In case I haven't mentioned it enough, my manfriend loves pizza. He writes reviews for an online food community. He makes his own. He has friends who own pizza places. He's... obsessed.
But, I will say, he makes one super-fine-delicious Sicilian pizza. This is pizza baked on a cookie sheet that has an edge. Manfriend covers the homemade dough with freshly made sauce, four cheeses, and fresh basil. It's... yum.
So I've been bragging about it, and anytime you brag about a pizza aficionado making his own pizza, it means people want some. A couple weeks ago Manfriend slaved away in the kitchen to make pizza for my mom and some family friends.
Also, I'd just like to say that my Manfriend looks great in an apron.
Tasted:
There is a tasty by-product of dating a foodie. While we dated long distance for 7 months and we went to plenty of good restaurants on our short trips, I don't think I correctly imagined living in the same city. I have been back in Portland not quite 3 weeks, and I already have a bevy of new restaurants that I like (or even love).
I'll forget a bunch of them, but here's a great rundown:
**We ate at Firehouse last night as a celebratory dinner (because I got a job offer for a nanny position!). Everything was delicious - baked corn, salad, margherita pizza, and gnocchi with spring vegetables.
**We went out to dinner with some of Manfriend's family at the Sunshine Tavern. It was a relaxed atmosphere (and not at all like a Tavern), with pretty good food. The best part was the honey soft serve ice cream. Great location on Division.
**When other members of Manfriend's family were visiting we went to two great places, one of which I had been to before. Little Big Burger serves proportionally wonderful hamburgers (with great cheeses), and just-crispy-enough fries. Simple menu, great prices. They are opening quite a few new locations. We have been to the one down in the Pearl by Powell's books, but there are other locations opening, including one on SE Division.
**We also found a great Mexican place in the outer reaches of Northeast Portland. At 162nd and Glisan there is Tortilleria de Leon, a grocery store/bakery/restaurant. In the back of the store you'll find a glass case filled with cooked meats. The best deal (and what most of our group got) was the "combination" plate, which was actually beans, rice, and the meat of your choice, served with a mountainload of handmade tortillas (your choice: corn or flour).
~~My manfriend wrote an article that just went up today about great doughnuts in Portland. Voodoo is notably not on the list. You can read it here. It's pretty great.
Seen:
**We recently went to see "The Interruptors", a movie about... well, I'll let you watch the trailer. It was a really great film.
** We rented "Never Let Me Go", an imaginative story, chronicling the lives of three schoolmates who are part of a project where people are bred and raised as organ donors. Not in anyway sci-fi, it did a good job at predicting what the emotional implications would be. Visually, it was a beautiful film. The dreariness of English (and coats, sweaters, boots, scarves) always does something to me. It must be in my blood.
**We also started watching the TV show "Breaking Bad", but I haven't made up my mind about it yet. It has made me want to gag, and has made me hide my face behind Manfriend's shoulder. The jury's still out.
**A friend posted this video on facebook. It made me cry. This principal is doing everything in her power to change her students' lives. What an inspiration.
Heard: Mates of State's new album, Mountaintops, is out today. They're one of the few bands I still actively follow - they always make me happy.
A friend recently posted on facebook pictures of peanut butter cupcakes. Why, I don't mind if I do! Her easy recipe just called for adding a 1/2 cup of peanut butter to a yellow cake mix - EASY! She also added half a cup of peanut butter to a chocolate frosting she made from scratch.
But let me tell you now that we had about 10 cans of frosting leftover from a visiting group, and if I can do things the easy way, I will. I could have added a 1/2 cup of frosting to the canned chocolate frosting, but I decided not to.
I'm not a big fan of peanut butter and chocolate together (don't start with me, I've heard it all), so I also frosted some with vanilla frosting.
Anna said you could also drop a Hershey kiss into each cupcake. But in my mind, a drop of jelly in the middle, topped with vanilla frosting... that sounds delicious.
Anna has just started her own Etsy shop, so you should check her out.
In my last post I talked about my favorite peanut butter. Yum.
The true destiny of peanut butter is to be paired in eternal bliss with jelly. Or jam. Or preserves. Whatever floats your boat. My manfriend asked "okay, but what's your favorite jelly?". Well, Manfriend, I haven't found a favorite yet. This is mostly because all store bought jelly is incredibly sweet. I need to learn to make my own. However, my favorite flavor is strawberry, with marionberry coming in a close second.
So today I will expound on the heavenly pairing of peanut butter and jelly. I'm a big fan. I ate it fairly often as a kid and even asked for a PB & J sandwich whenever my grandma made roast. As a teenager my favorite thing to eat was peanut butter and jelly on sourdough - a double decker. If you've never made a double decker, let me inform you: three pieces of bread, peanut butter and jelly in between all slices. Yum city. This is success:
Apparently I made my love for PB & J well known because I received this shirt a few years ago from a friend.
Note: I am not the man pictured above.
Everybody knows about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And you've probably had peanut butter and jelly toast. And I wouldn't put it past anybody to have made peanut butter and jelly on a bagel.
But what about other executions? Let me recount some for you.
**When I was living in South Korea I couldn't find decent bread. I ate peanut butter and jelly saltine sandwiches. I'm not kidding. Little saltine sandwiches, painstakingly put together. Still yum.
**Peanut butter and jelly on plain pita chips. Yummers.
**Peanut butter and jelly taquitos. At home, I made them in flour tortillas. Here at the daycare, Cande (our cook), makes homemade corn tortillas and then fills them with PB & J.
**Peanut butter and jelly on a spoon. Who needs bread?
And my favorite......
**Peanut butter and jelly ice cream. I ain't kiddin'. My mom always shops at Grocery Outlets which very often stock discontinued items. One day she picked up four pints of Ben and Jerry's: vanilla ice cream swirled with peanut butter and strawberry jelly. After those pints were gone I began to make my own and have even asked for a specialty mixed Blizzard at Dairy Queen.
I dare you to try it. Vanilla ice cream, top with a spoon of peanut butter and a spoon of jelly. Mix, or eat little by little.
Any other suggestions? I am open to any and all recommendations involving peanut butter and jelly.
I think everyone has a favorite peanut butter. I know what mine is. I haven't eaten it in a while, but it lives on in my dreams until one day I float back to the Pacific Northwest (less than two weeks) and prance into the local grocery store and purchase this peanut butter. It will be a glorious day.
Although I, like many other young American children (I am not young anymore), have mostly eaten Skippy or some other famous brand for most of my life, I eventually found my way to Adams. I love Adams. Although I should state at this point that I do not eat any nuts in whole form, I do love me some peanut butter. I can't stand the texture of any kind of nut, so I abhor crunchy peanut butter. However, even though Adams creamy is a little more texture-y than most big name brands, I love it all the same. And it has less sugar and none of that added stupidity.
One day two years ago, while I was absentmindedly picking up groceries at my local WinCo, I picked up my Adams peanut butter. I liked the creamy kind that you still had to stir (because the oils separate). I liked this kind. I picked it up and went on my way.
I got home and found out that I had picked up the creamy, stir, UNSALTED kind. PURE PEANUTS. Creamy, yes, but no salt. NO SALT? I tasted it and confirmed that it was quite strange. However, being as frugal and practical as I am, I decided I had to eat it anyway before I bought a new jar.
And guess what? I fell in love. It took a little while, like any kind of falling in love does. I had to consider my options and figure out what was best for me. But I did it. I fell head over heels for the unsalted Adams, creamy, stir kind of peanut butter. It's a mouthful, but it's worth it.
There are a lot of drinks in Mexico that I don't really care for. I can pass on the horchata, the atole, and many of the aguas that are available at taco stands and street markets. I have, however, found one I really like, and that's jamaica. I know that when you read that it looks like Jamaica, the country, but I assure you that it's jamaica, better known to Americans has the hibiscus flower. In Spanish, it's pronounced ha-MY-ka. My question up in the air right now is whether the country or the flower was named first, but I still have some research to do in that department.
I enjoy a nice cup of jamaica, but when I buy it here in town it's usually super sweet. Have you heard about Mexican Coke and how it's sweeter than the American version? It's true, and I think it must apply to every other drink here in Mexico as well.
When I was visiting Seattle, I had jamaica at a Mexican restaurant that was just perfect. It was sweet, but I could still taste the tartness of the flower, and I just loved it. At that point I realized I needed to learn how to make my own jamaica.
After some quick advice from a couple of people here at our mission, I set off to accomplish my jamaica-lovin' dreams. And accomplish I did. It was so incredibly easy, and I was so happy to be able to monitor the amount of sugar involved in the process. So here's how to make jamaica.
My dried jamaica flowers were in a plain, unmarked bag, but then again, I live in Mexico. You might be able to find it at a Mexican grocery store where you live, or perhaps in the Mexican food aisle. You can see how much I used, and this eventually made about 3-4 liters of juice.
Just stick the dried flowers in a 3-quart size pan, filled about a 1/3rd with water.
Boil for 15 minutes.
Use a colander to catch the flowers as you collect the concentrate.
I put the water in the containers before the boiling concentrate, so I wouldn't be pouring boiling water into those plastic containers.
I put the juice in the refrigerator, and then added sugar to taste when it was cold.
Last year one of our interns started a little side business of selling treats to our visiting American groups. It worked out great - she would make the treats and just set them out in our large dining hall in the afternoons and evenings. The group members would just leave money in a jar. She enjoyed baking, and so this was an obviously great way for her to earn a little extra cash.
She went home at the end of July and I decided to take over the "business". I make some pretty awesome chocolate chips cookies. I can say that with a straight face and a firm belief. I've never had a homemade cookie as good as mine. I get requests for them from friends and family, and I have made them for travelings rock bands (who then ask for them the next time they're in town OR ask for the recipe to give to their wife - true story). Trust me on this, guys. I am a person who can fully acknowledge when I don't do something well. I'm actually pretty good at saying "eh, this didn't turn out great". I don't do many things well, but these cookies are out of this world.
I couldn't just sell chocolate chip cookies though, even if they are as scrumptious as everyone says. I rounded out my offerings with brownies, peanut butter cookies (that are also quite delicious), and the famous peanut butter bars. The former intern gave me this recipe.
I want to tell you right now that I'm not a peanut butter/chocolate combo lover. I've never liked it. HOWEVER I heard over and over again about how good these bars are. Last week I made two trays of them because they were sold out almost immediately. They're fairly simple to make and don't require baking. Here's the recipe, for all interested parties (and for your interesting parties).
Just looking at those ingredients, you can see how great this could be. Directions: Crush the graham crackers. I use a rolling pin (or other objects) and a plastic ziploc.You can use other methods, but I cannot guarantee success.
Mix together all crumbs, powdered sugar, peanut butter, and butter. I put the melted butter on last, as I think it helps with the mixing.
When it's all mixed together well, spread at the bottom of a 9x13 pan. I've just figured out that using the back of a spoon to smooth it out helps a LOT. It only took me 12 times of making these suckers to figure that out.
Melt chocolate chips and oil together and mix well.
Spread chocolate on top of the peanut butter/crumb mixture. It's a much thinner layer.
Refrigerate for an hour, cut the pieces, then keep refrigerating for a few more hours, until completely firm. Cutting them after an hour prevents the top chocolate from hardening completely. If the chocolate is completely hardened, it's hard to cut, and the chocolate just cracks and splits.
Voilá! You have just made Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars and everyone will think you are the best person ever. Have fun being popular!
I finally ran 5 miles today. It doesn't seem like much, but it's been a long time to get back to this point. I had give myself the time, and be patient with myself.
The reality is, I have a weakness. This weakness is soda. I can live without sweets (and often do when I live by myself), but I love soda. I know regular soda is bad for me, and diet soda is just as bad, just without the calories. But I have a weakness.
And that weakness is called Mt. Dew. Living in Mexico, I rarely have it - they don't carry it here. Every once in a while I get it when I go to the States.
The last time I went to the States, a week and a half ago, I picked up a can, brought it home, and put it in my refrigerator. It has stared at me, all that time, and I decided that it could only be consumed after running a 5-miler.
Can't say that there's been much going on around here.
I spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday baking up some goodies. When the groups come and visit I make treats to sell in the afternoons and evenings. Another intern thought that scheme up last summer, and when she left mid-summer, I took over the business. Well, groups are rolling in again, which means the oven is hot, my hands are sticky, and everyone's gaining weight.
I sell:
*Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars
*Peanut Butter cookies
*Brownies
*My Famous Chocolate Chip cookies (I say "My Famous..." because it's true. If you haven't yet heard about my chocolate chip cookies, it's most likely because I don't know you.)
I package all of these up and sell two cookies for a dollar, or one brownie for a dollar, or one PB chocolate bar for a dollar. It's a steal considering how wonderful they all are. I've only had them out for sale for one night and my current best customer is one of our interns, Kevin.
In the coming weeks I'll be posting recipes of these goodies, along with pictures.
The rest of my weekend was pretty quiet. I watched some episodes of The Wire, re-started a manly scarf, got sucked in to watching some episodes of 24 with my parents, ate some really great strawberry shortcake, and bothered my manfriend with silly emails. Pretty relaxing!
I don't think this is a topic I would have ever brought up on my own. Pizza is good. Pizza is fine. I will eat just about any brand or style of pizza, without many complaints. You know when pizza is appropriate? On moving days. You invite your friends over to help you move, and you give them pizza for lunch. Or you order pizza on a movie night. Or you get pizza for a kid's birthday party. These have always been my pizza thoughts.
Then I met Manfriend.
Manfriend loves pizza. Not only does he love pizza, but he knows a lot about pizza. He's a pizza fiend. When visiting different cities, he gets on his computer and hunts down that city's best pizza. He writes pizza reviews. Say what? Yes. He writes pizza reviews for a very large website. He uses words like "char", "undercarriage", and "notes of..." to talk about the appearance and flavor of pizza. Where did this guy come from?
Well, I don't really care where he came from, but he's here, and all of a sudden I know more about pizza than I ever did before. In fact, just last week Manfriend was visiting a restaurant to write a story about a special kind of pizza topping. He shadowed the pizza chef (are they called chefs? I don't even know), wrote notes, took pictures. When we tasted the pizza afterward, the pizza chef (who already knew Manfriend) asked me, "So are you now along for all of the pizza adventures?" I responded that yes, I now know more about pizza than I previously did, and how I can somehow distinguish whcih restaurants I like better.
One day I may even begin to formulate a reason why I like a certain pizza better other than "Ummm, it was good."
On to the story: So Manfriend likes experimenting with homemade pizzas, and while we were at his place in Seattle, he made a very tasty Sicilian style pizza. What's Sicilian? I don't know. But it was good.
He made the dough, using this recipe. It was fairly simple, and made easier with a stand mixer and a dough hook. It had to rise for two hours. If you don't have a stand mixer, you can still make it, but it will take 9-10 hours to rise. However, we did not use the sauce listed with that dough recipe. I'm sure that one's fine, but we used another recipe.
The sauce (New York style) was also pretty simple, much simpler than I had anticipated. And yes, the onions cook like that.
We topped the pizza with parmesan, fresh mozarella, and fresh basil. It didn't need anything else because it was so delicious.
While Manfriend was preparing this scrumptious pizza, I actually thought to myself "I wish my blog had the ability to transmit smells, because this smells so amazing."
Yeah, living in Mexico has its highlights, one of which is the food. What? You didn't know Mexican food is great?
We have a taqueria here in town that most everyone loves. They really do have the best tacos. It's by the side of the road, the things you add to your taco are laying out on a table, and they're cheap. Manfriend and I had 5 tacos all together, and I think we ended up paying about 6 or 7 dollars. That's a steal.
Manfriend's plate, with carne asada on the left, and adobada (pork) on the right. He went simple with his add-ons (chopped onions and cilantro, salsa, lime).
I, on the other hand, want the cabbage, the marinated onions, the salsa, the lime. I want it all!
The spread
The adobada on the spit
We also tried another taco place that serves chorreadas. I'd never had one before and while it's not really anything different than any other Mexican food, the bottom shell is a little thicker than a regular tortilla and cooked crispier. I really liked it, and will definitely be back.
While Manfriend was here we made an apple pie. I made the same apple pie that I made for Thanksgiving. The only thing was that this time I had to make my own pie crust. Cutting cold butter into flour is no laughing matter, for which I was happy that Manfriend was there to help. He's a good manfriend like that.
It was delicious.
***You can find the apple pie recipe here. The only thing that should be changed is that it was on the watery side, so add more flour.
***The pie crust is found here. It was incredibly light and flaky. We used salted butter instead of shortening, and it was great. We doubled the recipe, thinking that it was only enough for one crust, but we were wrong - we had a ton left over.
And you know what my family does with leftover pie dough? We make peanut butter and jelly pie. It's what it sounds like. And it's even better than you're thinking. And it is wonderful.
No, not that mole. Chicken mole. Mexican dish. Served at special occasions, especially weddings. Food of my heart.
It's strange that I like mole. When I first tried it out years ago, it didn't agree with my tastebuds. It's part bitter, part spicy, part... ugly. Cande makes mole at our daycare from a jar. Hey - that's what you do when you're feeding 60 (or more) people. She also adds extra sugar and chocolate for the kids' sakes. So I began with super sweet mole that carried a little kick.
But wedding mole? It's homemade. Someone's grinding down those ingredients and cooking them over a stove for a long time. Whoever that someone is, I love them. One thing I like about mole is that everyone's mole tastes different.
Today, our construction foreman, Colores, was officially married in a tiny, quick civil ceremony over in some office. But his family had a party, and we were all invited. Colores is a really great kid and we all love him - he is happy, kind, generous, funny, and thoughtful. We also like his wife and their son, Jose Adolfo. He's part of our family here. So, yes, of course, we will come to your house and eat chicken mole and drink Coca-Cola, thankyouverymuch.
What a slow morning. At one point I was going so slow (and could feel it) that I thought to myself "I feel just like I did running that silly half marathon". That's when I knew it was a slow morning. The funny thing is that when the sun really came up, I could see my shadow as I ran beside the packing plant, and I could make out the craziness that are my quads. I keep thinking that they must belong to someone else.
I sat down this morning to eat with my oldest Kinders class. Arroz con leche. All of a sudden Rodrigo showed me a plastic bag that had a big something wrapped in foil. He announced that his Mom had packed him some burritos. He unwrapped the foil and offered me one. A homemade bean burrito? Thank you very much. And yes, when I say homemade, I mean that tortilla was made by hand. And fresh, too. There are defintely perks to this job.
There was a time, many years ago, when I was wary and cautious of anything homemade outside of Cande's cooking (Cande is our cook at the daycare). I worried about refrigeration. I worried about how old the food was. I worried about cooks not washing hands. And you know what? In the number of years that I've been here, I can count how many times I've been truly sick on one hand. And one of those times I had made my own food.
So yes, I will eat a bean burrito that was prepared in a one room house where the cook may not have washed her hands before she prepared it. I'll eat week-old pasta salad, and food that's been sitting out without a cover on it. And yes, I'll even eat a bologna sandwich made by Maria, who lived in a tiny shack with a dirt floor.
I will not eat pig skin, though. You can't make me do that.
Gabby announced she was going to make apple fritters and asked if I wanted to join her. Umm, apple fritters? YES, YES I would like to join you in making apple fritters. Gabby got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman (the recipe is at the bottom of the page), who everybody loves so much that she might be the next Julia Child. The recipe was much simpler than I imagined it, it's just that frying anything scares the bejeebus out of me. But all went well.
The batter:
We were both pretty unsure about the temperature of the oil, so our first batch was ruined. The fritters were too big, and the oil was too hot, which resulted in fritters with doughy centers and burned exteriors.
Gabby played with the oil temp, and we made the fritters much smaller (especially after we re-read the recipe part that says "drop teaspoons of batter").
Our first successful piece of fried goodness, cracked open to make sure it was cooked through. It was.
Dusted those little yummies with some powdered sugar. We also made a glaze that Gabby dunked some of the fritters in.
What I really liked about these fritters was that the apples somehow got to the perfect texture, even though you only fry the fritters for 2-3 minutes. It was just enough apple flavor.
I think the equation for today goes like this:
Big salad for lunch + Apple fritters + Diet Coke = Balanced Diet
How's that for even stevens? I made myself go slow this morning. I want nothing messing up my long run tomorrow morning, and if I were to get sore from feeling like Speedy Gonzalez, then I'd only have myself to blame. So right now all I can think about is what sort of crazy routes I'm going to take tomorrow morning to be able to get in that many miles for my long run. There are only so many places I feel comfortable running in this town.
I've been thinking a lot lately about eating correctly for running. Other than changing my eating habits a few years ago for the better, I don't obsess like I know a lot of runners do. I try to make sure I'm getting enough water, and I'm even bad at that.
I'm fairly convinced that my poor performance at the half marathon was due to a poor day of eating the day prior. A hotel breakfast, half of a horrible salad for lunch, and a dinner that was too small considering I was going to burn 1500 calories the next morning.
So if any other runners want to weigh in on this - opinions? Do you keep track of what you eat religiously? I know I shouldn't eat six mini tostadas for dinner, but I know I also shouldn't just eat vegetables.
We are back in the Portland area, staying at the house of friends. I had run here some last winter, so I was all set to go out there this morning and kill it. Well I guess I forgot about that little sneaky incline. Except "little" doesn't really describe it. For someone who never runs inclines or hills, this was tough, but I had to do it twice. I guess it slowed me down enough to my "easy run" pace and I survived.
But even more exciting than my run (because obviously that was just a thriller), was my breakfast. I got the bright idea to put a tablespoon of peanut butter in my oatmeal. Man... that is tasty. I savored it while watching the Today show where some guy talked about good diets. I wonder if he's ever heard of oatmeal with peanut butter. Someone should tell him.
I was going to have leftover salad for lunch. Yes, I was. I love salad. I super love salad. Salad and I are best buds.
But uh... who can turn down homemade tamales? Seriously - our cook, Cande, doesn't ever really make them at the daycare - they are labor intensive! But today she did. And they were great. I've eaten a lot of tamales and these things were.... amazing. Yum. Big kudos to Cande for being so great. I didn't take any pictures. I was too busy eating.
You know who needs kudos? Child photographers. Good golly. I just took pictures of our staff and classes and a group of kids is no easy thing to photograph. They wiggle, complain, move, shade their eyes, and are silly. School photographers need Oscars. Or Nobel Peace Prizes.
Why is it that yesterday I could do a nearly 8 mile run with a horribly sore back, and the sun beating down on me, but this morning it was like pulling teeth to completely 4 easy miles?
Because today starts my half marathon training, that's why. And it's all in my head.
One of these nights I'm going to go to bed early.
I've come to the realization that dairy might be making me sick. Or, at least it causes stomach problems. I need to go dairy free for a week or so and see if I can solve some of those problems. This is really hard for me because I've grown up eating copious amounts of dairy. In fact, when we ate at In-N-Out on Saturday I left the cheese off of my meal (I don't like In-N-Out's cheese), but uh.. I spaced the fact that I probably shouldn't drink a milkshake. Oops. It was a long ride home, too. This will definitely take some getting used to, but yesterday I did pretty well. Although, a tuna melt without cheese is not quite the same...
This is not a Real Meal Deal, 'cause I didn't make it. Real Meal Deals are notable because I don't usually cook. On the other hand, Cande, the cook at our daycare, cooks two wonderful meals every day. This day I actually happened to be in the kitchen during the construction of the enchiladas. I have no real recipe with these pictures. Instead, just a whole lot of yummmmm.
You need to go down to the tortilleria and get yourself a bag of fresh corn tortillas. Fresh. Made that day.
You need a lot of grated, white, Mexican cheese. I don't know what kind. Just Mexican.
You need to fry those tortillas in hot oil, just about 3 seconds on each side. You don't want them crispy, just soaked in oil. (Hey- that's me, frying the tortillas! Because Brigida stole my camera and this shot.)
You need to cook some sauce that has tomatoes, onions, and some other stuff that I can't remember. You di[ that little tortilla in it, roll the cheese up inside, then cover it with more cheese! Yummers!
And if you got real skillz, like Cande, you make hot guayaba yumminess with milk and cinnamon. And probably some other stuff, too.
Now you are on your way to being a real cook!
On a sidenote: my mom made Indian fry bread today for lunch. The last time I ate that, I was about 7. And I was on an actual reservation.
