silly me...

life has got the best of me once again. Thanks for tuning in faithful pitietes, unfortunately neither Juli or I have had spare time recently to take pictures and share our words with you. Soon something delicious and festive will soon grace these pages once again. Have faith, and thanks for dropping in!

P.S.

Funny joke:

Young "Frankie wilde"  on his first trip to Israel loved spending time in the vast market place, and was in awe of the abundance of crucifixes. Asking the price of a particularly beautiful specimen from an elder merchant, and receiving too high of a price quote, young innocent frank inquires: "How much without the acrobat?"


"It's all gone Pete Tong"  (required viewing)

Birthday Bonanza

   Yesterday, we attended a birthday gathering for one of my good friends from school. My friend and I often get together to sew (and obsess about neat fabric), so it seemed fitting that I make her something related to the craft. She has a strong affinity for hedgehogs, and recently mentioned her displeasure with her sad little tomato pin cushion, so I thought: perfect, a hedgehog pin cushion!

   However, after doing a quick little bit of internet research, I stumbled upon this:

   Prickly Pear Pincushions from Etsy seller prettylilthings. As my friend and I have recently added plants to our list of mutual obsessions, a cactus pin cushion seemed much more fitting! So, I sat down at my machine and made her this (after a bit of trial and error): 

  As a finishing touch, I used this tutorial to make the cute little flower on top. In place of ribbon, I sewed together two strips of different fabric to get a two-tone pattern. 


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   On a foodie note, what is a birthday without a cake? Last year my sister requested that I bake some sort of peanut butter chocolate concoction for her boyfriend's birthday. The request resulted in the discovery of an epic peanut butter cake, here on the Sassy Radish blog. I found the "Radish Notes" at the bottom to be very helpful and true, except for the bit about not having enough frosting. All 3 times that I have made this cake, there is an excess of frosting. I usually have to bake an additional set of cupcakes to use it all. I do, however, usually use the full 5 cups of sugar.

   This cake is very rich and intense, but it is absolutely delicious and tastes amazing topped with vanilla ice cream and strawberries. It can definitely serve about 20 people or so, so if you make it, be sure you have plenty of people to eat it!

Braised Piggy

   Sometimes Juli has trouble with "gamey" flavors, so I decided to braise this pork tenderloin in order to give it a nice, sweet flavor. The Aztecs and the Mayans used a nifty spice by the name of "Axiote" (pronounced ah-chote-eh, and sometimes spelled Achiote) to season pork and give it a rich, earthy tone. You can usually find it in Mexican markets, but it's basically just ground Annatto seed, with a few other simple flavorings (like salt and garlic). I made a marinade/braising liquid using the juice of 2 oranges, 1 lemon, spoonful of Axiote paste, 1" chunk of ginger, salt/pepper, and a drizzle of honey. After marinating for about an hour, I seared the skin of the tenderloin in my favorite pan.

   I then added the braising liquid and half of a sliced onion, turned the heat down to medium, and covered the pan. Cook until the pork has an internal temperature of 145 F, then remove and allow to rest for at least 10 minutes. The temperature will raise and the meat will continue to cook while resting. Slice and serve with rice and your favorite accompaniments (I like chili garlic hot sauce, Juli likes sweet chili)!

Tips of 3

   There's probably one million delicious ways to make Tri-Tip. Ever since we got this small Weber, I have been constantly experimenting with different BBQ techniques. Lately, I've been trying many dry rub recipes, so today I wanted to try something a little different:

Garlic
Onion
Paprika
Red Pepper
Soy**
Molasses
Sesame Seeds

   Puree the garlic and onion, then mix in the remaining ingredients to make a thick BBQ sauce (the consistency of apple sauce). Salt and pepper the Tri-Tip, then put it over a small charcoal fire with wood bits. Coat the top of the cow with the sauce. Put the lid on and smoke (make sure the vents are open in the BBQ or the fire may die).

   Check on the meat after about 30 min or so, and add more sauce if the meat appears to be dry. I use this handy link for checking doneness. I like it with a little bit of pink. 

   Remove the meat from the grill when you are satisfied with the amount of burn. Wrap in aluminum foil and let rest for 10 min before slicing. 

   Whip up a quick dipping sauce, if so inclined. Ketchup, molasses, and hot sauce make a good base and you can get creative from there. I like a little worcestershire, rice vinegar, and a drop or two of natural smoke flavoring. Dunk the meat in sauce and enjoy!

   Roasted red peppers, veg and garlic bread make tasty accompaniments. 

Yum!

** don't you know yet?

Rumble in the kitchen ?

They should have named George  Foreman's grill  "the awesome sandwich maker".

Juli went into the city yesterday and on her way back today there was a fire (as is customary around here whenever you are attempting to travel). After speaking with the frustrated and hungry young lady, I determined she may be in need of some sandwich therapy upon her arrival here at the pit. My stomach informed me that I could also use a treatment, so I whipped these up:

Bread

Tomato

Fresh ground pepper

Basil

Red onion

Mozzarella medallions

Mustard or pesto

*Oil

Spread one side of the bread with mustard or pesto; lay sliced tomato down; season with pepper and basil. Red onion is next, followed by the mozzarella, and then bread (I don't know why I wrote all that, anybody reading this should be able to figure out how to assemble a sandwich)! Brush oil on both sides of bread and apply to awesome sandwich maker. Grill until golden brown and gooey. Juli likes hers with ketchup, I prefer pickled jalepeno. Enjoy !

*extra virgin olive, duh.

p.s. Tri-tip is on the grill! Update to follow post consumption.

Happy food :)

We're new to this whole blogging thing, so we're still in the process of figuring it out and setting up the page exactly how we'd like. We managed to get some color for the background, but the whole thing just looked sad and lonely... not exactly the vibe we wanted to be sending. So, in the interim as we fine tune everything, I've thrown together a little bit of happiness to live as our header. Meet the happy food mascots of the pit:

For those of you artsy folks, I used a scanned in sketch underlay and traced over it in Adobe Illustrator CS3 with the brush + pen tools (yeah, I know, I'm a bit behind on the updates but it still works).

Toodles for now!

simple times

Sometimes I like to keep it simple, I would like to consider it a modern "minimalist" attitude and not just plain laziness. Think of it anyway you wish, some nights I like to take it easy. Here are two dinners from the last few nights when I felt more couch-inclined than usual.

Tofu is great, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. My mother is a wiz with the stuff, but let's not get into that right now.

Super simple: cut, throw in a medium hot pan with *oil, add **soy, braise until just crisp on edges. Slice up a few ripe tomatoes, maybe saute up some onions and peppers, a few greens, spoonfull of plain yogurt and wrap it all up in your favorite flat carbohydrate. Done deal.

... The other white meat...

On sunday juli took me to this awesome eatery by the name of "urth cafe" I had a great sandwich, that inspired me in this next creation.

Chicken breast

Cilantro

Jalapeno

*Oil

Garlic

Basil

Lemon

Romano/Pecorino/Parm/whatever

Greens/sprouts/pea shoots/whatever

Yummy bread

S&P

Saute chicken boobz in *oil and diced jalepeno/cilantro/lemon magic with dashes of s&p on occasion. Blend Basil, garlic, cheese, *oil and a squeeze of lemon into a quick pesto while the bird cooks. Split bread and toast, spread with pesto both sides and nest a chicken inbetween with sprouts. Sliced tomato and fresh mozzarella are also great !

neato !

*Extra Virgin Olive (always unless otherwise specified)

**Soy sauce low sodium/tamari/doesn't matter

Green means go

Juli and I have been harboring an idea for a while now that someday we would like to own and run a small cafe, where we may share our food, hospitality, creativity and shenanigans with others. The dream of owning a cafe may be a far off now, but there is nothing stopping us from sharing our passions with others. We intend to share food, toys, crafts and anything else we enjoy with all who happen to stumble into the pit! Welcome and enjoy!