Stuffed tomato and tapas memories

I've been following the South Beach Diet, Phase 1 this week, so my posts may take a turn for the non-baked goods. (Unless I bake something for someone - you never know.).

This tomato is stuffed with tuna salad and was supposed to be a delicious throwback to The Joy of Cooking - it seemed very 50s America to make.

It looks adorable, but it was a pain to eat and not that good. I don't think I can handle that much tomato. I had even taken the tomato and tuna salad seperately to work, so as to not allow the tomato to become mealy in the fridge, even bringing a paring knife to carve it here. Oh well. The paring knife stayed in my desk drawer to complement the sea salt grinder I keep here. A kitchen away from home!

I did get my ceviche when we were in Florida last week, and it was delicious. In fact, the entire brunch we had on our anniversary was delicious. I had found this tapas place on the internet and it was amazing. I would go back if I'm ever in St. Petersburg again. We had ceviche, fresh bread, a white bean-chorizo-tomato sauce dish (to die for), fried potatoes with a garlic aioli mayonaise, bruchetta. Maybe something else. I also had a champagne sangria - fabulous.

Ceviche craving - and nothing to show

I've been bit by the travel bug bad and am trying to plan a trip to Peru, hopefully in the fall. I've also been catching up on old Anthony Bourdain episodes lately, including Peru and Equador. He's been eating so much ceviche, and I want some!

Tom and I are going to Florida this weekend - if I can't get some there, I am making some asap. Maybe not the best time to order sea food from the gulf. We'll see.

Blast from the past

This isn't even close to cooking from scratch - this is über processed, in the worst way. Box cake, frosting out of a can with a tip on it. No cleanup whatsoever. So modern and convenient and wasteful.

But it sounded so tasty - I haven't had a cupcake in an ice cream cone in a good twenty years - and I haven't cooked anything in a while because of my work schedule, and I had told a colleague I owed him some cupcakes for his birthday (Happy birthday, Alan!), and I wanted to also cut the grass tonight. So I took a short cut :-/

Asparagus-Broccoli Casserole

I had a bunch of vegetables to use - asparagus and broccoli - and will be out of town this week for work. I didn't feel like just steaming them and eating them, but I thought they would taste good in a cheesy rice dish.

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City Chicken

I haven't cooked anything yet this week - don't always have the energy after work. But I thought I'd post a recipe that I made a few months ago and really liked - City Chicken! It came from the Free Press and unfortunately they took the regular link down - I'm afraid that means my links to the French Bread and Margarita Cake might not work eventually.

In any case, here's a shorter, archived version of the recipe for City Chicken. I hadn't had it in ages and my father in law kept talking about it, so I made it for them one weekend a while back. It turned out great and just like I remember it tasting from my grandma.

I was surprised by how many people don't know what City Chicken is - not chicken at all, but a mixture of pork and veal, served elegantly on a wooden stick. I thought it was specifically a Polish thing, but I think it's actually more of a working class/immigrant town thing. It's not native to Detroit.

I've read before that chicken used to be the "special occasion" meat - which strikes me as odd, since it's so common now, thanks to factory farming. I wish things were how they used to be.

I was apprehensive about the meat being tough so I marinated it first overnight in buttermilk. Turned out great, and the only flack I got was from my mom, who said I didn't use the "right" kind of skewers. Little did she know... mine were also made out of bamboo. So definitely not traditional City Chicken skewers. This isn't depression-era Pittsburgh!

White cake, chocolate frosting, hint of almond

It kills me that boxed cake mixes are so easy. How does it come out so fluffy and moist and delicious, every time, without any effort? You don't even have to separate the eggs!

Why does something I slaved over, sifting flour three times, beating egg whites separately and folding them gently in, using real ingredients... turn out so... blah?  I don't want to prefer the corporate food-like products... but they make it so EASY.  Read the rest.

Rajmah

This was made from a spice blend - Tom said it didn't count as cooking from scratch, but I still think it does because it was literally just a mix of spices that I could have put together myself if I actually had them, not anywhere close to the McCormick MSG packets.

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