#123 - Traditions, A rose by any other name and Family Fun

(But first - Sunday Brunch by the Sea)
It's tradition that on my last Sunday at home, we have brunch down by the ocean.  One of the big draws is the omelette station in which, as per my request, Chef S always squishes my omelette so that it isn't runny anywhere.  About a year ago he was promoted to a different service so I was very happy to see him.  Even better, he remembered both my omelette and me (it's so nice to be appreciated!).  Another member of the staff was kind enough to have refilled the fried rice tray because he saw I was getting ready to fill my plate.  How did I know?  Because he told me so when he saw that I had already started to fill my plate - so of course I had to add some of the fresh fried rice to my very full plate, so that his efforts were fully appreciated.  (It's so nice to be missed and even nicer to be spoiled - a girl could get used to this in a hurry!)  So although this was originally intended to be Round 1, unfortunately I was defeated by the enormous omelette topped with house salsa, fried rice, crispy bacon, sauteed mahimahi with tartare sauce (not one of my usual choices) and lots and lots of coffee.  Thanks Chef S & D!  By the way, that's a dinner plate, in case you can't tell by scale.

Porn is porn is porn (aka Is porn, porn?  In which some names sound much more exciting than the actuality)
Kind of like the Sex Party in Australia (apparently not the fun kind, but I couldn't tell you what they are - no one could tell me when I was at the voting place last year either).

The other day our dinner plans went a little awry.  How, you may ask, when all we needed was some chicken breast.  I'm not sure how it happened, but at Safeway, the chicken was still frozen - as in, I could see the ice crystals (really, how good will the meat taste?) so I went to the second store which didn't have anything free-range / organic / something which didn't sound like it was full of hormones.  So you think it's no worries, there's another one down the road.  No chicken breasts at all, frozen or otherwise!  1.5 hours after leaving home and buying everything except the chicken, we gave up on that idea and had to come up with a quick last minute dinner idea.  The result:  ginger, garlic and green onion (spring onion to my Aussie / UK friends), salt and a little oil.  On everything.  And it appears my niece has a good palate - she wanted a bit more salt on everything (my Mom said it was too salty)...oh dear.  You win some, you lose some.  A friend said that I am a "food porn producer.  Or culinary porn."  Another friend calls it "gastroporn"  - which makes me wonder a little at the whole "...I can't define what is pornography.]  "But I know it when I see it."  - Potter Stewart, opinion in Jacobellis v Ohio (1964) [NB:  I got this reference from Wikipedia - aka I don't really care what the answer is, but I cared that teeny bit enough to look it up.]

Then later that night, my niece asked me in her little voice if I could "please cook for me".  I asked my sister if she had asked my niece to ask me to cook for them - as Lil Sis said, "I didn't, but it's something I would do."  Well yes, that's why I asked...

Comfort food / family fun in the kitchen
Today was cold and rainy - and since we had a couple of hours until dinner time and no one felt like doing anything elaborate, we settled on meatloaf.  I've been meaning to try the bacon wrapped meatloaf for over a year now so we tried it today.  Lil Sis likes meatloaf because it's a good way to hide lots of vegetables although I haven't noticed that her children need much encouragement to eat their veggies.

Even better, my niece and nephew each like to help in the kitchen and they love to wash - I heartily encourage it!  So they washed the vegetables and did the all important taste test once the mixture was done and a little bit cooked off (shades of LCB cuisine classes...)  I have a feeling that each of their first memory of me will be the sight of me standing by the stove - and all I can say is, there could be worse first memories so I have no objection to this one.

Superbowl is coming up and although we haven't managed to settle on a party plan yet (will there be one for commercials?  That has yet to be determined) the bacon experiment was also a trial run for any sort of party:  meatloaf cooked in a muffin tin lined with bacon.

One of my classmates from LCB will be leaving (has left?) Dome restaurant and of course I had presentation envy so we dolled up the meatloaf.  Previous failures at finding baby / micro-greens notwithstanding, I have seen them in several places the last couple of days so I of course they made it onto the plate.  You think that they would be a complete waste by my niece actually wanted some of the little plants for her plate (of course she didn't eat them - but she did eat her other veggies...)

The thing with presentation is that you already have to have an idea in your head.  Since I couldn't decide (and falling back on my "why choose if you don't have to" philosophy) I did a couple of different variations.

Of course the large meatloaf took a lot longer to cook - the bacon lattice didn't turn out quite the way I had envisioned it but that may have something to do with the really large chunks of fat that I removed from the packet of bacon.  My recommendation if you like to trim off the excess fat from the bacon like I do:  buy two packs of bacon so that you have some back-ups for the lattice.  This one went into the fridge for tomorrow so we'll let you know how it turns out.  For the English / UK / Aussies, this will be burnt and unfit to eat.  For (most) Americans that I know, this is about right since we like our bacon crispy - maybe not this crispy?  Only a tasting will tell.

On the agenda for tomorrow - more fun in the kitchen involving lots of butter (testing different types, naturally, all in the name of research), cheese and all the things doctors, nutritionists and dieticians tell you are bad for you.

Until next time, may you have happy family hang-outs and fun bonding time!

#122 - Afternoon Tea (aka further research)

In which we go to afternoon tea and call it research
LM and I are continuing on our quest to have afternoon tea in as many places as we can.  We put it under the heading of "research" but this is the only kind of research which comes with snacks.
LM had been to a couple of the afternoon tea options available, so today we went to the one at Orchids at the Halekulani - gorgeous setting as always and a beautiful afternoon to match.


Tell me what seems a little off about this picture:  the self-professed owner of the sweet tooth (LM) had a blueberry rooibos tea sans sugar.  The self-proclaimed owner of no sweet tooth whatsoever (yours truly) had the Golden Assam with sugar.  Somehow in the excitement, I forgot to take a photo of the "Tea" portion of our Afternoon Tea.  Loved the scone and madeleine (the shape, for us, determines whether or not this is a madeleine, so as delicious and buttery as it was, this was a Not-Madeleine).

Tea Sandwiches with a twist
We started with the savory because...well, because we wanted to have the sweets as desserts.  I started from what sounded like the least strong to the strongest flavors.  There was the traditional cucumber sandwich with a twist, the twist being cream cheese, not butter.  Then the ham and watercress rolled sandwich - actually not bad.  The chicken and horseradish sandwich has the peanut crust (top of the photo) - there was some apricot (dried?) in the mixture as well - with the peanuts, almost a peanut buttery flavor - initially odd until LM said it was close to satay chicken.  And finally the smoked salmon with capers on...rye?  The sandwiches were interesting but couldn't top the scones which came with a lemon curd, a strawberry (?) jam and clotted cream.

We have been blessed (or is it cursed?) with standards which aim for perfection - standards which even the Chefs who taught us occasionally do not meet to their satisfaction.

Pretty is as pretty does
I have a feeling our very kind waiters thought we were crazy.  We looked, we oohed, we ahhed, and then we took the food apart.  We did the tasting by individual elements, then as a whole.  Of course top marks for presentation - the desserts were so pretty that I have vowed I will probably try some of these presentations.

However - yes, there is always a "however".  There seemed to be an awful lot of gelatine in the desserts - both in the lemon curd of the layered blueberry thing (left) and the lavender cream of the violet topped dessert (right).  Whether it's a matter of making sure the desserts set correctly so that they didn't run all over or not, the consistency of somewhere between a custard/curd and a jelly was just slightly off-putting.  Or perhaps there has been a new trend in texture of which neither of us was aware.

In any case, discussion about the technical elements led to stories about the things that went wrong in class (yes, we are still haunted by Ghosts of Classes and Bad Exams Past).  Also discussions of LM's forays into more stable creams or what we want to try again or our nightmare desserts which we will never attempt again.  (For instance, I will never attempt a sugar sculpture again, for obvious reasons.)  We sorely missed some members of our little posse.

The good thing about doing a tasting with a friend is that I felt no shame in not finishing my desserts.  Or the sandwiches.  Or picking out all the raisins (currants?) in my scones with my fingers.  But we do have more ideas of things for each of us to try and a cooking date since today we ate - the change in schedule dictated by the days on which afternoon tea was available.  It also made us feel like we didn't do such a bad job with our student tea (or at least, speaking for myself, I felt like we did ok despite my large screw up with a huge batch of chocolate mousse for the raspberry and chocolate Galaxie).

So until next time, may you find that your best is good enough and hopefully, better than good!