Sass & Veracity

What you're missing!

If you haven't visited in a while, then you may not realize all you've missed.  For example, today is the new Daring Kitchen's reveal day and we're all sharing an amazing lasagne recipe.  Don't wait -- hurry over to my new site and check it out.  Sass & Veracity

And while you're there, sign up for a new feed if you'd like.  Thanks for stopping by!

Moving Day!

I'm looking at the tiny calendar at the bottom of my Mac screen and can't believe it's March 11th.  What's even more unbelievable is that I haven't written here in more than a week.  Although I'd love to say that it's because I've been on vacation, or doing something constructive in my kitchen, I can't.  I've been sick so decided to sit still and do something that I've wanted to do for quite some time:

Move This Blog!

The short version for my rationale goes something like this:  I began blogging about things having to do with something other than food (can you imagine?) with WordPress and quickly decided to host my own site.  Shortly before I decided to do my own hosting, I was still in a sampling mode shopping for a second blog so that I could write about my cooking.  As much as I'd like to say that I might dream of being able to pull off a complicated operation like Pioneer Woman where all aspects of her brain are under one roof, at the time, the concept wouldn't have occurred to me, nor would I have been able to pull it off if I had thought of it.

Somehow, I ended up here at TypePad  I'd begun to notice the clean, uncomplicated appearance of their blogs as I became more familiar with everything and decided that's where my food blog needed to be.  In the meantime, I became more and more adept at acting like I knew something about CSS and html and because I was adjusting to quite a lot of free time on my hands, I was able to experiment.  I love to experiment.

Although I've enjoyed experimenting with my blog here, I want and need to work with one style of website.  I've had a very positive blogging experience with TypePad, however.  If ever I had a question, response time was quick and people have been friendly, so I have no complaints.  But who knows?  Maybe I'll get to the point where I can say I completely designed a theme of my own instead of altering one I like.  Practice makes perfect...

So Where Do We Go From Here?

Since visitors and fellow foodies are one of the biggest enjoyments I get from having a blog and I don't want to lose you, then please take some time to travel on over to the new

Sass & Veracity

and while you're there, please, please, please re-set your feed either by reader or by email. I still have lots to do there, but it's coming together nicely.  I'll keep this blog going as well, and will keep an eye on it, but don't plan to write here any longer.  I've transferred all my posts over along with all the comments you've made for nearly two years now.  In fact, the date is March 19th that Sass & Veracity will be two.  I sort of dumped the first couple of posts but managed to hang on to the one I wrote on the 31st, just for posterity's sake.

And This Was the Short Version!

I haven't written anything new for you over there yet, but will soon be posting this cake which I enjoyed way too much of.  Recipe coming soon...

Vegetables Galore!

One of the difficulties that arises when I cook is not being able to find particular ingredients.  Most often, the item is one of a few featured in a recent issue of a food magazine I enjoy, and because the content is seasonal, one would believe that finding those ingredients might be easier.

Unfortunately, it isn't true, and when it comes time for me to cook something new, I have to drive to several stores to find what I'm looking for -- if I can find it at all.  When I am able to locate that one special ingredient, I'm left wondering where it was grown, and by whom, annoyed that most often, it isn't from anywhere near San Diego.  Thankfully, I have a new venue to track down those one of a kind ingredients when it comes to fresh fruit or vegetables:  Specialty Produce.

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit Specialty Produce and tour their facility in Middletown, an industrial sort of neighborhood relatively close to the airport and downtown.  It's a bustling place where employees are either wheeling unique merchandise through the warehouse, or monitoring phones and computers taking orders from local chefs and other merchants.

Here was finally a place I could get chervil, or purslane, or chanterelles when no one else has them.  And there's a great section with produce from area growers with items I've never seen before -- like Red Frill Mustard and Watermelon Radishes.  It was like being in a candy shop when you're a veggie lover like me -- the only drawback is that one can only purchase so much fresh food and still be able to enjoy it within the next day or so.

The best way to utilize this great San Diego resource if you're an avid home cook like me is to check out what's in stock using their website.  It will tell you not only what's in stock, but what's in peak season and at the height of quality.  Nutritional information is also available which is something I always keep my eye on.

Along with the mustard and radishes I mentioned above, I brought home Black Kale, Yellow Foot Chanterelles, Green Garlic, Oro Blanco Grapefruit, and some cute little Hauer Pippin from Windrose Farm in Paso Robles.

Oh the fun I've had cooking with this food...

Chocolate Valentino Cake with Strawberry Banana Ice Cream

As the morning unfolds on this the day of the February Daring Baker's reveal, I'm proud to say I finished my challenge a few weeks ago, which could imply that this post was written and ready to auto publish at midnight.  But no.  I guess that with respect to me, it is possible to be too organized.  Best laid plans, right?

So here I am on my oldest son's thirtieth birthday (shhhhh.....) writing about chocolate cake and strawberry banana ice cream, which, now that I think of it is incredibly appropriate since the chocolate cake I'm thinking of is flourless and my son's food allergies and celiac's issues make it a perfect birthday cake.  Unfortunately, he's not supposed to eat dairy products, either, so the ice cream is a rude accompaniment, packed full of heavy cream and milk. But he doesn't care at this point, and a mother can't exactly tell her thirty-year-old how to live his life. Actually, she can, but I wouldn't be that mother, choosing instead to enjoy my son's company whenever I can and hoping that some day, he'll take his health issues seriously.

This February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef who have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Clearly I chose to have some fun with my ice cream.  I couldn't resist the idea of coming up with flavors that remind me of a banana split.

Mama Mia! Greek Night In

There's a Greek bistro not too far from where I live called Apollonia.  It rates as one of the casual places I've enjoyed locally whose food has had me thinking about it long after I've eaten there.  Maybe it's because I don't eat Greek food very often, and so my weary taste buds long for something unique.  Or, it could be that the food is just plain delicious.

Valentine's week (and I have to call it that since my husband treated me to days of lovely surprises) one of my gifts was dinner at Apollonia.  Ohhh, the hummos and the dolmathakia.  The spanakopita and tyropita.  The souvlaki.

Sheer heaven.

Clearly, there was a Greek dinner in the works for us at home after this, and I decided that since the Academy Awards was rapidly approaching, I'd spend the day in the kitchen cooking and watching what my husband calls my "pre-game show" of all things Oscars:  gowns and botox lips, padded rumps and tatooed eyeliner.  You've got to love Hollywood at least once a year.

No sooner had I begun the prepping than my oldest son called to ask what we were doing.
"Watching the Oscars and eating Greek food.  Why?"  I asked.
"Because I'm coming over," he told me and with a quick "See Yah," he hung up leaving me with my list of what to chop when and Mama Mia running through my mind.  Not the movie -- the song.  Well, actually, both.

The connection?  My son is a huge ABBA fan and my husband and I are pretty sappy over the movie, too.  I know.  You can think what you will, but since I was actually around when ABBA's songs routinely blasted from my car radio, I can be sappy about them if I want.  Besides, who can resist the amazing cerulean water in the film and seriously hunky Pierce Brosnan belting out, "So when you're near me, darling can't you hear me...SOS...The love you gave me nothing else can save me SOS!" to an I want to look like that when I'm 60 Meryl Streep.

Ahhhh....

I see a Greek island vacation in my future. 

But in the meantime, I'll settle for homemade hummus, Briami, and Chicken Souvlaki from Peter of Kalofagas.  With ABBA, of course, and this does involve a bit of dancing barefoot without warning.

I've been singing ABBA tunes all day every day for weeks.  In the car, at the grocery store...

Mama Mia.  Here we go again...

I just need a sailboat.

Gourmet's Rye Walnut Rolls

I don't know that I've had walnuts in anything that I didn't like.  I just like walnuts.  I like the bite on the side of my tongue that doesn't come when I chew into a pecan which is much more sweet.

Walnuts in cookies, salad, and pasta get my full, undivided attention, so it seems reasonable that I'd like them in bread, too.  And what a surprise that the bread isn't sweet, or filled with raisins and flavored with cinnamon.  But I wouldn't complain if that's what was put in front of me.  How could I?

No, it's a savory bread, and one filled with onions, too.  As I worked my way through this recipe, I wondered about how thyme, or a bit of cheese might taste.

And bacon.  Life is too short to not include a bit of pork fat when one can.

But I resisted, so it looks like I just may have to revisit this recipe, the third of four I've chosen to bake this month and featured in Gourmet.  I've enjoyed making bread once a week so far this month and am considering keeping up with it since the possibilities are endless and I have so much to learn.

I love possibilities.  They're just hovering out there, waiting for someone to take notice.

Unfortunately, it takes some motivation, doesn't it?  And my motivation failed me after I purchased the rye flour I was happy to have in my pantry for these lovely rolls.  It was to have been used in a starter that I promised to make and never did.

I'll get around to that one of these days, but in the meantime, it was nice to have the rye flour just waiting.

This recipe for Rye Walnut Rolls is the third of four for the month of February as part of "Let Us Eat Bread," featuring recipes from Gourmet's "Roll With It."  Our bread baking group includes:  Judy of No Fear Entertaining, Courtney of Coco Cooks, Andrea of Andrea's Recipes, Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen, and our fearless leader, Sandy of At the Baker's Bench.