Feast of fools

Sachi came over tonight. I made her an Italian dinner.



Quick and yummy appetizers while I finish up the other dishes. Olives and proscuitto wrapped papayas. Papayas are not very Italian, but were on green tag special at the Food 4 Less. The papaya I bought weighed nearly 5 lbs. There will be a lot of papaya dishes over the next few days. There's a slight dusting of pepper on the procuitto and papayas to take away that sour smell that porcuitto often has.



Roasted fennel and cheesy polenta. The fennel dish was the sort where you chop everything up, throw it in a dish, and burble away in the oven for 45 minutes. Easy. Polenta was much more demanding. Stirring. Stirring. Stirring. Stirring. Non-stop stirring. Made from real stone ground corn meal. Not the instant stuff. I think it's worth the effort. I veered away from the recipe and made my polenta more decadent. Some herbs de provence, a few fluffs of parmegianno reggiano, chicken stock, and butter. Lots and lots of butter.



Rosemary and olive oil rubbed roast pork needs to rest. I hate this step. After 45 minutes of roasting and developing some serious flavorful crust, Pork has to sit there another 15 minutes to rest- taunting me with it's deliciousness, seductive scents wafting. I want to eat it Now Now Now Now Now. I will have to settle for the rest of the chianti.



OK, I couldn't wait the 15 minutes for the pork to rest. I gave it nearly 10. Couldn't wait any longer. This is good. Very very good. Sauce #1 is made from port and figs. Sauce #2 is the pork au jus from the roasting pan. Yummy pork juice. And polenta is perfect to sop up all the sauce. Did I mention that this was good? So good.



Panna cotta with berries. AKA cream jello. With balsamic vinegar reduction syrup. The smidgen of home made vanilla sugar makes a slight difference. But the balsamic vinegar reduction... Oh the syrup! Candy for adults...

Oracle of Altadena

I found Preston staring intently at CNBC this morning. Freaked me out. This is the dog that ignored tv his entire life previously. I think I'll start a mutual fund based upon Preston's stock picks. This is surely a sign.



Unloading 2x4's and plywood. Shelving project in the near future. After I make a killing on the stock market.

My name is mud

Pouring rains again today. Sigh. The backyard is reverting back to jungle. Tapirs and orangutan will recolonize soon.

Picked up my tax prep paperwork at Bob's this morning. He was a little too efficient. I was hoping to sit in the waiting area and read all about Lindsay Lohan in this month's Cosmo. But a signature or two, and then I'm scooted out the door. Lindsay! Don't leave me hanging...

Made lots o'pots at the clay studio this afternoon. 11 in total, only 7 successful ones. 4 of them collapsed upon themselves. My arms are tired. Flinging clay around sure gives the arms a good workout. This is good for me because my body shape trends towards Mr Potatohead. Skinny arms and legs, big round body.



The last of the green curry sauce. With mung bean thread noodles.

Sumppin fishy

Something quick for dinner tonight. I'm using the eight alarm curry as a shortcut. Plucked a lime from the backyard, plopped salmon onto frozen banana leaves, slapped on last night's green curry sauce, and tied it all up with a banana leaf bow. Total time less than five minutes of preparation. Two bundles for tonight, two go in the freezer for future enjoyment.



Steamed for 8-10 minutes. Easy, fast, and pretty to boot. I like opening presents.



Unbelievably soft steam poached texture. The part under the lime slice was the best. The fat in the fish tempers the capsaicin and turned the firey hot curry mild and sweet. Banana leaf was more for aroma than taste, and fun to open. This one is a keeper.

Firey death

Thai green curry with tuna. I added eight extra chile peppers. This curry can kill. My Thai friends order the secret "Thai Hot" option at restaurants. This even goes beyond that. Insanely spicy, but extraordinarily fragrant and flavorful. My sinuses havn't been this clear in a long time. No need for saunas, eat a spoonful and you'd be schvitzing. I had a second helping and now I'm into my fat pants again.



Preston's very best "play dead" pose. 'Twas bath time this afternoon. Much overdue. I had forgotten how soft and fluffy Preston can get after a good scrubbing. But such an ordeal each bath time. Oy, like catching a greased pig at the county fair. New reflective safety yellow collar from Target. In a Jewish mother kind of mood today.

Marco Polo

Shanghai lion's head stew ala Romana. Traditional Chinese giant meatball stew recipe, made in the Italian style. I just couldn't leave well enough alone. Sweet Italian sausage meatballs dressed with cornstarch and braised with napa cabbage in wine instead of the traditional broth. Absolutely delicious! I'm tippy toeing myself into learning to cook Chinese food. Though, with my modifications to the recipe, this is about as Chinese as 'pesketti. Can you believe this is the first time I bought napa cabbage?



Berry blue jello becomes fancy when served in a wine glass.



Chocolate banana bread. This one is good too. The crust on top is the best part. I will try baking the batter in a jelly roll pan in brownie style, so it'll be mostly crunchy top crust. I'm using an oven thermometer now. All the cooking shows and magazine articles tout the benefits of oven thermometers because of variations in individual ovens. As it turns out, my oven thermometer is a waste of money. My oven temperature is exactly the same as the oven thermometer. So much for inaccurate ovens.

Decadent consumption

I drove 50 miles to my accountant this morning. Bob is great. He writes off everything. I really don't want to know all the details.

Afterwards, I explored the area a little. Ten years ago, I used to work at an animation and effects studio not two miles from Bob. A bit strange to see the vaguely familiar buildings again. As I was driving around, I suddenly had an urge to revisit the Italian Deli where I used to order sandwiches for lunch. Italia Deli. As usual, when it comes to food, I went slightly overboard. Got my mortadella and procuitto fix. I love places like this. Salt packed capers. Amaretti cookies. Barbaresco wine. Cannoli. Castelvetrano olives from Sicily- near the Selinunte area where we visited the ancient rock quarries last year. Such wonderful memories. Ten years ago, I went there for "meat-za-ball" subs. Today, I walked out with cured meats and olives from places I've actually visited.



TiVo brain surgery tonight. There wasn't anything wrong with the five+ year old TiVo, just time for a major bionic upgrade. I bumped up the recording time from 30 hours to 344 hours. Yes, it is now possible for me to watch TiVo non-stop for over 14 DAYS in a row. Such decadence. It might be so much TV that it becomes torture.

Laziness springs treasures

Asian spiced beef stew. Reheated from last week. The heat generated from slow cooking the stew cracked off the handles on my Rival Crock Pot. I got slightly peeved at the poor quality craftsmanship. But then I realized that I bought it for $15 at Target 5 years ago. Still, it annoys me that it'll be $20 to replace it. I probably won't replace it. The stew became Asian spiced because I was too lazy to reach the usual western spices at the back of the spice shelf. So there's tumeric, szechuan peppercorns, coriander seed, and a dab of duck sauce from a jar. Inventiveness often springs from laziness.



It's tax season. I'm sorting through statements and receipts for my appointment with the accountant tomorrow. I found my stupid 99 cent Chinatown mop slippers in one of the file boxes. I have no clue how the mop slippers wound up in my file boxes with my tax documents. These do work pretty well though. There might be a market in a microfiber machine washable version. Higher margins too.



Sigh. Why do I always wait until the last moment to get my receipts ready? And I always curse myself for not coming up with a filing system better than throw everything from my pocket into a box for a year.



Hi picture of Baby Max from years ago. I don't know how you wound up in my tax files too. Probably got mixed up with one of Nancy's bakery receipts. What a cutie.

Puzzling food

Braised unjions. Hidden Mickey as an unwanted bonus. I started out with the thought of recreating the slow cooked onion dish we had at Osteria Via Stato. But soon after I sliced these onions, I went off on my own tangent and did something completely different. Super short attention span.



Farmer Davy phase begins again with the return of the mini-greenhouse. I have a sudden urge to go buy some overalls and chew on a stalk of hay. I planted the seeds randomly in the trays, so I'm not going to be able to tell what is what. It'll be like a gardening version of sudoku puzzles.



Late night snack. Fried egg sandwiches with marinara sauce on olive oil grilled rosemary ciabatta. Super messy, but gooey good.



Recharged from my midnight snack, I started labeling mystery canisters in the kitchen. I think I got everything right. I like puzzles. If I am slightly off labeling the assorted white powdery stuff, the next batch of chocolate chip cookies may taste vaguely like tortillas. I was a bit hyperactive after the sandwiches.



And just in case my short term memory gets even worse, I labeled the labeler too.

Pup tent

I'm so excited at my new tent. Preston's not so excited, he's bored. Silly dog. It's raining again, so I pitched the tent in the living room. Retail price $270. On sale for less than $90, including the matching footprint. It was like a swarm of locusts descending upon these tents at REI. My wily ninja skills allowed me to avoid a lot of swatting and elbowing, stealthily appearing at the register with both the merchandise and myself unscathed.



Risotto night again. Hovering over a steaming pot stirring for a long time- perfect for cold wet nights. I like making risotto because by the time the risotto is done, I'm already sloshed from dipping into the wine bottle.



Risi pisi mushy piggy. Mushroom risotto with peas and procuitto. Yum yum yum.



Did I tell you I like playing in my tent? I've been futzing around inside the tent all night. I wanted to be a cub scout when I was little. Something to do with Yogi Bear and Boo Boo. Now I'm making up for lost time. I think I'm emotionally stunted at six years old. No matter. I just know that I'm happy when I sit in the tent.

Happy pi day

My doggie is so cute. Even though he's not allowed on the furniture.

Happy pi day. It's 3/14. We will celebrate pi day by making pies.


Most delicious pizza pie. Crazy thin crust pizza. Wafer thin, crispy, and chewy at the edges. A drizzle of truffle oil put it over the top. Made with love- literally. Kneaded by hand with care. Gently caressing the quivering mound of supple soft dough tenderly. It was almost obscene. Those are roasted beets on top. With basil.


And margarita pie. I made my own grahmn cracker crust. It's a margarita pie because there's tequila in the filling, and cointreau in the whipped cream. I ground up the crackers with a chile pepper. Spicy and sweet dessert.

Eating gravel

The best chocolate gravel cookies ever! Even better than Nancy's chocolate chip cookies. I didn't have chocolate chips, so I blitzed some bars of chocolate in the food processor until I had chocolate gravel. Maybe I'm not so much of a failure in baking.

These will be sent to Andy for all his help with my resume.

Pasta al dente

Mutant swiss chard, baby broccoli, chicken sausage, and grub shapped pasta. I really like the grub shaped pasta.

Grub shaped pasta, how I love thee
Little buggers eat roots of trees
Mouth watering yummy, so says he
And lots of wine that makes one pee

Mutant can cans

Back in town again. Good trip. Recant later. Tonight is mutant chard and garbanzo bean soup, with corn. or MCGBCS for short. Though the short name really isn't informative at all. Quite tasty for what is essentially, "throw a few cans from the back of the pantry into a pot, add mutant chard." I don't own a toaster, so the bread was blowtorched. I love my blowtorch.


I mounted the Italian license plate holder on the refridgerator. I had the entire tour bus wondering where I was when I slipped off at a rest stop who knows where in Italy. I like it because it matches my kitchen and there's a "73" on it. So now I can finally stick on refridgerator magnets and showcase my finger paintings.

Zapping bugs

Help me debug my web portfolio!

Does this work? Are there layout issues? Wonky things? Atrocious spelling?

Let me know, so I can land a real job soon.

http://portfolio.davychen.com

And yes, that IS a giant baby head.

And I'm the proud owner of giantbabyhead.com.

Bird fever

Sometimes I say to myself, "I'm hungry. I think I'll roast a chicken."