Hey Food Network — I’d totally watch this show.

Oh! I know — Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Walken and for some reason I want to throw Christopher Kimball into the mix. Now, that would be an awesome cooking show. Three’s Company…for Dinner.

Im Cooked is a really cool idea. I need to spend some time watching more of the clips there. Hello, sweet-sweet-week-off-between-jobs. I have plans for you!

A while ago (okay, like 1999), I remembered seeing a recipe in Sunset magazine for lavender-blueberry margaritas. I recently spent some time searching for it, found it, and then was like, huh. Coconut milk? In margaritas? Besides adding fat and making it kind of like a marga-colada, I wasn’t quite sure what the coconut milk did for the drink. So, anyway, I futzed around with the recipe a bit and came up with this one. jwa and I both thought they were really good. Plus, if you make extra lavender syrup, I’m sure there are many other lavender cocktails that you could make with it.

Lavender-Blueberry Margaritas
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp dried lavender
1/2 cup tequila
1/3 cup triple sec
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
ice

sugar for rimming glasses
lime wedge
sprigs of fresh lavender

Add the water, dried lavender and sugar to a small pan. Heat and bring to a boil until the sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat and let the lavender steep about 10 minutes, then strain, discarding the lavender and keeping the lavender flavored syrup.

In a blender, add the lavender syrup, tequila, triple sec, lime juice, frozen blueberries and ice. Blend. *whir* *whir* *whir* Taste to make sure the lime juice/tequila/triple sec ratios are good. Adjust if needed.

Meanwhile, go around each glass with a lime wedge to wet it, then press the rim down in a saucer of sugar. Pour the margaritas into the sugar rimmed glasses and enjoy. If you’re feeling hoitey toitey, pop a lavender sprig into the drink. We had the margaritas with some black bean salad and cheddar cheese and avocado quesadillas.

If that were not enough excitement, earlier in the day I received my custom cocktail napkin order from the Stationary Studio. So cute! I think the design really captures jwa’s hair and fondness for wine. The napkins are a sage green and the printing is espresso brown — the same colors that the invitations will be — I’ve been playing around at MyGatsby lately and I think I have the invitations designed.

As for the napkins, we’re having an hour or so of appetizers directly following the ceremony on the rooftop, so we got these to use during that part of the reception. Woo! Guests won’t have to wipe any caramelized onion and sweet red pepper tartlet crumbs on their pants!

I’m typically a pretty simple girl when it comes to tuna — a grill pan, some oil, salt & pepper and some soy sauce for dippin’ and I’m done. Okay, maybe a few more things but you know what I mean.

However, the other day, I had some cream left over from the basil ice cream, so I decided to go all out and make this cream sauce for our tuna. Damn! It was good.

Pan Seared Tuna with Ginger-Shitake Cream Sauce
Adapted from Bon Appétit magazine
2 6-ounce ahi tuna steaks, each about 1 inch thick
2 tbsp peanut oil
1 tbsp butter
4 thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tbsp finely chopped, peeled fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps sliced
3 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1 cup whipping cream
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
Garnishes: Lime wedges & fresh cilantro sprigs

Sprinkle one side of tuna steaks with pepper and a little salt. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over high heat. Place tuna steaks, pepper side down, in hot oil and sear 2 minutes. Sprinkle side facing up with a little salt and pepper.

Turn tuna over and continue cooking to desired doneness, about 1-2 minutes for rare. Transfer tuna to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.

Add butter, sliced green onions, cilantro, ginger and chopped garlic to same skillet and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Mix in mushrooms and soy sauce and simmer 30 seconds.

Add whipping cream and simmer until sauce lightly coats back of spoon, about 3 minutes. Stir in lime juice. Taste and add the remaining tablespoon of soy sauce if desired.

Spoon sauce onto plates; arrange tuna atop sauce. Garnish with lime wedges and cilantro sprigs, if desired.

On the side
We had some green tea brown basmati rice (throw a tea bag in the water right before it starts to boil, let it steep for a minute or two before you add the rice, then remove the tea bag and cook rice as usual). Rounding out the plate was some baby bok choy — Stir-Fried Shanghai Bok Choy with Ginger, that is.

Stir-Fried Shanghai Bok Choy with Ginger
Gourmet magazine
1 (2-inch) piece ginger, peeled
3/4 lb Shanghai bok choy or other baby bok choy (about 6 heads)
1/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp Chinese rice wine (preferably Shaoxing) or medium-dry Sherry
1 tsp low sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

Cut half of ginger into very fine matchsticks (less than 1/8 inch thick; about 1 tablespoon) and reserve. Grate remaining ginger and squeeze pulp with your fingers to yield 1 teaspoon liquid, then discard pulp.

Remove any bruised or withered outer leaves from bok choy. Trim 1/8 inch from bottom of each bok choy, then cut each head into quarters. Wash bok choy in several changes of cold water and dry in a colander or salad spinner until dry to the touch.

Whisk together ginger juice, chicken broth, rice wine, soy sauce, cornstarch, salt, and sugar in a small bowl until cornstarch is dissolved.

Heat wok over high heat until a bead of water vaporizes within 1 to 2 seconds of contact. Pour oil down side of wok, then swirl oil, tilting wok to coat sides. Add ginger matchsticks and stir-fry 5 seconds. Add bok choy and stir-fry until leaves are bright green and just limp, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir broth mixture, then pour into wok and stir-fry until vegetables are crisp-tender and sauce is slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and drizzle with sesame oil, then stir to coat.

***
In other news I start a new job soon — Internet Marketing Manager at Stash Tea. I am very, very excited and looking forward to this new position.

We made these a while ago and they were quite good. They’ll be a little messy if you eat them right away. Have a something to wipe your fingers on near by. Or, depending upon the company you keep, be prepared to lick you(r)* fingers.

If you stash (hee! — three people will get that) them in the fridge for an hour or two after they cool, the residual butter will solidify and they will be less messy.

Curried Macadamia Nuts
Adapted from a recipe found on Food Network
2 tbsp unsalted butter
4 tsp curry powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 cups roasted, lightly salted macadamia nuts (Trader’s Joe’s brand is good for nuts, for they are lightly salted. If you use another brand, you may want to consider unsalted and add a pinch more salt to the curry butter)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Melt the butter in a small skillet, then add the curry powder, brown sugar, salt, and cayenne and cook, stirring constantly, until aromatic, about 30 seconds.

Toss the nuts with the curry butter on a baking sheet, spread the nuts in a single layer. Bake until the nuts are hot and shiny, about 10 minutes. All ovens are different, so when you can smell them, give them a peek to make sure they are not burning or anything. Cool to room temperature.

Hmmm…now I want a snack…

* jwa, via email, upon pointing out my typo in the original post:

and so on

** I’d like to point out that in jwa’s email, “impertinence” is spelled wrong. Ha!

Well, one of the best, anyway. We were going to grill this outside but it was all cold and rainy so we opted for the grill pan. The marinade gives it such a good flavor. And I think one of my favorite elements of it was the accumulated juices after letting the pork rest — so excellent poured back over the sliced tenderloin.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Molasses and Mustard
From Bon Appétit magazine
1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar, divided
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp coarse-grained mustard
1 3/4-pound pork tenderloin

Whisk molasses, 2 tablespoons vinegar, and both mustards in small bowl to blend. Place pork in heavy-duty resealable plastic bag. Pour marinade over. Seal tightly and refrigerate 4 hours.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Drain marinade into heavy small saucepan. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Grill pork until thermometer inserted into center registers 145 degrees F, turning occasionally with tongs, about 20 minutes. Transfer pork to serving platter; let rest 5 - 10 minutes.

As mentioned in the intro, you can also very easily do this indoors on a grill pan. Just preheat the oven to 375 degrees, while you sear the pork on all sides, stovetop, in a grill pan (about 5-6 minutes).

Then, finish it off in the oven, roasting until the pork reaches 145 degrees — about 10-15 minutes. Let it rest about 10 minutes before serving. Pour any accumulated juices onto the pork before drizzling with the reduced marinade sauce. It’ll make extra-extra moist and tasty!

Speaking of the sauce…
Meanwhile, (as in while you rest the pork), add tablespoon of remaining vinegar to pan with marinade and boil until thickened to sauce consistency, about 5 minutes.

Cut pork crosswise on slight diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Arrange pork slices on platter; drizzle the thickened sauce over. We had this with some sautéed green beans & mushrooms and smashed goat cheese potatoes. Cool weather breaks in the Summer can be fun!

The nuts and tuna that the pork bumped, will be later in the week, I believe. Ina Garten’s Peanut Butter & Jelly bars may also make an appearance.

Oh and belated happy birthday to Je Mange la Ville! My blog turned two years old on July 14th. Terrible Twos! Yeah.

A few panels that I did during watercolor class, in the Garden Home are of Portland, Saturday, July 21..

I took a watercolor workshop today (Saturday) through PCC, taught by Jude Siegel. Funny story — I bought her book, A Pacific Northwest Nature Sketchbook a couple of months ago to inspire me and then I thought I would sign up for a class for further inspiration.

A couple days before the one-day workshop, I figured out that the woman teaching the class that I signed up for, was actually the artist who did the Northwest sketchbook I had just bought. Ha! What a wacky coincidence!

My best painting of the day is the title image — five panels of sketches around Jude’s yard. I liked the class a lot although I wish we would have spent more time on watercoloring. Oh well, I believe I will be doing some watercolors in the yard tomorrow.

Perhaps the raised garden beds, and the flowers in front and maybe even the new fence. Then, I will come in and post either about curried macadamia nuts or seared ahi tuni with a shitake cream sauce. Woo!

This recipe is from Food & Wine magazine and is by Bobby Flay. Typically, I’m not big on Flay’s TV personality but this was from a magazine so it’s not like I had to watch him on TV or anything. So, it’s fine. Actually, it was better than fine.

We tried it recently as a possible first course for the reception dinner. Yeah, I think it’s a go — this will be the First Course at Wedding Feast 08 — of course, there will be a vegetarian option for those who don’t eat crab.

But, back to those of us who do — this was so very good. We passed the recipe off to the caterer and they are definitely up for making something like this for us. Hooray!

Now, when I prepared this at home, I made about a 1/6 of the recipe as listed below, since it was only for the two of us and damn, Dungeness crab is expensive.

Coconut Dungeness Crab Cocktail
This will feed about 6 people as a first course.
1 can (13 1/2 ounces) unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
A couple of dashes habanero hot sauce (we actually had some of this — in a pinch I would use Tabasco as a sub)
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 pounds lump crabmeat, picked over
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Optional: 2 tbsp diced red bell pepper
lime wedges for garnish

In a bowl, whisk the coconut milk, lime juice and hot sauce and season with salt and pepper. Now, I think this would be good with a little diced red pepper. Toss that in too if you use it. Next time, I think I will try it. Gently fold in the crabmeat. Let stand for 15 minutes. Since I made this while it was a little warm in the house, I stored the crab mixture in the fridge for the 15 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the crabmeat to shallow bowls and garnish with the cilantro. I thought it looked especially nice in martini glasses. A lime wedge on the rim is also fun.

A few weeks ago (of course now, it’s a very distant memory) it was a bit chilly. Pulling out Everyday Pasta, I came across this very interesting recipe for gnudi. I had never even heard of gnudi before but they seem to be like bigger, lighter, poofier gnocchi without the potato. Well, okay then. I’ll try those.

I found that cooking them was a bit challenging — some of the dumplings sort of shed little, poofy bits of the dough as they cooked, but the end result was still very good. I also think I made my gnudi slightly bigger than Giada’s, as I only got about 10 gnudi and I was able to cook them all at once, in one huge pot of water.

Quite honestly, I was afraid that they would just fall apart while cooking, but thankfully, they were a bit sturdier that I thought. The gnudi are very loose but held their form well enough to still somewhat resemble the shapes I started out with, before I lowered them into the bubbling water. They were also quite tasty so it didn’t actually matter much to me (or jwa) that in the bowl, they got a little disheveled due to their delicate disposition.

So, if you are feeling up for an experiment and the weather is cool enough for a fluffy dumpling type meal, give these a try!

Ricotta Gnudi in Parmesan Broth
Recipe by Giada De Laurentiis
For Parmesan Broth:
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
optional: 2-inch piece of parmesan rind (the end rind piece from a triangle of parmesan cheese)

For the gnudi:
2 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 egg white
2 oz prosciutto, chopped
2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp AP flour, plus 1 cup for dusting

Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. If you have parmesan rind, throw that in the pot too. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the broth has reduced to 4 cups, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the gnudi, Bring a large pot of salted water to a simmer over high heat. In a large bowl, combine the ricotta, Parmesan, egg, egg white, prosciutto, parsley, nutmeg, salt, and pepper and mix thoroughly.

When the water is simmering and ready, stir the flour into the ricotta mixture. (It is important not to add the flour too soon; otherwise they will become dense and gummy, not light.)

Shape the gnudi using two large soup spoons; scoop up a large spoonful of ricotta mixture into one spoon, then scoop the mixture onto the other spoon and back again, forming a three-sided oval. I’m afraid my gnudi were a little sloppy, resembling drop cookies rather than a three-sided oval. ::shrugs:: I can live with that.

Drop the gnudi into the dredging flour. Form the rest of the gnudi, dredge in flour on all sides, and tap off the excess. I got all of my gnudi formed and dredged, storing them on a plate until they were all ready for the next step.

Slide the formed gnudi into the simmering water, being careful not to overcrowd the pot. Remove the gnudi using a slotted spoon after they have floated to the top and have cooked for about 4 minutes total. Like I mentioned in the intro, I had some little gnudi floaters that I had to skim off the top. So watch out for that situation. If you can’t fit all your gnudi in the pot of boiling water without crowding, rest the cooked gnudi on a plate while you cook the second batch.

Divide the finished gnudi among the serving bowls. Pour the reduced broth over the gnudi. Sprinkle with a pinch of the pepper and a spoonful of grated parmesan and serve.

Tomorrow should be a coconut-crab cocktail (if it’s not too hot upstairs to edit the photos) and there is some decadent seared tuna coming up soon too. Excellent!

Here we are with another Weekend Cookbook Challenge. WCC 18th’s theme is Red & White. For this theme, I chose to use my newest cookbook, Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson, which I recently picked up after being a fan of her blog for the past year. The fact that I am posting about one of her recipes from her new cookbook on my food blog is amusing to me. I am easily amused.

I made the Roasted Tomato & Paprika Soup, which is quite red and drizzled it with plain yogurt, which is white. Hooray! It had a really great taste and the smoky paprika added a great depth of flavor. My only changes are that I threw in a sprig of rosemary and I used a yellow bell pepper instead of a red one.

Roasted Tomato & Paprika Soup
5 tomatoes, cored and quartered
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and quartered
3 small yellow onions, quartered
5 cloves garlic, unpeeled
3 cups vegetable stock
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1 sprig rosemary
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
olive oil
Optional: plain yogurt for garnish

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and rub two rimmed baking sheets with a little olive oil.

Arrange the tomatoes, skin side down, on one of the baking sheets. Coat the pepper and onions with oil and place them on the other sheet along with the garlic. Add the sprig of rosemary to the onion/pepepr sheet.

Give both sheets a sprinkling of salt and pepper and then bake until the tomatoes start to collapse and the onions begin to brown and caramelize — about 45 minutes. Remove the garlic or turn the onions if either gets too dark.

Peel the garlic and dump all of the vegetables into a big bowl. Discard the rosemary sprig, allowing any loose leaves to go with the vegetables into the bowl. Add the stock (start with two cups and add more to your desired thickness) and puree with a handheld blender. You could also use a food processor or regular blender. Add the paprika and taste. Adjust the salt and pepepr as needed. When serving, drizzle with the yogurt if desired.

I found it very helpful to roast the vegetables in the AM, while it was still cool out and in the house. I made the soup early, refrigerated it and then the flavors got to come together a little more than they would have if I made it right before serving. Also, I didn’t have my oven on while it was super hot out! Just before serving, you can reheat. Or, just serve cold or room temperature.

Thanks again to Sara for hosting another great Weekend Cookbook Challenge!

First off, I’ll just say that Astoria has somewhat limited catering choices. It was a little frustrating at first but it has come together just fine — better than fine, actually. We have been in discussions with our caterer over our wedding reception dinner menu and I think we have come up with a great and tasty celebratory spread. jwa and I are both very, very pleased. The menu has a kind of Asian-Swedish-Italian-Moroccan-Greek-French fusion thing happening. Mmmm….tasty, tasty fusion.

The gluttony feast will begin after the ceremony, on the rooftop, where there will be snacks (or as the fancy-pants are apt to call them, Hors d’ oeuvres) that will consist of the following:

* Halibut Cakes with Green Salsa (avocado, lime, cilantro, green apple)
* Seared Black-Sesame Encrusted Ahi Nigiri Sushi
* Caramelized Onion and Sweet Red Pepper Tartlet (vegetarian)
* Middle Eastern Sesame-Lamb Meatballs with Yogurt-Mint Sauce
* Chevre Spanakopita with Lemon-Honey (vegetarian)
* Rogue River Creamery Blue Cheese with Hot Pepper Jelly on Walnut Crostini (vegetarian)

It is also at this point that the wine and champagne will begin to flow. After a little while — when the snacks are gone or the guests get restless — we will head downstairs to the hotel’s wine bar and have dinner.

Course One:
Dungeness Crab Cocktail

Course Two:
Wild Mushroom Soup

Course Three: (A choice of one, although, jwa has already decided that he is having all three. What the hell, it’s his wedding too, I suppose).

* Grilled Wild King Salmon with Swedish Dill-Mustard Sauce; with jasmine rice & baby garbanzo bean pilaf and oven roasted asparagus

* Moroccan Chicken (boneless dark meat chicken with Middle Eastern spices, Kalamata olives, onions & garlic) — or possibly coq au vin — served with soft polenta and oven roasted asparagus

* Wild Mushroom & Spring Vegetable Ragout with soft cheese polenta for our vegetarian guests and oven roasted asparagus

Course Four: (How European!)
* Small Salad of Seasonal Baby Organic Greens with Salalberry Vinaigrette, Toasted Hazelnuts & Radish Sprouts

Course Five — The Final Course — this is where it gets awesome:
Wedding cake, coffee, tea, port.

It looks like the cake will be petite yet three-tiered, with the bottom and mini top tier being an almond cake with a bittersweet chocolate-espresso ganache filling. The middle tier will be a citrus-infused cheesecake. The whole thing will be slathered in vanilla-orange buttercream. Oh yeah, there will also be bittersweet chocolate drizzle cascading down the sides of the cake, as in the title picture.

Catering Choice
We looked at three places for catering: a well-known restaurant in Astoria that we were super-super-unimpressed with at a recent lunch, Voila Catering in Portland and the Shoalwater Restaurant in Seaview, WA. We really liked Voila but, you know, they’re in Portland and the wedding is in Astoria. Very expensive travel fees but, if you are getting married in Portland, you should check them out!

No comment on the Astoria place. *sigh*

Finally, Ann at the Shoalwater (and soon to be in Astoria at the Bridgewater) is awesome. So nice and calm and dedicated to using local, fresh, in-season ingredients. Also, she has such a calming presence and stress-free way about describing how everything at the reception will work. It was such an easy choice to go with them for the catering. I have the feeling this may actually come together!