Ending year on a sour note

Cat fight aftermath
Fur flying pot overturn
Sweep up evidence


Cheap chinese apron
Much copyright infringement
Only one dollar


Homemade lemon bars
Gift for Scott's new year party
Drunk and half naked

Disrobed lemons

Embryonic stages of Ed's limoncello. Patience my friend. Patience. Thirty more days until fruition. Thirty long long days. Then my budding alcoholism will unfurl into full bloom. I started to call my backyard citrus trees, margarita trees, mimosa trees, and limoncello trees. Should I be worried?

Life's equations solved

A good day. Plans for yard work dashed by unexpected rains this morning- makes for perfect napping weather.


Tomatillos, 2 lbs for 99 cents. What a bargain! I love the Food 4 Less. They have the elusive epazote in large quantities- plus all sorts of other cheap Mexican ingredients. Masa harina, 5 lb bags, 2 for $3. Mexican oregano. Jalepenos by the bushel. Corn husks... Piloncillo... Crema... La Lechera... Queso... Queso... Queso... Oh joy, the queso.


And pork loin. Succulent, succulent pork loin. For the bestest ever food of all time and space. Rick Bayless's tomatillo braised pork loin.


Onions, 4 lbs for 99 cents. Holy cow, so cheap. I doubled the recipe to serve 12. (Equivalent to 3 Davy servings.) And it'll still be less than $15 total for this entire meal. So delicious.


Taters. Earthy earthy taters. At this time, I started humming to myself in anticipation... giddy with excitement, squeaking each time the meat thermometer ticked forward another digit towards 145. Singing an out of tune pork song. I tend to sing a lot of out of tune pork songs.


Pork + Booze = Happy

So happy.

Power hungry

Tonight's overcooked flan. Sigh. I keep forgetting the new oven now runs on 220 volts and is super powerful, fast, and retains heat extremely well. I need to crank down the temperature drastically on all recipes, and shorten all the baking times. Baking in a water bath (bain marie) is supposed to temper the temperature fluctations and help cook delicate custards slowly and evenly. After a few minutes, I found Ulysses battling whirlpools in the center of my oven. Damned new efficient technologies! I'm still smarting from when the oven cracked my pizza stone in two. I think this oven sucks down more power than what the entire house used when it was first built in 1917.


Christmas Tree Lane. Half a mile from the house. Over a century ago, deodar cedar saplings from Italy were planted on what was supposed to be a driveway to a grand manor. The mansion was never built, and now 80 feet tall christmas trees line both sides of Santa Rosa Ave- officially known as Christmas Tree Lane around this time of the year. Since the 1950's, the Chirstmas Tree Lane Association holds a pledge drive around the neighborhood to help pay for the electric bill. I think they should convert to more energy effiecient LED bulbs.

Bundles of joy

Delicious Santa Bundles. A simple brown butter and sage sauce. Red bell peppers pureed with olive oil- I needed something red to go with the green chive ribbons, and also something bright and fresh tasting to counter the butter and sage. Very very very very yummy. I would totally order these in a restaurant. Alas not reproducable at all. Completely improvised, no measuring implements used at all. Simple to make, if only I can remember how I made them... I'm sure I've forgotten some other ingredients I threw in there. I probably should be video taping myself when I'm cooking.


This year's lonely orphans.


And more.


And my favorite Ro made it all the way to Davy's. Joy!

Santa's descenders

I'm hosting a lonely orphan holiday pot luck tomorrow. Instead of making traditional holiday food, I decided to invent a new dish. There's a package of won ton wrappers in the refrigerator, so I've been thinking about dumpling/ravioli/filled pasta type dishes all week. Stuffed pasta it is! Sometimes inspiration strikes when you're trying to clean out the refrigerator. (And yes, I bought these won ton wraps because of the panda on the package.)


Off to the backyard to forage for ingredients. Mutant swiss chard that I planted two Septembers ago are still going strong. I have no idea why they havn't gone to seed yet. They grow in festive bright red and green colors that would look attractive when the won ton skins go translucent. I'll even use the bright red stems. I hope the mutant chard don't kill my guests tomorrow. That would be bad.


For the filling, I thought about using pumpkin seeds to add a bit of crunch, maybe a bit of fall harvest theme. I definitely want something crunchy so the raviola won't be evenly smooshy when you bite into it. Much more interesting texture-wise with some crunch. But I didn't think the earthy pumpkin seeds would complement the brown butter sage sauce I was hoping to dress these with. Instead, I threw in a handful of toasted pine nuts with the chard. Buttery pine nuts match better with butter sage sauce. That's why some butter cookies have pine nuts as garnish. And a few scoops of ricotta to bind it all together. A few fluffs of parmesan cheese because I like playing with the microplane grater. Salt, pepper, probably other stuff I don't remember. I might have added an egg, I'm not sure. Sauted lightly with shallots, the filling would finish cooking in the same amount of time for the wrapper to become translucent and tender. I used the red spatula because it's nearly Xmas.


Lightly blanched garlic chive flowers. This makes them pliable enough to tie like ribbons. And they add a hint of garlic flavor- this way I didn't have to add garlic to the filling. Makes it more interesting too. And by having asymmetrical raviola, the fluffy pasta tops will also be different from the filled section. Each bite will be different both in flavor and texture.


Little bundles of ravioli things. They didn't really need the chive flowers to stay closed, since a simple twist keeps it all together. But it looked really neat with the chives tied like a ribbon. Made with love.(tm) Inspired by Santa and his sack of toys, I was going to call these Santa's Sacks. But the name Santa's Sacks have an unfortunate genital connotation. Hence, they are christened Santa Bundles.

Jumping fei-joi

The house still being worked on. Sigh... is there no end in sight?


Aaron and Jenne are getting feijoia bread soon. Feijoia, otherwise known as pineapple guava, are related to neither pineapples or guavas. Mom and Dad have an overabundantly large feijoia tree/shrub/weed thing. Hence the ready supply of these fruits. They don't have much taste really, but they have a great aroma. Kind of minty lemoney in a lavendar sort of way. I made feijoia bread for Aaron and Jenne's going away party at the old zoo lion cages not too long ago, hope they enjoy it again.

Buon giorno Italia

Hooray! Italy vacation photos are finally posted after months of toil and procrastination. I really should be working on something more contructive to pay the bills. Perhaps even look for a real job. But at the moment, I'd rather dwell on the happiness I experienced in Italy. http://travel.davychen.com/italy2005

Empty stomachs

Honey bear gets a cesarean.


Tonight's dinner is at Osteria Via Stato. Just bring me food. Just bring me wine. Selected the super duper special wine package. Now my taste buds are spoiled and can't drink the cheap stuff. Damn you Sommelier! You've ruined me.


Zabaglione gelato. I like saying "Zabaglione" after three generous pours of wine. One of my all time favorite gelato flavors. I miss Italy.


Holidays on Michigan Ave. I'm trying to absorb as much winter holiday spirit as I can stomach. Tomorrow, I return home to the land of palm trees. Christmas lights on palm trees just aren't the same.

Where's the beef?

Lunch at Hackney's today. Mini burgers made by teeny tiny Irish leprechauns. If I made these, I'd have sliced up cherry tomatos and a shallot for the mini burgers. If you're going to go to the trouble of shrinking the burger, you should make it the full experience. Mini-onion and tomater slices and all. Slackers.


Pink monkey socks! The monkey's birthday is January 15th.


Crudite's. Blue cheese dip. Cheese was more green than blue. Still good. And another dinner party begins.


Greenbean, red onion, radish salad with apple mustard vinaigrette. Mustard seeds make it seedy.


Roasted cauliflower. Some say it looks like brain. I'll leave it at that.


Cheesy potatoes. Not sure if it's cheesier than Siegfried or Roy.


Herb and mustard crusted standing rib roast. 12 lbs worth. Nearly all gone. I had four helpings. The kitchen was 80 degrees while this was roasting. And there's a foot of snow outside.


Kona coffee and pink grapefruit souffle. The dessert matches my socks.

Tempting apples, gingerbread man's fall from grace

Brunch at the Apple Holler in rural Wisconsin. Pick yer own apples, hay rides, and dinner theater. Country farm cookin' at it's best. Great for a cold wintry holiday season.


They have amazing home made apple butter. And I had to get some squeaky cheese- cheddar cheese curds. Yum.


And a pilgrimage to Wisconsin isn't a pilgrimage unless we stop at Woodman's Food Market. Acres and acres of food. One of the world's largest supermarkets- if not the largest in this country. Alsles A-Z, Aisles 1-25, and many many unmarked secret aisles and bins.


An entire row devoted to every permutation of pop tart. I can't even begin to describe the aisles and aisles of cheese.


And 50 lbs of salt lick. I am very tempted to buy some of the salt licks, however, this would put me over the weight limit if I check them in as luggage at the United counter. I guess I will just have to buy my salt lick back home in Southern California.

Tonight we make gingerbread cookies. M&M buttons and twizzlers hair have had a good run in gingerbread men design, but it's time for a change. I hope these refreshed gingerbread men become the new traditional gingerbread men for the next decades to come.


Tighty whities, bras and panties.


Adam and Eve. We still have a few more years of a republican administration.


Monster decapitating victim.


J Lo and Puff Daddy at the 2000 Grammy Awards.


Bank robbery in progress.


Two cowboys longing for love in an unforgiving world.

The pork chitterlings song vs kosher elocution

Blue ice on the sidewalk. I hope its not one of those famous airplane toilet blue ice bombs.


Metal bridge all rusticated.
With my map, triangulated.
Walked three miles, not hesitated.
Shoveled walks, appreciated
Have no car, emancipated.
Feeling smug, not domesticated.
Don't own boots, wet socks I hated.
Drafty gloves, I twice berated.
Bermuda shorts, hallucinated.
For SoCal boy, such is fated.


Pantry quite low, shopping belated.
Once I'm there, I will be sated.
By smells so fine, my nose elated.
Taste bud desires, now sublimated.
Bought so much, large debt created.
I will not share, with ones related.
Perhaps maybe, with one I dated.
Seduce with food, in hopes we mated.


By the time I walked to the bakery, my nose was runny, throat was dry. So when I ordered, I enunciated a perfectly gutteral Hebrew accented "CcCcHhhhallah." I was so proud of myseslf.


Las Islas Marias Restaurante Familiar in Rogers Park. Seafood soup. Yum. Mexican cioppino.


Deep fried fish, lived in la mar.
On it's trip, it came quite far.
Crispy skin, a little char.
Garlic sauce, is not subpar.


Langostinos plate size large
Freshwater shrimp brought by barge
From the shells, the meat discharge
It's cash only, so you can't charge


Chitlin's, Chitlin's
Makes me wanna go
Sit'tinin, Sit'tinin
On the porch and do some
Whit'lin, Whit'lin
Get fat so my pants don't
Fit'tlin, Fit'lin
Cause I ate too much
Chitlin's, Chitlin's


Holiday cookie making. I organized each bowl in the correct order of operations. With ingredients pre-measured. Note the perfectly spaced pattern of the egg yolks. Made with love!


And we will be serving oven roasted cat too.