Traveling & Recipe Coming Soon

I've been in San Francisco for most of this week for work, so I apologize that this blog has been quiet these past few days.

But I promise a delicious recipe is on its way very soon -- perfect for hot summer night dinners. You know, where you can't bear the thought of eating something overly warm?

Here's your hint:



Have a great weekend!

To Live Free

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! Hope you're taking this day and beginning of this wonderful season to spend some time outside -- and hopefully cooking outside! Nothing is better than grilled food on a beautiful Memorial Day.

And in honor of living free....here's a little blurb from one of my fave writers and environmental gadflies, Wendell Berry.

The industrial eater is, in fact, one who does not
know that eating is an agricultural act,
who no longer knows or imagines the connections
between eating and the land, and who
is therefore necessarily passive and uncritical....



We still (sometimes) remember that
we cannot be free if our minds and voices
are controlled by someone else.



But we have neglected to understand that
we cannot be free if our food and its sources are
controlled by someone else.



The condition of the passive consumer of food
is not a democratic condition.

One reason to eat responsibly is to live free.

-- Wendell Berry, The Pleasures of Eating

Jack Daniel's Ice Cream

While you're out vanilla bean shopping to make your own homemade vanilla extract, you may as well pick up an extra bean to make some homemade ice cream, especially now that summer is well on its way. Might be a great Memorial Day weekend treat!

This recipe is also graciously courtesy the multi-talented Chef Mike.


Jack Daniel's Ice Cream
Adapted from Bon Appetit

1 + 1/3 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
5 large egg yolks
Pinch salt
1 oz whiskey - Jack Daniel's or Bourbon

Scald milk (heat, but do not boil) in a saucepan with your vanilla bean. Whisk sugar, egg yolks, and pinch of salt in medium bowl.

Temper the eggs by whisking an ounce or two of milk into the eggs before gradually whisking all of the milk mixture (minus the vanilla bean) into egg mixture; return to saucepan. Frequently stir mixture over medium heat until thickened slightly and finger leaves path when drawn across the back of a wooden spoon, about 4 minutes (do not boil - be careful not to heat too fast as this will cook the eggs - eww).

Strain into another medium bowl. Stir in Jack Daniel's. Cover and chill custard until cold, at least 5 hours.

If you have an ice cream maker: process in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Transfer ice cream to container, cover, and freeze. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep frozen.)

If you don't have an icecream maker: chill the custard then freeze. Won't come out as well, but will more than likely do in a pinch. Do NOT add more alcohol as this will prevent the mixture from freezing.

The Thing With Feathers

Hope doesn't come from calculating whether the good news is winning over the bad. It's simply a choice to take action. ~ Anna Lappé

Anna Lappé and Frances Moore Lappé are the authors of Diet for a Small Planet and Grub (among other books) and founders of the Small Planet Institute and Take a Bite Out of Climate Change.

I particularly loved Take a Bite's "About" section, which includes this (blue and bold are mine):

Take a Bite plunges into the heart of the debate with a powerful message: If we are serious about the crisis, we’ve got to talk about food.

With nearly one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions coming from the food and agriculture sector, we at Take a Bite are here to help you learn about the connection between global warming and the food on your plate and what you can do about it.

The connection between global warming and the food on your plate and what you can do about it. Amen. Count me in.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

*Plus a bonus recipe for vanilla sugar!

Just say NO to the insanely overpriced stuff you get in the store in the teeny little bottles -- and especially skip the faux vanilla extract that's not even made with real vanilla.

Now you can make your own! I am so going to do this for us to use here at Casa Dena. It's not that we bake a ton, but I hate paying that high price for something that can so easily be made at home, and for less $. I did a little price comparison, and depending on the ingredients you use, we're talking at least a difference of $1.50 an ounce v. $2.40 an ounce!

I also think this would make a fantastic gift -- if you make it now, this could potentially be ready as a lovely holiday gift this year. (Okay now I think I have officially channeled Martha Stewart. And I'm loving it.)

Mike's Homemade Vanilla Extract
Generously and graciously submitted by a friend I like to call my dessert fairy godmother (pun intended), Mike. He's been to pastry school and back, and the man knows sweet things. His dog is even named Sugar!

Start with a good bottle of vodka (750 ml) -- Ketel One, Belvedere, or Grey Goose will do. Best prices are at Costco, Sams, or BevMo.

You need 9 vanilla beans. You can get these at a specialty store as they are cheaper and better quality than what you can buy at the grocery store. FYI decent beans are expensive -- approximately $1.25 to $2 a bean. I like the Bourbon/Madagascar the best.

Cut only the ends off of 3 beans, snip the next 3 beans into 1/2 inch pieces with kitchen scissors, and split the last 3 beans in half. Add all of the vanilla beans to the vodka. (Dena's note: if you're using your own fancy bottle to, say, make this as a gift, put the beans into the fancy bottle first, then pour the vodka into the bottle over the beans.)

Let it sit in a cool, dark place for 6-9 months and you'll have all the vanilla you'll need for a year. The vanilla leaches into the vodka, creating an extract. I start a new bottle when I'm halfway through the old one. (Dena's note: Did I mention he is an amazing pastry chef who bakes up a storm?)

* Bonus recipe: Once you use all of the extract, take the beans out of the bottle and cover them with sugar. This will create a mild vanilla sugar. For stronger sugar, use a fresh bean.

Breakfast of Champions

OMG I just had to share this with you. My best friend's sister's husband (uh...yeah), Dan, is one half of the hilarious genius mastermind team behind this new comic called the Urban Blah. And today's is priceless.



Because I love love love me some nachos. The thought of Breakfast Nachos? Mmmmmm...yummers.

What's your guilty pleasure/indulgence that is all kinds of wrong but just can't be denied?

Still Tasty

Still Tasty.

No, that's not the working title of my memoirs.

It's an awesome site that I heard about from a friend blogger that gives you the answer to the eternal question we've all asked ourselves after leaving pizza out overnight by mistake:

"Can I still eat this???"


In fact, they answer that very question! (Not to my satisfaction, however: I am all about eating pizza leftovers, whether they made it into the fridge or not.)

And they answer the question my dear friend Winston and I have often asked ourselves: Why/how on earth does bottled water have an expiration date?

We need wonder no longer. And, it turns out, we need replace our earthquake water no longer to continue to replace our earthquake water, simply because of the plastic in which it comes -- what a waste. If anyone knows of a way to store water safely in large non-plastic containers, I wanna know!

And now that we're heading into the fruity months of spring and summer, I love this guide on how to store fruit and get the most out of it. Because nothing's worse than rotting fruit -- that just has always struck me as really bad juju/feng shui/karma.

Meal Planning for Beginners

How do you make a menu for the week?

I realized, after posting my menu plan on Monday and receiving the following comment from my friend Nzinga, that I've been just assuming meal planning comes easy and is something everyone knows how to do automatically.

"Seeing this post in my inbox today reminded me that I've been meaning to create weekly meal plans for...oh, I dunno, a few years now. It seems way more necessary now that we've got the kidlet and want to spend less on impromptu "missing ingredient trips". Getting started seems a little overwhelming, though."

Clearly I was wrong -- and I should be the first to know this, because when I first started meal planning six years ago, I had no idea where to begin! It was agonizing. I turned to my friends and got ideas from them, and eventually was able to do it all on my own.

So, a step-by-step meal planning tutorial for today!

Meal Planning for Beginners
(so as to avoid the overwhelm)

To begin meal planning without getting totally overwhelmed, we'll stick with the KISS method: Keep It Simple, Stupid. We'll start small with planning for three meals to cook and you can work your way up from there.

1.) Set aside 10 minutes on Sunday or Monday to sit down with a piece of paper and pen.

2.) Think about your week to come -- how many nights do you need to cook? Do you have plans any nights this week that mean you'll be eating out or getting take-out?

3.) Since we're starting small and simply, we'll only meal plan for three nights. Your first meal will be the one that is easiest for you to cook, the one that comes to mind first.

For some people, this is pasta of some sort, either with a simple tomato sauce or dressed with garlic and olive oil. What is it for you? What is the first easy dish that comes to mind? Whatever that is, it is your First Meal. Write that down.

4.) For your Second and Third Meals, do you have any other dishes that spring to mind? If not, you could try:

--- Picking up a bag of frozen potstickers like I mentioned on Monday and adding in one or two veggies for a very simple and inexpensive but filling stirfry.

--- My easy and tasty Sesame-Soy Chicken with a green vegetable on the side (I often serve with chard or kale sauteed with garlic).

--- Healthy and hearty Black Beans & Rice -- this is a one-pot meal that satisfies. And it's really very simple and fast to make. This Cabbage Salad makes a great side if you feel like you need one.

--- Too hot for beans and rice where you are? This Curried Chicken Salad will not disappoint. Steam some artichoke or roast some asparagus (or both, like I often do), and you've got a complete, delicious meal.

5.) Now that you've got three meals written down, you've got your menu!

6.) All you need to do now is figure what ingredients you do not have on hand. I usually look at each meal's recipe individually and figure out what I'll need for each, writing it on my grocery list.

And you're done! Off to the store with you. You are now set for three nights of delicious home-cooked meals. With only ONE trip to the grocery store. How about that!

If you have other ideas or ways about planning out your week's menu, I'd love to hear about them! Please do share!

Menu Plan for the Week

Here's what we're eating for the week. Someone asked me recently how I can manage to plan out what we're eating for the week here at Casa Dena, and I had to tell them the truth: I can't imagine not doing it.

Honestly -- how else do you know what to buy when you go to the store? I try to only go to the grocery store once a week, and with my list in hand that is informed by my menu plan, it's the only way I can conceive of doing it.

Plus, I read an article recently on small ways to cut spending and make our households more recession-friendly, and menu planning was one of those tips. You spend less when you plan out ahead of time what you'll be buying. It seems simple and so self-evident, but it really does work.

In fact, my (wonderful) boss, who has a family of four for whom she regularly cooks, told me once that during a meeting in which she and her partner were refinancing their home, she was asked to figure out how much she spends per month on what. And she shocked everyone, including herself, when she did the math and realized she spends (and I am not exxagerating her, folks) $2,000 per month on groceries!!! For a family of four!!! She nearly fell over in her chair, and so did I when she told me. Now, granted: she shops exclusively at Whole Foods. So she's not bargain shopping. BUT the main reason she spends so much is because she goes to the store nearly every day. She plans only as far as that evening. And lo and behold, she spends more. I tried to convince her to plan for the week, but she said she'd never be able to, that she can't know what she's going to want to eat tomorrow. But I wonder if maybe she's changed her habits in this new economy.

Anyway... here's what's cookin' at our house this week (anything in red is local, seasonal, organic, and most likely from our Farmer's Market ):

• Monday: Potsticker Stirfry with Baby Bok Choy (I get a bag of those great frozen potstickers at TJ's, fry them up, then add veggies of all sorts. SO EASY. I like it because it's a combination of a budget dinner and incorporates a local, seasonal vegetable.)
• Tuesday: Potato Latkes & Cabbage Salad (Hubby found some potatoes in our community garden plot as he's been de-weeding it and brought them home to me. I took one look and saw mounds of luscious golden potato pancakes in our future.)
• Wednesday: Kale Rabe & Shiitake Mushroom Rice with Tahini Sauce (the lovely winter greens are starting to flower, and the farmer's market is ripe with florettes of all sorts; they are delicious!)
• Thursday: Brussel Sprout Rabe & Sausage Pasta (see what I mean? It's all over!)
• Friday: Grilled Chicken Skewers & Grilled Asparagus
• Saturday: Date Night

What about you? Do you plan a week ahead or take it day by day? Do you find you save money with a certain method?

And what are you eating this week?

Tonight's Potsticker Stirfry... YUM.

Hello, Lover....

Good morning!

P.S. Extra bonus points to anyone who can name the city in which this latte was brewed. A hint: it is not Eugene.