Cuatro de Mayo

Our cellar master made lunch today at the winery to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. “Happy Cuatro de Mayo,” we teased him.

Potato tacos are the ultimate Mexican comfort food. Lightly spiced mashed potatoes spooned into homemade corn tortillas, closed with toothpicks, and deep fried to a golden crisp. Add homemade salsa, shredded cabbage, queso cotija, and a squeeze of lime. The initial crunch of the taco gives way to the warm, softness of the potato within. It’s just one more way to make mashed potatoes even better.

I lost count of how many I ate. But what the hell… Cuatro de Mayo only comes once a year.

 

5 Things About Me

WOWZERS! My first ever MEME! This is so EXCITING!! Mrs. B over at Eating Suburbia tagged me, and I have to say I was tickled pink to be tagged!

What’s more exciting, is this meme is forcing me out of my Jennatarianism reclusiveness… I’m actually posting on this defunct blog. And perhaps I can keep on keepin on and post more often? Time will tell.

Considering I hardly ever post here, I’m sure there is plenty you don’t know about me. And I’m just going to assume that you don’t read my other blog, as I reveal much more about myself over there than I do here. Anywho… Here’s 5 things that I can think of that you may not know about me:

1. I’m an “Ashtangini.” I wake up at 5:30 a.m. every morning except for moondays, Saturdays, and “Ladies Holidays” to practice Ashtanga Yoga. Currently, my practice is about 100 minutes in length, and just keeps getting longer. I also teach three Ashtanga yoga classes per week here in San Luis Obispo. I began practicing yoga about 7 years ago after two car accidents limited my train-running and weight-lifting. You can see pictures of me bending myself into strange shapes here on my flickr page.

2. I love to arm wrestle. Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment as I’m actually not that strong and I only win about 40% of the time if that, but seriously, I love it. Arm wrestling is fun. This is how I try to settle most of my arguments. Words are overrated. :)

3. I have big feet. Mostly due to my very long toes. I’m overly obsessed about my size 10 feet… Whereas most women ask their husbands whether or not their butt looks big in a pair of jeans, I’m more likely to ask mine, “Do my feet look big in these shoes?” Now, I’m not saying that size 10 is an overly large shoe size, but it is pretty big for someone who’s just barely 5’3″.

4. I was very nearly born in my dad’s Midnight Blue Porsche 911 on Highway 17 during rush hour traffic. This is why I feel that Porsche should give me a car. Unfortunately, we don’t see eye to eye on this matter.

5. I took piano lessons for 9 years (began when I was 5, stopped when I was 14). I still play from time to time, but I’m not a “musician.” I know I’m not a musician because one night a few years ago after a few martinis, I decided to play a tune on the baby grand piano in a jazz bar here in San Luis Obispo.  After the first few bars of a “The Heart Asks Pleasure First” by Michael Nyman (from the soundtrack of The Piano, which is the only song besides “Heart and Soul” that I can play in its entirety from memory) I was asked to leave the bar since the piano was “for musicians only.”

Now comes the part when I have to tag people. This wouldn’t be so hard since I subscribe to close to a hundred different food blogger feeds, but this meme’s been going around for a while and I’m not sure who’s left!

If I’m tagging you, and you’ve already been tagged, feel free to ignore me. Sorry for your troubles.

Since this meme has been all over the food blogosphere for so long, let’s see if we can switch it up to include the yoga/ashtanga blogosphere as well….

Yogamum over at YogaGumbo

Brendan at Something in Season

Jenn at Life Begins at 30 

Andrea at but i was alive

Fortune at bread coffee chocolate yoga 

 

Almond Crusted Mac n Cheese

IMG_2284

Originally uploaded by jennasuz.

It was good. It was very good.

The best part was the almond crust. No, the creamy gruyere. No, it was definitely the crust.

And with a leap of faith, I left my husband with the baking instructions. And I was pleasantly surprised with his results. Nice job, hon.

Here I thought I wasn’t a fan of Mac ‘n Cheese. Now if only I didn’t have to restock my lactaid pills after each and every meeting with this creamy dream of a dish.

Almond Crusted Mac ‘n Cheese

• 8 oz. Elbow Macaroni (2 cups)
• 1 large shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 1/2 packed cups grated Gruyere cheese
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/8 tsp grated nutmeg

Almond crust:

• 1/2 cup whole almonds
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup fine dry breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter 11×7 inch baking dish. Cook macaroni in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain well.

Melt butter in a small skillet over medium high heat. Sautee shallots until soft and lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Set aside.

Blend 1/3 cup Parmesan, almonds and breadcrumbs in processor until nuts are coarsely ground. Add 1/2 cup almond mixture to prepared dish. Tilt dish to coat bottom and sides. Return any loose almond mixture to processor.

In a large bowl, whisk 1/2 cup Gruyere, whipping cream, milk, sauteed shallots, and nutmeg. Add macaroni and toss to coat. Check for seasoning. Transfer macaroni to prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining one cup Gruyere over the top, then finish with the last of the almond crust.

Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes until cheese melts, crust browns, and macaroni and cheese sets. Serve warm.

Tag: mac-n-cheese-off
mac-n-cheese-off

 

Rutiz Farms Harvest Box

My CSA subscription with Huasna Valley Farms ended last month, and the Skinner family has elected to take the next year “off” in order to finish projects they’d hoped to complete years ago, hone in on their agricultural specialties, and come back in 2008 as a new-and-improved CSA program.

I was fine with all of this. We are, after all, moving 30 miles away from the nearest drop-site in the upcoming year, and in the past, I’d been quite adept at getting out of the house early enough to hit up the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market. Lately, however…. things have changed. I’m not sure when my last visit to the Farmer’s Market was, and I’m really starting to miss my weekly box of veggies.
Enter Rutiz Family Farms.  For $10 a week, one can pick up their harvest box on Friday afternoons. The best part? Very little commitment. They’ll send you an email on Wednesday with this week’s offerings. You decide if you want a box, and if you do, you simply email them back by Thursday evening. Friday, you stop by, pick up your box, and drop off your $10. In the spring and summer, you can even choose from the lists which veggies/fruits you do or do not want.

Today, I’m picking up my first box.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

This week’s offerings:

• Snap peas
• Broccoli
• Avocado
• Red Leaf Lettuce
• Butter Leaf Lettuce
• Yukon Gold Potatoes
• Radishes
• Purple scallions
• Fennel Bulb
• Liptick Sweet Red Pepper–last of the season

 

Giant Squash

First off, I just have to say…

Cookbooks that call for a number of vegetables rather than a quantity of vegetables are just infuriating. Especially when it comes to winter squashes. One Butternut Squash is not quite specific enough, thankyouverymuch.

 

Jalapeno AHA!

Duh.

I feel like such a complete and total idiot.

I’ve been cooking with Jalapeno peppers all summer, since I’ve been blessed with peppers in the CSA share as well as peppers from my garden. Every time I grab a pepper, I mentally berate myself for forgetting to buy latex gloves *again* before getting on with it and burning my skin for the umpteenth time.
And all this time, I’ve had plastic baggies sitting just a drawer away from my cutting board.

 

Talley’s Single Vineyard Pinot Noirs

Just released, September 1st:

• 2004 Rincon Vineyard Pinot Noir
• 2004 Rosemary’s Vineyard Pinot Noir
• 2004 Stone Corral Vineyard Pinot Noir

Estimated sell-out: Very Soon (especially on the Stone Corral… only 81 cases bottled!)
The buzz begins! 

 

Holy Hot Chocolate!

Okay, so I’ve loved Dagoba since I discovered it about a year ago.

But now I just saw a picture of the founder, Frederick Schilling, on David Lebovitz’s recent blog entry.

Holy Hot Chocolate, he is gorgeous!  Just one more reason to orgasm over every rich, spicy bite of my personal fave, the Xocolatl.

 

France or Italy?

This weekend, a tour of the Bay Area.

Tonight I stay with my parents in Santa Cruz.

Tomorrow, a bridal shower in Marin.

Tomorrow evening, a night on the town with the girls in SF.

Sunday morning, ashtanga practice in Berkeley.

Sunday late morning/early afternoon, a World Cup game back in the city.

Now comes the shameful part. I haven’t watched any of the World Cup. None of it.  So who should I root for?

My Italian genes say “Italia!”

But I have a little French ancestry as well.

I could be swayed either way. So if you have a strong opinion on the matter, and want one more voice in the crowd cheering on your team, convince me and I’ll shout along with you.

 

July=busy

Busy as in Crazy Busy. Busy as in Holy Crap Is It August Yet? Those long, lazy days of summer are on hold for now.

I briefly visited the SLO farmer’s market on Saturday with my husband’s friend’s girlfriend, Princess Linzee, who prefers to go by Princess. It was a lovely morning, and at the time, I forgot to take the time to reflect upon the fact that this would be my last visit to this market in over a month. No, I was too busy running around tasting berries, popping juicy yellow plums in my mouth, and sticking Princess’s nose in the coconut orchid. “Smell it! Smell it! It’s amazing!” I like to think she shared my enthusiasm… either that or she thinks I’m nuts. But then again, she’s the one who introduces herself as a Princess.

So just a few items at the Market this week…

• giant, beautiful, ripe, juicy blueberries
• sweet boysenberries
• yellow plums just small enough to pop in your mouth

Since July is so busy, and since the summer’s bounty is overflowing in my CSA box each week, the need for supplemental veggies is minimal. I’ve got enough squash in my fridge right now to…. to…. well, there’s just a lot of squash. So tonight, I’ll be shredding some up with an egg or two, a diced onion, fresh basil, and panko crumbs for some zucchini fritters.

Yesterday I made the Ultimate Tuna Salad sandwich. What made it so special? A can of Dave’s Smoked Albacore. Add to that about 3 Tbsp of Vegannaise, half a cucumber, diced, two scallions, diced, and two garden carrots, diced. Salt, Pepper, serve on freshly baked sliced whole wheat bread with baby greens. Mmmmmhmmm. Yum.

And last night I tried a new pasta salad recipe adapted from Cooking Light… The roasted peppers added a little smokiness, and the sweetness of the roasted corn was a nice contrast to the cumin-lime dressing. Overall, not my favorite pasta salad dish (I’ll post that one later), but still very good.

Penne with Roasted Poblano and Corn 

• 2 Poblano peppers
• 1 Red Bell pepper
• 2 ears corn, shucked
• 2 Tbsp lime juice
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• 4 cups cooked Penne (about 8 oz dry)
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 cups grape tomato, sliced in half
• 1 avocado, peeled and diced
• 6 oz goat cheese (or queso fresco, if you prefer), crumbled

Preheat the broiler. Cut the peppers in half, discarding the seeds and the little veiny things (what are those called, anyways?). Place the peppers on a foil lined pan, pressing down on each to flatten. Place the ears of corn on the sheet, and put the pan in the oven. Broil for 18 minutes or until peppers are blackened and corn is browned, turning corn occasionally.

Seal peppers in a ziploc bag for 10 minutes, allowing them to steam a bit. Remove peppers from the bag, peel them, and chop coarsely. Once corn is cool enough to handle, cut the ears from the cob.

In a large bowl, combine the lime juice, oil, salt, cumin, and pepper, whisk briskly with a fork. Add the peppers, corn, pasta, avocado, tomato, and cilantro, toss to coat. Crumble the cheese over the top.  Serves 4-6.