Of General Interest ...

... over at Happy Catholic (the "mother ship" blog). It's all happenin' in the comments boxes for these posts about:

• Bamboo knitting needles
• The latest episode of The Amazing Race 6
• Being Left Handed
• The USPS' unofficial motto (and I always thought it was official!)

My Kind of Science

My hero, Harold McGee, makes the science of cooking actually interesting in On Food and Cooking. I didn't realize it's been 20 years but can't wait to get the new edition and read all 878 pages!

The original explained in lay terms, with illustrations and whimsical anecdotes, why eggs solidify when heated, why green vegetables lose their vibrant color when cooked, why apples turn brown when cut, why the freshest fish smells like plant leaves and the science behind so many other food mysteries.

The new one does that and more.

The original was 684 pages; the new one is 878. The section on chocolate is three times longer than in the original book.

Seafood, which merited about one paragraph in the original, now spans 70 pages. And while the original was a bit Eurocentric, the new one is much more global.

"It used to be that when people had questions, I could just refer them to a page in the book. But the day came that I couldn't do that any more," says McGee, 53. "I had to address this new, greater demand for information."

Via Too Many Chefs.

Mmmmmmm, Cheesecake

My dear parents sent us a cheesecake sampler from Harry and David's.



Doesn't it look good? Well it tastes good too ... at least the chocolate cheesecake that I shared with Rose last night was delicious. In fact, the caramel (?) cheesecake was so good that Hannah's friend, Addison, not only agreed to taste it (thereby overcoming a lifelong loathing of the concept) but it converted him as he ate every bite.

We'll just skip over the "of course, my cheesecake is better" muscle flexing, especially since my fabulous cheesecake recipe is my mom's, who sent this to us! If you can't have homemade cheesecake, this does seem to be the next best thing.

Thanks Mom and Dad! *muffled by a mouth full of cheesecake*

Ain't It the Truth?

From my in-box. (If anyone knows the credit for this, let me know and I'll link it.)

Oranges Sampler

In an attempt to add some fresh element to our dinner, I served an orange "tasting" of clementines, red naval oranges, and blood oranges. The regular oranges just didn't look good at the store so I got a few of these varieties to see if any were universally pleasing.

Universally pleasing? Puhleeez! Hannah and I favored the blood oranges as they were tart and we are grapefruit lovers (no sugar added, thanks). Tom preferred the red naval oranges as they really tasted just like regular ones. Everyone liked the clementines fine but no one thought they were worth rushing out and buying a whole crate as I read about foodies doing every year at this time. Truthfully, they were fuller flavored than the red navals but just too sweet for me.

Rose passed on any tasting as she informed us that she, "doesn't care for citrus." Wait a minute ... what about the leftover limeade from margarita making? "Well, except for lemons and limes ..."

Our true favorites are the heirloom oranges from California. They have that perfect sweet/tart combination. Also usually good are the stem and leaf oranges. I don't know what variety they are but they are worth any extra price because I can't keep up with the demand at home. It must not be the season for either one yet but when it is I'll be ready.

I'm Not Crazy About Pocky But This Seems About Right

You Are Milk Pocky

Your attitude: caring and charming Smooth and silkly... invigorating and natural. You are like comfort food for the soul.

What Flavor Pocky Are You?

Why the Name?

This started off as a place to send people from the blog where I "live" when I mentioned recipes. It seemed like fun to fix it up and keep it going when a few other of my blogging pals did the same. So I needed a name. Penni came up with this:

okay julie - here's your new title (i just thought of it - call it a Godbreeze, if you will):

happy gastronome.

you can thank me later :)

(actually, if you like it, i think it suits you - the definition is a connoisseur of good food and drink; a gourmet...)

She's right, it does work for me. A daughter of gourmets and former "foodie" myself, I will always look for the best even if it's only a hot dog. That's why I have kids who won't eat Oscar Mayer bologna, but will patiently wait until I have time to go to Kuby's. Now, that doesn't stop me from using cream of mushroom soup, but that's another story ... I said I am a "former" foodie, remember?

Then Rose, tied it into the "mother" blog (Happy Catholic ... not always happy but always happy to be Catholic) with "Glad" and the descriptor. Thank heavens I had a creative team for this!

DMN Cookie Contest Winners

Every year the Dallas Morning News sponsors a cookie contest with all proceeds going to charity. There were some pretty good looking cookies this year. There's a great selection and variety because DMN gives the top three recipes in each category: Bar, Easy. Family Recipe, Decadent, and Decorated.

I liked the looks of:

• Easy Lemon Mint Cookies (minus the mint)
• Cranberry-Date Crumb Bars
• Pryaniki Russian-style Cookies

Rose was intrigued by:

• Chewy Angel Cookies
• Caramel Cheesy Cookies (what a relief to see the "cheese" is cream cheese)
• A Quiet Little Mexican Bar
• Chocolate Candy Bar Cookies

I can see that she's her mother's daughter though. Two of the recipes call for beginning with a cake mix and she already was plotting how to get around that part with original ingredients. I don't know if that's possible in these recipes but it'll be interesting, and hopefully delicious, watching her try!

Looking for Monkey at the Central Market

i've been discovered! i frequent both the dallas central market and the plano location depending on my shopping needs. i'll be counting on you to help hoist one of the tasty holiday pannetone's into my shopping trolley.

Monkey

We're going to keep our eyes peeled for Monkey when we're shopping every week. Those pannetone can be heavy lifting for a cute, little Monkey.

Thai-Style Stir-Fried Chicken

From Cooking Light magazine ... maybe the most recent issue (?). This is a quick recipe that should only take 40 minutes and actually MIGHT have taken 40 minutes if I had checked the time. If it took longer it was because I didn't have any pre-sliced mushrooms or pre-chopped carrots. It still was pretty quick and easy though. Really delicious and authentic tasting but next time I'm using only half the red curry paste. I'm still breathing flames!

STEP 1:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons red curry paste
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces (I used boneless thighs)
Combine everything in a zip-top plastic bag. Marinate 15 minutes in the refrigerator.

STEP 2:
1-1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided (I might have used more than this ... I didn't measure, just splashed a bit in).
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
1 (8-ounce package presliced mushrooms
Remove chicken from bag, reserving marinade. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add chicken stir-fry 4 minutes. remove chicken from pan; keep warm. Add remaining oil to pan. Add onion and carrot; stir-fry 2 minutes. Add mushrooms; stir-fry 3 minutes.

STEP 3:
1/2 cup light coconut milk
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
Add reserved marinade, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add coconut milk and fish sauce; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 1 minute. Stir in chicken and salt; cook 1 minute.

STEP 4:
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Remove chicken to dish, top with bean sprouts and cilantro. Serve with rice noodles (or regular noodles or rice or whatever you like to put a saucy dish over).

RICE NOODLES
Place 6 ounces thin rice vermicelli (thin rice noodles) in a large bowl, cover with boiling water. Let stand 20 minutes. Drain, serve chicken over noodles. (I put the noodles in a large Italian pasta bowl, poured the chicken over the top and sprinkled with the sprouts and cilantro. Very pretty it was too!)

Serves 4. (Serving size: 1 cup chicken, 1/4 cup sprouts, and 1 T cilantro)

CALORIES 271 (28% from fate); FAT 8.4 g (sat 2.2g, mono 1.6g, poly 3.4g); PROTEIN 29.7g; CARB 19.6g; CHOL 66mg; IRON 2.2mg; SODIUM 767mg; CALC 43mg)

Peruvian Food Anyone?

Both girls babysat on Saturday night so Tom and I had a date! He picked out a new place from The Weekend Guide that is a mom and pop Peruvian restaurant. I have to admit that never would have occurred to me but it was delicious, although they do have a propensity to garnish with sliced hard boiled eggs that was rather odd. When I came home and began looking around in my Foods of the World: Latin American Cooking at the chapter on Peru I found the hard boiled egg thing is totally accurate. However, there were no guinea pigs on the menu (a Peruvian mainstay). So how authentic is this place? Although as Tom pointed out, they might have a bit of trouble trying to put guinea pigs on their menu.