CityMama™

100% pure joy

 

fall. beauties.

It was cold today, but that didn't stop us from taking a pre-dinner walk outside. My plan was to leave the house while it was still light out and be out walking the neighborhood as it turned to dusk.

We are all a little antsy in the late afternoon. Work is wrapping up for the day and yet I sit at my monitor just in case one more email comes in. My to-do list has only three checks on it. The empty boxes are mocking me. I need to get outside.

The girls have gone from games to drawing to playing and are just about to start causing little rows. So we threw on our hodge-podge of it's-cold-but-we-live-in-California attire (jackets, dresses, scarves, shoes with no socks) and prepare to head out. Before we could leave Bunny needed to get her diary. Wallie grabbed her stuffed rabbit.

Walnut, Blue Cheese, and Cranberry Tart [NaBloPoMo Day 19]

As promised, here is a recipe for a savory tart that can be served as a first course along with a simple green salad or with your Thanksgiving meal. I first came across the recipe about 10 years ago in an ad for Diamond walnuts.  As is to be expected, it is heavy on the walnuts.  I like nuts, but I found the tart a little too walnuty for my taste. This time when I make it, I will decrease the amount of nuts.  I am also going to adapt it slightly this year and use caramelized onions instead of regular sauteed onions. I'm going to use 4-6 onions depending on the size and caramelize/reduce those down to one cup.

If you don't like cranberries you can substitute firm pears or figs.

Also, the quality of the tart depends on the kind of blue cheese you use.  My family (especially Bunny and Wallie) are blue cheese freaks so I am going to increase the amount of cheese by about 2 ounces.  One of my issues last time around was that it wasn't cheesy enough. For best results, I highly recommend you use one of the following of my favorite blue cheeses:

• Italian Gorgonzola
• Italian Gorgonzola Dolce which has a creamier, sweeter flavor
• Pt. Reyes blue cheese (eat local California!)
• Australian Roaring 40's (one of my all time faves)
• Irish Cashel blue cheese
• an artisinal blue cheese from Wisconsin like Hook's (eat local Mid-west!)
  

So without further ado, here is the recipe for the tart. Ground walnuts can be found in the baking aisle if you don't want to grind them yourself.

And if tarts aren't your thing, just try not to drool while looking at the photo and recipe of this Blue Cheese Cheesecake. I might have to make both!

Gearing up for Thanksgiving [NaBloPoMo Day 18]

Our Thanksgiving table last year, a hodge-podge of vintage pieces, Anthropologie linens, IKEA plates, and wedding china and crystal, both my mother's handed down to me, and my own.

I'm going to admit it right up front: I've been a NaBloPoMo failure.  It was definitely a lofty goal for me to try to post here every day, but unfortunately, I just can't do it, during November or any other month. My heart it is rebellious, and even though my intentions are good, I just can't post this often. (I'm trying!)  If you blog every day, my hat is off to you.

Having said that, however, I do want to talk about Thanksgiving since it is my favorite culinary holiday. It's the holiday that in the United States and in my house, always features the best of what fall has to offer: fresh poultry, grains, nuts, legumes, potatoes, berries, greens, fruity olive oils, and local wines. I so look forward to this Sunday's Farmer's Market trip. We've been avoiding the farmer's lately in the interest of saving a little money, but you couldn't pry me away from the farmer's market the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

I break my Thanksgiving into three parts: appetizers, main meal, dessert.  (This is last year's menu.) Because my family traditionally eats our Thanksgiving dinner late, at dinner time, the day is spent noshing on an assortment of lovely hors d'oeuvres accompanied by drinks as we take in the Thanksgiving Day Parade and also a parade of football games.  My sister and I cook and fiddle about in the kitchen, cousins play, my brother and J. spend the day on the couch (or making us martinis), my mom is in charge of hors do'oeuvres and making oyster bisque. Our list of Thanksgiving Day pre-dinner nosh doesn't change much and usually includes:

• assorted cheeses and salumi
• chicken liver-truffle paté with plenty of cracked pepper and accompaniments (French cornichons, onions)
• Wallie's favorite smoked salmon and accompaniments (capers, onions)
• clam dip and potato chips
• crudités
• beer/wine
• martinis and old fashioneds

Here are some of my thoughts about Thanksgiving last year in the hopes that it might inspire you to start thinking about your own meal. But we're far from done here. Let's keep talkin'.

Hotlinks for 11/17/08

I swear I have some real posts in me, but until then:

I'm running another warm and cozy Lands' End contest.

I have a new post up at Tonic about my own personal automotive bailout.

Looking for a unique and purty holiday gift? My blog pal Aimee of GreebleMonkey and Savvy Source--Denver is selling her beautiful nature calendar on etsy.

And I want to tell you about a cool new service from Tonic. It's a new website where you can plan your events (like Thanksgiving) and make a difference at the same time. Be the host that gives the most!

How to: Make Homemade Salad Dressing [NaBloPoMo Day 14]

This is an oldie but a goody. Because it's Friday. I'm hoping that because the economy blows, people are going to stop spending money on bottled dressing (which I find outrageously expensive for what it is) and start making their own.

Don't get me wrong, there are some bottled dressings that I adore (Girard's Champagne and Trader Joe's Cilantro for starters) but I'd much rather eat a salad dressed with a vinaigrette of my own creation.

So this weekend I challenge you to grab a jar and make some dressing, then report back and tell me how it went.

How to: Not Make Chicken Nuggets for Dinner [NaBloPoMo Day 13]

As I made homemade panko-crusted chicken for dinner tonight (because let's face it, breaded chicken is delicious), I got to thinking that it's so easy to do "fresh" chicken dishes like nuggets at home there's no excuse for making frozen chicken parts anymore.  This is a subject that I've written about ever since I started writing my now shuttered food blog, Family Food, years ago.

I took my organic chicken pieces (I use boneless, skinless thighs), dipped them in flour, then egg, then coated them in seasoned panko, arranged them on a pan and stuck the pan in my convection oven for about 30 minutes until they were crispy-crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside. These were served alongside steamed rice and snap peas briefly stir-fried in peanut oil with gingr and garlic. Simple and yummy.

So what do you if your child is a chicken lover and you just can't break out of the chicken nugget rut?  Here are some ideas for you:

• Make versatile chicken paillards ("pie-yards") on the grill or off
• Try indian-spiced roasted chicken (this makes the best chicken soup later)
• Make a Mexican Chicken Mole Adobo
• Coq Faux Vin is always a hit in this house (what's not to love about bacony chicken?)
• One of my 6-years-old's most requested meals is chicken curry
• Make chicken chili

I'm sure you all have other ideas for how to serve chicken and keep it versatile so please share! We all benefit!

Hot Links for 11/13/08

I'm giving away a brand-new Motorola MOTOZINE ZN5 camera phone. No longer will you need to carry around a camera and a phone, this phone IS a camera. A 5-mega-pixel auto-focus camera. The phones are only available at T-Mobile, or from me! I'll pick a winner tomorrow so hurry and enter today!

I also reviewed the super-cool Step2 Creative Projects table. If you are looking for a crafty holiday gift for kids, look no further. This table is really impressive.

What a child understands about love and fairness [No on Prop. 8 Now and Forever]

Like so many Californians, my happiness at Barack Obama winning the election was tempered by the passing of Prop. 8 which seeks to amend our state constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman.

For months we had waged a quiet campaign, sporting a bumper sticker on my car and a sign in our yard, both attained at our church. I admit that I just couldn't see how Yes on 8 would pass and I focused my attention on Prop. 4 thinking that that measure was the one that--if ignored--would pass.

Then, when it looked like it was going to be a close call, we stepped up our game. We attended a rally on election day hoping to keep the issue fresh in voters' minds.  Wallie even came with me (Bunny joined us later) dolled up in appropriate attire:

With appropriate accessories:

I have always been hesitant about bringing small kids to events like this, and hadn't until this point. I have attended rallies and marches but never with my kids because I felt they were too young to understand the purpose and didn't want to appear to be politicizing them.

But things changed.

How to: Improvise when you don't have a Crock-Pot [NaBloPoMo Day 12]

Throughout my cooking life, I have had a love/hate relationship with slow cookers. Even with the help of two slow cooker cookbooks, I have never been bowled over by anything that comes out of a slow cooker. It seems to me that they are best used for keeping soups, stews, and chilis hot on a buffet.

I think my biggest problem with Crock-Pots (and I use that term to mean all plug-in slow cookers) is that when cooking meats, to get the best results, you have to brown it in a separate pan first then transfer it to the Crock-Pot and add the remaining ingredients. Those looking for a mess-free short cut to cooking (me) now have to deal with a crusted pan and a splattered stove, and that totally defeats the purpose for me.

Two recipes that I do think work really well in a slow cooker are chicken breasts that are cooked with a little water and then shredded to use in tacos or enchiladas (they do stay moist this way), and chile verde also made with chicken.

I have owned slow-cookers and always ended up giving them away. Here's what I do instead.