There's always money in the banana stand

We've been experiencing record-breaking heat in the Pacific Northwest. We've eaten out a lot, but I did manage to make chocolate-covered frozen bananas.

I also made a spicy slaw from Suvir Saran's American Masala, in an attempt to fight fire with fire. The original recipe is here, and there's a modified version here, but some of the amounts seem a little wonky.

Um, hi.

I finished these Austermann Step socks in March:
I am currently working on some cotton ankle socks for which I learned a new technique, Judy's Magic Cast-On (for toe-up socks). I'm still thinking about trying some sort of lace shawl or scarf, but I've also been thinking about getting a haircut for months, and that hasn't happened yet, so....

I did try to write a blog post about a month ago, but this was all I had saved in the draft:

"What is up with the wall-to-wall couch in this picture? It's crazy! I think there's a built-in step. I also think it's depressing the dog."

There was also a link to an old Nirvana video and a comment about guys in dresses equaling the '90s. This came about because I was reminiscing over some old ("vintage") videos at mtvmusic.com.

Recent items from my kitchen:

• Wheat berry salad with fresh peas (and fennel) from Eating Close to Home: A Guide to Local Seasonal Sustenance in the Pacific Northwest (a recipe book that fails to provide any idea of how many servings the recipes make):

• Walla Walla onion rings--Very tasty, but I ate too many and felt a little sick, and the leftover oil is kind of gross. If I make them again, I'd like to try putting some smoked paprika in the coating. No picture because we ate them very quickly.
• Lentil, apple, and banana salad from Rosa's New Mexican Table--It's unusual, but I decided to make it because I liked all the ingredients and the book acknowledged the fact that it sounds weird. I plan on making it again for a potluck in a few days.
  

Leftovers

It's that time of year when there's knitting going on but you don't know if you should share it. So I'll post about food.

I don't like leftover mashed potatoes, but after seeing the recipes in this NY Times article, I decided to deliberately make too much to eat in one night. I already had a can of wild Alaskan salmon from Trader Joe's (more on that later), so I chose to make the potato, salmon, and spinach patties (I skipped the garlicky dill cream because I'm lazy, but you shouldn't; I think they need it).

I think I am the one who suggested we buy the can of salmon because it was wild and so cheap, and I like canned tuna just fine, so why not? But then it sat in the cupboard forever because I eventually read the label, which says the ("edible") bones and skin are included. Ew. And the can was huge. I might have given it to the Boy Scouts if I had remembered to put anything out on my porch for their recent canned food drive. Anyway, I don't think I am going to buy canned salmon again. The bones and skin may be edible, but I don't really want to eat them. It took quite a while to separate what I was willing to eat from what I was not (skin, larger pin bones that did not fall apart when touched with a fork, and, worst of all, bits of backbone I really didn't think were edible).

I got so tired of dealing with the salmon that I didn't include enough in the mixture. We couldn't taste it in the final product.

They were a little bland, which is why you shouldn't skip the sauce. I'd make them again if I had leftover potatoes, but I usually don't.

Dinner tonight: beef carbonnade from Art of the Slow Cooker.

Go green!

This post took me a little longer to get on the blog than I had intended.

Tomatillos from the local organic farm recently showed up, so I've been making lots of salsa verde. There's no shortage of recipes out there. Basically, you can leave raw or cook (broil, bake, or boil) any of the ingredients, then blend them together. Or you can blend the raw ingredients and then cook the sauce on the stovetop. Here's what I've been doing.



yield: about 1.25 cups*
0.66 lb tomatillos, husks removed
2 serrano peppers
one quarter of a large white onion
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
0.25 cup cilantro leaves
fresh lime juice
salt
pepper

Place tomatillos and peppers on foil on a rimmed baking sheet under the broiler. You can cut the tomatillos in half and place them cut sides down, but I keep them whole and turn them over as needed. Keep an eye on them and remove them when they are soft and no longer bright green. They should have some spots of charred skin. The peppers will probably need to come out before the tomatillos.

Turn the oven to 425 degrees F, and bake the onion (separated into layers) and garlic cloves for 10-15 minutes.

Cut the stems off the peppers and throw the tomatillos, peppers, onion, and garlic into a blender, adding lime juice, cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste.

I've always liked the sauce's consistency as is, but if you don't, you can add water or vegetable or chicken broth to make it more fluid. To thicken it up, simmer the sauce, uncovered, on the stovetop until it's to your liking.

Tomatillos can vary dramatically in weight. My last two purchases were 10 tomatillos and 12 tomatillos, and they weighed 0.66 lb and 1.25 lb, respectively.

*I start eating it as soon as the motor stops, and I'm not sure how accurate the measurement lines on my blender are, so this is a guess.

Links to other (untested) recipes follow. Don't add sugar or liquid until you've determined the sauce actually needs it.

• Roasted Tomatillo Salsa with serrano chiles, roasted onions and cilantro by Rick Bayless - This recipe is closest to my own.
• Tomatillo Salsa Verde Recipe from Simply Recipes
• Tomatillo Salsa from Homesick Texan
• Chipotle-Tomatillo Salsa from Vanilla Garlic
• Green Chile Sauce from Robb Walsh in Cooking Light
  
• Salsa Verde by Robb Walsh in The Tex-Mex Cookbook
• Green chile sauce from the Seattle Times and Robb Walsh

Unexpected yarn! Ice cream!

Two balls of yarn arrived as a surprise the other day. Of course, one of them is supposed to go back to my mother in the form of socks. A fair trade-off, I'd say.

I have so many DVDs and books that I need to get back to the library. I have one episode of North and South left, and then I need to watch Mrs Henderson Presents. Two more BBC series await me this week, and then I have some modern stuff due next week. I did not manage to crack open Moonlight Twilight (see, don't even remember the name of it) and will have to return it, unread, and put my name on the waiting list again. Another book is already overdue. Good thing the fees aren't bad at all.

I made another batch of ice cream. I had to fancy this one up because otherwise it would look just like the vanilla, of which there is still a very small amount left in the freezer. Behold the white chocolate ginger ice cream! It's tasty.

Melty

I felt like I had left the ice cream in the freezer long enough, but it was still very soft. I couldn't wait and ate some anyway. I hope it will be harder tomorrow because I had to eat it really fast tonight.

I used David Lebovitz's recipe here but left out an egg. The ice cream did taste rather custardy, so I'll probably leave out two eggs if I make it again. I used local (within 30 miles) cream and eggs. It tasted good, and I got a bit of a workout by turning the crank.

Scream

I've had a few ideas on things I could do for fun this summer, and one of them is making ice cream. I do own an ice cream maker but have not used it in quite a while. The last time we used it was several years ago; we made frozen yogurt that did not taste good, and I think that put us off making our own for a while. Because it's supposed to hit 97 degrees tomorrow, I have bought the necessary ingredients for ice cream. But there is no room in my freezer. So I think I'll be making chicken stock tonight. I really hope that frees up enough room. I'll try to take pictures of the ice cream, but the only camera I have on hand at the moment is acting up.

Trial run

My husband's in charge of the food for a meeting this Friday, and I knew what I wanted to make: Nutella-filled challah. But because I'd never made it before (and because I don't have to go to the meeting and thus cannot eat that particular loaf of bread), I baked some last night.

I was surprised at how much it split in the middle and saddened to see so much Nutella had oozed out the bottom.

It's good, but it could definitely use more Nutella. I am considering making the next loaf with four strands. (Here is a neat video showing 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-strand bread braiding.) And it should probably be bigger than this one, because the two of us have already made quite a dent in it.

Eats

Recently made

• Pumpkin chocolate-chip muffins and bread
• No-knead bread
  
• We've had the five-minute tomato sauce for dinner probably four times in the past two weeks. I love it. I threw some spinach into it a couple of times.
• I made martini-style chicken breasts again and enjoyed the fact that one breast, pounded and covered in cheese, easily feeds two.
• I made the Spanish bean soup after overhearing two unrelated people asking at the store for "smoked paprika" so they could try a recipe in the Oregonian. I didn't find the smoked paprika either, and the soup probably would have benefited from it. It was kind of bland. It has potential, but I'm not sure I'm the person to take it there.
• Turkish red lentil soup. Add more tomato paste and paprika and a couple cloves of garlic.

Thinking of trying

• Jamie Oliver's roast chicken with lemon and rosemary roast potatoes and perfect braised spinach, both here. Jamie thinks 4½ pounds of potatoes serves four?
  
• Curry cauliflower soup
• Vanilla Meyer Lemonade
• Cannellini bean & garlic sausage cassouolet--Maybe, without the crumb topping?
• Spanish rice

And lots of other things starred in Google Reader.

Cheering Charm ingredients

OK, not so much a charm as a potion. I needed cheering up last Thursday, so I mixed Gryffindor socks with Cadbury Mini-Eggs and three hours of TV.

And yet...

I burned the bottom of the bread and was so upset. But it's really, really good even so. I'm just cutting off the burned bottom crust. The rest of the bread is still soft and moist. We had it still-warm with butter and minestrone from the bakery last night for dinner. My bread was better than theirs (sourdough)!
(Picture with flash so you can see the grains better)

Recipe modifications:
2 c white flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1/8 c flax seeds
1/4 c cooked wheat berries
Use leftover cooking water with fresh water (needed more water than usual)

Eatin'

This is (was) Guinness chocolate cake from a local bakery. There was only one bite where I thought I could taste the Guinness, and as soon as I sensed the flavor, I lost it. It was good, though a little dry.

Today I am starting dough for a whole wheat/whole grain version of the no-knead bread. I have no idea what I am doing and the husband is skeptical. I used whole wheat in addition to white flour, I added some whole flax seeds, and I added some cooked hard red spring wheat berries. I bought them from the bulk foods section because they looked like something that might go in bread. Then I came home and found out I had to cook them first or risk breaking a tooth. I'm still a little nervous. Like I said, I have no idea what I'm doing.

Cookie status

On Sunday our local Girl Scout came by with our order, of which only 25% remains. I put the remaining thin mints in the freezer in an attempt to make them last longer. Hah.

Knitting, no kneading

I have completed one Fleece Artist sock but feel it's a little small. I can't decide if I want to just fix the toe or redo the whole thing. I kind of had a hard time finding the right needle size/cast-on number combo for this yarn. I did 60 stitches on a size 1. I also think I made it too long . It's a bit tight at the top (which is picot, can you tell?).I made the same bread everyone else in America is making (Bittman's no-knead bread). It was not without its troubles (sticking and requiring a baking vessel I do not have a perfect match for), but it's good, and I'm sure I'll make it again.

The crust is crunchy, which is one of its selling points, but my mouth can't handle a lot of that. Plus it's messy to cut (see crumbs above).

Yum

The batteries for my camera are out in my husband's bike light, so I cannot take any new photos. Enjoy last night's cake.