I'm In Love with French Onion Soup

I've always loved french onion soup. In my mind it was something special that I only ordered at fine dining restaurants with my parents. There was something about that special bowl with the handle and all the gooey cheese on top - They must have had some special blow torch I thought.

Later when I started waiting tables I realized that there was nothing really special about all that melted cheese. Just a broiler and an oven proof bowl.

But I still never thought french onion soup was something I should serve up at home. I'm not sure why, but it's always been reserved for eating out, even though it's been years since I ordered it.

This weekend I was inspired to eat it again, thanks to my Aunt Julie who was visiting from California and brought a couple of loaves of sourdough bread from Bourdin's Bakery. Bourdin's sourdough is the best, and all I could think about was soup.

Of course I wanted to make french onion from scratch, so I had to learn all about deglazing and slicing onions the right way. I was surprisingly simple and surprisingly cheap - I mean it's really a bunch of onions and broth. And in the end, it was fantastic, just like I remembered from the restaurants with my parents. I made a big batch Saturday afternoon and it was gone by Sunday afternoon. It's definitely something I will make again, and again.

Here's the recipe I used from Cook's Illustrated:


Ingredients
3 tbs unsalted butter, cut into three pieces
6 large yellow onions (about 4 lbs), halved and cut pole to pole in 1/4 inch thick slices (I suggest you ask your spouse/roommate/friend to do this)
Table salt
2 cups of water
1/2 cup of dry sherry
4 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups of beef broth
6 sprigs of fresh thyme, tied with kitchen twine
1 bay leaf
Ground black pepper
Small baguette, cut into 1/2 inch slices (or Bourdin's sourdough bread)
8 oz of Gruyere cheese, shredded (feel free to experiment with the type of cheese)

Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat to 400 degrees. Spray large dutch oven with cooking spray, and add butter, onions and 1 tsp of salt. Cover and cook, 1 hour. Remove pot from oven and stir onions, scraping bottom and side of pot. Return to oven, leaving the lid ajar and cook for another 90 minutes, stirring onions after about the one hour mark.

Place pot on the stove top on medium-high heat. Cook until liquid evaporates, stirring frequently. Keep cooking until a brown crust forms on the bottom of pot, adjusting heat if necessary. Add 1/4 cup of water and scrap bottom of pan to loosen crust. Keep cooking until another crust forms and repeat water. Keep doing this until the onions are dark brown. I probably did it four times. On last crust, add the sherry instead of water and cook until sherry evaporates.

Add broth, water, thyme, bay leaf and 1/2 tsp of salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust. Increase heat to high and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove bay leaf and thyme and season with salt and pepper if necessary.

If you're lucky enough to have oven proof bowls, you can put the soup in bowls and broil the cheese right on the bread in the bowl. I'm not that lucky, so placed the bread in broiler and toasted it, then added the cheese for 30 seconds or so.

Serve the soup topped with the toasty, cheesy bread and enjoy.

Growing Pains: My Backyard Garden

Summer is approaching and that means gardening is going to be a life or death situation for my plants. Luckily I have the antidote - Water, shade and a little luck.  

This is the second year I've been gardening in my rock backyard. And when I say rock, I mean rock - Push away all the decorative stone and there's nothing but a hard solid surface. It's called caliche and you need a sledge hammer to get through it. Thank God we didn't try and put in a pool. 

Luckily for me, gardens can grow in pots and raised boxes, and I have both. In a pot under my patio I have garlic chives, thyme and oregano. The pot gets about 6 hours of sun in the morning, but shade all afternoon long. The chives are unbelievably sturdy. The heat doesn't bother them, they go dormant in the winter, and when spring comes around they sprout right back. I love my sturdy little chives.  

The thyme and oregano are new this year. The thyme has been in for several months now and seems to be doing great. The oregano was planted this weekend to take the place of the Basil that died. The woman at the nursery said the oregano would do just fine, but it's the desert so we'll see. 

As for basil, this is the second year I've tried to grow it and the second time it's failed. I'd rather not talk about it. 

New this year is my raised garden bed. There's really nothing special about it - Just some wood screwed together and filled with potting soil. But it's a great addition to our backyard. By luck, we built it in the partial shade of one of our trees, and this summer I think that shade is what will save my pepper plants. 

In the garden bed I'm growing radishes, beets, bell peppers and anaheim chilies.  I've already killed cucumber and green beans. They sprouted and then quickly withered. I'm not sure if it was the soil or the sun. It was probably a little of both. 

If you've never gardened before, start with radishes. Yes, not many people like them, but they're easy and they grow quickly, giving you a little ego boost when the rest of your garden is dying off. I'll probably plant radishes every year just to prove that things will grow in the desert. 

As for my beets, they're small and seem to be stalling. I'm going to leave them in the ground for a few more weeks and see what they do. My bell pepper plant already has four baseball sized peppers on it, and the anaheim chili is growing like a weed. 

I have a lot to learn about desert gardening, but I'm having a blast. Next year I'd love to try tomatoes and even give basil another chance. I'm sure my husband would much rather have a nice basil, tomato mozzarella salad instead of radishes. But hey, those radishes were grown in Las Vegas, in a rock backyard that sits on caliche. That's hard not to appreciate. 

My Sturdy Chives

I Love the Thyme 

My Little Raised Garden

Radishes are Doing Great

Bell Peppers are Growing Too

Oh Crepe! My Husband is About to Gain 10 Pounds

Ah, crepes. Those little thin pancakes that you only have at Sunday brunch. They're so cute, so delicious, so easy to make.

Seriously easy. Like turning on the radio and finding a Lady Gaga song, easy.

In my quest to be more creative in the kitchen and less attached to recipes, I decided to make crepes with some ricotta cheese I had in the fridge and the frozen strawberries hiding in my freezer.

Of course, I had to look up a recipe for crepes, because let's face it, it would have been a disaster. Turns out I had all the ingredients on hand, and you probably do too: Eggs, milk, flour, butter and salt.

Mix ingredients, pour in pan, flip and done. No seriously, it's that easy.

After my third crepe, I was a pro. They were coming out beautiful, with nice golden edges. I nuked my frozen strawberries for 30 seconds and then simmered them in a sauce pan with about two tablespoons of sugar - Just enough to get them thick and syrupy. I didn't know what to do with the ricotta cheese so I just heated it up until it was warm.

I laid out a crepe and filled it will a layer of cheese and a layer of strawberries. They were delicious! Okay, the cheese was lacking something, but I'll work on fillings later. Right now, I'm just excited that I can make crepes. I'm going to have a big crepe party and invite all my friends! Okay, maybe not. But I am going to make plenty of crepes for my husband as I work on different fillings. Sorry Rob, get ready to loosen that belt buckle.

If you want to try out crepes for yourself, here's the recipe I used from The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook:


1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
Pinch of kosher salt (if you don't have kosher, just use regular)
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cups milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (if you don't have any vanilla, you can probably skip it)
4 tbs butter

Mix flour and salt in a bowl. Add eggs and 1 tbs of the milk and whisk together until it forms a smooth, pastelike batter, probably a minute or so. Add remaining milk and vanilla and mix well so there are no lumps.

Heat a large nontstick skillet over medium-low and melt butter in pan. Add melted butter to egg mixture, leaving a film of butter on the skillet for cooking the crepes.

Now, Martha said you should let the batter rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. I let mine sit for only 10 as I worked on the strawberries and cheese, and it was fine.

Heat your butter-covered skillet to medium-low. When the pan is hot add a 1/4 cup of batter

and tip and rotate the skillet so the batter coats the entire bottom. It's like getting oil to cover the bottom of a pan. After a few seconds you'll see the batter start to firm up. Place the pan back on the heat and cook for about two minutes until the edges of the crepe start to brown.

After about two minutes, you'll be able to take a spatula and loosen the crepe from the pan. When you're ready to flip, just do it. It's pretty well cooked, and it's not heavy like eggs, so it's pretty easy. If it accidentally bends under, just straighten it out. Let it cook for another 30 seconds and your done. This probably makes about 6 crepes.

On my first crepe, I didn't have enough batter in the pan and I didn't let it cook long enough. But by crepe number three, I had it down. I'm sure you will too.

Step Away from the Recipe - My Hummus failure

This week, I've been trying to make meals from ingredients already in my fridge or pantry. It's not easy, especially when you're a planner like me - I like my lists, my recipes, my instructions for life. 

But here I am, pretending that all the cookbooks in the world have been destroyed, and I have to make lunch. 

I decided to start with that damn can of garbanzo beans that has been sitting in my pantry. I'm sure there are fantastic restaurants in New York using garbanzo bean puree on their $50 grilled baby koala, braised leek, blah blah blah. But standing in front of my pantry, I've got nothing. Well actually I have two thoughts - Salad or hummus, salad or hummus. 

So hummus it is. This can't be hard right? I've eaten a lot of hummus. Looked at ingredients. Even made some hummus years ago. 

Break out the trusty food processor and in goes all the ingredients - Garbanzo beans...

Um.. 

Oh yeah, olive oil. Throw in some salt and pepper. And because I'm on a roll, I dig up some sun dried tomatoes out of the fridge. After a quick puree, it looks pretty good. I'm pretty proud of myself, until I give it a taste and realize that it tastes like mashed garbanzo beans with olive oil and sun dried tomatoes. It's not bad. It's just not good. 

I really wanted to rush to the computer to look up a recipe, but I told control freak Amber to calm down. I ended up making a little veggie wrap with spinach tortillas, my mashed bean mixture, red onion and cucumber. All ingredients I had on hand. It was a nice little lunch and kiddo even chowed down. 

Later I looked up the recipe and realized I was missing lemon juice, garlic and tahini. The funny thing is, most people don't even know what tahini is, and I have a jar of it in my pantry. 

So in the end, it wasn't a complete failure. I had a nice lunch and I will always remember what goes in hummus. Tomorrow maybe I'll tackle the tub of ricotta I have in my fridge. 

PS: Are you still upset about the grilled baby koala? Com'on... it was a joke. I only eat adult koala. 

Put Your Hands Up and Step Away From the Recipe

I like to consider myself a control freak who is spontaneous. I start packing for vacations weeks in advance but think it's funny when the airline loses my luggage.

In the kitchen, I can nail a recipe. I can bake, saute, brown, and roast. I'm a control freak. But take that recipe away, and I'm all scrambled eggs and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Sure, I know how to grill a piece of chicken, and I can make some rice and steam some veggies. But what do I do with that leftover ricotta cheese? Or the can of garbanzo beans sitting in the pantry? Seriously, I have a can of garbanzo beans that I just stare at.

I need to be more spontaneous in the kitchen.

I need to be able to look in the cupboard and come up with a dish I've never made before. This week, I'm giving it a try. I recently came upon a blog called Married... with dinner and over the next couple of months, the writer will be showing people easy ways to get dinner on the table. During a quick discussion on pantry staples, she mentioned how she whipped up a dish called Melted Leeks and Quinoa with a Poached Farm Egg and Parmesan Broth.

Seriously? I could never even begin to come up with something like that. That's when I realized that I need to let my guard down. The reason I'm not coming up with dishes like that is because I'm not even trying.

So while I already have a few dishes planned out for this week, I'm also going to try and make some dinners that don't come with instructions. I think in the end, it will make me a better cook and I'll probably save time by not having to search for recipes. I'll be sure to share my successes and especially my failures.

As for that Melted Leeks thing... well I had to try it and it was excellent. But of course, I had to follow the recipe.

Vegas Farmers' Market: Small But Special

I've been living in Las Vegas for three years, but today was the first time I went to a local farmers' market. I've been avoiding them because they're always held during the week when I work and well, it's Vegas - The only thing we grow here are ideas to get tourists to split with their money.

But this little food blog of mine has inspired me to seek out something new and fresh, and sure enough the Las Vegas Farmers' Market has expanded to Saturdays. It's held at Floyd Lamb State Park, which was another first for me.

After packing up the kiddo and a 25 minute drive, we arrived and what was probably the smallest farmers' market I've ever been too. I can count the vendors on one hand: Farm with plenty of produce, the strawberry guy, corn dogs, roasted corn, ice cream, fire roasted pizza. Okay, maybe I need two hands.

As you might expect, the farm selling the fresh produce was busy. I arrived about 45 minutes after the market opened and they had almost sold out of yellow corn. I grabbed some leeks, cilantro, corn, zucchini and tomatoes. Total was $12.50 and I was on my way in less time than it took to drive there.

Yes, it sounds like I'm complaining a big, but here's the deal - I'll be back.

It was great seeing produce that had just come out of the field. Being able to take a taste before I bought it. And the yellow tomatoes we bought were probably the sweetest I've tasted in a long time. Kiddo ate half the basket on the way home.

Yes, it was small. Yes, I've been to better farmers' markets. But for right now, it's all we have and I'm going to support it. As a bonus, it's held in a beautiful park with lakes and grass. The next time I go, maybe we'll stop and have some of that fire roasted pizza, relax on the grass, and let kiddo feed the ducks. Yep, I'll be back.

Is it Breakfast or Porn? Either Way it Will Kill You

So while I'm on the egg kick, I might as well tell you about one of my favorite egg dishes - Egg in the Hole.

Yes, it could be the name of a porn movie starring some waitress who got lost in the back of the kitchen, but we're talking food here folks - Get your mind out of the gutter.

This dish is not for people hoping to lose a few pounds. I use over a tablespoon of butter - Enough to put grandpa in the grave. But it's sooo good and it satisfies those mornings where you could care less if Cheerios helps lower your cholesterol.

So here it is... Egg in the Hole, coming soon to DVD and adult book stores near you:

Ingredients:

I egg
I slice of bread, your choice
Lots of butter - Unsalted if you are really trying to watch your blood pressure
Salt and Pepper
A side a fruit so you can look yourself in the mirror

Find some sort of glass or circular object and use it to cut a hole in the center of the bread slice. If you're feeling really dirty, save circle for soaking up extra butter.

Heat about 1 tbs of butter in a non-stick pan over medium heat. When the butter gets nice and bubbly, put in slice of bread and swirl it around to soak up butter in pan.

Crack egg and drop into hole (cue porn music here). Let the egg cook for a few minutes, and then flip the bread.

Add about a 1/2 tbs of butter to the pan, letting it melt and get soaked into the bread. Make sure you slide the bread over the butter, so the egg doesn't get stuck to the pan. Cook until you think it's done, finish with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with side of fruit if you're feeling guilty, or a side of bacon if you have a death wish.

Conquering My Food Fears

I'm not quite sure why, but up until today, I've never been able to make a good poached egg. Any attempt I've made in the last decade has just turned into a gross mess of egg whites mixed with swirling water, not those cute puffy poached eggs that you see in magazines. I had given up completely, until this morning.

After getting a little push, I decided to try poached eggs again. I broke out my trusty Joy of Cooking cookbook from 1974 and looked up the recipe for poached eggs. Just to make sure that poached eggs haven't changed in the past 30 years, I double checked my Martha Stewart cookbook. Certainly she would know how to make a poached egg. Both said the same thing... Amber, this is easy. Stop stressing and cook the damn egg already.

Boil then simmer water, check. Add some vinegar, check. Slip egg into water, check.

That's it? What have I been doing all these years, trying to poach an egg with a pizza slicer? I'm not sure why I've been failing so miserably. My guess is that I've been trying to hard - Using special pans, special spoons, special water. There's definitely some egg poaching devices in my cupboard that will be sold at my next garage sale.

So now that I have poached eggs down, what's next? Puffed pastry? Whole fish? Maybe fresh pasta? Okay, maybe I'll just stick with the eggs for now.

PS: Here's how I made my poached egg on the first try:

- Put about an inch of water in a pan and bring to a boil. Make sure there's enough water to cover the egg. I think that was one of my big problems in the past.
- Add about a tablespoon of white vinegar. I'm not sure what this does, but both cookbooks called for it.
- When water comes to a boil, reduce heat until bubbles are just breaking the water. I think that's another problem I had in the past. The water was simmering too much, causing the egg to jump around and break apart.
- Break egg into a small dish. Place dish in water and quickly slide egg into water.
- Simmer for about 3-4 minutes.

There Can Only Be One Grill Master

I love having help in the kitchen. I need one of those prep guys in restaurants that scrubs the potatoes, peels the shrimp, grates the cheese, and dices the carrots. The closest thing I have to a prep guy is my husband. He's great and we work pretty well together... except when it comes to the grill.

Last night we grilled some Huli Huli chicken and this was just one of the exchanges:

Husband: Are the chickens supposed to be on fire?
Me: I don't know, didn't you follow the recipe?
Husband: Of course I followed the recipe (eye rolling)
Me: Well I'm sure they're fine
Husband: No, they're on fire and burned
Me: That's called charring (insert sarcasm)... it happens when you grill
Husband: I understand the concept of grilling... (muttering something under his breath that starts with "B" and rhymes with bitch)

When it comes to the grill, I turn into a backseat driver - Did you preheat? Maybe you should use that part of the grill. Don't flip yet. You're opening the lid too much.

Not having control of the grill is my weakness. I'm going to try and work on it, but until then my husband will likely be grilled on his grilling techniques.

PS: Here's the Huli Huli Chicken recipe adapted from Cook's Country magazine. It's a Hawaiian dish, if you couldn't already figure that out by the name.

This makes one whole chicken. Double the recipe if you're having friends over:

Brine Chicken:

1 chicken split in half
8 cups of water
1 cup of soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves minced
1 tbs grated fresh ginger

Heat oil and saute garlic and ginger until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Combine with water and soy sauce in a large bowl and soak chicken for up to 8 hours. We soaked ours for 3 hours and it was great. Don't do more than 8 hours.

Prep Grill

Soak 2 cups of mesquite wood chips in water for 15 minutes. Place in foil packet and cut several vent holes on top. Place foil package on hot coals or directly on grill burner. Heat grill on high until wood starts smoking, about 15 minutes. Turn grill heat down to medium low and place chicken on grill, skin side up. Cook, covered for about 25 minutes. Do not place chicken directly over wood chips. After about 25 minutes, flip chicken and cook for another 20-25 minutes.

While chicken is cooking make glaze

9 oz canned pineapple juice
2 tbs of light brown sugar
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs ketchup
2 tbs rice vinegar
2 garlic cloves minced
1 tbs grated fresh ginger
1 tsp Asian chili-garlic sauce

Combine everything in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until thick and syrupy, about 20 minutes.

Take chicken off grill and brush with half the glaze. Let sit for 5 minutes. Serve with remaining glaze. Yum!

I'm not perfect, but parts of me are excellent

You never know what to expect in Vegas, especially when alcohol is involved. But the Lee's Liquor Beer Festival was a nice surprise. People were friendly, beer was good and there was plenty of food to snack on. I just wish that I had thought to wear my beer/alcohol/sex related t-shirt. They should have put a warning on the ticket... Be sure to dress appropriately.

Some of my favorites included the guy walking around with the shirt that said "I'm not Perfect, but Parts of me are Excellent". We also ran into a character who had a shirt that read "Give me Rossignol or Give Me Head". Although I'm pretty sure Rossignol is a skiing company, not a type of beer.

The friend I was with even had his picture taken by a stranger - All because his shirt said something about Pop Rocks and Coke being a deadly combination.

Next year, I'll be ready!

Crazy Ideas Sound Better with Wine

Seriously, a blog? There must be some sort of crazy drug in this chardonnay I'm drinking. Tonight I decided to start a Twitter account to tweet about my cooking adventures. Within an hour I had three followers. I didn't post some fantastic recipe for seared pork loin with mustard bbq sauce. Nope, I just posted some crap about how I was drinking chardonnay from Santa Barbara. So now I have three followers - Two from Santa Barbara and one from who knows where.

As for the blog, I can't experiment on Twitter without writing about it somewhere. So here I am, new twitter account and new blog site. Who knows if anyone will read, but if I keep drinking this wine, I'm sure I'll come up with some more crazy ideas to make it interesting.

PS: Pork loin recipe is real and it's great! And the wine is called Santa Barbara Landing. A big thanks to my friend Daisy for bringing it over.