Let me start by saying that I think this is the juiciest chicken I have ever made. Wow. The flavor was excellent as well. This goes great with couscous, polenta or crusty bread. This recipe comes from the Tastes of the Pacific Northwest cookbook and I came across it as I was researching my WCC#9 recipe.

I found another dish from this cookbook that I will be posting about next Monday for that Weekend Cookbook Challenge but this chicken definitely deserves its own post! Plus, the bay leaf is from our backyard — that’s pretty damn regional!

Baked Chicken with Caramelized Sweet Onions
3-4 chicken breasts (skinless & boneless) you could also probably use a combination of 2 breasts and 2 thighs
flour for dredging (about a cup or so), seasoned with a little salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
2 large sweet onions (Walla Walla if you have them), halved and cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
4 cloves garlic, halved
12 cured black olives (I used about 15 little nicoise olives, as that’s what I had on hand)
1 tsp fresh thyme, minced
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper
2 lemons, cut into wedges
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the chicken breasts first and then dredge them in the seasoned flour. Heat the olive oil and butter in a big frying-type pan over medium-high heat and brown the chicken on each side. Set aside on a plate or large bowl when browned. If your pan can not go into the oven, transfer the chicken to a baking dish instead of a plate or bowl.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Turn the burner heat down to medium and add the onions. Cook until a little brown and soft, about 15 minutes. Remove and add to the chicken plate and continue to set aside. Deglaze the skillet with the wine and stock. Boil and scrape up any brown bits and let simmer for about 5 minutes.

If you are using your pan in the oven, add the olives, bay leaf, garlic and thyme to the pan and then bring back the chicken and onions as well. Scatter the lemon wedges on top and put in the oven for about 30 minutes.

If you don’t have an oven-proof skillet, pour the wine/stock from your pan into the baking dish over the chicken and onions. Add the thyme, bay leaf, garlic and olives. Scatter with lemons and bake the same as above.

It will smell really amazing. When you remove the chicken from the oven, it will look delicious as well. Dig in because it’s exceptionally tasty to boot. And the crusty bread, if you choose tthat route, will definitely be useful with the chickeny-lemony-wine sauce. Not to mention the pieces of baked garlic!

***

In Kitchen floor news, we are getting bids now and hopefully will have a contractor in the next week or so. Exciting! The contractor that I think we’ll be going with is booked until the end of October so I’m not going to give any details until we get on his schedule. Or who knows, we may end up with someone else completely.

This whole thing is becoming slightly epic (and more than a bit frustrating) — I’ll recount it all once it’s a done deal.

Is it Italian? Is it Asian? I dunno. It was good, though.

You could just as easily serve this over some basmati rice (and omit the cheese) but I really like the huge rigatoni we had with this and of course, the Parmesan. It was a fusion, as the kids call it.

Ginger-Garlic-Cilantro Shrimp
Originally, from Bon Appétit magazine, with 6 tbsp of butter instead of 3.5.
3.5 tbsp butter, room temperature
1/4 cup (packed) chopped fresh cilantro
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1 pound uncooked, peeled and deveined shrimp (large — 26-30 ct)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small white onion, diced
1 orange or yellow bell pepper, cored and diced
Lime wedges
1 pound rigatoni or other large tube-like pasta of your liking
salt and pepper

Mix the first six ingredients in small bowl until well blended; alternatively, throw in the food processor and process until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Also, add a little lime juice from one of your lime wedges, just for fun. See, it’s fun! Set aside.

I used a food processor, so it’s all blended-like.

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a pan and saute the onion and bell pepper over medium heat until soft and they start to get a little color, 5-6 minutes. Turn up the heat a bit and add the shrimp and the herb butter and cook until the shrimp are about done and pink (3-4 minutes).

When the pasta is just barely al dente toss into the pan with the shrimp and veggies and let it all cook together for about a minute more. Serve into bowls and top with grated Parmesan cheese and some lime wedges.

And now, as I am still catching up on my sleep from our trip and recovering from our garage sale this weekend…to bed!

*snore*

I’ll start with the cheese ball, as that is usually the best place to begin. I have been telling my mom about the awesomeness of this cheeseball for about a year now, when I first made it last year before the holidays. This outing in Montana was the perfect opportunity to share in its greatness.

My aunt, who doesn’t even like tomatoes, ate as much as everyone else.

Also, it looked much prettier than the title picture above. That’s all that was left from the trip, the picture taken after the poor cheeseball had been in a cooler for 11.25 hours on the drive home. We put him to good use back in Portland.

Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of the cheeseball-making. Therefore, I will intersperse this post with pictures from the trip.

The Best Cheeseball Ever
Based on Paula Deen’s Pesto Cheese Blossom recipe
1 (8-ounce) package sliced provolone cheese
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup toasted walnuts (you could also use pistachios, pecans — really whatever nuts you like)
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 3 oz pkg dried, sundried tomatoes
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
boiling water

Driving to Montana on I-90

Line a medium glass bowl (the smallest “mixing bowl” if you have a set) with plastic wrap, leaving enough overhang to cover the top. Now, you want to line your bowl with provolone. When I did this, I did not use the whole package of provolone. I used, perhaps, 7 slices total. One on the bottom, five around the sides, then, I folded the provolone lining the side down to cover the cream cheese, then finished with one more slice in the middle.

Interesting mosaic tulip fence across the street from the house we were renting.

But, start with just lining it with the 5-6 slices, in the bottom and around the sides.

For the cream cheese layer, process the cream cheese, nuts, Parmesan and 2 of the garlic cloves in a food processor until blended; scrape the mixture into a bowl and set aside.

For the pesto layer, process the basil, pine nuts, salt and pepper, and the remaining garlic clove in the food processor until blended. With the machine running, add the oil in a fine stream. Scrape this mixture into a second bowl and set aside.

jwa and I.

For the tomato layer, heat up a few cups of water until it is boiling. Add the tomatoes to a heat-proof bowl and cover with the water. Let set about 10 minutes and then drain. Squish the tomatoes with your hands a little to get out a bit more of the liquid. Then, add those to the food processor with the balsamic until they are paste-like.

Yeah, the one big pain about the recipe is that you need to use a food processor three times and clean it twice between uses. It’s worth it though!

My cosmo at 2nd Street Bistro — in the background, my aunt reaches for a bistro fry.

If you don’t have a food processor, you can:
* buy pesto at the store and just drain it a little before using to remove a little of the oil
* Crush the nuts and just whisk them and the minced garlic into room temperature cream cheese
* Chop the rehydrated sundried tomatoes very fine and then mix with the vinegar

When I made this in Montana, I just did a brief cream cheese layer, then the pesto, then the tomatoes, then the rest of the cream cheese. You can also layer it more like this — spread about 1/4 of your cream cheese mixture over the cheese slices lining the bowl. Next, layer the pesto mixture, half of the remaining cream cheese mixture, the sun-dried tomato mixture, and then remaining cream cheese mixture in the bowl. Fold down any overhanging provolone from the sides and cover with provolone as needed (after folding down, I needed one slice).

Walking around downtown Livingston.

Bring the edges of the plastic wrap together over the top. Refrigerate until firm (overnight works well, but 2-4 hours will work if it has to). Remove the plastic wrap and invert the mold onto a serving platter. Serve with crackers, bread or chips. A little of the pesto oil might leak out — no big deal. To serve, I would cut a slice out (like a pie piece) so that others won’t be afraid to dig into it and also so everyone can see how pretty it is inside.

Paula Deen says that this will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 months. I have not been able to test this theory out.

What to do with leftover cheeseball?
Well, the night after we got back, I mixed some of our leftovers into some polenta for a sundried tomato/pesto polenta. It was quite good.

We had the polenta with leftover meatloaf (I made it the first night in Livingston) and some braised brussel sprouts (scroll down for recipe).

Hello! I am back from Montana and will post about that soon. But, Sugar High Friday is due so that will have to come first. Oh, well — I can’t resist, here’s a quick picture.

Yellowstone River, Livingston, MT.

Okay, fine. Twist my arm. One more.

jwa and I in Sacajawea Park.

It was a great trip and it was nice to see my mom and my aunt. We ate at 2nd Street Bistro one night and I made Paula Deen’s insanely good pesto/sun dried tomato cheese ball (my name for it, not hers).

Now for the creme brulee…

This month’s Sugar Hight Friday is hosted by A Veggie Venture and the theme is a surprise inside. I came across this Emeril recipe and thought rice (in this case brown rice) in a creme brulee was a bit of a surprise. The surprise is also inside. Ha!

In addition, I am on a bit of a creme brulee kick lately, so that really sealed the deal when picking a dish to make for this event.

SHF23: Cinnamon & Brown Rice Creme Brulee
This recipe makes four creme brulees — double it up for eight.
2 cups half and half (or heavy cream)
1/2 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 cinnamon stick
2 dashes of ground cinnamon (not more than 1/4 tsp)
1 cup cooked brown rice
4 tsp sugar (I used my trusty vanilla sugar)

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the half and half (or heavy cream) and the cinnamon stick. Stir bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and let sit 15 minutes and then remove the stick. The original recipe said to dissolve the sugar into the cream and mix the cinnamon into the yolk, but I assume they mixed those up as I don’t really know how you would mix a cinnamon stick into egg yolk. Do you?

Add two dashes of ground cinnamon to your sugar, (just a bit for an extra kick) In mixing bowl, whisk the sugar and cinnamon dashes into the yolks a little at a time, until all the sugar is absorbed and your mixture is nice and thick. Next, slowly whisk the hot cinnamon/milk mixture into the yolk. You can also temper it first but if you do it slowly, whisking constantly, you should be fine.

Stir in the rice and cool while you preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Place the ramekins in a large oven-proof rectangular pan. Ladle the mixture into 4 (8-ounce) ramekins. Pour in enough water to come up about 1/2 of the side of each ramekin. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes or until the center is firm to the touch, but still soft (and the custard is between 165-180 degrees).

Remove from the oven and cool completely. Cover and refrigerate until chilled. Sprinkle a teaspoon of the sugar over the top of each custard. Using a hand-held torch, caramelize the sugar on top of each custard. Place on individual serving plates and serve.

You can also, like I did, use the broiler in your oven. Just don’t be watching The Soup and forget about the creme brulees for a couple of minutes while watching Joel’s tribute to Whitney and Bobby and their break-up. But, you know what? The darker spots on top were really very tasty! So, thank you, Whitney & Bobby!

The custard did get a little warm with the extra broiler time and thus became a little less firm, but the flavor was so amazingly good — almost like a cinnamony rice pudding with a hard sugar top (yep, it made a cracking noise when tapped with a spoon).

If you use a torch, your custard will not warm up at all and it will stay nice and cool while the sugar burns and hardens. If you do use your broiler, you may want to let it sit for a few minutes after coming out of the oven in case it does heat up a little — we just couldn’t wait that long before digging into it.

I imagine making this again in the colder months — so what if the custard heats up a bit then? I’ll just call it warm cinnamon rice pudding with a caramelized top!

Thanks again to Alanna and for hosting this month’s event at her blog A Veggie Venture!

Tagged with: SHF23.

Next week: Montana, a shrimp & pasta dish and more!

Lemongrass Chicken

Thai Basil
Corner of SW Oak & 2nd Ave
Portland, OR
503-330-1010

Well, as I’ve mentioned before, I have a new job downtown and one of the nice benefits of that is the lunch choices. My last position was up on Skyline and my lunch option was…Pizzicato. I mean, that was good, but that was it. That was the only choice nearby.

But now…the possibilities are endless! So, I thought I would start a little review of lunch carts in downtown Portland. The first is Thai Basil, which is right across the street from my office building. How convenient!

Thai Basil Menu
Chicken or Tofu Curry — a red curry, green curry and a yellow curry
Chicken or Tofu Stir Fries — ginger, garlic, veggie lovers, spicy basil and cashew versions
Chicken or Tofu Noodle Dishes — pad thai and two other varieties
Chicken or Tofu Fried Rices — comes in pineapple, spicy basil and with extra chilis

They also have specials. These include Lemongrass Chicken, Pumpkin Curry with Chicken or Tofu, Spicy Mango Curry and Stir Fried Asparagus with Chicken or Tofu.

All of these menu items come with a salad roll and dipping sauce, and a drink (Thai ice tea or water) for $5.00. Oh and a weird little wrapped candy that I’m not crazy about (tastes like lemony caramel).

Yeah, all of this for $5.00!

I have had the pumpkin curry with chicken (excellent and spicy) and I just recently tried the lemongrass chicken, which is my favorite so far. The lemon grass gives it a subtle, Thai-ish flavor and it comes with a spicy peanut sauce, chili sauce and a heavy, molassesy soy sauce. So, so good. I was in dipping heaven. The vegetables with this dish include carrots, broccoli and bok choy (I think or maye some kind of cabbage).

Another nice thing about Thai Basil is that the portions are huge! I spend $5.00 and I have lunch that day, take my leftovers home add some coconut milk (in the case of my leftover pumpkin curry — that one I even had enough to split it with jwa and we both had some) and have a lunch to bring back to work a day or two later.

Chicken Pumpkin Curry

Thai Basil gets 3.3 bowls of rice out of 4.

Coming soon in the “What’s For Lunch?” series: a selection of lunch carts on SW 5th Avenue. Also, here’s a neat little lunch cart map of downtown Portland by Audrey.

***

Je Mange la Ville is going on vacation next week. I’ll get my SHF post up next Friday but that’s probably about it, as we’ll be in Montana most of the week, celebrating my mom’s birthday.

A Salute to Honey, Part II
My first attempt at creme brulee came from a trip to Bath and Body Works in Pioneer Place. Right. See, they carry products from the Savannah Bee Company and I found some orange foot scrub that I liked. I went to their Web site to learn more about the company and found a recipe section.

From there, I discovered a lavender and honey creme brulee recipe that I changed to Rosemary and Honey. This was mainly due to having a HUGE rosemary plant in the front yard that I like to find uses for and because, well, I like rosemary. Especially sneaky uses for it like drinks and desserts.

The flavor was mild and a little sweet. You could taste the rosemary just a little and it blended very well with the honey. I used vanilla sugar in my creme brulee (for the top too) but plain sugar will work fine.

Honey and Rosemary Creme Brulee
(This will make 4 creme brulees. For 2, just halve the ingredients — that’s what I did).
7 egg yolks
2 oz. sugar
2 oz. honey
2 cups half and half (or, for a richer, devil may care version, 1 1/2 cups heavy cream and 1/2 cup milk — I did the half and half and thought it was good. Heavy cream would probably even be that much more so.)
3-4 sprigs rosemary
3-t tbsp vanilla sugar (or plain sugar)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put cream and milk into a saucepan with the rosemary sprigs. Bring to a boil and turn off. Let stems steep for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks, sugar and honey until smooth. Pull sprigs out of the cream and milk mixture and whisk into eggs. Strain through a fine mesh sieve.

Pour into four one cup ramekins or brulee dishes. Use a spoon to skim off any foam from the top of the dishes. Set into a baking pan, add enough hot water to reach halfway up the sides. Place in oven and bake 25 - 30 minutes or until they are set. Test by jiggling the dish. You can also test it with a thermometer. A custard is set at 165 degrees — thank you, Alton Brown!

Cool in the water bath. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

The Brulee-ing

Before serving, sprinkle tops with a thin layer of granulated sugar and caramelize with a small torch or under a high temperature broiler. If you use a broiler (like I did) you may want to take out a little protection for your creme brulee container. I used ceramic ramekins and I was 90% sure that they were broiler-proof. Just in case, I cut out little aluminum foil protectors for the tops.

My broiling took maybe 60-90 seconds. I took them out of the oven and let them sit for about five minutes before eating. The real test? The crack. I saw Alton Brown do this on the Creme Brulee (or was it custard?) Good Eats. Crack your spoon down on the top. You should hear the sugar crack. I was so excited — ours cracked!

So, I guess the lesson is, if you don’t have a little torch, you can still make creme brulee. Just use the broiler and it should work fine! Also, shopping can help you find interesting recipes.

Vanilla Sugar
2 cups granulated sugar
1 split vanilla bean, scraped clean

This is a great use for used vanilla beans. After using a bean for something else, take the scraped pod halves and through in a zip lock bag with a couple of cups of sugar. Keep sealed air tight in a dark place (like your cabinet). Use in place of plain sugar whenever it strikes your fancy.

We had this recently as a side with some grilled lamb tenderloin and roasted rosemary potatoes. Planning for an already honey-laden meal, I was also inspired to make a honey and rosemary creme brulee (recipe coming this week) for dessert. It was a complete honey-based evening as I used my new favorite lamb marinade that has red wine, garlic, oregano and….yep, honey. The lamb was deliciously divine but then I kind of figured it would be…

The vegetables, however, held their own on the plate. The lemon lightens everything up and contrasts with the honey’s sweetness. We both ate all of the carrot/parsnip combo and jwa even wanted more. In addition to regular meal tastiness, this would also make a great Thanksgiving side, as you can boil the carrots and parsnips in the morning and then reheat them with the glaze before eating — at least that is my theory.

There is a similar recipe to this one at Epicurious, that uses rutabagas instead of parsnips and uses about one tablespoon more butter than I do. Also, I made a half recipe using one large parsnip and about three medium carrots and half the rest of the ingredients listed below. That fed two people.

Carrots & Parsnips with a Honey & Lemon Glaze
Serves 6
1 pound Parsnips, peeled and julienned
1 pound carrots, peeled, and julienned
3 tbsp butter
juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp honey
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
10-12 chopped fresh chives

Cook parsnips and carrots in large pot of boiling, salted water until tender, about 4-5 minutes. Drain.

Melt butter in large pot over medium-high heat. Add lemon juice, honey, and peel. Bring to boil. Add vegetables; cook until glazed, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Mix in freshly snipped chives.

The lamb was simply grilled on a grill pan to 145 degrees. I also cooked the garlic cloves from the marinade along with the lamb, as well as about six halved artichoke hearts. After letting the meat rest, I sliced it and served it with the accumulated juices drizzled over the top. jwa raved about this meal and I concur, it was quite good.

Hope you saved room for dessert — next is honey & rosemary creme brulee.

This recipe is from the cookbook, Polenta by Brigit Legere Binns. I’ve had it for about five years and just happened to pick it up the other morning (thinking, “Oh, wow — I forgot I had this!”) and saw this recipe. It was one of those things where, as I read the ingredients, I mentally checked off if we had each one, because I knew I wanted to make it right then and there. Luckily, we had everything on hand.

It seems that other times that I tried to grill or pan fry polenta I’ve had problems. I tried it a number of years ago with some of that polenta-in-a-tube and just wound up with oil soaked circles of corn meal. This experience was much different. Making your own polenta is the key. I’ve been making polenta lately as a side dish, but more as the creamy, soft variety. This was the first time I’d tried chilling it, cutting it and frying it. It worked beautifully. Think crunchy, sweet porridge squares with maple syrup.

Cinnamon & Raisin Polenta with Maple Syrup
2 cups milk (fat-free works fine)
1 cup water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 cup polenta or coarsely ground corn meal
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup toasted pecans or walnuts
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
1 tsp sugar
maple syrup
1 peach or fruit of your choice, sliced

In a medium-sized sauce pan, combine the milk, water, salt and two teaspoons of the sugar. Bring to a boil. Sprinkle in the polenta slowly, whisking as you go, until all the grains have been incorporated and there are no lumps.

Reduce the heat to low. Stir with a wooden spoon every couple of minutes, for 15-20 minutes or until the mixture starts to come away from the pan and the grains soften. Stir in the raisins, pecans and cinnamon.

Rinse a square baking pan (the size you would use for brownies) in cold water and shake it dry. Mound the hot polenta into the pan and use a spatula dipped in hot water to spread the polenta out evenly. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Cut the polenta into six squares and sprinkle the top with 1/2 a teaspoon with sugar.

Heat the butter and oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. Add the polenta slices (sugared side down) and fry about 4 minutes, until golden. Sprinkle the other sides with sugar and flip. and cook on the second side 3-4 minutes.

If you need to fry the polenta batches, keep the first batch warm in a 200 degree oven. Meanwhile, heat up your syrup and get your fruit ready.

Serve the warm polenta squares with maple syrup and your fruit slices of choice. We used a peach but I imagine apple, pear, figs, or bananas would be great here too.

Coming this week: A salute to honey with rosemary-honey creme brulee and honey and lemon glazed carrots and turnips. Also, lamb & feta sandwiches with spinach and minted mayonnaise.

Wickedly Sunny & Fun
We saw Wicked, Sunday at Keller Auditorium. I really liked it. We were in the very last row but that was okay — at least we got seats and we could see the stage clearly.

Me on the way to Wicked.

It was a really nice out so we parked the car on the east side of the Hawthorne Bridge (down by OMSI) and walked across and over to Clay & 3rd. Blue skies, sunny not too warm — a perfect Portland day!

I remember reading the book right after grad school, while I was moving to Arizona in 1995. Now, after seeing the musical today, I want to re-read the book. I think I will go look for it tonight. It’s on one of the bookshelves, somewhere. Hmmmmm….

Yeah, I know, I typically have a title picture of the finished meal but I couldn’t resist this one — my little lamb meatballs. They were so photogenic and pretty. The recipe is from Mediterranean The Beautiful Cookbook. You know, one of those huge, over-sized books with all the pictures that make you want to take a vacation to all the locales photographed within the pages. I came across it at the Borders in Beaverton on clearance for…I think it was under $10. I couldn’t pass that up.

While paging through the book, this recipe was one of the first that really caught my eye. This soup combines the meatballs, yogurt, egg yolk, mint, onion, garlic and noodles — some of my favorite things. In addition, I added some spinach to the meatballs and some bell pepper and tomato to the soup. I also used more noodle-product than the original recipe called for because, well, I like the noodle-product (gemelli, to be exact).

The soup goes great with some grilled flat bread or toasted baguette slices and a nice side of mixed olives.

Tutmac Corbasi: Yogurt Soup with Lamb Meatballs & Noodles
Meatballs:
1/2 lb ground lamb
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup defrosted spinach, drained of excess water and chopped (after you drain it, you’ll have less — probably more like a 1/4 cup — trying to remember this morning exactly how much spinach I used and I believe this was more like it)
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 tsp paprika (I used smoked paprika)
2 tbsp olive oil

Soup:
3 cups plain yogurt (I used 1 cup regular yogurt and 2 cups low fat yogurt)
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp AP flour
2 cups lamb or chicken stock or water
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup dried egg noodles or ziti, casarecci, or gemelli pasta
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 small tomato, diced
2 tbsp dried mint, crumbled

Start by making the meatballs. In a bowl, combine the meat, salt, pepper, paprika and drained spinach. Mix well. Form into tiny meatballs, about 1/2 inch in diameter.

In a frying pan over medium heat, warm the oil. Add the meatballs and fry, turning, until lightly browned on all sides, about 3-4 minutes. Set aside on a paper towel lined plate when done cooking. These will smell really good. Do your best to only try two to three meatballs while they are sitting to the side. They will call to you but be strong — remember, you need them for the soup.

In a bowl, whisk together the yogurt, egg yolks and flour until well blended. Place in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring slowly to a simmer. Add the stock or water and the garlic and bring to a boil. Add the noodles and reduce the heat. Simmer 10-12 minutes, until noodles are tender. Add the salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper.

While the soup is simmering, add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil to a small pan. Add the onion, bell pepper and dried mint. Cook until the vegetables are tender, about 8-10 minutes. Add the diced tomato to the pan, as well as the meatballs. Toss to combine.

Add the vegetables and meatballs to the sauce. Stir and let everything combine and come to temperature. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. Serve right away with the bread of your choice.

Whatever happened to IMBB? The last one I saw was the soy one (which kind of fizzled out during the recap). Does IMBB go on Summer vacation or is it broken? Anyone know?

The Traveler’s Lunchbox recently started a listing of Five Things to Eat Before You Die that has been working its way around the food blogs. Christine over at the aptly named, Christine Cooks, tagged me over the weekend. I took a few days to think it over and here’s what I managed to come up with (in no particular order).

1. Something That You’ve Grown Yourself
You don’t need a yard to grow tomatoes — a big pot on a sunny balcony will work. Or try a window sill herb garden. Or maybe a bell pepper plant or sweet corn out in your backyard. The point is to grow something (from seed or small plant), nourish it, take care of it and then eat it all up. We have a whole bunch of Roma tomatoes that we are harvesting right now that are great on sandwiches, excellent in salsa and will probably make it into a batch of tomato sauce to be frozen and thawed out on an upcoming Fall night.

2. A Meal at Pacific Way Cafe, Gearhart, OR
Oh, we love the Pacific Way Cafe. The bread. The creamy Gorgonzola dressing. The soups. The homemade malted chocolate ice cream. Oh, I could go on forever about the creamy Gorgonzola dressing — did I mention that? In the US, head west until you can’t go any farther. Turn right or left depending where you are and get yourself to Gearhart, OR. Have a great meal and then take a stroll along the beach. It doesn’t get much better than this.

3. A Roast Chicken Dinner
Nothing says comfort food like a succulent roast chicken with crackling, golden skin and chicken-juice soaked potatoes and other assorted root vegetables. Everyone should make a roast chicken at least once during their lifetime, even if it’s just a plain ‘ole chicken, some olive oil, salt and pepper and a potato or two.

4. The PokPok/Pix Combo: A Roasted Game Hen from PokPok, followed by a Rosemary Pear Tart from Pix Patisserie, SE Division St, Portland, OR
Oh, this is an amazing thing. You walk down Division street and get yourself a moist, juicy, crispy-skinned Thai game hen (Kai Yaang — stuffed with garlic and lemon grass) to eat outside at one of the small take-out tables, then you walk two more blocks and pick yourself out a French pastry. This is just … I don’t even know. Gastronomic heaven? A culinary around-the-world dream come true? A cheap and tasty dinner date? Pear rosemary is still my favorite but Shazam! is running a close second.

5. Seared Ahi Tuna (Rare)
I can’t believe I never even tried seared tuna until I was 28! Yeah, I said 28. That’s just crazy. I don’t know, I didn’t think rare/mostly raw fish would be good. Now, seared tuna (really rare) is one of my most favorite meals ever. It just goes to show you, you should always try a new food. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it. And it might turn out to be your new favorite meal. So, I guess you could also say that one of the five things you should eat before you die is something new — something that is maybe a bit out of your comfort zone.

As for tagging new people, I’ll just say that if you haven’t done this yet and you have a food blog, consider yourself tagged!