Never Forget

Happy Birth-A-Versary Lulu !!

So, another slight digression from food, because, three years ago today, the little gray fuzz bomb I eventually named Lulu came into my life.  September 5, 2008.  The day I got….Goobered.

While, as we’ve established, Lulu’s older sister Rosie is a Princess (with a capital “P”, please), Lulu is not.  I think I’d had her home for a day or two, and just looked at her and said out loud, “you’re just a little Goober aren’t you”.  And she is.  A Goober, that is.

Stubborn…..willful…..obstinate.  Yeah, those’d all describe my Lulu.  Silly, goofy, playful, devoted.  Yeah, those’d all be my Lulu as well.  A Princess, she’s not.  If she were a real kid (instead of a fur kid), she’d be the one with the skinned knees, and the snotty nose, and the ripped shirt and the mud stains, and the dead frog in her pocket and the tangled hair.  But she’d also be the one bringing Mazzie the bouquet of dandelions and weeds and maybe flowers purloined from the neighbor’s gardens, just to show Mazzie how much she loved her.

A Goober.

Here she is when she was “new”.  She was skinny…really skinny.

And timid.  So shy.  Scared.  I think she was totally overwhelmed by the new environs and experiences, for the first two days I had her, I didn’t think she was capable of barking.

That soon changed, as did her shyness and the whole "skinny" thing.  She’s pretty chubby now, and certainly has no problem whatsoever making herself heard and seen and known.  She’s become pretty pushy my Lulu has.

“In your face” would be a good descriptor.  What is she ?  Well, unlike her sister, I’m not so sure.  Looking at Rosie, it’s clear she’s mostly, if not all Bichon.  Lulu, she’s got a lot of Shih Tzu in her, but she’s got somethin’ else as well.  What….who knows?  Terrier of some ilk, probably.  And something that gives her HUMONGOUS feets !  She’s got feets that could register on the Richter scale when she gets to running.  From the Shih Tzu she gets the stubborn attitude (they’re amongst the hardest breeds to train and housebreak, and *I* can certainly speak to the latter….LULU !).  She’s also got the Shih Tzu coat (long and silky, with a downy undercoat), the pushed in nose and under bite and the big, googly eyes.  And she knows how to work those eyes.  Downcast and coy one moment, looking up at me through her lashes, blinky and looking all innocent the next second, and then sort of shifty and guilty….all in the space of about a minute.

And then there’s that sweet and loving look….gets me every time….

Lulu also came from the Long Beach, California animal shelter, operated jointly by the City of Long Beach and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Los Angeles (SpcaLA).  All the dogs I’ve ever had have been rescues.  It’s just something I believe in and am committed to.  I had just lost my special baby dog Snickers….and Rosie was lonely.  I thought she’d be happy being the only child, but not so much.  So off I went to the shelter, and there was Lulu.  Only at that time she was called “Twinkie”.  Mental note, first thing up, change the dog’s name.

She’d been a stray, and when I found her, they were still holding her for someone to claim her.  She had another 4 days in “jail” before I could meet her and adopt her.  First thing the morning she was available, I was at the door to the shelter (work….?  Work can wait, I’m gettin’ a dog).  The workers brought her to me, and they put her in my arms.  I was wearing a sweater with a scoop neck, and she took that pushed in little snout and jammed it right into my chest and proceeded to lick her way up my neck and into my face.  Which she still does every time I come home.

So of course, I was smitten.  Brought Rosie in to meet her, they got along OK, signed the papers, cut the check and home she came after the little puppy hysterectomy.

Yes, she gets along quite well with Rosie,

‘though Rosie sometimes (most times) looks totally exasperated with her.  Rosie’s just far, far too cool to be bothered with Goobers.

Yes.  The stuffy, squeekie toys sleep in bed with us, thanks for askin’.

I had the hardest time naming her.  All of my other dogs had literally named themselves.  With Lulu I was going on the third night at home and she still didn’t have a name.  I finally was holding her in my lap, and just looked at her and said “Tell me your name, little girl”.  And Lulu came to me.

And so Lulu she is.  Well and a Goober.

You doubt that, check out this position.  I can’t decide if she looks like a mongoose or a snake…

I finally decided she was the "Mon-Goober".

Yes, those are little slimy doggie nose smears all over the front window.  They both like to hang out on the back of that couch to monitor the comings and goings on the little street.  Yes, I should clean my window more often....thanks fer noticing !

And then there’s this…..

…Road kill Goober aka Flat Goober.  It’s how she lays on the floor, especially when it’s hot.

And her wuvs her Bwoo Mousie her duz….

When she’s bad (often), instead of getting smacked (which doesn’t work and is cruel) or yelled at (which REALLY doesn’t work….), she gets spritzed with water from a spray bottle.  Which frequently leads to... 

….Madder Than a Wet Goober.  Lulu most certainly does NOT like to be wet.

And yes, she got subjected to the Dodger Dog hat…

….and the Santa Hat.

She’s silly, she’s intense, she’s over-the-top affectionate, she’s never far from my side if I’m home, she’s a brat and a Goober, and she still takes that little pug nose and pushes it into my neck to lick me as though she’ll never be able to give me a kiss ever again.  She talks and mumbles and grumbles under her breath when I make her stop barking (because she’s *got* to have the last word).  I love her for all those things, and for how she walks around the house with the squeekie toy hanging from her chops, biting down and squeeeeeking and pushing the toy into me and Rosie while simultaneously squeeeeking it.   Drives Rosie nutz, makes me smile.

Lulu.  She’s one of a kind, as they all are.  I’m so glad she was there at the shelter when I needed her.

Back to food and/or baking tomorrow or the next day !  And you’re probably safe from doggie posts until next July !  Thanks for putting up with me.  And for understanding how deeply and profoundly I love my Rosie and my Lulu.

A Quickie, Figgy Pizza

Once again, because of the plethora of wonderful Summer produce flooding the little kitchen right now, there’s not much going on in the way of “planned”, “deliberate”, “well-thought-out” , menus happening right now.  Add to that, we had our first blast of real Summer weather in SoCal for the past week or so, and I haven’t been doing *air-quotes* COOKING as much as I’ve been doing *air-quotes* GRAZING.

Not that that’s a bad way to eat, especially when the fruit and veg are so spectacular, and when the blast furnace plus humidity means turning on any heat source in the kitchen is an exercise in self-abuse (noooooo air conditioning in the little house with the little kitchen, so sad am I).  Sorry, for a moment there, I just channeled Yoda....

Unfortunately, that don’t make for great fodder for a food blog.

But, I don’t want to leave all y’all in the lurch for too long without checking in, and sharing whatever I can.

So, here’s a quickie.  I made this last week with some of the bounty of figs from The Growing Experience.  It’s a pizza, yes, a pizza with figs.  WAIT, DON’T LEAVE.  Cast those doubts aside and just listen and think.  Figs are great with prosciutto.  *This* has prosciutto.  Figs are great with balsamic vinegar.  *This* has balsamic vinegar.  Figs are great with sharp cheese.  *This* has both Parmesan (sharp, for sure) and mozzarella for a creamy, mild background.  PLUS caramelized onions……plus rosemary.  What’s NOT to like.

It’s….trendy !  It’s….savory, yet, sweet !  It’s quick to make and you could totally cook it on your outdoor grill, and not even worry about heating up the oven (and therefore the kitchen).  Give it a try; you’ll be surprised about how much you like it.

Full confession time...

It’s A “Corn”-ucopia Of Corn Dishes

It’s that time of year, yes, it is….just makes me want to burst out into song.  “When the corn is as high as an elephant’s eyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeee”...

OK, sorry.  If you know me, you don’t want me singing anything at all, let alone the libretto from “Oklahoma”.

Actually, even if you DON’T know me, you don’t want me singing anything at all, let alone the libretto from “Oklahoma”.

Trust me.  Ella Fitzgerald I ain’t.

But, as always, I digress.  This isn’t about singing, or 1940’s musicals, or simply the best female singer that ever lived (that'd be Ms. Ella thankyewvermush), it’s about corn.

Corn.  Specifically, summer sweet corn.  The last leg of that perfect triangle of summer-only goodness; tomatoes, figs and sweet corn.  A trifecta, if you will.  Oh yeah, stone fruits and melons and berries are important now, and certainly welcomed in the little kitchen (I just ate a perfect peach, and was again amazed at how wonderful a creature that is).  But summer without sweet corn, figs and tomatoes is unthinkable.

Since we’ve done our homage to tomatoes, and I shared the seductive glory of a fig upside-down cake with all y’all, it’s time to complete the trilogy.

Let’s talk corn.

A Really Lame Headline For A Really Tasty Focaccia

One of the things I try, really, really hard to do with these articles is come up with snappy, witty and hopefully articulate headlines for them.  The sort that will catch your interest, draw you into the article and make you want to read further.

Let’s just say I didn’t quite achieve that this time around.  I tried.  I’ve had an empty Word document up on the computer for most of the day, with the headline “SNAPPY TITLE FOR FOCACCIA POST”.  Clearly, that train never left the station.

But hopefully the shot of the gorgeous, airy, lacy crumb of my focaccia will do what my pathetic attempt at a headline couldn’t; entice you to read on.  Because this bread is really good.  Really easy to make (no kneading !  No stand mixer !).  And did I mention really good?

The recipe and the method come from the October 2010 issue of “Cook’s Illustrated”.  I’ll give it to you pretty much verbatim at the end of the article, because I don’t think I made many (if any) changes to it.  It was the easiest (and tastiest) focaccia I’ve ever made, and it was outstanding for a quick sandwich the next day.  Not as good as when it was fresh, and warm from the oven, but still plenty tasty, and with that nice focaccia “snap” of the crust you expect.

Oh, and the flavor?  Best I’ve made, possibly close to the best I’ve eaten.  Certainly better than anything I’ve purchased in the MegaMarts, or even in most specialty stores.  You’d have to go to a top-drawer Italian restaurant to get this quality focaccia.

So.  About “Cook’s Illustrated”.  I have a love/hate relationship with “Cook’s Illustrated”.

When I was first getting my cooking feet under me, trying to move from “gee, I think I like this cooking thing, where’s that can of cream of mushroom soup?” to “gee, I LOVE this cooking thing, how do I make pate a choux?” I worshipped at the alter of “Cook’s Illustrated”.  I have all the issues from 1996 through October 2009 stashed away in a cupboard in my kitchen, along with half of 1995 and another random scattering of issues since 2009 that I’ve picked up on the newsstand.  Obviously, I was a long-term subscriber (obviously), and I learned a lot from them.  A lot.  A ton, actually.  As an avowed science geek (although my degree is in a liberal arts field, I spent my working life working for scientific firms and with scientists), I appreciated “CI’s” methodical, science driven approach to making the best dish.  Much for the same reason, I am a HUGE fan of Alton Brown and “Good Eats”.  (Let’s all take a moment and shed a tear for the cancellation of “Good Eats” from the miasma that is now the Food Network ….)

Here A Figgy, There A Figgy…

Happily, in my little kitchen, everywhere a figgy figgy !

Even though I most certainly am NOT a fan of typical Summer weather (although, honestly, I got nothing to b*tch about this year in SoCal….so far….although I’m sure, dead-bang sure our time is comin’….), I absolutely AM a fan of the bounty of fruits and vegetables that comes along with the heat and the long, sunny days.

I’ve already shared my reverence for vine-ripened, sun-warmed straight-from-the-vine beefsteak tomatoes (got another haul in the CSA share this week and about another 6 ready to ripen in the backyard in the next few days…*big grin*).  Corn is plentiful, sweet and tender, and we’ll be seeing some corn dishes real soon, because they’ve been featured in the little kitchen for the past week.  Corn….how do I love thee??

But there goes that silly digression trait of mine again.  Because the reason we’re gathered together here today, my friends, is to celebrate the pinnacle of the late Summer/early Fall produce bounty.  The fig.  To me, the fig, in all of its succulent, jammy, sweet, seedy glory, is what all fruits aspire to be.

I came late to the fig love.  Oh, I’d eaten my share of Fig Newtons when I was a snot-nosed kid, and even purchased The Newts pretty frequently as an adult, but I honestly can’t remember seeing a fresh fig commercially until about 5 or 10 years ago.  I think I might have had some friends that had fig trees in their yards, but I wasn’t interested enough to ask them to share (or they were too covetous of their bounty more likely).  I’d certainly seen them dried, and again, purchased them, used them in cooking, and eaten them.  I liked them (as I did The Newtons), but thought, “eh, no big whup”.

Then….at a Farmers’ Market a few years back, I saw a carton of fresh ones.  They were hideously expensive, but since I’m the die-hard trendoid foodie that I am, I took the plunge.

I got home, rinsed one off, took a bite and…

The Mezze Was Not Messy (But The Kitchen Was…..)

In fact, it was very, very tasty.  The mezze, that is.  According to the Great God Wikipedia (which we all know is unimpeachably accurate…. {/end snark}), mezze is “a selection of small dishes served in the Mediterranean and Middle East as dinner or lunch, with or without drinks”.  To me, as my boy Alton Brown would say, mezze is just, ermmmmm….good eats.  And, it goes without saying, my mezze was going to be served with drinks.

And so it was a couple of weeks back, the day I made the pita bread I last shared with you.  Because, good as homemade, fresh, pillowy pita bread is, that really doesn’t constitute a full meal, especially not a full meal for friends.

So, there was mezze.  Really good mezze.  Homemade falafel, made from dried chickpeas, mixed with fresh, lushly flavorful herbs and fried gently in olive oil.  Tzatziki, too, creamy, thick Greek yogurt, mixed with more herbs and garlic and cucumber.  Tahini sauce, to drizzle over.  And a Greek salad, since that’s the direction we were leaning, more towards the Mediterranean end of the mezze spectrum than the Middle Eastern one.  All dishes I’d made before, in one iteration or another, but never in this gathering of yummies, and not usually made totally from scratch, from hopefully quasi-*authentic* recipes.

My falafels had, previously, come from a box mix of dehydrated chickpea (garbanzo) flour and dried herbs.  Reconstitute with some water, let sit, form and fry.  They were….passable, but I knew I could do better.  My Greek salads had been laden with extraneous ingredients.  My tahini sauce had been from a jar.  It was time to up the ante a bit, and try to see if I could concoct some semi-authentic mezze.

Oh, the teaser picture.  For some reason (insert head-smack here), I didn’t get a picture of the entire table when everything was done, nor of the finished sandwiches with the falafel patty on the pita, drizzled with the tahini sauce, and the tzatziki and dressed with lettuce, tomato and onion.  I *think* I tried….and the shots I got were out of focus and/or poorly lit.  It did sort of all come together very quickly at the end, and it got rushed.  Too many tasks, too few hands, too much potential to burn down the house with hot oil.   So, up there we gots the tahini sauce (in the small bowl to the bottom left), the tzatziki (in the medium-size bowl to the bottom right) and the Greek salad up top.

We’ll see the falafels later….