If This Pan's a Rockin' Don't Come a Knockin'

While visiting Washington, DC, I took the rare opportunity of being near a body of water to eat as much seafood as possible: crab cakes, lobster, and Blue Point Oysters.



I enjoyed it so much that upon my return to landlocked Lubbock, I tried to recreate the lobster roll experience. Step 1: Procure a lobster.

The only way to go is buying a live lobster and boiling it yourself. Apparently the super cheap lobster I'd read about in the northeast ($5/lb lobster) had not made it's way to Lubbock ($17/lb). I wanted to feed lobster rolls to the whole family, so the price made me gulp. I decided to buy one live lobster and a couple of cheaper tails.

So I finished my shopping and drove home with a live, iced-down, lobster in tow. It was a little unnerving. He didn't say much, but I think his styrofoam ride rocked to and fro a couple of times. There was the requisite play time before dinner.





I put Lobby into the freezer to numb him before cooking. I was glad my brothers-in-law were there, because when the moment of truth came, I was squeamish about dropping a live lobster into a pot of boiling water. The deed was done. Lobby boiled for a few minutes until he turned bright red and started to float.



Into an ice bath, and then Mom and I (mostly Mom) started cracking shells to extract lobster meat. I avoided helping with that arduous task by making homemade mayonnaise, following an Alton Brown recipe.



Once the lobster meat was extracted and chopped, it was a cinch to mix it with the homemade mayonnaise and some diced celery. We toasted hot dog buns in butter, filled them with lobster, and plated the lobster rolls alongside a green salad.



If not for the high price per pound and time-consuming process of extracting the meat from the lobster, this would be a meal I'd eat regularly! And I guess there's that whole ick factor of boiling a living creature... If that deters you, you might want to try Vegan Lobster (trust me, you want to follow that link).

Watch the video "How To Make Your Own Lobster Roll."

The Lova My Life

Scott still enjoys living in the land down under. He tells some great stories in his weekly emails home, but I particularly look forward to hearing what food he's tried during the week. Details are somewhat sketchy, but here are a few things he's talked about:

• Poly [Polynesian/Islander] food has almost no flavor and it's super starchy. Most islander food is really bland and doesn't have too much flavor, and pepper is not something that you'd find on an islander table haha.


• We made Tongan chop suey Saturday night which was really good. I'll have to make that and orti (or-tie) when I get home. Lu is my second favorite food after chop suey. Lu is corned beef and coconut milk cooked together in a taro leaf wrapping. We have been eating a lot of pumpkin. I like it. It's got about the same texture as a sweet potato.


• Beef is always cooked to well done. It instantly sucks all the moisture out of your mouth when you eat it.


• They have two kinds of cheese here: tasty and light... neither are tasty at all.

Scott also wrote me about a fabulous Pavlova, a traditional Australian dessert (unless you ask a New Zealander, in which case, New Zealand invented them). I remember the first description I read of pavlova said tasting pavlova was like going to the moon with the most beautiful person on Earth, while listening to your favorite band play live as little puppies lick your toes. And still this pavlova didn't fall short of expectations.



A pavlova is made with egg whites and sugar, baked at a low temperature until the outside is hard and set, while the inside stays gooey like a toasted marshmallow. The taste is over the top sweet! I served mine with whipped cream, berries, and raspberry sauce.



Recipe from Ina Garten.

The Time I Met Dorie Greenspan

I was in Washington, DC at the end of June for the American Library Association annual conference. It's funny how you can spot a librarian in a crowd. There were definitely some interesting fashion choices on parade. My fashion tastes are always impeccable, of course. My cardigan always matches my sneakers and grocery tote bag.

The ALA conference is huge. This year's attendance was over 26,000. There were some relatively famous names there: Toni Morrison spoke at one of the general sessions, and Marlo Thomas, Amy Sedaris, Natalie Merchant, and Fergie (as in the Duchess of York), not even counting library stars like Nancy Pearl, were also there.

There was a "What's Cooking @ ALA?" demo in the exhibits area. Dorie Greenspan was one of the presenters. I've been a fan of Dorie's for a few years. I was on a big NPR kick (okay, still ongoing), and I heard her relate baking tips and recipes on Kitchen Window and All Things Considered. I started following baking blogs and found an entire blogger group dedicated to Dorie recipes, Tuesdays with Dorie, wherein dozens of bakers make the weekly Dorie recipe and blog about it.

At ALA, I attended Dorie's demo with my friend Shelley. Dorie showed the small audience how to make salmon rillettes, a recipe from her new cookbook, Around My French Table. I'll post her recipe here as soon as I find the little recipe card she handed out. If memory serves, her recipe was very similar to this one by David Lebovitz: Salmon Spread Recipe: Salmon Rillettes. I tried a sample and it was quite tasty. Very buttery!

She told a few stories about cooking and living in France. She said people often ask her if she is a cook or a baker. She explained her answer, "Both," the way I often do. With cooking you can improvise and really experiment, but with baking, you have to be meticulous in measuring and using called-for ingredients. Be precise and don't adjust the recipe until you know it well. Cooking and baking are very different. That's why it's fun to do both and not limit yourself to one or the other. She told a story about how she always keeps a tiny plastic tub of fleur de sal in her purse. She was a joy to watch.



After the demo, she took questions from the audience. Someone asked Dorie about her recipe for gougères. Shelley turned to me and asked, "What are gougères?"

I said something like, "They're light and puffy - like cream puffs without the cream and with cheese."

Dorie started giving advice about making the recipe correctly, then she stopped and said, "Oh wait! If you don't know gougères are, they're light and puffy - like cream puffs without the cream and with cheese," or something that was basically word for word what I had just said. Shelley and I looked at each other and laughed, and I patted myself on the back.

After the demo, people formed a line to meet Dorie and get her autograph. As Shelley and I stood in line, I tried to think of a question to ask Dorie, or something I could say or a compliment I could give so that I wouldn't sound like a complete idiot. I actually started to get a little nervous about it.

Shelley was in front of me in the line and got to meet her first. She said, "We live in Lubbock and sometimes it's hard to get out of the ordinary ingredients in local stores. Where do you recommend we order from?" Dang, what a good question!

Dorie suggested that people that live in God-forsaken places buy food from Amazon, Penzey's, and Kalustyan's. At that point I piped up, "I love Kalustyan's! That's the first place I go when I go to New York! I have to buy their peppercorns and cinnamon!"

She said, "Isn't it wonderful? You are a good cook if you go to Kalustyan's."

Dorie told me I was a good cook?!?

We chatted for another moment and then I asked if I could get my picture taken with her.



Dorie invited me to visit her in Paris. Well, she invited everyone at the demo... I have decided to accept. How glamorous that would be! Cooking with Dorie, who's baked with Julia Child and dozens of other cooking legends... in Paris!

As we left the demo, Shelley spotted a poster advertising a book that was certainly more like my status quo:

Best of Both Worlds

I consider myself somewhat of an expert on German Chocolate Cake, which may or may not be the case, but I did have my own throwdown between Bobby Flay's recipe and the Best of Show Cook's Illustrated recipe. If you recall, it was a split decision.

So for Katie's birthday cake, I decided to try combining my favorite parts of each recipe into one hands-down winner.



I used the Cook's Illustrated recipe for the cake itself, but for the filling, I used Bobby's cajeta filling recipe. That cajeta is so delicious that I like to eat it by itself. I've also served it atop chocolate or vanilla ice cream. When I started making this batch of cajeta, I accidentally let the caramel base get too dark. Knowing it would make the cajeta bitter, I decided to make a fresh batch, but I drizzled designs on wax paper with the burnt caramel to make some decor for the cake plate. Um, ye-ah, that kind of worked, but not really.

I also made Bobby's coconut whipped cream and some ganache. The change I made was serving both on the side. Bobby's recipe instructs you to put ganache and toasted coconut and pecans on top of the cake. The ganache topping drew some complaints last time, so I put all those elements on the side of the cake plate so people could control the chocolate distribution.



I thought the result was a winner. This was one of the best cakes I've ever eaten.

Happy Birthday

Remember when I became an aunt?



Now that baby is six months old and I can't believe it. Now I completely understand about everyone thinking their baby is the best, because Nancy Kay has all of us wrapped around her little finger. Katie is only just beginning to feed Nancy solid foods, but I secretly started sneaking her tastes of ice cream weeks ago.



Nancy is already cooking with me. That is, I hold her while I'm flipping pancakes or eggs or chicken or whatever, and she supervises expertly. I'm determined that this kid will grow up with excellent food taste. No children's menus for her, with boring chicken nuggets or pizza. Isn't that what raising kids is all about? Teaching them to be just as wonderful as you are.

Fadduh's Day

When you think of Father's Day, you probably don't think of hoity toity French brunch food. Heck, you probably don't think of food period. But to me, a good holiday requires good food. I do have other vices besides gluttony, but that one happens to be my favorite. This Father's Day, I decided to go with something besides steak or grilled meat.

Daddy and I recently watched an episode of Good Eats together called Age of Asparagus. Asparagus is probably my favorite vegetable. Alton's recipe for Roasted Asparagus was very similar to my standard method, but he added lemon zest and fresh grated nutmeg. Alton also suggested serving the asparagus with a fried egg on top. I'd served asparagus with hollandaise before but never with a plain egg.

I decided to work the recipe into the Father's Day menu. I made Croque Monsieur sandwiches (Croques Messieurs?), which are hot ham and cheese sandwiches, the cheese being Gruyère, and there's also a Mornay sauce involved. I used this recipe for Croque Madame, but put the fried egg on top of the asparagus instead of the sandwich.



For dessert, I tried a recipe that was new to me, Peach-Frangipane Tart. The markets are filled with glorious berries and stone fruit, and it makes me crave fresh fruit. I used a combination of yellow and white peaches for the tart. The tart has an almond base, peaches, and a peach preserve glaze. The hardest part is slicing the peaches thinly and cleanly. The rest of the recipe is a cinch.



I did a couple dozen white and dark chocolate-covered tuxedo strawberries, too. Steak and potatoes it wasn't, but this menu was fabulous. I ate too much today. I have a great dad and had lots of reason to celebrate!

Keep It Real

It's pretty sad that acquaintances identify food snobbery as my most dominant characteristic, but I guess I brought that on myself. I shouldn't be so condescending, but I feel that if people only knew how bad/gross/synthetic the food they're ingesting is, they'd soon change their ways.

Take store-bought ice cream for example. There's no excuse for buying most of that stuff. There are some premium brands that are very good, but even those don't compare with homemade.

I recently cleaned out my freezer, and I had peach ice cream left over from my Baked Alaska experiment. The stuff was past its prime (it was never that good anyway) and had to go.



I set the ice cream carton on the counter, thinking that it would be better for me to melt the ice cream and pour it down the drain, instead of tossing the whole thing in the garbage to leak onto my floor. So I set the carton on the counter and waited for it to melt. And waited. And waited.



I don't remember how long I left that carton on the counter. After seeing that it didn't melt after a couple of hours, I probably left it out for at least twenty-four, being fascinated at the non-melting properties of this Franken-ice cream. Yuck! That is not something I would eat again.

I saw this related horrifying 12-day Cool Whip experiment. My friends, Cool Whip is not whipped cream! Nasty, nasty stuff.

This also reminded me of the McDonald's hamburger purchased in 1996 that in 2008 looked exactly the same as the day it was purchased! I can't believe there are adults who regularly eat fast food or at all-you-can eat buffets. I'd suspect most employees who work at those "restaurants" don't know anything about cooking. I'm sure they have other life skills. This winner worked at Lin's Chinese Buffet.

I don't think I'm a food snob. This is a better way to live.

White Wedding

I dreamed that Betty White made a cameo (that woman is everywhere these days) at Wendy's wedding reception. She wore a pink dress suit that was perfectly accessorized. She looked great. Really, a visit from Betty White is the only thing that could have made Wendy's wedding any better.



There was a simple ceremony in the morning and a family dinner in the evening. I made the wedding cake and failed to fully consider the amount of time required to get my hair done, get myself into a fancy dress, and get to the church on time for pictures. The cake didn't get quite enough chill time in the fridge.

I sent one tier of the cake with my dad in Katie and Porter's car, I put one in my trunk, and I held the small tier in my right hand as I drove to the reception site. I drove super super slowly and took an alternate route to avoid a construction zone. Yeah, I know it's probably dangerous, but I transport cakes that way a lot. Guess what, when you live alone and are transporting a cake, sometimes you have to take risks. That's also pretty much the only time I drive at or below the speed limit. Apologies to the drivers behind me -



(That's not my car, but it's a brilliant idea.) The cake arrived safely. It didn't collapse on assembly, which was a relief since the frosting and filling were soft from the heat.



Wendy's Wedding Cake was a yellow cake with lemon curd filling and vanilla buttercream frosting dyed yellow, decorated with gum paste daisies.



Katie, Mom, and I had fun making the daisies. We simplified these instructions for Gum Paste Daisies from the King Arthur Flour Blog. I bought a package of pre-made gum paste. We rolled it out and cut out daisies with a daisy cutter. Then we added yellow paste food coloring to a smaller piece of gum paste and rolled it into small balls. We then flattened the balls and covered them in cornmeal. Voilà - pollen! Then we pasted the yellow centers on the flowers.



Another great cake. Another great brother-in-law joins the family. Another happy wedding!

Pork Is a Nice, Sweet Meat

I decided to try pescetarianism (eat seafood, but no mammals or birds) for awhile. A short while. Turned out to be only two weeks. The problem wasn't so much that I missed eating chicken or cheeseburgers. Or that I had gone about misspelling pescetarian as pescatarian. Alas, I began to experience heart palpitations, and since I am not in love that I know of, except perhaps with Lee Pace after my weekend Pushing Daisies marathon, I attributed the flutters to my change in diet.

So I decided to fall off the wagon with a pork salad, which created a gentle enough thud, being mostly tortilla, rice, beans, cilantro, lime, guacamole, dairy, and just a little of that sweet, sweet slow roasted pork.



I feel fine with the relapse.

Pull Yourself up by Your Apron Strings

Mike is my photography mentor. When we met, I possessed only a lowly Canon PowerShot A550, but my photography has improved under his tutelage. I am his foodie mentor. When I met him, he was a steak and potatoes kind of guy, whose favorite dessert was a chocolate-peanut butter no-bake cookie. He still loves all of those. You can't change a man.

I've entered a couple of cooking contests with Mike now. Neither of which we've won. If I can't even pull out a victory in his office cooking contests, I might as well hang up my apron.

First, there was a salsa and queso contest, in which we entered a Roasted Tomatillo Salsa and Queso Flameado.




Mike said I went overboard with the lime in the salsa, and I sadly agreed with him. After the judging, when our salsa and queso placed in the middle of the pack, he said that his office-mates prefer food out of a jar anyway, and I happily agreed with him.



The real blow came when I baked two identical white cakes with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream to enter in the office baking contest and charity auction. The top two awards were announced, and my cake was not named among the victors. Perhaps from now on, I should be the one to take pictures and not take the cake.