Dressing

She's named after food and lives where I work as a pantry cook.  And yesterday, with her compliment to the chef and request for a recipe, she made me feel like a celebrity chef today. She asked for the vinaigrette recipe that I made for Mother's Day.

It was a simple vinaigrette. I jazzed it up a bit because we were out of a particular kind of mustard that goes into all of our vinaigrette and mixed oils because I wanted a hint of the olive oil flavor without the overpowering effect that can often be bestowed by having too much of that kind of oil in a vinaigrette, but still, I stuck to the code. 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil. Really simple, yet she liked it. So, when I went out in the dinning room to talk to her about cooking and instruct her on how to put together this recipe, I thought of you, dear blog reader, and I smiled inside.

If the food is good enough to eat and ask for a recipe afterwords, if I can teach someone something new about my beloved art form, the craft of beautiful food, then all the hours spent in isolation are somehow worthwhile. The majority of my time is spent chopping vegetables and placing cold foods into containers. Yet the joy that one person gets out of something in one of those containers can make me feel like a super star. I did that! Yes, it was me that made your taste buds sing for joy. I like the feeling more than I can say. It makes standing on my feet for 8 hours in a hot kitchen risking being bitten by sharp objects suddenly seem like the most rational use of time.

So, for those of you wanting the recipe, here it is. And, I will explain what I told her, the woman named for food, about this particular operation.

Red Wine Vinaigrette

1/2 teaspoon stone ground mustard
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup canola oil
salt and pepper to taste

In a blender, combine first three ingredients. With blender running, slowly add the oils until you hear the motor of the blender tighten. More or less may be needed depending on the emulsification. Add salt and pepper to taste. You may want to add more or less sugar. The trick is to taste it and see what you think. Also, the mustard is the emulsifying agent. It will make the vinegar and oil stick together instead of separating. Finally, you can change the recipe by using a different type of mustard, substituting lemon, white wine vinegar and poppy seeds for the red wine vinegar to come up with a lemon poppy seed vinaigrette. If you would prefer to have a white color to your vinaigrette  (in the lemon poppy seed case) add a 1/2 teaspoon or so of egg whites with the oil. It will astound you.

Crab Puffs OR Crab Rangoon

Confession: I am a total American girl when it comes to food. I find it difficult to be loyal to any one ethnic flavor, have a soft spot in my heart for the All American Meal (you know what I am talking about; a big fat juicy burger, french fries, coke or milkshake. Yes, Please!), and don't generally say no to pizza. American Chinese food (I lived with a woman from China this past year. She didn't recognize the food we call Chinese.) is one of my all time favorites. I have celebrated many a birthday at a Chinese restaurant.
My Uncle Stephan used to work at one of these restaurants and introduced our deeply Italian/Mexican/Scotts/Irish family to the tradition of Crab Puffs at Christmas time. Stephan was an addition to our family by marriage, and he has since remarried and moved on with his life. But the food he brought to our family still remains. All this to say, making Crab Puffs is a part of the culture of my family.
Living in a small town last time I decided to get Chinese food, I went to a place downtown. OUCH! The food was hot and fresh, but my stomach kicked me for eating there. The next day, I missed class I was so sick. All of this happened because I was hankering for Crab Puffs. When I told my chef friend, Ogie about it, he said, "Girl, you know better. You don't eat there! Make you some of your own crab puffs. You know how to make them. Don't pay someone else to do it for you."
So, yesterday, when I felt like celebrating learning something new at work, I decided to get my butt to the grocery store, buy the ingredients for Crab Puffs, and make them myself.
Well, some of this is easier said then done. I found the cream cheese and imitation crab meat (the real stuff was in a can and way expensive, thank you small town) easy enough, but I went through the whole store twice looking for won-ton wrappers. (These are little squares of pre-cut dough that you wrap your filling in and fry or steam. Delicious.) Finally, I went to the deli, and they told me they would be in the produce section with the tofu. Wow! Shows you how much tofu I eat, no? Anyways, after spending way too long in the store, I finally had the fixings for the Crab Puffs. So here's how.
This recipe was taken from About.com on 3/2/2010 via the link http://chinesefood.about.com/od/crabragoon/r/crabpuffs.htm?p=1.  

Crab Puffs by Rhonda Parkinson, About.com Guide with italics by me
1/2 pound cooked crab meat or smoked salmon, lightly flaked (you can use imitation crab too)
1 teaspoon green onion, finely minced (go to town and kill it, it's all good)
1/4 pound cream cheese (at room temperature)
1/2 teaspoon steak sauce (I used fish sauce, worked great)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or 2 cloves minced garlic (I used fresh, you can't beat the flavor)
1 pound won ton wrappers
1 beaten egg or 2 egg whites
3 cups vegetable oil

Here's the scoop: You are going to want to get your mess in place for this one (mise en place for all you high class cooks out there). Don't just add the ingredients as you go. Do this one like a pro. Take the time to actually dice the ingredients, flake the crab, beat the eggs, and surround yourself with your ingredients ready to go. This is a messy process. You're not going to want to beat the eggs after you get going. Take the time to set up, and it will go so much better for you. Just try it. PLEASE.

Preparation: Combine crab meat or smoked salmon, green onion, cream cheese, steak sauce, and garlic. Place 1/2 teaspoon of mixture in center of won ton wrapper (I was a little more liberal with mine; after all, the filling is the star of the show.); fold square over to form a triangle. Lightly brush the center with the beaten egg. Bring opposite corners together and press gently, so filling will be secure. (I wrap mine different. I make a frame around the filling that I put in the center of the won ton with beaten egg. Then, I bring the corners together like folding a blanket with the filling in the middle. Finally, I take the two ends, and join them in the center, making a cross shape over the filling. I think it looks pretty. If this is too complicated, just make sure your filling is surrounded by dough and not peaking out. If you're the only one eating it, it's all good.) Place the oil in wok and heat to 375 degrees for deep-frying. Deep-fry one crab or salmon puff and adjust heat downwards if necessary. Fry the rest of puffs until delicately brown, less than two minutes. Serve hot.

They were pretty much bomb! And I have so many left over, it's way better than going out to eat. So, if you're in the mood for some crab puffs, give this recipe a try. Remember, a recipe is a good place to start. If something isn't quite 100% like the directions say, it's all good. This is your food, so let your creativity flow. And until next time, happy eating!

Visiting Angels

I don't have any pictures for you this time, so sorry. School has ended, and I officially have one more year before I get my bachelor's degree. I will have done it a year shy of 30. Why 30 should be such a big number in my head when I live with a 70 and a 67 year-old, I do not know. There is life after 30, and a good life to be sure. And I don't feel that old, at any rate.
Well, my best friend Melody and her husband Todd came up to see me a couple days ago. I really enjoyed our time together. I took them to my favorite coffee place, the Coffee Cottage. We sat and talked about my favorite two subjects, food and Jesus.
Then, we came back to my house, and I finished getting dinner ready.
I think I am a food addict. No, seriously, it's a sickness, and I need help. The day before they arrived, I went shopping with my landlords at Winco, came home, and went right to work getting everything ready for dinner. I was up until midnight putting the finishing touches on the pie (that then slid off the plate when I tried to detach it from the foil it was resting on~ I managed to save it though). I built the whole menu around Melody's favorite 3-citrus-butter-sauce from Northwest Essentials: Cooking with Ingredients that Define a Region by Greg Atkinson. If you are in the Northwest, my suggestion is that you get this cookbook (I got mine from the BookBin in Salem, Oregon) and just try one recipe in it. You'll be hooked for life. I made a salad with greens from my CSA farm, Oakhill Organics, strawberries, almonds, goat cheese fritters with almonds, and a dressing that goes with Strawberries. Todd sauteed the squash medley to perfection. I made dutches potatoes with some nutmeg, broiled red snapper (and forgot to take the pin bones out! bad idea!), and a strawberry rhubarb pie with whole wheat pastry flour (word to the wise, use white flour). It was delicious, but not perfect. And you know, that's a lot like life.
I love my friendships, but none of them are perfect. I love to cook, but no meal I have ever made has been free of some sort of issue. That doesn't mean life cannot be savored to the fullest degree while accepting what is not perfect as good still. Those who seek perfection will never find the beauty that heals the soul. These flaws, happy mistakes, are a part of what learning forgiveness, love, and hope is all about. And I am finding that the flaws are easier to deal with if I give myself and others the grace that is needed to hold Topsy-turvey pies and unexpected character development together. We grow and learn through these conflicts, and I am grateful for them.
So, my friends, if you come see me, I'll cook you  a less than perfect meal, and share my less than perfect self with you. And somehow, I know, we will both be the better for it. And if not, remember next time something doesn't quite go according to plan, that's why we have grace, forgiveness, and good friends. Life gets better, and there is beauty to be found in the less than perfect places of life.