Bacon Jam without Coffee

Martha Stewart in all her Martha glory came up with (Christian believes she actually doesn't come up with anything, what do you think?) a bacon jam recipe for the December issue of Everyday Food. Her version called for coffee but since drinking coffee would mean eternal damnation (kidding! Mormons don't really believe that we believe this) I decided to make my bacon jam with herbal tea, Sweet & Spicy from Good Earth, a local tea factory, to be exact.

One truth about Mormons is that we tend to have a lot of kids. Christian's mom had 6 and her mom had 10. It makes life so resourceful, let me tell you. Last week my issue of Everyday Food disappeared. I am blaming it on Baby Maria and her urge to stick things, like my debit card, in the heating vent slots. I am in no way attributing it to my poor organizational skills and the fact that it could very well be under the pile of clothes I have yet to put away. Does it matter? No because Christian has 578 people in his family and one of them is bound to come to my rescue.

As soon as I wrote a frantic facebook update...

Christian's cousin's wife typed up the entire recipe in the comments section. Christian's cousin's wife has 5 kids, and she goes to school, and her husband is a lawyer.  AND she still took the time to type up the entire bacon jam recipe for me even though most people would just make some cruel comment about how bacon jam is weird. If that's not family I don't know what is.

Thanks cous'!

For all you skeptics bacon jam is not weird, it's exquisitely full of flavor and crunch. It's delicious and  I served it on top of brie cheese for our recipe exchange party last Saturday and it was a hit. If you want Martha's recipe with coffee you can get the Everyday Food mag for this month or wait till next month when she posts the recipe on her site. If you want my variation made with herbal tea here it is.

Bacon Jam without Coffee

(printable version)

• 1 lbs bacon, cut crosswise into 1" pieces 
• 2 medium yellow onions, diced small  
• 1/3 cup cider vinegar 
• 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar 
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup 
• 3/4 cup Sweet & Spicy tea from Good Earth

1. Cook bacon over med-high heat until fat is rendered and slightly browned.
2. Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain.
3. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from skillet and add onions, cook until onions are translucent. Add vinegar, brown sugar, syrup, and tea and bring to a boil, stirring and scraping up browned bits from skillet.
4. Add bacon and stir to combine.
5. Transfer mixture to 6qt slow cooker and cook on high, uncovered until liquid is syrupy--about 4 hours.
6. Transfer to food processor; pulse until coarsely chopped.
7. Let cool, then refrigerate in airtight containers up to 4 weeks.

Just in case you want more extended family stories paired with bacon you can read my article that I wrote for the Santa Cruz Sentinel where I retold the story of Christian's oldest bro and his encounter with bacon for the first time. It's my favorite family story.

Speaking of family we're surrounded by family in Hawaii.

We arrived well.

We're jet laged.

Will post pics of the kids in paradise soon-ish

xoxo

ps. I also did read all the comments from yesterdays posts. I wish I could of packed you in my suitcase. You would of been worth the extra charge for checking in luggage. We were counting on not checking in anything and just doing carry ons. They made us check in two bags. Jerks.

-----------------------------

post-edit:

This post was entered in the Foodbuzz BACONALIA challenge and is an entry for a chance to win

Interview with Melissa d'Arabian and a Thanksgiving leftover recipe

I had a phone chat with Melissa d'Arabian, the Food Network Star behind Ten Dollar Dinners, a couple weeks ago. I told her I have two kids. She told me she has four. Who's your mama?! Melissa was awesome to talk to. So enthusiastic and  practical and gave me some good advice on what to do with Thanksgiving leftovers.  

Tomorrow you're all going to be cooking and eating the year's most important meal. No pressure.  It will be fun, don't worry. You'll work super hard then eat super hard and then on Friday you'll have all the left overs to deal with. I mean, to enjoy.

Melissa's advice on using up leftovers is basically to give the leftovers a different flavor profile. Make something else entirely new. Instead of just heating up your turkey and mashed potatoes and eating a second Thanksgiving meal, she suggests that you use the leftover ingredients to create a new dish, for example make a cranberry salsa from your left over cranberry sauce.

Melissa d'Arabian Cranberry Salsa

(printable version)

• 1/2 cup canned whole cranberry sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• zest and juice of one lime
• 1 jalapeno, coarsely chopped
• 1 white onion coarsely chopped and microwaved for 1 minute
• 1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
• 1/2 cup Mexican-flavored canned tomatoes, drained and chopped
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

serving suggestion: serve with Turkey Taquitos, recipe follows

Place the cranberry sauce, cilantro, lime zest, lime juice, jalapeno pepper, onion, red pepper, green pepper, tomatoes, and salt, and pepper to taste in a food processor and pulse until blended, but still chunky. Serve with Turkey Taquitos.

What are you planning on making with your Thanksgiving leftovers, any ideas?
Happy Thanksgiving.
See you back here on Friday.

Why Christian made Spinach fritters last night for dinner

Basically because our family does things in opposites.

Baby Maria for example never lets us feed her but she feeds us entire meals.

Normally I make dinner but on Monday nights I get home at 8:00pm. On Tuesday and Thursday nights I get home at 10:00pm. I guess I don't normally make dinner, what am I saying?! I'm o.k with that though and Christian is o.k with that but every so often we get family members who question our life style or other inquisitive stares from peeps around us and then I feel like we need to justify why I'm not a typical Mormon mommy who stays home, cooks, and cleans.

Last night Christian and I were talking about my blog and he said "you know you can offend a lot of people with our lifestyle."  And he's right, I can but is that really my problem? Traditionally the other members of our church have households where the dude works and the lady stays home with the kids. Traditionally the other people in our hippie Northern California town have households where both adults work (male+female, male+male, female+female) and they have one kid. We're a household where both of us work and we have more than one child AND we plan on having more and we both plan on working.  I don't really feel like we're so different because I find that there are more exceptions to the rule than there are strict rule abiders. People need to work, unexpected pregnancies happen, a million different factors come into play when organizing a lifestyle that works for each individual person or family. 

In the Santos-Palmer/Palmer household we have a pretty good division of labor that we're comfortable with. We both work. We both cook. We both take care of the kids. Christian cleans solo. I buy Christmas presents solo. He appreciates that I remember his family's birthday and I appreciate that he puts away my clothes. He appreciates that I work hard on Mondays and I appreciate that he makes spinach fritters for dinner.  

I also appreciate Enzo Santos Palmer (his actual name is Lorenzo, please don't tell him that) for eating the spinach fritters without a fuss and I appreciate Maria Aurea Santos Palmer for eating the leftovers that fall underneath her high chair. It makes Christian's cleaning job that much easier.

Spinach Fritters (gluten free)

(printable version)

• 2 1/2 boiling potatoes (peeled)
• 1 lb fresh spinach
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup cubed mozzarella
• 1/2 cup corn meal
• 1 1/2 cup oil, for frying

1. Cook the potatoes in a pot of boiling water until they are soft. Drain and mash.
2. Cook the spinach in a pot of salted boiling water until tender. Drain and squeeze the excess water and chop finely.
3. Combine with the potatoes and mix well.
4. Put the eggs in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add potatoes, spinach, and parmesan and mix.
5. Place a tablespoon of the mixture in the palm of your hand. Press a cube of cheese into the center and close the mixture around it to make a oblong croquette. The cheese needs to be completely covered.
6. Roll in the corn meal.
7. Heat the frying oil until hot.
8. Fry the fritters a few at a time, turning them in the oil so that they are golden brown all over.

Antipasto

I tend to eat small meals all day long. Joys of pregnancy. We made two antipastos yesterday, Pan Bagna with Green sauce and Eggplant salad with Basil and Lemon. They go perfect on hard crust french bread.

Pan Bagna with Green Sauce

• 4 firm ripe tomatoes
• 1 medium sized avocado
• 1 medium sized cucumber
• 6 ounces of crumbled feta cheese
• 16-20 large basil leaves
• green sauce
  

1. Halve, core, seed and coarsely chop tomatoes
2. Halve, pit, and peel avocado and cut into 1/2 inch chunks.
3. Peel and slice cucumber.
4. Add feta into a large bowl. Add the vegetables to feta. Add green and sauce chopped basil and toss gently.

Green Sauce

• 1 tablespoon capers
• 5 Kalamata olives (my favorite...yum!!!)
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoons finely chopped fresh thyme and mint
• 1 medium size clove of garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1. drain capers in strainer and chop finely.
   
2. Drain and pit olives and chop coarsely.
3. Finely chop walnuts
4. Combine capers, olives, walnuts, parsely and other herbs, garlic, oil and vinegar in small bowl and stir until well blended.
   

Baked Potato Chips

Thanks everyone who voted last week. Baked Potato Chips was a definite winner. I'm glad because it is so easy to make and tastes so much better than store bought potato chips. This Recipe below is for 2 people so I suggest doubling it if you have a crowd.

• 5 medium sized potatoes
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper to season

(Preheat oven to 350)

1. Wash out the potatoes very, very well.
2. cut out the potatoes 4 mm thick. I started using a slicer and then did it all in my food processor.
3. Have 2 cookie sheets ready. Place 1 tablespoon olive oil on each cookie sheet and put it in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove the hot cookie sheets and place the potato slices on the cookie sheet. Be careful so that the slices do not overlap.
4. Sprinkle the remaining olive oil on top of the potato slices and season with salt and pepper.
5. Bake for 10 minutes and flip all the potato slices to the other side.
6. Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until it is crisp.
7. Remove from cookie sheet and place on top of a plate with paper towel so that it drains some of the oil.
8. Serve warm or wait until it is completely cool to store in an air tight container.

please vote again for next week's recipe.

Stuffed Bell Peppers with Pork

...by the way these are not just bell peppers, these are mini sweet bell peppers and I am not simply stuffing them with any 'ol meat I am stuffing them with the easiest pork recipe ever created. Ready for the low down? Here we go...

Stuffed Bell Peppers with Pork
Shredded Pork

• 2 lbs pork shoulder
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

1. Place all the ingredients in a slow cooker on high for 8 hours.
   
2. Once it it cooked you can easily shred it using a fork
   

After that is done you can prepare the peppers. Wash and cut in half individual bell peppers. Place it in a casserole pan.
Now you can assemble the pork inside the bell peppers and bake at 350* for 20 minutes. As soon as you take it out of the oven you will want to put a bit of shredded Monterrey jack cheese on top.
The finishing touch is my favorite...
cilantro lime guacamole.

• 1 ripe avocado
• 2 cloves garlic
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• between 10-15 cilantro leaves

1. place all the ingredients in a food processor or a blender and mix it up until it is smooth.
   

Enjoy!

Tabbouleh with Avocado

This is a little something I made this weekend because of an abundance of avocados as well as tomatoes. I didn't have pita bread so we ate it with brie cheese and crackers at a friend's house while watching the debate. It's nice having good food while listening to McCain and Obama it helps control my rage. I'm going to have to whip up something amazing this weekend so that I don't go totally mad listening to the vice president candidate debate. Until then I'll eat my left over tabbouleh.

Tabbouleh with Avocado

• 1 cup bulgar wheat
• 1 1/2 cups hot water
• juice of two lemons
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 small avocado
• 1/2 cup mint
• 1/2 cilantro
• 1/4 cup chopped leek
• 1 small onion
• salt and pepper to taste

1. In a medium size mixing bowl add the bulgar wheat with hot water and lemon juice. Let stand for 1 hour
2. chop the tomatoes and avocados into small pieces.
3. using a food processor chop the cilantro, mint, and onion together. Add to the bulgar wheat mixture.
4. chop the leeks and add to the bowl. Mix everything well.
5. Add the tomatoes and avocados to the bowl. Mix carefully so as not to bruise the tomatoes and avocados.
6. Keep in the refrigerator until serving time.
   

Coxinha! Brazilian fried dumplings.

Coxinha is a popular Brazilian snack also knows as part of the Salgadinho family. It's a sort of appetizer/ finger food. These small delicious fried things are labor intensive so we usually only eat it on special ocassions. My good friend Silvinha encouraged me to make some and so I got a small crew together and in half an hour these babies were done. Here is a step by step process of how to make coxinhas. Give it a try. You won't regret it!

COXINHAS

Ingredients for the dough

• 4 1/2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons chicken buillon
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 egg yolks diluted in 1/2 cup of water
• 5 cups all purpose flour

1. In a medium sauce pan dissolve the chicken bouillon in the water.
   
2. Add the butter, milk and egg yolks to the chicken bouillon mixture.
3. Mix the ingredients together and bring to a full boil.
4. Slowly add the flour and continue to mix until the mixture is no longer sticking to the bottom of the pan.
5. Remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool down enough so that you can shape it in the palm of your hands

Chicken Filling

• 2 pounds shredded cooked chicken breast. (I like to bake a whole chicken because I think it is easier)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 garlic bulbs
• 2 tomatoes (remove the skin and seeds)
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 3 tablespoons chopped parsley

1. Sauté the onions and garlic in olive oil.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients except the parsley and mix until the mixture is dry.
3. Add the parsley.

Assembling the Coxinha

Shape some of the dough in your hand like this

Add about 2 tablespoons of the filling to the center of the dough

Close the dough around the filling and shape it like a chicken drumstick and dip it in milk and then bread crumbs

Deep fry for about 2-4 minutes in HOT oil

serve warm with a nice green salad so that you don't feel totally unhealthy :)

Fried Zucchini Cakes

We had a nice picnic at the Santa Cruz board walk while we watched this...

the Amazing Chinese Acrobats!!!

and ate a lot of these deliciously fried things.

ZUCCHINI CAKES

• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• 1/2 cup manioc (yucca) flour
• 1/2 cup Monterey jack cheese
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Place the grated zucchini in a kitchen towel and squeeze. Try to get as much of the water out as possible.
2. Place the zucchini in a medium bowl.
3. Put all the other ingredients in the bowl and mix with your hands.
4. Season with salt and pepper and any other spices that you like.
5. In a medium sized skillet place olive oil and let it get hot.
6. Once the oil is hot mold the cakes in you hands so that it is about 1 inch thick and 3 inches wide.
7. fry those babies up about 4-5 minutes on each side.

This recipe is a variation of the Zucchini cakes from The Pioneer Woman Cooks. She uses breadcrumbs instead of manioc flour and she gives A LOT more detail. Go check her out.

NEVER underestimate the power of food!- feta pâté

I used the feta pâté that I made for the Q.E to make this pita sandwich. The sandwich consisted of sauted portabella mushrooms, fresh cucumbers, avacado, tomato and the pâté. I'm not a sandwich person but this was good.

Feta Pâté

• 1 cup seasoned feta cheese
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 10 large garlic cloves
• 1 can table cream

1. peal and chop the garlic
2. heat the olive oil in a medium size pan
3. fry the garlic in the olive oil
4. once the garlic has a golden brown color add the feta cheese and mix
5. remove from strove top
6. add the table cream and mix
7. refrigerate for a couple hours and serve as a dip or use a spread for bread.
   

NEVER underestimate the power of food! - Baked Brie

The first time I had baked brie was at a Christmas party. I thought it was the fanciest and most delicious thing at the party. The hostess had baked the brie inside puff pasty with a dash of brown sugar. I was so impressed. I was expecting a super elaborate recipe and was shocked when she told me how EASY it was. I later tried making it, with a little variation.

Here is my baked brie recipe. The previous post has a picture

BAKED BRIE

• 1/2 pound slice of brie
• 1/2 cup apricot preserve
• frozen puff pastry (I like the Trader Joes one)

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. thaw out the puff pastry for about 10-15 minutes
   
3. grease cookie sheet
   
4. put the sheet of puff pastry on the cookie sheet
   
5. peal the thick white part of the brie. (this is optional)
6. place brie on top of puff pastry
7. cover the top of the brie with apricot preserve
   
8. wrap the brie in puff pastry
9. bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown
10. put a bit of the preserve on top of the baked brie
    
11. serve warm
    

Polenta (preferably fried)

I love polenta so much. I love it, love it, love it. I made some last Sunday where the consistency was perfect. No joke, perfect. If you've made polenta before you know how annoying it is to have it soft anf eatery. I like making polenta and then frying it. However if you are anti-frying (good for you if you are by the way) then you can also just eat it with some tomato sauce and mussarella cheese on top and it's still good.

Polenta

• 1 cup chopped onions
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cups water
• 2 cups corn meal
• 2 tablespoons chicken or vegetable bouillon
  

1. Put olive oil in a medium sized pan and let it get hot
2. add the onions and saute until brown
3. add the water and bouillon and bring to a boil
4. turn the heat to low and add the corn meal
5. mix, mix, mix!!!! use a good wooden spoon or selse you might end up with a broken spoon and very lumpy polenta.
   
6. Try to make the mixture as smooth as possible but doen't stress out about the little cornmeal clumps, they will disolve.
7. immediatly pour the mixture to a a baking pan. I used to npur it on a plate but the unevenness is BAD. make sure it's 1 inch deep.
   
8. let cool for at least an hour. If you are going to fry it then let cool for at least an hour in the fridge. The cooler it is the better it will fry
   
9. In a small sauce pan add 2 cups oil (I know, I know, but trust me frying the polenta brings it to a whole superior level)
10. cut up the polenta in small squares.
11. once the oil is hot enough fry up the squares. 4 minutes and basta!
    

experiment with good ingredients

I have learned that if I ever want to experiment a new creation I have to make something simple with good ingredients. What do you get when you mix puff pastry, brie, and apricot preserve? Something good of course because all three ingredients are delicious. Unless of course you don't like brie or apricot preserve. If you don't like puff pastry then we need to have a serious conversation.

Take a sheet of puff pastry and put half of a whole brie in the middle. Put a THICK layer of apricot preserve on top of the brie. Wrap the brie topped with the preserve with the puff pastry. Bake at 400* for 15 minutes and you've got yourself an appetizer, or dessert.

I had a variation of this with brown sugar instead of apricot preserve and it was also very good. Try it out and it you use a different topping for the brie let me know how it comes out.

the perfect recipe for an in house date night

The first and most important ingredient for a perfect in house date night is a very bad day. Yesterday I woke up and knew right away it was going to be one of those days. It was rainy and very windy which in our family translates into no playing outside for Enzo and no surf for daddy. I had two grumpy boys on my hands. We all kind of lost it at around 6:30pm when Enzo spilled ALL the wheat on the kitchen floor and living room carpet. By 7:00pm we were ready to have Enzo asleep. He wasn't, of course, but we were. So Chris started his night time routine and I decided to make a nice dinner for just the two of us. I had already made chocolate mousse in the afternoon to keep Enzo busy and thought a nice quiet dinner would be perfect to accompany the fancy dessert. We could of just gone out on a date and not have the stress of making dinner but we actually couldn't because we're too cheap and because our trusty babysitter/neighbor wasn't home.

So after having your first ingredient you need to also convince yourself that this is a good idea and will not add to the extra stress of the day. Here are some ways to convince yourself

• you're saving money
• you can stay barefoot and you can wear your pajamas
  
• you don't have to leave the house
• you can bust out your fancy napkins, plates, silverwares, etc etc
  

of course all these pros can quickly turn out to be cons. The saving money part is fine but in house dates can also mean that you don't get to leave the house and that you don't get to dress up. Technically you could dress up at home but seriously who does? You especially don't want to dress up if you're going to be cleaning up all the extra gadgets you pulled out to make it seem somewhat dateish.

The other major thing to think about is your time frame. Since Christian started putting Enzo to sleep at 7:00pm and Enzo was totally not ready to be asleep I knew I had a good hour maybe even hour and a half to prepare dinner. This can also be a catch 22 because if it takes your spouse this long to put your kid to sleep you know s/he's going to be coming out of that room in an even worse mood. Hence the need for a very delicious dinner. I don't want to brag but dinner was very delicious. It was also very easy to make. Notice in the picture below how everything is set so that we face the wall and not the messy living room. A key component of in house dating.



the menu

• grape and brie fritters
• green salad with carrots
• pasta with broccolis, sun dried tomatoes and fresh grated Romano cheese
  
• chocolate mousse

I'll post a recipe for all 3 things (I'm omitting the salad - green salad and carrots- there) and you'll see what I mean about easy. The mousse took the longest because it needs to chill for 2 hours but with a little planning it's no problem, or ditch the mousse and make something quicker.

The winner for the night was definitely the fritters. I was totally skeptical about the grapes being deep fried but it's actually the perfect combination. I stole this recipe from the Chicago sun times. I'll add the link here just to be a bit more honest but here's the exact same thing below.

Grape and brie fritters

MAKES 40 (They are not exaggerating. I cut the recipe by 1/3 and we still had way more than we could eat)

• 1 cup water
• ½ cup butter, cut into ½-inch pieces
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 8 ounces Brie, diced
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups halved red seedless grapes
• Vegetable oil for frying

1. Place the water and diced butter in a saucepan over medium heat; cook gently until the butter has melted, then bring to a rolling boil. Remove the pan from the heat and pour all of the flour in at once. Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth and comes away from the sides of the pan. Let cool slightly.
2. Place the warm flour mixture in the bowl of a mixer. Add the diced Brie and mix with the paddle attachment until well combined. Mix together the eggs and salt, and gradually add to the dough, beating well between each addition. Stir in the grapes.
3. Deep fry 5 to 6 spoonfuls of batter in 350-degree oil, turning the fritters occasionally as they cook. Cook for 3 minutes, or until the fritters are completely puffed and a dark golden brown. Drain well and continue with remaining fritter batter.
4. Serve warm as appetizers.

Pasta

I just threw it together so I don't have the right measurements I'm totally guesstimating.

• 1/2 package pasta (use whatever kind you like)
• 2 cups cooked broccoli
  
• 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
• 1/4 cup garlic
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup Romano cheese

1. cook the pasta
2. after the pasta is cooked and drained add it back to the sauce pan with the garlic and olive oil. warm it up in the pan for about 5 minutes stirring constantly. You'll really start smelling the garlic.
3. add the broccoli and the sun dried tomatoes
   
4. serve warm with cheese on top.

Chocolate Mousse

• 4 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup whipping (heavy) cream
• 1 package (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (1 cup)
• 1 1/2cups whipping (heavy) cream

1. Beat egg yolks in small bowl with electric mixer on high speed about 3 minutes or until thick and lemon colored. Gradually beat in sugar.
2. Heat 1 cup whipping cream in 2-quart saucepan over medium heat until hot. Gradually stir at least half of the hot whipping cream into egg yolk mixture; stir back into hot cream in saucepan. Cook over low heat about 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens (do not boil). Stir in chocolate chips until melted. Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours, stirring occasionally, just until chilled.
3. Beat 1 1/2 cups whipping cream in chilled medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff. Fold chocolate mixture into whipped cream. Pipe or spoon mixture into serving bowls. Immediately refrigerate any remaining dessert after serving.

post date reflection......
It was a great dinner and really nice to just be the two of us. Christian even kept saying how everything was delicious and he is NOT one to complement my cooking. Christian, I know you'll eventually read this and disagree but it's true. I've come to good terms with this fact because when he DOES complement I know he really means it. He complemented so I knew it was a success.