the arugula files

Grateful (Happy Holidays)

This is our first Christmas tree.  It's lovely, isn't it?

What a year.  I feel incredibly lucky and grateful.

Stay warm, have a wonderful holiday, soak up what matters.   Pay it forward. 

See you next year (or maybe a little bit before with some fondue just in time for the ball to drop).

Happy Holidays!

Mary

Chocolate Pretzel Dipsticks (Chapter 13: The Art of Lazy Food)

I like the idea of homemade candy, especially during the holidays.  The problem is that homemade candy is too much work; it doesn't square with my cooking ADD.  I'm not into high maintenance dishes with 17 steps.  The cookbook I'm working on?  "The Art of Lazy, Tasty Food."  The dessert chapter will definitely feature these chocolate dipped pretzels.  They took less than an hour, including clean up and packaging. 

They sure do taste like more work.  Salty.  Sweet.  Crunchy.  Amazing.  Chocolate + pretzels might surpass chocolate + peanut butter as the salty dessert power couple. 

Look out, family, I'll be home for Christmas, and I'm bringing these beauties.  You supply the snow.

Roasting Broccoli: Be Gone, Jiggly Bits

The other night, after dinner, I skipped bowling because my pants were too tight.  Total.  Torture.  It felt like my jeans were violating my human rights.

Yes, it's that time.  The days between Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas, when our jiggly bits become jiggly chunks.  Just look at all these cookies.  They are everywhere. 

Time to go green. 

I'm not talking about the Grinch that stole your cookies.  I'm talking about some seriously delicious broccoli that you will want to eat.  (You can eat cookies after you finish your broccoli.)

I've always liked broccoli.  This recipe, however,  elevated its status from reliable vegetable buddy to BVF.   The original recipe is from Ina Garten's Back to Basics, but I've dumbed it down a bit and left out a few ingredients, mostly because pine nuts have a lot of fat.

Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees.  Cut 3 to 4 pounds of broccoli into florets.  Wash and pat dry.  Toss in olive oil until lightly coated, kosher salt (about one teaspoon, or more) and red pepper flakes (1 teaspoon or to taste).  Add thinly sliced garlic (about 3 to 4 cloves).  Lay out the broccoli on a parchment paper lined cooking sheet.  Make sure not to crowd the pan.  Roast for about 20 minutes, until the edges are brown and crispy (flavor!).  If it needs it, you can shake the pan around and put it back in the oven for 5 to 8 minutes.  Then finish it off with parmesan reggiano, lemon juice, lemon zest, and, if you have it on hand, chopped basil. 

Seriously delicious.

As for the jiggly bits....remember, roasting is your friend in the last days of 2010. 

Hopefully, after eating this for a few nights, I'll be able to get back to lobbing the ball down the lane.

Still Holiday Shopping? Here Are Some Ideas for the Foodie in Your Life

 

1) Apple and peach blossom raw honey from Toigio Orchard, for the tea drinker.

2) Hendricks Gin, for the sophisticated drinker. {hat tip to Sangeetha for the introduction.}

3) Owl plushie, for the person who likes owls.  (So what if they don't have anything to do with food.  This shop is one of my favorites on the internet, so I'm obligated to tell you about them.)

4) Acacia salad bowl, for the lover of organic materials.

5) Nesting doll glasses, for the person who loves kitsch.

6) Kotobuki piglet bento box, for the person who spends too much money buying lunch.

7) Xenia tiles, for the functional art lover.

8) Meadow Chevre from Firefly Farms, for the cheese lover.

9) Miss Dahl's Volumptuous Delights, for someone looking for the female version of Jamie Oliver.

 

Thanks to my husband Marcus for making this post pretty. He thinks there's too much "bric-a-brac" on this list and likes last year's list better.  "It's more practical."  I think I'll get him socks for Christmas.

 

Lovely and Crispy Carrot Salad with Indian Lamb

I really liked this dish.  The flavors are bright and it's filling without being heavy.  It's the first recipe I've cooked from Jamie At Home, Cook Your Way to the Good Life.  I'm really enjoying this cookbook.  It's my style of cooking: simple, seasonal, flavorful, and I can actually hear the voice of Jamie Oliver as I read the cooking instructions.  "Keep frying until the meat is lovely and crispy."  It's like he's in my kitchen. 

Pretty in Fuschia

I fell for these red carrots like Jake Gyllenhal fell for Taylor Swift: fast, hard, and based soley on looks.  I mean feast your eyes upon them.  They are so pretty.  (Yes, I am that person, who describes vegetables as pretty).  I couldn't wait to bring them home and cook em up.  I had the perfect dish in mind.  A recipe of carrot salad and sesame lamb, from Jamie Oliver, auteur of peasant dishes that look lavish. 

The minute I peeled the skin off the carrot, I could tell I had made a mistake.  The skin underneath was a gray white color, with flecks of red from the outer skin.  It looked like old snow with a slushie thrown on top.  Even worse was the taste.  My beautiful, fuschia carrots tasted like, well, nothing.  Nothing. 

I felt so disappointed.  When I'm over it, I'll give you the recipe for the lamb dish.  It could be a while.

Meanwhile, here're the carrots for you to admire.  Don't fall for them though.

 

 

 

Uncle Liu's Hot Pot (Plus, My Secret Plans)

In the middle of a congested strip mall, anchored by a Gold’s Gym, the Great Wall supermarket, and Unique Thrift store, sits Uncle Liu's Hot Pot, a blandly decorated restaurant where hungry diners cook their dinner tableside.  Hot pot—or Chinese fondue, as some call it—has been around for centuries.  Yet, I’m unaware of any other restaurants in the Washington region that specialize in the experience—and it is an experience.

I had my first hot pot with Uncle Liu.  It was not complicated or intimidating. Actually, it reminded me of college, when I had my first go at dim sum.  There were lots of oohs and ahhs and umms.  Hot pot goes like this: you order a big pot of broth, choosing a handful of flavors (spicy, mild, fish, and mushroom, among others); the broth heats up quickly on your tabletop propane burner.  Then you order raw servings of your favorite veggies, meats, and seafood ingredients, to cook in the hot pot.  Cooking time for each ingredient varies, but most are ready within two minutes.  When each piece is done, you remove it, plop it in dipping sauce, and then pop it in your mouth.  White or fried rice comes on the side.  On a recent trip, Marcus and I ordered beef, shrimp, broccoli, cabbage, veggie dumplings, enoki mushrooms, and lotus root.