Hawaiian Sun

So, Maidservant of the Monster and me were in Honolulu a few weeks ago for a conference. I should probably update y'all about that in real-world terms, but suffice it to say our presentations went well, and we had a little time to enjoy where we were. And then we came back to the 'Gene and it's been nonstop work every since.

One of the unexpected pleasures of being there was that a lot of places we went to eat they had Hawaiian Sun juices. Some of you will know what these are: guava juice, or passionfruit juice, or passion-orange-guava, or whatever, in brightly colored cans. We used to be able to get them at the Embassy commissary when we lived in Tokyo (we being the nuclear Walley clan), and as I recall we even used to bring home flats of the stuff when we'd go shopping at Yokosuka or Yokota. I don't know if I've had any since then - so that would make it eighteen years - but the cans haven't changed at all.

The stuff is probably available in the contiguous 48 - I think I've seen it in Asian groceries - I just never thought to look. Now I'm obsessed with it. Boy, did it bring back memories of life on the Embassy compound.

Seafood subs

I feel guilty not having posted here in so long: been too busy with work to be very creative or attentive about cooking, is my excuse. This recipe isn't complicated enough to make up for it, but it's a start at least.

Seafood subs. Simple and common to the point of cliché, but I was still pretty thrilled when I learned how to make them at home.

Ingredients (makes 2 sandwiches):
Imitation crab (our local supermarket sells it "fresh," whatever that means in this context; you can also get it frozen), maybe 1/2 pound
Mayonnaise (the real stuff)
Dried chives
Old Bay
Chopped black olives
Hoagie rolls

1. Cut up the imitation crab. Put it in a bowl.

2. Add mayo until it looks like you have enough. I didn't measure. It's not important.

3. Add chives and olives to taste. Mix with a fork.

4. Add Old Bay to taste.

5. Toast the rolls and fill with the above mix.

That's it. Hardly a recipe. But goodness gracious it's tasty.

Hasselback potatoes

I hardly ever make potatoes but occasionally a recipe will catch my eye and I'll try it out. This was a joint effort of Scott and myself:

3 whole russets, washed with peels on

3 cloves of garlic

2-3 tbs butter or margarine

salt and pepper

olive oil for drizzling

Slice the potatoes most of the way through (leave about a 1/4 inch of whole potato on the bottom) into ~3mm slices width-wise. Slice your garlic thinly and tuck it in between your potato sections. Shmear with butter (if it is stick butter break it up and put it in between slices like the garlic). Drizzle with olive oil. Bake in a 425 degree oven for about an hour until they are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Very unhealthy, very awesome. It should look like the picture at the top.

St. Patrick's Day

For Saint Patrick's Day breakfast we had Lucky Charms, of course. A venerable Irish tradition if there ever was one.

And let's be honest, the dinner I'm cooking now is just barely more Irish than that. But we're barely more Irish than this dinner anyway, if I remember right, so this seems about right:

roasted potatoes with garlic, rosemary, and oregano
Glynne's cabbage salad recipe, minus the daikon because I forgot to buy it
southwest-y falafel with Irish cheddar on top

So that's my tribute to St. Pat.

May the road rise up to meet you and the wind be always at your back. :)

New Foods! Yay! At Long Last!

Okay, most of these new foods are from Target, but I can't help it if they make interesting food.

1. Basil noodles (I think it was linguine) from Target--these were pretty fun. They definitely taste basil-y, and they're also a nice green. I think we had them with a mediterranean stew, which was nice. I think they'd be good with all sorts of Italian sauces.

2. Chili noodles from Target--I used these with a peanut sauce, which was probably not ideal but it went fine. These have some heat but not a ton of flavor. They're interesting but I'm not sure what to really use them with.

3. Archer Farms Roasted Tomato and Chipotle salsa--I like this a lot. It might be my new favorite salsa, sweet and not-too-spicy with a nice roasted flavor. And I'm partial to smaller salsa chunks rather than big, so these are a good size for me.

4. Archer Farms Traditional Picante Style salsa--also a good one, mild with a good flavor. Who'd have thought that out of all the fancy brands I've tried I'd settle on plain old Target salsa?

5. Denmark's Finest havarti (finally something not from Target)--our store has plain (nice and rich), caraway, and jalapeno. Plus I think they make the dill flavor I tried a while back, which was nice but a little too dill-y for me. I was worried the caraway would be overpowering but it was really nice, and a totally new flavor with cheese for me. The jalapeno is Denmark's answer to pepper jack, I guess, and I think I actually prefer it to pepper jack. It's got a nice kick to it which blends nicely with the richness of the havarti. I highly recommend both the jalapeno and the caraway.

East Meets West, Rice Style

So we tried Glynne's omuraisu a while back and despite my sub-standard omelette skills it turned out pretty well and we all really liked it.

Fast forward a couple weeks and I'm getting ready to make barbecue rice, which is pretty much southwest-style fried rice. It's got corn, kidney beans, onions, bell peppers, and (of course) barbecue sauce.

And I realize I could totally combine these two recipes, so I did. So I made barbecue rice without the kidney beans and shredded some colby-jack onto it, then I topped it with omelettes. I'm still a fairly crappy omeletteer, but it turned out pretty tasty anyway.

Avocado-blueberry-grapefruit salad

We had some people over tonight, and I wanted something to serve with the taco soup, so I kind of made up this recipe based on what I felt like eating. I surfed some recipe sites for ideas, and that's where I got the grapefruit, but the rest was me. I'm kind of proud of it: people had seconds and thirds.

Ingredients:
2 pink grapefruit
2 large avocados
1/2 large red onion, or 1 small red onion
4 red radishes
1 cup or so fresh blueberries
vinaigrette dressing

1. Chop the onion fairly fine.

2. Slice the radishes paper-thin with a mandolin.

3. Cut open the grapefruit and cut out the insides. Dice.

4. Cut open the avocados, scoop out the insides. Dice.

5. Mix onion, radish, grapefruit, avocado, and blueberries in a bowl.

6. Drizzle vinaigrette over, mix.

7. Chill for an hour or so.

The vinaigrette I used was Brianna's Champagne Caper Vinaigrette, which is kind of creamy with a hint of grapey sweetness and a touch of salty-sour caper. It was perfect, but I'd be curious to know if a regular vinaigrette would work too.

This made enough for five adults, with some left over for tomorrow. Obviously, you could halve this recipe for a smaller group.