…ummm…]

240.0

432.0 […carry the 1…]

+32.0

464.0 [voila!]

if you believed that, you are straight up crazy.  I looked it up on the online converter like any SANE person would do. 
 

Challenge 2:
Fiscal Responsibility: I'm a penny wise, pound stupid.  I like to save money where I can.  I decided to save money on the nut flours by getting whole nuts and grinding them down.  Only problem was my cheapass didn't buy the hazelnuts skinned/blanched.  So I had to skin those buggers one by one.  I've got serious OCD so little specks and bits of skin DRIVES ME NUCKIN' FUTS. It took me THREE FREAKING DAYS TO SKIN THOSE STUPID HAZELNUTS. In the meantime, she was on stand by and ready to answer any questions that I may have had.  Expecting her to be on constant stand by for three days while i scrubbed those nuts one by one was a bit too much to ask.  So I messaged her with random questions because I didn't want her to feel neglected.  And I didn't tell her what I was doing because I try really hard to hide the crazies in my head.


Challenge 3:
Vocabulary/Language:  I like to consider myself well read with a pretty decent vocabulary but how often do you use the word "didactic" in a sentence?  Right. NEVER. Never, unless you're @ColloquialCook trying to confound me in a direct message. [I admit it. I remember that word from English Lit but damned if I remembered what it meant. I had to look that one up]. The other phrase that threw me was "Icing Sugar".  huh?  DM'd her...forgot that she's sound asleep due to the 9 hour time difference.  Look it up on the internet.  Right, Powdered Sugar.  Duh.

Challenge 4:
Toasting: You know those UNSKINNED hazelnuts I bought? Yeah, well I had to toast them in the oven to skin them.  Her instructions clearly call for me to toast the 2 nut flours together.  But is it ok to re-toast the toasted hazelnuts??  Crap.  it's 4:00am in Paris.  She's lucky I don't have her cellphone number.  I toasted.  I figured if everything went south because I toasted twice, I was just going to fall back on my youngest bratty sister line: "BUT YOU SAAAAAAIIIIIID!!"

Challenge 5:
Browning Butter:  She asked me if I'd ever browned butter before. I've browned butter before.  Once.  Ok, TWICE because I burnt it the first time.  i burnt it the first time because I didn't get that it was the PROTEIN that was supposed to be browned and NOT the butterfat.  GRRR.  This time around, after I dropped the butter into the pan, I decided  i had a few minutes to check my email.  Replied to emails until I heard a smoke alarm go off.  Shockingly, it wasn't coming from my kitchen but my neighbors'.  Sadly, due to my lack of attention [common theme in my cooking/baking adventures] the forgotten butter was burnt and ruined.  Started over again and decided that, in fact, i didn't have time to check my emails.

Challenge 6:
Temperature Conversions: Ok, 464 degrees farhenheit?  that just SOUNDS crazy...do I bring it up to 475  or down to 450?  Then drop the temperature down to 392?? or 400?? Looked at the time...crap.  5:30am in Paris...no way she's awake yet.  I decided to go with 400 degrees all the way through.  [I chilled the mixture for an hour before baking and threw some chocolate in it because i love chocolate]

Amazingly, I did it!  The financiers turned out VERY delicious in spite  of my challenges.  I was bummed that I wasn't able to get the timing right to properly stalk ColloquialCook this time around but rest assured, this isn't the last time I'll be stalking her.  

Another good recipe from Team France [that's 3 points from Team France for those of you who are counting*]!! This recipe is easy and super tasty.  Go find it and try it.

Thanks, Claire ...stalk you later! :)



*Team France consists of: Tartelette, ZenChef, & Colloquial Cook

Live Strong with a Taste of Yellow 2009 - Margarita Monday

I decided to join the Live Strong with a Taste of Yellow 2009 very late the night before I was scheduled to leave town. I know I don't technically qualify since my entry is not a dish but rather a way of life that my dear friend, Beth Allison DiPardo, had instituted for us called, "Margarita Mondays".   

Margarita Mondays was our time to spill our guts and talk about all that was on our minds - our hopes/dreams, our futures/past, our stresses in life/work, and best of all - about absolute nonsense over as many margaritas as we could handle [that would be all of ONE for me].  At work we were a team - tweedle dee and tweedle dum.  We tag teamed together to drive our bosses crazy.  We had each other's backs always, without question.  

Beth died from a brain tumor back in 2006 at the very young age of 30, a newlywed with a brand new home and a bright, shining future.  Losing her was one of the most difficult things that I'd had to live through - mostly because of my ignorance and denial that someone with such a strong life force would or could actually die.  Through the wonderful support [and shoulders to sob on through the first year of events/meetings I did without her around] of my boss, co-workers, and friends, I'm finally able to look back at our friendship with smiles, instead of tears [ok, with a lot less tears].  

So in honor of our Margarita Mondays, as simple as it is, here's my submission for Live Strong with a Taste of Yellow 2009...

Margarita Mondays
recipe adapted from a lot of different places

Ginger Simple Syrup:
1 part Water
1 part Sugar
knob of sliced ginger
Bring ingredients to a boil and let cool.



Lemon Ginger Margarita: 
Ice
3 ounces lemon juice
2 ounces ginger simple syrup
1 ounce cointreau
1.5 ounces tequila [or 2...3...4...whatever...do so at your own risk. hangovers, dancing on tables, and the dreaded drunk calls are all on you, babe.] 

Blend that crap together. Add a dash of cayenne pepper for a nice kick!

*I will be the first to admit that I never made the Margaritas for our Margarita Mondays.  My official job was the "drinker" since Beth was our self proclaimed margarita making expert. So during my "batch tests" for this recipe, my ratios were all over the place.  I apologize if this tastes extremely crazy since i think I was completely shnockered by the time I got to this last batch. I also apologize if you were the recipient of any drunk calls I may have made.   

Jenny Stalker Series, Part IV

In Part IV of the Jenny Stalker Series, I chose my next victim with great care and contemplation.  There are so many great food bloggers to stalk out there and so little time to do the job justice. After many nano-seconds of deliberation, I decided to stalk the oh so handsome, Zen Chef.  I chose him because I complained about his recipes being 100 times above my skill levels and his only response was, "come on, it's just a tart...follow my recipe and you'll be fine."  Ha, i thought, I'll show that pompous Frenchman! [Totally kidding about him being pompous.  Dead serious about him being a Frenchman.]

If you've been living under a rock and haven't visited Zen Chef's site, go over and take a look.  He's got some ah-maaahhhzing photos there.  oh yeah - the recipes look good, too.  Maybe if I weren't so cooking challenged, I might be able to make some of them...like the souffle. But we're not here today to talk about his "easy" souffles [pffft].  We're here to focus on his tarts.  Wow. That really didn't come out right.  

Step 1:  READ THE ENTIRE RECIPE.  twice.

Step 2:  Send 3...no 4 emails to him asking him about recipe substitutions, additions, variations, the weather, his life...you know, general stalker stuff.

Step 3:  Get an email from his lawyers asking me to cease and desist.

Step 4:  Feel really bad about lying about step 3...oh, FINE...yes, about step 1, too.

Step 5:  Go to the store to buy my missing ingredients.

Step 6:  Return home.  Incredibly hot out.  Decide to relax and have a beverage to cool off.

Step 7:  Lay out all the ingredients, measure out, cut up, grease up, fire up.

Step 8:  Sit down on my couch from all the prep work I just did and have another beverage.

Step 9:  Send tweet to @ZenChef telling him how much I really dislike his stupid tart.

Step 10: Really get a cease and desist letter from his lawyer.

Step 11: Decide it's time to make the tart crust. 

Step 12: Really puzzled by the instructions to "process until combined." Huh...I wonder what that means...What if i over process it and it turns into a hockey puck?? what if i under process it and can't get it to stick together?? Wait. Chill it for an HOUR?! crap. I should've started this earlier.

Step 13: Time to start on the filling. I realize too late that I really should've read the darn recipe.  Back out to the store to get some things I forgot the first time.  Decide to go ahead and get the cognac instead of using the brandy I had at home.  Never tried Cognac before...

Step 14: OH MY GOSH...Cognac iS inCreDiBly sTroNg...mUst Lie bACk dOwN agAiN.


Step 15: Finish making the almond cream. Easy peasy.  Hey...this stuff is tasty.

Step 16:  Press the crust in my cute little tart tins. Hmmm...this is melting quickly. ummm...shoot.  Throw it in the freezer to get it to firm up quickly. I'm sure this is going to bite me in the @$$...that some baking God is going to smote me for freezing it.  Take it out of the freezer and fill the crust with the almond cream.


Step 17:  Pick through my figs, eating the bad ones...man, there's a lot of bad ones.  Uh oh. Not sure if I have enough left for the filling.  Cook figs per instructions taste testing every few minutes...

Step 18:  Start whisking the custard.  THREE minutes?  Glance over at the clock...it's only been a minute and my arm is already killing me.  Look down at the eggs and sugar.  Hmmm...looks whisked enough.  ONE minute it is.

Step 19:  Look in the oven to see the almond cream had puffed all right - puffed right out of the shell...not sure how I'm going to fit the figs and custard.  *SIGH*

Step 20:  throw on the figs, custards, and almonds...

Step 21:  Wait patiently for 50 minutes during which time I knit, clean, answer emails, write up my Tofu blog, read a few chapters of my book, figure out the answer to world peace and promptly forget that I'm still baking.


Step 22: RUN, I mean RUN, to my kitchen to take the "well done" tarts out of the oven.  Let cool off.

Step 23:  Take a bite.  HOLY CRAP, BATMAN.  Wow.  i mean, WOW.  This shizz is GOOD.

Step 24:  Send a Tweet to @Zenchef saying, "I formally apologize for ever doubting your genius. Tart crust came out fan-freaking-tastic. The whole recipe was awesome." 

 

For the full recipe, please visit Zen Chef's post.  It really is a great recipe! I just got a bit overzealous in filling the tart with the frangipane...and completely forgot about it in the oven.  Yes, I've heard of a timer.  I just forgot to set it.

I've been following/stalking/reading his blog for a couple of years now and this is the first time I've ever attempted any of his recipes.  I have to admit that this won't the last time I will ever stalk him again. [now would be a good time for him to change his email address.] 

* oh yeah...because I'm a big enough person to admit it, even in very fine print, I concede that the frenchman was correct and I was wrong.  If i could've written this in a smaller font, I would have. 

Jenny Stalker Series, Part III - TOFU

Soybeans soaking in water overnight - see how big they get compared to the dry soybeans

Part I in my series was stalking Tartelette's amazing Tarts she made...so I tried her recipe in combination with what I learned in my class.  Part II in my series was stalking La Fuji Mama and Rasa Malaysia with the homemade gyoza wrappers/shrimp filling combo.  Today, in Part III of my stalker series, I'm once again stalking La Fuji Mama [heretofore referred to as "LFM" because I'm lazy - sorry Rachel].

Last week LFM did a post on making your own Tofu.  Yes, you heard me right - she made her own tofu from SCRATCH.  I can't tell a lie, I really don't care for  tofu too much.  Even when I dress it up, I still think...meh...It's all right but I'd much rather have a hamburger.  With cheese. 

LFM makes EVERYTHING look so easy.  I can't figure out if it's because of the way she writes about how easy it is or if it's because of the the photos she posted with step by step instructions.  I highly encourage you to check out her post on it.  I'm not trying to re-invent the wheel here...just merely sharing with you my own efforts at making this morsel of deliciousness.  

LFM being the total sweetheart that she is, sent me a Direct Message on twitter telling me to call her if I ran into any trouble.  She even added, "Seriously, call me" [i assume] because she knows how Japanese people have this tendency to Enryo [restraining speech or actions towards people]. Naturally, during my process I ran into problems where it was supposed to be foaming A LOT and mine never foamed...even a little. Do you think I called her?  Right.  NO.  She was nice enough to follow up with my to see how it was going and I hung my head in shame that mine didn't come out like it was supposed to.

Here's my tofu efforts.  I made both the Kinu "Silk" tofu as well as the firm tofu. I'm only showing the firm tofu since my kinu tofu turned out to be...well...curdled soy milk. Will try again and post later.

Despite her instructions to blend in batches, do you think I did THAT? right again!  Leakage off the sides everywhere. 

So while I never got foam during the cooking process, I got TONS of foam just waiting for my 5 cups of water to boil. 

This is the leftover Okara from straining out the soy milk [which is what you use to make the tofu].  My mom wants me to make okara meshi with it.  I really don't care for it so I'm hoping I'll have enough to make cookies.

The soy milk that was used to make the kinu tofu...

This is the coagulated soy milk, being strained of any excess liquids.  I don't have a tofu form [although now that I know i like the way it tastes, I'm thinking about buying one!] so I just used the collander. 

Just need a little weight to help strain out the last of the liquids from the tofu.

Darn...at this step of running water over the tofu [that white blob in the bowl], I realized that I forgot to use Spring Water as advised for a better tasting product.  I'll have to try that next time for sure!

It didn't look pretty, but I promise you, it tasted GREAT!  Tofu that I buy in stores, even the fresh ones, always tastes like nothing.  This tofu had a wonderful nutty taste and was so soft and delicate.  It soaked up my shoyu quite well and made for a very yummy dinner tonight!

Thanks, La Fuji Mama.  I look forward to more recipe stalking!

Costa Rica

One the most fun trips I've ever taken was to Costa Rica back in 2005.  A couple of co-workers and I were talking about taking off for a weekend just to kick back and relax.  I found a flight to CR for $265 round trip on American Airines, non stop.  We could not possibly pass it up...and thank goodness we didn't.

I'll admit that I had a lot of pre-conceived notions about the country - mostly assuming that I'd be "roughing" it a lot ...with monster sized bugs [see tarantula above].  However, with the exception of the first night where we stayed in Monte Verde in a quaint, clean cabin, the other two nights were spent at a resort (El Tabacon) and Smithsonian Rooms (Arenal Observatory) where our beds faced the Arenal Volcano which we were able to watch the gentle red glow from the lava as we drifted off to sleep.

We decided that we need to have activities to balance out our relaxation. The two activities we agreed upon [we had many, many things we wanted to do...not enough time to do them in] were: ziplining and horseback riding from Monte Verde to Arenal.  The relaxation part of the trip was sitting in the thermal baths at El Tabacon Resort just at the base of the Arenal Volcano. 

Ziplining was the most terrifyingly thrilling experience I had ever been through.  It was disconcerting to walk through the clouds in order to get to the platform from which I would launch myself across a valley of trees who's highest point was so far below that the tops of the trees looked like broccoli heads.  In order to get up the winding stairs, I had to focus on the person in front of me.  Unfortunately, I was face to butt the entire time.  For the first 500 yards of the drop I just screamed my head off...surprisingly I just got tired of screaming and just sailed across in awe of the view around me.  I had never felt so alive before!

I've ridden horses many times before but never to get anywhere.  It was interesting to tramp through the jungle on horseback in order to get to the Volcano.  I don't ever need to do it again. My knees still hurt from that ride...and so does my butt.  This is the one thing I would've changed - white water rafting would've been so much more satisfying! :)

Luckily at the end of that rainbow was the promise of soaking my sore body in the thermal waters at El Tabacon...and to indulge in some inexpensive thai massages! 

The Arenal Observatory's Smithsonian rooms are also not to be missed.  It's amazing to be able to watch the Arenal gently flow and spurt througout the evening.  There were hiking trails as well but due to time constraints we weren't able to hike very far.  The property had beautiful flora/fauna as well as a host of birds and monkeys.

Although it's been many years since my last trip, I still hope for a future trip back to this beautiful country!

Monteverde

Hotel Finca Valverde

*remember that this review is really based off a trip from 2005.  Do your due diligence through research to make sure that this is a place you'd want to stay.

Zipling: Sky Trek

Arenal

El Tabacon Resort

Arenal Observatory Lodge

Desafio Adventure Company:
We used this company to book our transfers to/from the airport as well as our stay in Monteverde; sky trek tour; and horseback ride.