Cheesy bake 2

Mmmm... apple pie with cheddar crust. The cheese does add a very subtle something something to the pie. Definitely worth putting cheese in the crust.



Pomegranate gelato. Now that I'm on a cheese kick, a pomegranate mascapone cheesecake would be delicious.

Pushing Davies

Obsessively inspired by that Pushing Daisies show. We will be putting cheese into the crusts of apple pie tonight. I make no claims to authenticity here. Instead of cheddar made by monks in a monestary, the cheese I used comes via hair netted white uniformed cheese makers from Tillamook Oregon. And some of them cheese makers may have sweat rings on their white t-shirts since anti-perspirants are often discouraged in factory settings.

Nevertheless, tart granny smith apples do match very well with a sharp cheddar. Especially matchy matchy with warehouse store Costco granny smith apples and conveyor belt factory Tillamook sharp cheddar from a brick sized block- also from Costco.



Pies have unexpectedly long cool down periods. Pie safes make so much more sense now. I shall have to track down a pie safe to deal with an entire season's worth of Pushing Daisies pies. Thankfully, the writers strike may give me more time to find a pie safe in Southern California.



Tonight's new pasta shape is malfadine. Chanterelle Borolo sauce. Delicious. Malfadine is much more interesting than fettucine. But is the $2.99 interesting better than the $.79 interesting? The ruffled edges do tickle the tongue though. Jury's still out. This dish is a keeper though, one of those rare easy home cooked dishes that goes above and beyond restaurant food.



Stracotto again. Porcini and beef and red wine. Like the tomatillo pork, I never get tired of this.

Delicious falling apart beef.

Cooked goo

Grubs and weeds.



Bird poo.

Buried treasures

I fail to see the reason behind calling these ladyfingers. If a lady with fingers that looked like this came towards me, I'd high tail it in the other direction quickly. Andiamo!



Tiramisu made from creepy lady's fingers. Old decrepit bitter ladies with no sense of humor and a lot of cats.



Hiding the creepy lady fingers underneath a layer of shaved chocolate. Like burying creepy old bones in a grave. Tasty sweet creepy old bones.



Fun with deep fat fryer continues. Fried calamari made with ceci flour. I saw a tub of garbanzo flour at the Italian market and I was curious. This has a heartier earthier nutty flavor than with plain old wheat flour. I like. I like much.

Killer eggplant

I attempt baking bread again. This is the most beautiful one I've made so far. Smells great. Rapping on the crust with a finger sounds great. Cut a few slices and the texture in the center, ick ick ick rubbery. Why oh why can't I bake delicious bread?



Home made eggplant parmesan. I get to play with the deep fat fryer. A deep fat fryer is a dangerous weapon in my hands. But the result is the most delicious eggplant parmesan I've ever tasted. Just like Nona made it. My metaphorical Sicilian Nona that is. My real Taiwanese Nona would push my metaphorical Sicilian Nona down the terrazzo stairs from her 4th floor apartment. And the Mafioso would never find the body.

Flipping over quince

Lime pie. This lime tree has faithfully produced pies year after year. I love my lime tree. I would hug it, but it has thorns.



Another leftovers concoction. I don't like the white meat in roast chicken, so I usually recycle it into a pasta. This time, with leftover chimchimmininey sauce and squash.



I found some quince at the farmer's market. I've never had quince before. I must know what they taste like. For my first attempt, I will try to make a quince tarte tatine.



Looks good so far. Now the tricky flipping over onto a plate trick.



Flipping success! And so incredibly delicious. Super fragrant with just the right al dente texture. Quince is my new favorite thing. Apples and pears do not even compare.



Juicing pomegranates means it looks like CSI in the kitchen. Murderous pomegranate juice. I will concoct a pomegranate cocktail and call it RedRum! RedRum!



Jug of antioxidants. No real drops of Davy blood were shed in juicing these pomegranates.

South of the border

Seared flank steak ala plancha. Chimmichurri sauce and cauliflower puree.



Nanner bread, the old standby.
Made from fruit, that attracts flies.
Eat it all, fat goes to thighs.
Then make room, to make some pies.

Endangered salmon

A most wondrous salmon pasta with tomato cream sauce. Delicious home made tomato sauce. Oh how I wish I knew how I made this. Absolutely amazingly yummy perfectly balanced sauce, but I have no clue how to reproduce it. Darn it!

Dog eat bug

Mrs. Preying Mantis visits. If Miss Spider can have her own series of books, Mrs. Preying Mantis should sell too. Sadly, I couldn't study Mrs. Preying Mantis at length because I had to rescue her and let her go. Preston tried to eat Mrs. Preying Mantis.

Surf turfed

Oven poached salmon. There may have been some weeds mixed in with the herbs. I wasn't all that thorough in plucking them from the yard. Green things all start to look alike when you're been puttering around outside all day.



Chipotle chicken and potatoes. I felt short changed when the can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce only contained two chipotle peppers. That's just not right. If they can grow square shaped tomatoes for shipping and cylindrical pineapples for canning, surely they can grow jalepeno peppers that can fit into the can like sardines.

Falling down

The first crop of fall fruits are in. I would have liked to have kept the pomegranates on the tree an additional week, but I'm picking them now to pre-empt both human and squirrel thieves. Enough limes for both pie and margarita duty. And the very first passion fruit from this year's vine.