CityMama™

Boneless leg of lamb with Dijon mustard and caper crust

Lamb is one of those things I just can't eat yet (pregnancy aversion) and so last week, because I couldn't look at it in my freezer any more, I thawed and roasted a boneless leg of grass-fed lamb and took over to my mom.

Boneless leg of lamb is one of the most delicious (and easy!) cuts of meat to cook.  You season it, pop it in the oven for about an hour, an hour and 10 (for medium rare), and you're done. Lamb traditionally is cooked with garlic and rosemary—a classic complement—but I also love lamb with a tangy, mustardy marinade. It holds up to the flavor of the lamb very well and you don't have to spend time stuffing little slits with garlic and rosemary.

BONELESS LEG OF LAMB WITH DIJON MUSTARD AND CAPER CRUST

• one 3-4 lb. boneless leg of lamb brought to room temp
• 1/3 cup of Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp of honey
• 2 tsps of olive oil
• 1 generous tbsp capers in brine, drained
• 3 cloves of fresh garlic
• 1/2 small onion
• sea salt (I like Maldon) and fresh cracked pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375º.

Place lamb in a roasting dish. Combine rest of the ingredients in a mini-food processor and process to a smooth paste. Shmear paste all over lamb, season with additional pepper. (It will look like picture below.) Put in oven then reduce temperature to 325º. Cook for about an hour or until meat thermometer reaches 160º. Remove from oven, loosely tent with foil and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Lamb all shmeared and ready to go into the oven.

A shot of the crust on the finished lamb. Yum!

 

Peach salad with burrata (or fresh mozzarella) smoked salt and chilies

A couple of weeks ago, I co-hosted a fun event gathering together local bloggers to learn about the new (cool) Sony Dash. It was catered by the amazing Jennifer Puccio, a rising San Francisco chef, who heads the kitchen at Marlowe. Because the Dash is so kitchen-friendly, it made sense to have a cooking demo as well. This salad was one of the dishes that she made that day for lunch, and I dare say, it was the biggest hit amongst us all.

Jennifer used imported Spanish smoked olive oil to drizzle over the salad which gave it an earthy, bacon-y flavor. I didn't have it on hand when I made this salad over the weekend, and I really regret it. It would have been so much better with the smoked olive oil. It's worth your time, effort, and money to find it.

Jennifer also used white peaches for the salad, but the yellow ones were riper at my market so I used those instead.

 

• Peaches cut into different shapes/sizes (for amount shown in photos, two platters, I used 4 peaches)
• Burrata cheese (or fresh mozzarella), available at Whole Foods or a good Italian deli
• Pickled shallots (finely diced shallots soaked in fresh lemon juice)
• Aleppo chili flakes (I used chipotle because I wanted more smokiness)
• Smoked salt (I used smoked Maldon sea salt, available at Sur La Table)
• Wild arugula
• Smoked olive oil (or regular if you don't have it)

 

Arrange peaches and chunks of burrata cheese on a plate. Drizzle with pickled shallots and chili flakes. Scatter arugular over the top. Drizzle with smoked olive oil. Finish with a generous sprinkling of smoked salt. Devour

My most important job: Protector of hearts, souls, and minds

I had a coupon to Gymboree, so yesterday the girls and I went to do a little post-Back-To-School shopping. Both girls grew about a foot over the summer, and Bunny especially needed new pants and jeans.  She's eight and has a strong, athletic frame (future volleyball player, perhaps?) and long, long legs so she wears a size 12 pant. Yes, they're slightly loose in the waist and about 3 inches too long, but they fit her hips and thighs and she likes to have room move.

As we were trying on clothes, the sales lady pulled me aside, nodded towards Bunny, and said, "I think it's really great that you can still get her to shop here.  We have moms who love our clothes but say they have to cut the tags out." Meanwhile, Bunny and Wallie were squealing over the t-shirts adorned with puffy doggies and furry kitties and deciding which ones they wanted.

Let's Meal Plan Together for the week of 9/20

Here's what I have planned for this week. 

Monday (Night Football)—Homemade Nachos: thick-cut tortilla chips topped with taco-seasoned ground beef, cheese, refried beans then popped under the broiler to get all melty. Then, individual servings were garnished with Mexican crema, guacamole, pico de gallo, green onions, black olives, and sliced jalapeños. (Everything sourced at Mi Pueblo aka My Happy Place. Their refried beans are amazing. Also currently obsessed with their soups—caldo de pollo and caldo de res.) Dinner was full of win even if the 49ers weren't.

Tuesday: Cream of Broccoli soup (Bunny wants to help make this because she loves it), a big mixed salad with my friend Alix's creamy avocado dressing

Wednesday—Saturday: My brother is in town and that always means dinners out or last minute decisions.

Sunday: Rib-eyes, grilled veggies and a big salad.

What are you cooking up this week? Have you switched into Fall cooking mode yet? Please share!

Caramel Apple Upside-Down Cake for Wallie's Birthday

We have a family tradition where the birthday girl wakes up to a homemade cake on her birthday morning, and then she gets to eat it for breakfast.

For Wallie, I made an apple upside-down cake just because it sounded so good. I served it with whipped cream and it was yum.

You can google for recipes. I chose this one because it had the word "caramel" in the title and that always speaks to me. It calls for sunflower seeds, but I don't care for nuts/seeds in my baked goods, so I omitted them. 

It was great at room temperature for breakfast, but I think it would have been MUCH better warm from the oven. Dulce de leche ice cream didn't seem appropriate for 7:00am, but for a dessert, that's how I would serve it.

Smoked Salmon on Black Pepper Potato Chips (Or, Wallie could eat a thousand of these)

The holiday season will be upon us before you know it, so if you are thinking about holiday parties and what to serve, consider this.

This ridiculously easy appetizer combines two of my favorite noshy loves: smoked salmon (the Nova kind, not the Pacific Northwest kind) and black pepper potato chips. What's not to love about all this salty goodness? Serve with prosecco, of course!

Recipe courtesy of The Bitten Word, a gorgeous and fun food blog. Add it to your feed reader, you won't be disappointed. (Their photos are much prettier than mine.)

Note: I used Kettle Chips because they are the thickest I could find, and that's important for this.

Six

Six years ago today, this silly girl was born.

Let's Meal Plan Together for the week of 9/14/10

A little late this week. Lots going on and still not much appetite to speak of. 

Weird cravings this week: horseradish cheddar cheese; spicy V-8, plates of al dente spaghetti with tomato sauce and piles of grated pecorino; frozen broccoli, cooked really mushy with lots of butter, salt and pepper. (I don't know why but fresh veggies are a total turn-off. Canned or frozen are okay, though. This is SO unlike "normal" me where the exact opposite is true. It's like I'm pregnant in 1970's England.)

Here's what I have (loosely) planned this week:

Monday—Barbecue chicken, dilled rice, (mushy) broccoli

Tuesday—Lamb tips from Trader Joe's, pan-fried new potatoes with red onion, buttered green beans

Wednesday—Wallie's birthday dinner and she requested: IKEA meatballs, white rice, "lots of gravy," lingonberries, grilled zucchini, and fresh strawberry pie!

Thursday—Spaghetti with marinara sauce, green salad

Friday—Family Movie Night (probably pizza)

Saturday and Sunday (not sure yet)

How about you?

Remembrance and Mindfulness

I wrote this in 2006, and I've been reposting it on this day ever since. Last year I posted it and was feeling hopeful that things were getting better. This year, especially after recent events, I am not so sure. This year I am thinking about the races, cultures, and religions that have been and are still being subjected to senseless discrimination and violence.

As a Korean-Italian, my ancestors didn't escape being treated unfairly. Even if you are white, if you look back far enough, you can probably say the same. Now, more than ever, it's important for me to raise loving-hearted, open-minded children to counteract all the learned hatred and intolerance in this world. I'm especially mindful of that now that we're bringing a third child into this world.

*****

For my girls in rememberance of Heather Ho, a talented pastry chef and shining star from Hawaii.

On September 11, 2001, I was one month away from conceiving you, Bunny. My biggest priority at that time was creating our family because we had tried for almost a year to get pregnant with you. Who knew that during a time of such immense sorrow, when people everywhere retreated to the safe, warm cocoons of their homes, we would create you?

Bunny and Wallie, up until that day, your father and I and everyone else in the world was living in a dream. When I say "dream" I don't mean that everyone's life was full of lollipops and rainbows and that there was no sadness and no one struggled. I say a dream because now, five six seven eight nine years after that day, the world is a very difference place. I'm sad about this. I might always be, a little bit. It's because I mourn what happened on that day, but I also mourn times past. The world wasn't always like this. Our lives, all of our lives, will never be the same again.

Something very bad happened on that day.

I'm not trying to scare you, my loves. I want you both to know that your father and I will try to shelter and protect you from evil, bad things for as long as we can. But soon you will be big, and you will begin to understand the world around you. We hope that you will look at it and always see the potential for good. Bunny and Wallie, it's up to you and those of your generation to forge ahead and try to mend this shattered world. Or least pick where we left off.

Our broken world wasn't always like this.

There was once a time when I could sit on a plane without furtively scanning the faces of everyone boarding, feeling nothing but shame for doing so.

In fact, there was a time when we never had to take off our shoes to get on a plane and we could take all manner of liquids and gels on board.  Also, pilots used to sometimes come out of the cockpits and walk up and down the aisles to stretch their legs. I used to love seeing them, and I especially loved when one of them was a woman.

There was once a time when I would be able to sit in a crowded theater and not think, "Look at all the people in here...together, in one place...  What if...?"

There was once a time when I could walk into my favorite restaurant and didn't have to watch the owners regarding me with sadness behind their eyes, wondering if I was one of those people who thought they were bad.

There was a time when I didn't have to be the first person to walk up to the woman (a parent of one of the students in my class) wearing a hijab and abaya at Back-to-School night and give her a warm handshake and tickle her baby's toes (something I would have done anyway) to distract her from the rude stares and whispering.

There was a time when I didn't have images of big planes flying into big buildings and people holding hands falling from windows and distraught loved-ones clutching photos and pregnant widows etched into my memory forever. Who could even imagine such horror?

There was a time when I didn't have to think about what the last moments of a talented pastry chef who just moved to New York from San Francisco to work in a restaurant high in the sky must have been like.

There was a time when 2,700+ people from 90 countries from all different religions—even Muslim—were alive and well and their families and friends were whole.

There was time when I didn't worry so much.

That time ended nine years ago today.  That time—no matter how hard times were—was like a beautiful dream to me. And, girls, I so wish you could have known it.

For my girls in rememberance of Heather Ho, a talented pastry chef and shining star from Hawaii.

On September 11, 2001, I was one month away from conceiving you, Bunny. My biggest priority at that time was creating our family because we had tried for almost a year to get pregnant with you. Who knew that during a time of such immense sorrow, when people everywhere retreated to the safe, warm cocoons of their homes, we would create you?

Bunny and Wallie, up until that day, your father and I and everyone else in the world was living in a dream. When I say "dream" I don't mean that everyone's life was full of lollipops and rainbows and that there was no sadness and no one struggled. I say a dream because now, five six seven eight nine years after that day, the world is a very difference place. I'm sad about this. I might always be, a little bit. It's because I mourn what happened on that day, but I also mourn times past. The world wasn't always like this. Our lives, all of our lives, will never be the same again.

Something very bad happened on that day.

I'm not trying to scare you, my loves. I want you both to know that your father and I will try to shelter and protect you from evil, bad things for as long as we can. But soon you will be big, and you will begin to understand the world around you. We hope that you will look at it and always see the potential for good. Bunny and Wallie, it's up to you and those of your generation to forge ahead and try to mend this shattered world. Or least pick where we left off.

Our broken world wasn't always like this.

There was once a time when I could sit on a plane without furtively scanning the faces of everyone boarding, feeling nothing but shame for doing so.

In fact, there was a time when we never had to take off our shoes to get on a plane and we could take all manner of liquids and gels on board.  Also, pilots used to sometimes come out of the cockpits and walk up and down the aisles to stretch their legs. I used to love seeing them, and I especially loved when one of them was a woman.

There was once a time when I would be able to sit in a crowded theater and not think, "Look at all the people in here...together, in one place...  What if...?"

There was once a time when I could walk into my favorite restaurant and didn't have to watch the owners regarding me with sadness behind their eyes, wondering if I was one of those people who thought they were bad.

There was a time when I didn't have to be the first person to walk up to the woman (a parent of one of the students in my class) wearing a hijab and abaya at Back-to-School night and give her a warm handshake and tickle her baby's toes (something I would have done anyway) to distract her from the rude stares and whispering.

There was a time when I didn't have images of big planes flying into big buildings and people holding hands falling from windows and distraught loved-ones clutching photos and pregnant widows etched into my memory forever. Who could even imagine such horror?

There was a time when I didn't have to think about what the last moments of a talented pastry chef who just moved to New York from San Francisco to work in a restaurant high in the sky must have been like.

There was a time when 2,700+ people from 90 countries from all different religions—even Muslim—were alive and well and their families and friends were whole.

There was time when I didn't worry so much.

That time ended nine years ago today.  That time—no matter how hard times were—was like a beautiful dream to me. And, girls, I so wish you could have known it.

Let's Meal Plan Together for Tuesday 9/7/10

I've just returned from an extra-long weekend away where I offered to do a massive meal plan (and all the dinner cooking—so fun!) for four families.  Needless to say, I am kinda burned out on meal planning (it took 3 hours to plan the meals and put together the shopping lists) so I am feeling a little uninspired this week.

Also, after stuffing myself with steaks, chicken, corn, burgers, chili, pasta, and about 14 varieties of chips all weekend, I don't really want to eat anything except water and rice crackers. Thankfully, the Bundle (Bunny and Wallie's nickname for Number Three) was cooperating over the weekend and I had an appetite, but today, I can already feel my body rebelling. In this way, this pregnancy has been different. With the last two, I was fine by the second trimester and could eat mostly anything. This time around, I have windows of wanting to eat and windows where, "Just some herbal tea is fine, thanks."

Here's what I am thinking this week. It's sparse because I just can't think about food right now. But, my family still needs to eat. Please provide me with some inspiration. What are some meals that you could eat when you were pregnant that you think I might like?

Tuesday: It's back to school night—probably take out.

Wednesday: Pasta with leftover Bolognese sauce and wedge salads with homemade ranch dressing

Thursday: Vegetable soup and garlic bread

Friday: Probably take out Indian

Saturday: Not sure

Sunday: Not sure