Daniel 25.0

Here are some shots of Daniel's surprise birthday party. He looks ready to pounce on that chocolate cake. We had an amazing turn out of friends that amiably packed into our little apartment to wish Daniel Happy 25th Birthday. The menu : Double Chocolate Sea Salt Cookies, Caramel Popcorn, Maple Glazed Pecans, Devil's Food Cake, Roasted Banana Ice Cream, Balsamic Strawberry Sorbet and Port.

Brit 25.0 // March 27

One year ago, we spent my birthday in Point Reyes National Park where Daniel surprised me with a camping trip and a ring. Remaining true to Daniel's nature, my birthday was not without surprises. Daniel cooked a delightful breakfast of blueberry scones, omelet, bacon, fruit and yogurt. At noon we enjoyed a picnic lunch in Union Square and some shopping.

For dinner Daniel took me to Dosa for Indian food. It was an incredibly thoughtful pick. Growing up, every year Mom would ask me what I wanted for my birthday dinner..... and every year it was curry and rice, a recipe that has been passed down through our family for years. By the time I was a teenager she no longer needed to ask. It's still a dish that gives me warm feeling all the way down to my toes. Nothing will ever have the power of Mom's curry.

After dinner, Daniel took me to the San Francisco Ballet to see Little Mermaid. It was a stunning interpretation and the theater was beautiful. I was so grateful for my husband, for my journey and for my lovely city. It was a magical birthday.

A NEW FAMILY MEMBER!!!!!

Brit and I are so excited to announce a new addition to our family. We felt like the blog was the best way to announce to the masses our excitement over this unexpected change in our lives! ..................................................................................................................................

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That's right folks, while out and about yesterday we happened upon this Le Creuset #22 on consignment, and we knew we needed a new sibling for our children. Like a puppy in a kennel we could not just leave this cute little thing all alone in that shop. Join us in welcoming our new addition.

Momofuku days and picnics

Poached egg over asparagus and miso butter "carbonara"

Lemongrass pork sausage lettuce wraps with pickled carrots and daikon and fish sauce vinagrette

The absolute BEST pulled pork...... Rub a 7lb pork shoulder with a mixture of 1 part sugar, 1 part kosher salt. Let sit covered in fridge overnight. Roast in 250 oven for 6 hours basting every hour. What you get is melt in your mouth heaven and lots of beautiful USEFUL rendered pork fat (awesome with potatoes, eggs, everything)!

We are now internet friendly.

Now that we have internet, I no longer have an excuse for not posting! Oh happy day! We took the plunge and signed up with Comcast. No more cramming the laptop up against the kitchen window and rearranging furniture to block the fridge just so that I can check email!!!!

Check out our newest posts....

More Sunday Bread

Homemade Pizza

Valentine's Day 2010

Time for another post...

So, I'm putting up meatballs. Like other people put up jam, I put up my meatballs. I make big cookie sheets of them and a huge pot of 'gravy'. Half of them make it into a big bag in the freezer and the rest don't make it through the week. We've been known to make spaghetti, meatball sliders, sandwiches or even just as they are. Yum.

So I've update our flickr site... which is HERE. You can see some of the moments we've captured from our adventures in the "Adventures with Brit and Dan" Set.......In January we went skiing in Tahoe with some friends, Jen and Arthur. More technically snowboarding. Daniel had to go to board school but he was a trooper and wore a smile, most of the time!

In February we drove to Napa for the weekend and went wine tasting and enjoyed some very wonderful food. It was a retreat from work and the city.... it was relaxing to get away.

In the beginning of March we flew out to meet Daniel's parents and Aunt and Uncle in the Bahamas. We all tucked cozily into Jan and Alan's boat. It was like camping on the sea by the beach. Rough I know....

then Brystal came to visit us later in March which was so wonderful. I missed her face off! We went exploring, shopping, eating and enjoying each others' company. She armed herself with fab clothing for her senior photo shoot (which turned out amazing, get a peek HERE).

Nothing like handmade pasta

BOLOGNESE SAUCE (Adapted from Bon Appetit)

• Serves 10
• I actually halved this recipe and did a mixture of pork and beef. About half and half. So I did about 1 1/2# of each. But this is an amazing way to use your Christmas deer besides jerkey (all you guys in OK). The sauce can be made a couple days ahead, let cool an hour and then chilled.
• 
  
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 7 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 1 1/4 cups chopped celery
• 3/4 cup chopped carrot
• 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 1 1/2 pounds antelope sausages or spicy Italian sausages, casings removed
• 3/4 pound ground venison or ground beef
• 3/4 pound bacon, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1 1/2 cups dry white wine
• 3/4 cup tomato paste (about 7 1/2 ounces)

• 
  

  Melt butter with oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add next 4 ingredients. Sauté until vegetables are soft but not brown, 12 to 14 minutes. Add meat. Increase heat to high. Cook until meat is brown, breaking into small pieces with back of spoon, about 15 minutes.

  Stir in milk, wine, and tomato paste. Reduce heat to low. Simmer until sauce is thick, flavors blend, and juices are reduced, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

  
  

  Serve over HOMEMADE PAPPARDELLE pasta

• 
  

More Sunday Bread

I crave bread. I'll make you crave it too.....

Homemade pizza recipe

Pizza Dough- Adapted from Baking Illustrated

This dough is best made in the food processor but it has to be at least an 11-cup capacity. If you use AP Flour instead of bread flour the crust will be fine but less crispy. If you want to make the dough in the morning and let it rise all day covered on the counter until doubled (about 8 hours) decrease the yeast to ½ tsp.

½ cup warm water (about 110 degrees)

1 envelope instant yeast

1 ¼ cups water, at room temp

2 Tbsp olive oil

4 cups (22 oz) bread flour, plus more for dusting

1 ½ tsp salt

Olive oil for oiling the bowl

Measure the warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Sprinkle in the yeast and let stand until the yeast dissolves and swells (5 min). Add the room-temp water and oil and stir to combine.

Process the flour and salt in a large food processor, pulsing. Continue pulsing while pouring liquid ingredients (holding back a few tablespoons) through the feed tube. Dough should readily form a ball (if not add remaining liquid and pulse until it forms a ball). Process until dough is smooth and elastic, about 30 seconds longer.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead by hand for a few strokes to form a smooth round ball. Put the dough into a deep oiled bowl and cover with oiled plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, 1 ½ to 2 hours. Press the dough to deflate it.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 3 pieces. Form each piece into a smooth round ball and cover with a damp cloth. Let the dough relax at least 10 min but no more than 30 min. Preaheat the oven to 500* F with a pizza stone on the lowest rack. Shape the dough by pressing, stretching, or rolling. Put crust on a pizza stone liberally sprinkled with cornmeal. Prick with a fork to prevent bubbling. Bake on the pizza stone until golden 6-10 min.

Recipe for homemade 'mallows

Here is the recipe for the marshmallows from my previous post! Be creative, use a sugared cookie cutter and cut out fun shapes and roll in colored sugar....

Vanilla bean marshmallows

Adapted from Thomas Keller

3 envelopes knox gelatin

1/2 cup cold water

2 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup light corn syrup

1/4 cup water

1/4 tsp salt

1 Tbsp vanilla bean paste (or extract or other extract like lemon or orange)

confectioners sugar for dredging

In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for 10 min.

In a small sauce pan combine sugar, corn syrup and 1/4 cup water. Bring to a boil and boil hard for 1 minute. Turn mixer on to high speed and pour boiling syrup into mixture. Add the salt and beat 12 min. Mixture should be fluffy, glossy and stiff. Stir in vanilla (or other flavoring) until incorporated. Scrape into lined pan and spread evenly. Cover with oiled plastic wrap.

*Tip* Lightly oil spatula or scraper and use the oiled plastic wrap to cover and use hands to push and spread fluff evenly.

Let mixture sit for a few hours before cutting. Remove top layer of wrap and turn out onto a surface dusted with confectioners sugar. Remove remaining wrap and dust entire surface with sugar. Cut the slab into pieces (I usually get 36 cubes) with a serrated knife. It helps to dust the knife and/or clean it periodically. Dredge each mallow in sugar. Enjoy your mallow in a cup of hot chocolate, dipped in melted chocolate or just like it is.

I Heart You Day 2010

so we decide to start a precedent for our Valentine's Day... one of us makes dinner and the other makes breakfast... and every year we switch. Sounds diplomatic right? So in honor of breakfast disasters, I was very successful in making what I called Cinnamon Roll Slump. Mom would have been so disappointed and I promptly requested her recipe for my next attempt. So add to that some bacon and prosciutto baked eggs and that's my slightly pathetic breakfast plate


Daniel hit one out of the park with gorgeous pork chops, baked apples and red onion, and a mango cucumber salad. He finished it off with a dark chocolate filled brioche and a port. It was our first bottle of port and I think Daniel fell in love all over again....

SUPER bowl!

Yeah yeah I know this was all the way back to the beginning of February.... but seriously I'm so behind! We've cooked some stuff I just can't leave off the blog, though (even if it is a few months ago!). So since we have the chronic Holiday Celebration Syndrome, we thought "why not make lots of food and have people over for this football game?" Jack (as always) and Alan, Julie and Avin obliged us. So here is our fare..... homemade pretzels with aged white cheddar and a pale ale mustard, pork sliders on challah rolls with pepperjack and aoili, oven roasted garlic fries, and a green apple cabbage slaw with pecans..... yummy.

Jack (family of 1) and the Mateos (Alan, Julie and Avin at about 1 month old)

Easy pulled pork for sliders (adapted from Momofuku)

You can multiply this recipe as needed. A 10-pound shoulder takes 3 times the seasoning but the same amount of time to cook!

3-pound piece of boneless pork shoulder

1/4 cup kosher salt

1/4 cup sugar

1. Put the shoulder into a roasting pan (we use our le creuset) that holds it snugly. Mix together the salt and sugar in a small bowl and rub the mix all over the meat; discard the excess. Cover the container with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for at least 6 hrs, no longer than 24.

2. Heat oven to 250 F

3 Discard any liquid in the pan. Put the shoulder in the oven and cook for 6 hours, basting ever hour with rendered fat. Take it out of the oven and let rest 30 min.

4. Shred the meat, pulling into strands using two forks, as you would pulled pork. If you need to hold the pork for a day or so, add some of the rendered fat from the pan to the shredded meat to keep it most and store it, tightly covered, in the fridge. Reheat it in a low oven (250 or 300F) before using.

We like to save the strained rendered fat to use like you would butter or oil.... adds flavor in sauces, to fries, even scrambled eggs.

Sunday bread

We have taken to making bread every Sunday. In the past i have had a serious vendetta against bread-baking. Its in my blood to love bread. I grew up fighting for zwieback and stashing away butterhorns with my greedy fingers for later. I love this carbohydrate in all its glory. It is my weakness and my nemesis. Even when I've been the baker's assistant (mom's or grandma's) i always somehow managed to do something terrible. So I have decided to conquer bread with Daniel's help in a series of Sundays....

Our first foray was brioche (which we first made into rolls for Thanksgiving then later into a loaf for Christmas) a very rich velvety bread, heavy on the egg and heavy on the butter. The smell of this bread baking is ridiculous and one can't help but just gravitate towards the kitchen. The result is a dark and shiny crust and a soft golden interior. Perfect for eating and even better as french toast. But there is no shame in slicing it thinly, toasting it and making a fried egg sandwich out of it. The day after Christmas we had Ciabatta, some of which we made into little rolls for hamburgers and sandwiches and the rest into a big rustic loaf for slicing and freezing. The Ciabatta was a crusty bread with an airy center and perfect chew. It thumped like a drum when you knocked on it and toasted so beautifully straight out of the freezer.

Bread-baking has been a very relaxing Sunday activity and I look forward to the amazing thing that is yeast-and-flour-and-water, rising and baking. The smell is the warm velvety smell of home and family and comfort. There is no satisfaction like measuring, mixing, kneading and forming and pulling a hot loaf of bread out of the oven to cool and slice and eat throughout the week with soup, in a sandwich or sopping up a delicious sauce, knowing all the while that you made that bread with your own two hands. Stay tuned for more bread making chronicles to come.....Happy bread-making Sunday.