Old friend

The inspiration for Sunday's cooking spree was this dish. Yes, I made this as well as the dishes from my two previous posts on Sunday. I figure that I should take advantage of those times during which I actually feel energetic.

See, what happened is that after resting quite a bit over the weekend -- thank you, pinched nerve in my shoulder that made only being in a prone position comfortable -- I awoke on Sunday only to realize that I didn't really have any food options available. I had some red lentils. And I had some lamb stew meat. So I decided to shop based off of these two ingredients. The beef dish was an afterthought. Because not only did I not have a lot of options available, but I also had a lot of empty freezer space begging to be filled.

So the lamb meat ended up in this Braised Lamb with Apricots and Herb Dumplings. And this dish I watched carefully as opposed to the beef dish. (I'm getting used to this new-fangled thing called a timer on the stove.) Because when I have made this in the past, there is a point at which it becomes dried out and starts sticking to the pan. But this time I set the timer every 30 minutes so that I could make sure that everything was well hydrated. And I guess they're right. Third time is the charm.

Oh, and on a final note. There are pearl onions in the dish. About a year ago I was talking to my "real mom" about a recipe that she and her granddaughter had made. She complained about how hard it was to peel the pearl onions. The trick is to blanch them first.

And don't forget. There's still time to enter the contest.

Mixing it up

I have known for quite some time that my eating habits lately have been really crappy. I thought back to the time when I was actually happy with my body. I realized that I only ate meat at the most once a day. And that would be at lunch time. Over the last week, I have existed mainly on salads -- for both lunch and dinner. I love salad but it was getting boring. Thankfully the weather has become fall-like around here finally. So out came my new crockpot. I bought it right before I moved but it has been too warm to use it.

Vegetable and lentil soup. Tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, yellow bell pepper, carrots, red lentils and vegetable broth. Cooked for four hours. I'm calling it dinner for the week.

And don't forget. There's still time to enter the contest.

The danger of stepping away

Today's dish was a beef tangine with sweet potatoes. At the end, you are supposed to brown the potatoes and since it wasn't happening fast enough by baking, I turned on the broiler. And then stepped away for a moment. Too long. I'm telling myself that the black spots add character and flavor. Kind of like when you grill a hot link.

And for those of you wondering what it all is, here goes. The beef was browned with turmeric. Then I added diced onion, seeded diced serranos, cumin, paprika, and a dash of cayenne pepper. Then I added water, covered it and let it all simmer away in the oven for about an hour and a half. Next I added chopped cilantro and parsley and placed the blanched yam slices on top. (Yeah, I know I said in the previous paragraph that they were sweet potatoes but that's because that was the name of the recipe. I always use yams when sweet potatoes are called for because yams are less stringy.) Dot with butter. Then it was covered and went back into the oven for another ten minutes. Finally I uncovered it all so that the yams could brown. Ummmm. Yeah. So it went a little beyond brown. But it definitely was tasty. The yams help to cut some of the spiciness of the meat.

And I would like to thank my new kitchen tool -- a mandoline -- for making this all possible. There is no way possible that I would have been able to slice the potatoes by hand like this. I am also now wondering how I have managed to survive for so long without a mandoline.

And just a reminder. You still have time to enter for one of the lovely items, I'm giving away.

You're a winner

In my travels over the last weekend, I picked up a number of items. I am now offering you a chance to win these items. It's really simple. Indicate in the comments which items you would like to have a chance of winning. At the close of the contest, I will select the winner(s) by random drawing.


1. The first item is a book about the Sardine Factory. It's mostly about the history of the restaurant but it also contains some recipes.


2. A baseball cap from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.


3. A blank book from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.


4. An octopus keychain also from the Aquarium.


5. And the final item from the Aquarium -- this lovely stuffed penguin. Sorry but I'm a sucker for penguins.Oh, and if you want the cat, I'm willing to throw him in as well.


6. A set of cards and a couple of bookmarks from Point Lobos State Reserve.

And finally if you like all of them, simply state "all of the above" in your comment and you will be entered into each of the drawings. Otherwise just indicate the numbers in which you are interested.

Entries for the contest will close in one week on October 18, 2009 at 12:00 noon.

They're not all saints

I remember in my third year of Spanish in high school, one day the teacher called out names of cities in California and asked us to translate the names to English. We thought the ones that started with "San" and "Santa" would be easy. Then he asked us for the translation of "Santa Cruz." Hmmmm. "Saint Cross" just didn't seem right. Then an idea formed in my head and I sheepishly asked, "Holy Cross?" Turns out I was right.

This is what I thought of as I drove along 1 from Marina to Santa Cruz this past Sunday. I hadn't been in Santa Cruz since early childhood and was going there to meet a friend of too many years for lunch. She had emailed me links to several restaurants and after reviewing the links, I settled on Hoffman's Bakery.

There were so many good things on the menu, that we decided that we would each order something different and then split the plates upon arrival.


While we waited for our food, we were given some cranberry scones. They were just right -- not the hard-as-brick things you so often find in bakeries and coffee shops around here.


I ordered the crab melt. It was sooo good. I believe the artichoke was mixed into the crab salad as I couldn't see signs of it anywhere else.


And my friend ordered the eggs Benedict with crab and avocado. I figure you can never go wrong with crab and avocado -- two of my absolute favorite foods -- and they didn't.

We were both full and pleased by the end of the meal. If I find myself in Santa Cruz in the future, Hoffman's would definitely be a stop.

In the shadow of the nuclear power plant

Most Saturdays, Fluffycat heads over to her guy C's place. Now my dad had also suggested that I head up to Moss Landing during my extended weekend. As it turns out, this is only about a half hour from C's. And so a plan formed -- dinner on Saturday at the Whole Enchilada in Moss Landing!


Somehow during my trip, I had managed to not have a single serving of artichoke. For those unfamiliar with the area, they grow a lot of artichokes around here. So the Fried Artichokes seemed like the best way to start off our meal. Oh, and they had hibiscus margaritas. Yum!


Fluffycat decided to give their special chile relleno a try. It's stuffed with cheese, crabmeat and shrimp. And was huge. Near the end, Fluffycat was merely eating the seafood.


I went with the seafood enchiladas -- one crab, the other shrimp. Just like Fluffycat, I decided to concentrate on the seafood although the beans and rice were tasty as well.

Overall, a nice experience -- especially since I finally got to meet C who is quite nice. But he's still not allowed to give opinions on things on FB. ;-) Next time, I'm going to try the Crepes Sofia though.

Battling fear

You would have thought that a visit to Carmel River State Beach would have been enough for me on Saturday. It wasn't. I hopped back into the car and continued heading south to Point Lobos State Reserve. Unfortunately the park was closing early for a special event so I didn't get to spend as much time there as I would have wanted to.



I started off on a part of the North Shore trail. Along the way a little brown bunny hopped across the trail in front of me. He was too quick for me to photograph though.




And then I headed back to walk the Cypress Grove trail. By the time I took the above photo, my old childhood fear of heights had returned for the first time in many years. I thought I was over it since I had just walked a rooftop a few months ago -- commplete with climbing a 30-foot or so ladder up and down to said roof. But the trail narrowed and was very close to the edge. And I froze. So alone on the trail, I did everything in my power to calm the anxiety that was quickly rising. It took me a few minutes before I was able to move once more. I did complete the trail though. And upon reaching the car, I discovered that I was sweating perspiring glowing. See, I tend to walk at a pretty brisk pace. According to the trail map, the loop takes 30 minutes to complete. I finished it in less time.

Then it was back into the car to head over to the Bird Island trail. This trail leads to Gibson Beach. And according to legend, it is the view of this area that inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to write Treasure Island. Being an avid reader, I had to see this -- fear be damned. On the drive over, a deer suddenly appeared in front of me, jogging down the road a bit before heading off into the brush.








When I had been walking the Cypress Grove trail, I could hear the barking of sea lions but could never see them. Finally on returning to my car after the Bird Island trail, I was able spot a group sunning themselves.


Don't know if I'll ever do the Cypress Grove trail in it's entirety ever again but I'll definitely do the Bird Island trail. And I would kind of like to do the Sea Lion Point trail as well.