I know, I know...

Hello faithful readers -- all 16 of you at last count.  .... Happy Fall!  First off, my apologies.  I'm SO delinquent in updating the blog lately. I've been sick, hubby was sick, things just got kind of uninspired, tired, and just flat-out busy there for a while.  But, if I maybe can whet your appetite, stay tuned for my upcoming theme of CHILI-week, where I will be featuring several chili recipes, including:
1. My trademark "Black Bean chicken chili with cilantro"
2. My mother-in-law's recent experiment with the regional favorite, "Cincinnati Chili"
3. My husband's aunt's cook-off-winning "Real Texas Chili"
4. ...and a potential fourth recipe from another friend who recently placed in a chili cook-off as well.

In the meantime, go check out some cookbooks on Amazon for inspiration

Oh, and by all means try this recipe out for pumpkin cookies that have the texture and flavor of a spice-cake, and are just amazingly delicious.  For my own variation I drizzle a tangy icing that I make from powdered sugar, and lemon juice.  There's no exact measurements-- just take about 1/3 cup of powdered sugar and add a tablespoon or two of lemon juice and stir ... add more juice or more sugar to control the thickness.  It is meant to be drizzled, and not spread.  Lemon sounds like a  strange contrast to the spicy pumpkin flavor, but believe me it's really good.

Some Tips about Onions

Given that I have not bothered to write up a recipe for a good while, I'm going to 'pepper' my blog with some random tips, as in the previous entry about cleaning a stove without the use of chemicals. 

So we shall talk about chopping onions, fast and efficiently.  If you weep uncontrollably at the thought of chopping onions, you can borrow my little trick of keeping some swim goggles handy in the kitchen.  No -- not a snorkel goggle-- I mean those sleek things that folks like Matt Biondi or Michael Phelps would wear. It might look a little ridiculous to wear swim goggles, but hey... better than having your mascara run all over your face.

Now, I realize that most people with rudimentary knife skills can probably figure out how to chop an onion.  I mean, you just chop it, right?   However, if you want to really increase your efficiency, I figured out a way to speed things up and control the size of your diced onion cubes with a little more calculation involved.

Chemical-Free Range/Oven Cleaning; A Tutorial

Hi faithful readers. Okay, I know... I'm quite delinquent on updating a recipe; our big summer project was getting some contractors to rebuild our retaining wall, and it is going on week 4 now. Thus, not much new inspiration for foods and recipes. However, I was on a cleaning binge today, and decided to show you how to deeply and thoroughly clean your stove/oven/ range combo, to keep your kitchen cooking area spic-n-span, for easy and low-maintenance clean ups.

Roasted Eggplant Soup

Okay, I know that it's July and most of the United States are in a heatwave.  However, here in the Pacific Northwest, it's been way cooler than even our normal summertime averages. So I felt like making something a bit savory, and I realized just now as I typed up the title that I cook with eggplant a lot.  I have other recipes up my sleeve, too, which I’m sure I’ll get around to eventually.  But anyway, I had meant to do my recipe for Cordoba Fried Eggplant (Berenjenas Con Miel) but as time did not allow today to haul out the deep fryer, I opted to do something a little easier.  I found this similar recipe online at Safeway.com, and made it with a few minor modifications.   It was a hearty, but light soup, full of rich, savory flavors, and it was delicious with some bread on the side.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp (Strubarb Crisp)

For some people, rhubarb is a word that makes the hair on the neck stand up.  And then there are folks like me who can't get enough of the stuff.  My amazing mother sometimes makes rhubarb 'creme' (sort of a soupy mess of rhubarb, made with fresh rhubarb, sugar, and potato starch that is absolutely delicious...)  I will probably make some of that in a few days as I have a lot of rhubarb in my garden which I need to use up.  But that's not what I'm making today.  I'm going to share a recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp.  I don't know where the recipe came from, but as it is so frequently the case, I will just assume that my mom gave it to me.  Crisps are fairly universally similar (oats, sugar, butter, spices) so I don't know if this one has any particularly unique qualities, but I shared a pan of it with my neighbors last month, and got an email back that said "Oh my, that crisp is so good! Wow. Thanks again!"  It's especially good with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top.

A little rock-n-roll...

In lieu of vittles and pictures of edibles, I thought I'd throw some free music at ya this evening.  Shane Tutmarc is an old client and friend of mine that I used to promote and hang out with frequently in Seattle many moons ago.  He now lives in Nashville, and I'm an old stuffy housewife who writes about food, and not music. (Oh yeah, for those of you who don't know me personally, I was a rock critic, freelance music journalist, and did some off-the-cuff PR for various indie musicians for about eight years.  I still occasionally write bios, and send out some press releases, but not often enough to call it a business anymore.  I even have an old dinosaur of a website featuring archived projects with my old clientele -- I'm talkin'  like 2003-HTML-dinosaur. You can see it at: www.amorphousmedia.biz if you really want to see what I used to do before I became a foodster, and not a hipster.)

Now then, back to Shane's music ... here it be:

Ratatouille

RATATOUILLE

Onions, celery, carrots, tomatoes, garlic, eggplant, zucchini, bell pepper, potatoes... and some fresh herbs= one delicious and hearty soup. 

Time for The Off The Cuff Chef to butcher a traditional French recipe.   Ratatouille (ra-ta-TOO-ee) is a vegetable stew, although mine always ends up more like a soup, so that is what I'm showing you how to make below here.  For more information about more authentic versions, please consult this link.  Please don't report me to Julia Child's estate.  I know my recipe is not quite up to par, but it's a darn good version, in my humblest of opinions.  And isn't that basically what always happens? Alternate ingredients come into the picture, substitutions are made, etc.  So here's something similar to a traditional ratatouille, that I make every so often.  I regret that I did not have a nice crusty loaf of bread to go with this, but alas, you can't always have everything.

Potato & Leek Au Gratin

A really good "gratin" is such European comfort food... it's kind of like Mac and Cheese, to me, but fancier so you could serve it up with a nice cut of meat, and there it would make for a really festive meal.  But it's also so easy to do. 

I put together this little casserole a few days ago, but didn't have time to write up the description.  So without further ado, here it is, in all its beautiful simplicity! 

Thai Swimming Rama (or Showering Rama)-- Chicken, steamed spinach and peanut sauce

While I’m not entirely sure of the first time I had Rama (or whether it was referred to as Showering or Swimming) it is one of my very favorite types of Thai food.  Basically, it’s steamed spinach, sauteed chicken, and a peanut sauce that is TO DIE FOR.  I seriously have to stop myself from eating half the sauce out of the pot with a spoon while I’m “tasting it” … Yeah, it’s so good. It’s almost like a dessert.  **Edited to say that since I first published this recipe many years ago, I have developed a nut allergy, so I now make this with sunflower-seed butter, and it is basically indistinguishable.** 

Orange Ginger Ahi steaks with Bok Choy

A few weeks ago I tried a recipe for a similar chicken dish with orange, ginger & bok choy, but I wanted to try Ahi steaks, because I just had some delicious seared ahi last night at a restaurant, which usually means I crave it for another 24 hours afterwards.  So I merged the two together here. (This recipe is a little bit of a hybrid between a couple of other recipes on my blog: Mandarin Ginger Glazed Mahi Mahi and Grilled Teriyaki Ahi Tuna –  I just love citrus-savory recipes!)