Cooking « Life Signatures

Fried Pickles?

June 5, 2009 at 4:50 am (Cooking, Food)
Tags: Cooking, Food, Recipes

friedpickles1

I found this great site called Designs by Gollum where every Friday, Gollum (what a great name) hosts a food fest/orgy. I’m not kidding, it’s a total smorgasbord. I cannot click over there when I’m hungry.

friedpickles5

Today I’m adding to the temptation with these friend pickles the husband and I found while over on the other side of the bay last Monday.

friedpickles7

The place is called the Stevensville Crab Shack and we have stopped there before to get soft shelled crabs. They are the freshest that we’ve had here in the Chesapeake.

I loved that he had crab art from his neighbor’s kids. How cute.

friedpickles3

It’s a small place, really small.

friedpickles6

They have crabs don’t cha know.

friedpickles2

I saw that there were fried pickles on the menu and was immediately curious, as I am about every single new gastronomic delight I stumble upon. I wanted to try it. I’d never seen nothin’ like that before. I speak in slang when I’m excited.

friedpickles5

And oh was it good. Was it realllllly good! The proprietor says to:

1) cut the pickle up into spears
2) rolls the pickle spears into bread crumbs
3) freeze the pickle spears
4) take them out when you want to cook them and drop them into hot oil, frozen and all
5) after about 4 minutes, take them out and sprinkle Old Bay seasoning on them. That will make them “Chesapeake”.

I haven’t tried them yet, but tonight, I’m having an improptu gourmet dinner with three other girl friends. We just decided yesterday to get together and cook. We’re going to have some great food…maybe I’ll fry a pickle or two.

17 Comments

Waterfall Beef ~ The Beef

May 28, 2009 at 7:34 pm (Cooking, Food, Thai Food)
Tags: Cooking, Recipes, Thai food

Vegetarians are not going to find this appetizing. But me? I’m a protein girl. I can go for a little while on vegetables but then I have to have a good piece of meat.

waterfallbeef1

I use a London Broil cut for my Waterfall Beef. If you want to splurge, you can use a tenderloin, that would be delicious. But this cut is good for your wallet.

waterfallbeef2

There’s no marinating or anything fancy. Just throw it into the broiler. Broil it until it gets a nice crust on each side, about 4-5 minutes. I like it medium rare but it’s up to your taste of course.

Later on, we’re going to chop everything up…

Here is the beef at the Lemongrass Restaurant.
Here are the fresh ingredients.

Sorry about the dirty oven, but it’s well used and well loved.

3 Comments

Waterfall Beef

May 22, 2009 at 11:19 am (Cooking, Food, Recipes)
Tags: Cooking, Recipes, Thai food

waterfallbeef

I’m going to show you how to make this next week.

I don’t know why it’s called Waterfall Beef. My mother calls it yum nuk, without the “k” sound. I call it beef salad. You’ll call it delicious.

Some people eat lots of spaghetti and meat balls. We eat a lot of beef salad. Until then!

1 Comment

What To Eat When There’s Nothing To Eat

May 4, 2009 at 8:36 am (Cooking, Food, Recipes)
Tags: Cooking, Food, Recipes

As I sit here and wait for the air conditioner repair man…I’m writing this.

I used to go to the grocery store religiously every week. I would cut coupons. I would price compare. I would wait for sales.

Now I don’t do any of those things. I go to the store five times a week to pick up something to cook for that day. I’m not planning well now. When I was a stay-at-home mom, that’s what I did. Plan my weekly menu.

Now I open the refrigerator and say, what can I make? Or rather, what can I throw together? I’m in the process of lessening my out-of-home obligations. So now I hope I have more time to plan. I didn’t realize how much time it takes to plan.

leftover1

The other day, the family was hungry and looking at me with big hungry eyes.

leftover2

I threw together this.

I cut some fancy bread and lightly toasted it. I put on some left over sword fish from dinner two nights before. I threw on some fresh spinach and some cheddar cheese. Lots of cheddar cheese.

leftover3

And I broiled it. It was great.

Always keep handy some fancy bread and some sword fish. That’s the moral of this story.

Now go here and see another gastronomic delicacy. It’s Monday.

He’s here.

1 Comment

A Fish Tale/Tail

May 1, 2009 at 5:00 am (Cooking, Food)
Tags: Cooking, Food

It’s Friday. Time for another weird post.

smelt1

A couple of weeks, Shutter Sisters asked photographers – and me – to think about what defines our styles. I looked through my photos and saw a lot of florals...typical me. I also saw a lot of raw fish.

This is me cleaning fish.
This is me cleaning fish again.
This is me frying fish.
This is me feeding raw fish to the husband.

It’s starting to look like a theme to me.

smelt2

Don’t you think so Kiji?

cherryblossom31

So it’s final. My defining style is “Florals and Fish.”

4 Comments

And Here’s The Ponzu Sauce…

April 15, 2009 at 10:20 pm (Cooking, Food, Recipes, Thai Food)
Tags: Asian food, Food, Recipe, Thai food

This is just one of the sauces that I use for the eggrolls and for so much more. I watched my mother make this sauce before I knew what ponzu sauce was. Now I make it all the time.

That’s what I get for living in Japan.

ponzu1

When you google ponzu sauce you see that you’ll need, mirin, sake, dashi, bonito, lemon juice, etc, etc, etc. I like to drink sake (and some of you can attest to how much I like to drink it) but I don’t like the taste in food. Mirin is hard to find, and dashi broth takes too much time to make.

Take it from me, you don’t need all that. You need just three things (can’t deviate from these three) and you will need a spice option, like peppers. And you need pretty bowls. You can’t make ponzu sauce unless you have pretty bowls.

Ok, ok, here’s the ponzu recipe…

ponzu3

You will need:

Soy sauce
Rice vinegar
Sugar
Hot Peppers (optional)

I use reduced sodium soy sauce and now can really tell the difference between that and the full strength. The full strength soy sauce is not a bad thing. It’s just better for your blood pressure to use the reduce sodium. But I don’t want to preach. It’s up to you and up to your circulatory system.

ponzu5

I don’t have quantities, it depends on how much you want to make. I do two part soy sauce to one part rice vinegar. I like a lot of sauce, so I make a lot. Most of the time, we tend to run out.

ponzu6

Put in about 1 teaspoon to sugar to about one quarter cup of soy sauce. Those of you who are persnickity about details like measurement will find this a little frustrating. I’m sorry. Just keep tasting it. If it tastes good to you, stop putting in sugar.

That’s it…except.

ponzu4

There’s this. Hot peppers. I normally use dry peppers to put in sauce. We’ll talk about different kinds of peppers another time…if you can’t take the heat, don’t put it in.

ponzu7

Now that’s really it. You’re done.

ponzu2

Tonight we are putting the ponzu sauce onto pan fried gyoza since the husband and I had a huge – I mean huge – hamburger with Roquefort and bacon for lunch. We shouldn’t even be eating dinner. I’ll show to I make gyoza another time. You won’t believe how easy it is…really you won’t believe it.

I have two other sauces to show you…but I won’t be able to until next week. I have a horsey project for the girl I have to finish by this weekend. And I may actually have to go into work…

Bon appetite.

7 Comments

How I Make Eggrolls 2

April 14, 2009 at 5:00 am (Cooking, Food, Recipes, Thai Food)
Tags: Cooking, Food, Recipes

If you want to see the first part of this eggroll process, click here.

eggrolls92

How do you get them to look like that? It can take a little bit of practice but it’s pretty easy really.

rolling2

Take a sheet of eggroll skin and place a small amount of the mix on top of it and close to one corner. About a spoonful.

rolling1

Take one corner and fold it over the mixture.

rolling3

Roll it over once to get the mixture secure.

rolling5

It looks like this.

rolling4

Hold it securely and fold one end over, then the other.

rolling6

Like this.

rolling7

Roll the rest around and leave a little bit of the corner.

rolling8

I put a little egg in a tiny cup or sometimes I’ll just put it right in the mixture. Then I take a little bit in a spoon to use as “glue” so that it keeps it together. I put a little bit of egg on one corner and fold it over.

rolling9

There it is! A perfect little eggroll. One down and 99 more to go.

rolling91

I deep fry these until they are these beautiful golden brown yummy rolls. I use a paper bag and place paper towels on top to soak up the excess oil.

rolling92

The family loves these. Except for the boy. I make him mac and cheese.

Try them, try them now! And tomorrow, I’ll show you how to make the sauce. Actually, I have several sauces. I’ll show them all eventually!

Bon appetite!

13 Comments

How I Make Eggrolls 1

April 13, 2009 at 5:00 am (Cooking, Food, Recipes, Thai Food)
Tags: Asian food, Cooking, Food, Recipe

eggrolls1

I received some sage advice from someone I respected deeply last week. I was bemoaning the fact that haven’t been cooking a lot lately and I love to cook. He said, “Well, then cook. If no one is home, cook anyway. Someone else could always use a good meal.” He was nice enough not to have added, “Duh” at the end of that statement.

So this is food week! I have been cooking, but not taking pictures. It’s hard to cook and photograph at the same time. I’m not much one for staging.

So here’s the first of two post on making eggrolls. Or rather, how I make eggrolls. How my mother taught me how. These are really simple, the wrapping can be somewhat time consuming but it’s fun. If you can wrap a present, you can make eggrolls. I may have left out half the population with that stipulation…anyway, here goes.

You will need:

1lb ground beef
1lb ground pork
1 yellow onion
1 package of carrots (about 6 or 7 individual carrots)
1-2 eggs (it depends)
salt
pepper
eggroll skins

eggrolls2

Here’s the eggroll skins. Giant may have them. I found these in the commisary at Andrews AFB. I know not everyone can get there, I’m sorry. If you can’t find something similar at Giant, try Whole Foods.

eggrolls3