Rancho La Puerta

Oh my.  Where in the heck have I been?  Yikes.  Well, I’m back.  Again.

Waaaay back at the end of June, I was graciously invited along with a group of San Diego food/gardening enthusiasts to visit Rancho La Puerta in Tetate, Mexico.  It was a true getaway, the kind of one-day trip that feels like a full vacation.  The lovely folks at Rancho La Puerta were promoting their new Saturdays at the Ranch program, where San Diegans can be whisked away for a one day mini-ranch experience.

We were picked up in Old Town and driven to the Tecate border – the ranch itself is very close to the border, but once within its gates I felt like I was in another world.  Lush native landscaping, beautiful architecture and sensual sculptures dot the property (3,000 acres if you’re counting), and each winding path leads to something special.  I had a spa treatment (first things first!), then took a cool shower and set out to explore the property.  If you stroll in almost any direction you’ll hit one of the spa’s numerous pools or gyms, all dotted with extraordinary sculptures – just a beautiful landscape:

After searching for a while to try to find the running track, I realized that I was standing right in it – an oval-shaped vineyard!  I took a few laps, then went straight back to relax-mode.

After I searched for a hide-out spot where I could stow away (Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler-style), I met up with the rest of the group for a trip to La Cocina Que Canta, the cooking school and organic garden.

The school is located off the main grounds (there went my whole stow-away plan – foiled again), about a 5-minute drive away.  We explored the gardens with Chef Michel Stroot and I geeked out in my head, naming all the vegetables by their foliage.  After collecting some of our dinner ingredients, we headed back into the kitchen to prepare and enjoy a lovely meal.  Before long, our day had come to an end, and we climbed back in the bus to America.  Sigh.

Chris came to pick me up at the Old Town Transit Stop, and as I jumped to see him and rush back into project mode, I was left with one hope – that I’d take some of this bliss back with me, that I could return to this magical feeling often.  I still think of this statue on the ranch grounds when I’m having a particularly stressful day – brings me right back.

Such a fun getaway – big thanks to my generous hosts for this fabulous day!

Bounty

The first big harvest at our new house (how long can I keep saying that it’s our new house?  A year?  Good, I’ve still got time) happened the other day.  We’ve of course been picking here and there all along – I’ll grab a handful of cherry tomatoes on my way to work, or gather a bunch of beans and brussels for a quick greens fix in the evenings.  There’s something about a big batch harvesting that feels different – when I end up with the cream of the crop, I’m inspired to cook in a different way.  I am lead by the source, not by my stomach.

Yikes – somebody needs to paint the porch.  Moving on…

Y’all have already seen where the first potato harvest ended up, but one cannot live on potato salad alone, no matter how delicious.  On the second full day of ‘Tater Fest, where we’d eaten potato salad for lunch and dinner (ahem, and sometimes breakfast), I wanted to come up with something new to accompany it.  I am starting the process of pulling out the brussels sprout plants, so had a bunch of baby brussels that never quite grew past the size of a quarter.  I also pulled some assorted sweet and hot peppers, so the two seemed like the perfect pair.  I was a little tired of roasted brussels (recipe: toss in olive oil and salt, roast at 425° until delicious), so wanted to try something new with them.  Here’s my solution:

Summer Harvest Veggie Melange

1 Tbsp olive oil + 1 Tbsp butter
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 serrano chile, seeded and minced
2 cups small brussels sprouts, whole – if you only have bigger ones, cut them in half or quarters
1/2 lemon
3 sweet peppers, julienned
3 cups chard, stems removed and leaves cut into bite-sized pieces
Leftover BBQ chicken, optional – would also be great with a fried egg on top!

Boil the brussels sprouts in a pot of salted water until slightly softened, about 5-7 minutes.  Drain completely.  In a large skillet, heat the butter and olive oil over med-high heat until the butter starts to brown.  Add the garlic, then the brussels sprouts.  Try not to stir them around so that they get some nice browning action.  A couple of times during cooking, squirt the sprouts with lemon juice.  When you see that the brussels have browned on the bottom, add peppers and saute until the peppers have softened.  Add chard and let cook until softened.  Remove from heat and toss with chicken.

Add salt and pepper and lemon juice to taste and serve immediately.

The chicken was a last-minute addition, so I had to run back and grab the camera again – dinner is quite  the production in our house sometimes!  This turned out to be the best meal I’ve had in a long time – I was so thankful for the harvest.

Tater Hater

The most exciting crop I planted this year is potatoes – it certainly doesn’t sound sexy or fascinating, but the taters have surprised me!  Because they are hidden throughout their growth process, I had some serious doubts that anything at all was happening.  Sure, plants began to sprout out of the baby reds that I dropped in the ground, and eventually they flowered and died off.  I still had no expectations of finding what I did.  As I dug under and around each beautiful stalk, ruby red jewels popped up – the perfect potatoes straight out of the ground.  I actually yelped the first time I found one, and called for Chris to grab the camera (like they were going to run away).  I actually grew some potatoes!

I ran back to the bed and dug up some more, and ended up with a big bowl of dirty, beautiful potatoes – now what to do?  I wanted to be able to taste the potatoes in all their homegrown glory, but wasn’t in the mood for a purely plain potato dish.  Since it’s been so warm here, it seemed like potato salad would be a good choice.  The problem with that choice?  Neither of us really like potato salad.  The traditional salad with heavy mayo and overcooked spuds is pretty unappetizing to me, so I had to do something different.  I also had an extra batch of garden green beans, just itching to be used, so this delicious tater salad alternative was the perfect solution.  From one of the Moosewood cookbooks:

Potato Bean Salad with Curried Mango Yogurt Dressing

3 C cubed potatoes
¼ red onion, thinly sliced (about ½ C)
3 C cut green beans (2” pieces)
2 C cooked chickpeas (16 oz. can, drained)
dressing ingredients:
1 C plain yogurt
3 tbsp. prepared mango chutney
1 ½ tsp. curry powder
2 tsp. finely minced red onion
1 tbsp. fresh lime juice

In a saucepan, bring potatoes and enough cool salted water to cover to a boil on high heat. Lower heat and simmer 15 minutes, adding green beans for last 7 minutes of cooking time so they are al dente together. Drain, place in a large bowl and immediately stir in sliced red onions. Stir in drained chickpeas and set aside to cool. Combine all dressing ingredients, and when veggies are cool, stir in dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste, and either serve immediately or store, covered, in the refrigerator.  My recommendation is to let the flavors combine and relax in the fridge overnight – this salad is better the second day.

Chris is even more of a tater hater than I am when it comes to potato salads, and he gave this one rave reviews, so it must be good, right?

Best enjoyed on a front porch, overlooking the source.  More to come on the greens dish later – possibly even better than the taters!

Phil’s Phavorites

I turned 30 this year – that’s right, the Dirty Thirty is upon us.  I’ve never been too concerned with age, with birthdays, so this wasn’t a tough one for me.  It helped that my husband whisked me away to Catalina to celebrate – ahh…

I have such fond memories of summer days spent in Catalina with my grandparents, who would take us away for the week in their boat.  We’d gorge ourselves on salt water taffy, dive off the boat with Grandpa, and explore the island by golf cart.  Total paradise.  I was a little concerned that going back as an adult would ruin all of my idyllic images of this place, but luckily it has held up over time.  We spent three days there, kayaking and camping down the coast (hence the dry bag stuffed full of clothes and the lack of pictures since I had to leave my camera at home).  It was heavenly – crystal clear waters, seals leaping in front of our kayaks, spending the night on our own private beach – our very own Blue Lagoon.

Of course, I packed provisions, and Phil’s Phavorite cookies were at the top of the list.  I started tinkering with this recipe years ago, and knew I had a winner when I gave some to Phil to try.  A good friend (now in Boston with his fabulous girlfriend), Phil is one of those rare critics who will tell you the truth about your dishes, and he raved about these.  I’ve made some changes to them since he’s last tried them, so we’ll have to have a re-taste to see how I’ve done.

They may not have photographed well, but believe  me – they taste way better than they look.

Chris and I paddled up to our island paradise and started to set up camp.  We were rushing through so we could fill our empty bellies with these cookies.  Unfortunately for us, the seagulls had the same idea.  We turned our backs for just a few minutes, and the cookies and the plastic bags they came in were strewn all over the beach.  It’s no wonder I hate birds.

We’d had a little early taste test the night before, so I’m confident in saying that this was the best-yet incarnation of Phil’s Phavorites.  Something about those yogurt-covered pretzel pieces.

Got your attention now, right?  Would you believe they’re (relatively) healthy?

Phil’s Phavorite Cookies

2 medium sized bananas
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup molasses
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 tsp salt
3 cups oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped raw almonds (or any other nut or seed you happen to have on hand)
1/4 cup chopped yogurt covered pretzels (the salt is delicious on these, so even plain pretzels would be great – this is a good recipe to get rid of those pantry odds-and-ends)

Mix bananas, molasses, honey, corn starch, applesauce, water, and vanilla. Stir in remaining ingredients, leaving the add-ins until the end.  Form dough into balls and bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned and cookie holds together.  I make about 30 cookies with this recipe, but you can play with the sizes to make as many as you want.  Or you can make one big cookie.  And send it to me.

Puttering

I have to resist the urge to be always puttering in the garden.  There’s so much space left to dig up and plant, so many suckers to pinch and worms to squish!  The pictures in the post below are of our first two veggie beds in the new house.  They’re both packed full – brussels sprouts, peppers, tomatoes, squash and melons in the first bed, and tomatillos, beans, cucumbers and potatoes in the second.  Everything’s growing bigger and faster now that we’re farther from the beach, but we’re also getting new pests – I just about died when a huge grasshopper jumped out at me from the brussels (this is its baby brother I caught a pic of later on).  I’m working on training Norman to hunt them down for me.

Yikes.  Never thought I’d miss hornworms, but here we are.  Something about the hopping really freaks me out.  Sadly, Norm doesn’t seem to care at all, so it looks like I’ll be resorting to shrieking and running away when I see them.

Much of the garden is still in its incubation stages, but the brussels sprouts are finally at their harvest size.  I just love the way these look on the stalk, so it was tough to pop them off one by one.  Knowing how delicious they’d be, I made it happen.

We had a delicious summer meal of veggies and grilled chicken, topped off by these beauties, roasted until they were perfectly caramelized and sweet.  From the looks of it, we’ve got enough for about 10 more meals like this – should be a delicious summer!

Things Are Happening

Words.  Coming soon to a blog near you.

Easter

We had our first family Easter this year at the new house. It’s not destined to become a tradition right away, because I still love going to my mom’s house for Easter. We play croquet, have good wine and company, and feast until we go into food comas.
I had to replicate some of what I loved about my family Easters, so I started by hiding plastic eggs with scratcher lottery tickets inside all around the yard, just like our friend Joe used to do.  And it just wouldn’t be Easter without bunny bread!

On the fine china, no less!

The rest of the day was mostly new stuff I’d never made before – sparkling white wine sangria, honey baked ham, delish chocolate cake with Vietnamese coffee ice cream and a lovely vegetarian frittata, adapted from Gourmet.  Well, they call it a frittata, but the ones I know are always started on the stovetop, so I don’t know if this counts.  Maybe it’s an egg casserole.  No, that doesn’t sound as nice.  Frittata it is!

Baked Asparagus and Yellow Pepper Frittata

2 lbs asparagus
2 yellow bell peppers
3 shallots
1 clove garlic
2 medium summer squash
3 green onions
1 Tbsp butter
14 large eggs
1/2 cup milk (or cream if you dare)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Trim asparagus and diagonally cut into 1/4-inch-wide slices.  Cut bell peppers into 1/4-inch-wide strips and mince shallots and garlic.  Halve squash lengthwise and diagonally cut both zucchini and green onions into thin slices.

Have ready a bowl of ice and cold water. In a large saucepan of boiling salted water blanch asparagus 1 minute and drain in a colander. Immediately transfer asparagus to ice water to stop cooking. Drain asparagus well in colander and pat dry.

In a large skillet cook bell peppers, shallots and garlic in butter over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until peppers are softened, about 7 minutes. In a large bowl whisk together eggs, milk, parsley, salt, and pepper. Stir in asparagus, bell pepper mixture, zucchini, and green onions.  Pour mixture into baking dish and bake at 350° until golden and set, about 40 minutes. Cool frittata on a rack if you want to have it at room temperature, or just start serving!

It made for a really pretty presentation, and was really tasty to boot.  I think it was a hit.  Tough to fit so many people into our tiny dining space, but we somehow made it work and had a great time.  Cheers!

You Can Stuff It

I am always proud of myself when I’m able to come up with a recipe on my own, using whatever I have in the fridge.  It doesn’t have to be fancy or pretty looking, but this one turned out to be both.

First, I boiled some noodles and made a “kitchen sink pasta sauce” with all of the veggies I had in the fridge – this one can be adjusted to accommodate all your remnants:

olive oil
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 leek, white and light green parts diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
splash of red or white wine
1/2 fennel bulb, diced (fronds saved for garnish)
1 small turnip, diced
beet stems, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 (15oz) cans diced tomatoes
1-2 Tbsp tomato paste
s&p to taste

Saute the onion, leek and garlic in olive oil until softened.  Add a swig of wine from your glass, then add the vegetables in order of firmness (if you’re using any greens they should be added last).  Cook until the vegetables are slightly softened, then add the tomatoes and paste.  Cover and cook until everything is soft.  Depending on your preference, you can blend some of the sauce or just leave it all chunky – I use an immersion blender to make it a little more creamy.  This is a great sauce to make when you need to use up all your fresh produce – it also freezes really well.

Next up, stuffed chicken breasts!  Usually these are done by putting stuffing between the skin and meat, but all I had were skinless, so improvised.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts a la Carrie

olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bunch spinach, washed and stems removed (should’ve thrown them in the sauce!), cut into bite sized pieces

~1 cup ricotta cheese
handful shredded mozzerella cheese
1 egg

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of any fat and seasoned with salt and pepper

kitchen string

Preheat the oven to 425°.  Saute the garlic in olive oil until golden, then add the spinach and cook until wilted.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Mix together the cheeses with the egg, then add the spinach to combine.  Cut the chicken breasts in half lengthwise, and stuff each breast with your spinach and cheese mixture.

Tie the chicken in two places using kitchen string.  Heat a heavy ovenproof skillet over medium heat, then add a little olive oil.  Cook the chicken breasts until browned, about 2 minutes on each side.

Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes.  Cut off the twine and serve in a fancy-pants presentation so it looks like you meant to do it, and weren’t just cleaning out the fridge.

Donut Fries

Yeah, this was exactly what I needed to see this morning – I was already craving sweets, and now Donut Fries have been brought into my consciousness.   Thank god I can’t get them here.  Oatmeal it is!

Seriously, though – how good do those look?  I’m trying to stay sane with my food choices, but between this and finally having the zombie recipe for my very own, I’m having a tough time.  Sigh.

Dreaming of Zombies

I have a bit of an obsession with filled dumplings – I blame the delicious cheese zombies of my youth.  In the middle schools and high schools of the Bay Area, kids are raised on hot, buttery rolls filled with melted Velveeta – my mouth waters just thinking about them.  Next time I’m home I’ll have to bribe my mom to whip some up.  Mmm, zombies.  Must. Eat. Brains.  Or. Cheese. Filled. Bread.

The healthier substitution to fulfill my zombie cravings are bierocks (recipe adapted from Cooking Light).  They are meat-filled dumplings filled with peppery cabbage and turkey – easy (and very affordable) to make, they freeze perfectly and are a great comfort food.  I always make a big batch so we’ll have lots of easy, grab-on-the-way-out-the-door lunches in the freezer.

Bierocks (makes 24 dumplings)

For the dough:

1/2 cup sugar
4 1/2 tsp yeast (2 envelopes)
1 cup warm water
1 cup milk (I only had soymilk this time and it worked great)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs, lightly beaten
~7 1/2 cups flour (white whole wheat if you’ve got it)

For the filling:

1 small onion, diced (1/2 cup)
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 small head of green cabbage, finely shredded (about 4c)
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt

First, prepare the dough – dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water and let stand until it starts to bubble a little.  Add the milk, oil, salt and eggs and mix well.  Add 6 1/2 cups flour and stir it in until a dough forms.  It will be a little sticky, but turn it out onto your floured surface and knead it until it’s smooth and elastic.  Add more flour by the Tbsp as necessary – I usually get to around 7 cups to make a nice moist dough, not sticky but not dry.  Place the dough in a large bowl and cover.  Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

While you’re waiting for that, cook the turkey and onion in a large nonstick pan until the turkey is browned.  Add the cabbage and cook until it’s wilted, about 8 minutes.  Add the salt and pepper and remove from heat.  Chill this mixture until you’re ready to assemble the dumplings.

Your dough will make about 24 dumplings, so start by dividing the dough in quarters.  Cut each quarter into 6 equal pieces, then roll each piece out to a circle about 5-inches in diameter.  Add about 1/4 cup of your turkey filling to the center of each dumpling, then pinch the circle together.   If you end up with extra dough, just form it into rolls and bake them off for dinner.

Place your bierocks (seam side down) on ungreased baking sheets about 2″ apart, cover and let rise 20 minutes in a warm place (now would be a good time to preheat the oven to 375°).

Bake for 14 minutes, or until golden brown and screaming at you to dig right in.

YUM!  Didn’t think I was going to make it to the end of this post without grabbing one of these out of the fridge and nuking it for breakfast – oh well.  They’re great – the pepper gives them a little bite to balance out the sweet dough, and if I can keep my hands off of them, we’ll have lunches for weeks to come.

Inside pic courtesy of Cooking Light (my dough was softer than this – I adapted their recipe to have less flour, so you can choose which pic is most appealing!):