Thanksgiving 2008 menu

Starter
Bloody Maries
Prosciutto-wrapped dates

The Meal
Roasted turkey
Giblet gravy
Bread stuffing with apples, dried apricots, and olives
Cranberry jelly (dressed with orange slices)
Creamy mashed potatoes (with snipped chives on top)
Marshmallow candied yams
Mushroom bake (button, crimini, oyster, shiitake)
Balsamic roasted asparagus
Roasted pearl onions
Steamed squashes
Fresh bread
Cabernet Sauvignon

Dessert
Fruit Plate
Pumpkin pie
Cherry pie
Tea

Our place in the world

The amount of attention that Barack Obama's election victory has generated abroad should fill us with pride. Despite our grave mistakes and ever-inward focus, we are a nation that other countries continue to look to. Maybe it's that we have just too compelling a storyline, like a TV series you continue to watch even through a really poorly-written season.

I hope that Americans marvel at all the attention, like I do. I hope it engenders some humility in us and a renewed sense of the responsibility we have toward the rest of the world.

My biggest reason for supporting Obama was that - because of his racial background and his promise as a thoughtful, intellectual leader - his election would in one fell swoop make right so many wrongs that have been done to America's image by the Bush administration. Even before Nov. 4, I imagined the world headlines and thought how great it would be able to get copies of these glorious front pages so I could roll around in them, like the world's happiest pig in mud.


































































Special thanks to www.newseum.org for collecting the world's front pages and making them available to all.

Stewed Chicken with Olives

Another recipe for my brother. This was a dish that my mom's best friend, who died some years ago, used to make for us when we would visit her in Paris. It's very easy to make and fills your kitchen with a homey Mediterranean smell, a great thing on a chilly fall evening.

Stewed Chicken with Olives, Onions, and Tomatoes

Two chicken leg quarters (drumstick and thigh)
1 onion, chopped
3-4 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup of black, green, or mixed olives (preferably with pits)
White wine
Cooked rice or pasta

Sautee onions in a bit of olive oil in a pot large enough to hold the chicken legs. Take out the onions and set aside. Sear the chicken on both sides in the same pot until brown. Return the onions and add the tomatoes and olives. Add a few splashes of white cooking wine, a bit of salt and pepper, and lower heat to a simmer. As the tomatoes cook down, they will release cooking liquid, hopefully enough to cover most of the chicken. If not, add more wine or a small amount of water. Simmer for about 25 minutes, or until meat is cooked through but not too soft. Serve over rice or pasta.

Potato and Leek Soup

My kid brother is in his second-year of college, and the dorm food is not agreeing with him. So he has started to cook all his meals himself, and asked me for recipes. I'll post them here too occasionally, for whoever is interested:

Potato and Leek Soup

4 potatoes

2-3 leeks

2 carrots

1 small onion

1 can chicken broth (optional, can use just water)

Butter

1) Wash and roughly chop leeks. Peel and chop potatoes, onions, and carrots into small cubes.

2) Coat the bottom of a big soup pot with olive oil and add a pat of butter for flavor.

3) On medium-high heat, sautee onions until soft. Add leeks to the pot and continue sauteeing.

4) Add 1 can of chicken broth and/or water until the leeks are submerged.

5) Add potatoes and carrots to the pot, then enough water to barely cover the veggies. Remember that veggies will give off some water as they cook.

6) Simmer for about half an hour, until all the potatoes and carrots are nice and soft. Add salt and pepper. (The right amount of salt is important - keep tasting it.)

** Bonus tip - Near the end, I like to smash the potatoes and carrots against the side of the pot to make them look irregular and the soup thicker.

Favorite cheeses at Trader Joe's

1. Bavarian Beer Cheese
2. Italian Truffle Cheese
3. Jarlsberg
4. Saint-Andre

Just wanted to share these four cheeses because they bring me no end of enjoyment, either as part of a light supper (crusty bread, cheese, salami, olive oil, a salad, and a glass of wine) or with breakfast. The first three are hard cheeses. The fourth is a soft rind cheese that is pretty strong, but more flavorful than stinky. It's perfect. This morning, I put some of the beer cheese in my scrambled eggs.... mmm.

Incivility and vegetable cream cheese

On knocking on doors for Obama in a swing state, and getting verbally knocked down*

People are mean, especially conservatives who live in gated communities in the desert. "I already got a visit from you people before. I was rude to the last guy and I'm going to be rude to you. This just pushed me over the edge: I'm voting for McCain," said the old man in the house at the end of the street, before slamming the door.

A morning's tally: 40 doors knocked on, 13 confirmed Obama votes, 6 definite pro-McCain and/or anti-Obama votes, 1 threat to call the police, and 1 young woman who said through a metal door that she hates Obama because "he's the reason [she] went through hell in the foster care system." That's not to say that the state in question is leaning so heavily toward Obama - we were actually working off a list of "good" leads.

* We were asked not to blog about this because it could derail the Obama campaign's attempts to influence the story of the day. But as a former journalist, I don't believe campaigns should dictate what stories are covered. And I doubt any reporter would be thrilled to quote another, even former, reporter anyway.

On a delicious twist to a breakfast staple

Last month, I had a wonderful vegetable cream cheese at Absolute Bagels in Harlem. I made my own version this morning:

Vegetable Cream Cheese
- 1 green onion
- 2 radishes
- 1 small carrot
- 1 cup of plain cream cheese

Chop the vegetables very finely into confetti-like bits. Combine well with cream cheese. Use on your bagel.
(I just used the veggies I had on hand, but Absolute Bagels' version had chopped bits of broccoli, carrots, and red onion. Very pretty, and completely delicious.)

A deep funk

I am in a deep funk.

1. Employees only do what they are told. So instead of figuring out what I should be doing, I have to figure out what 4 people should be doing. Being that it is our slow season, that responsibility often leaves me stressed and frustrated.

2. I have in mind a new Internet retail initiative to get rid of some excess stock. (Lord knows we have excess stock.) I got the idea from one of our customers who inherited 2,000 kids' sailor hats and decided to put them up on Amazon. She sells 12 of the hats a day. That means in half a year her stock could be gone! But I am getting hung up on the logistics of it all. It's complicated.

3. I have not exercised regularly since I don't know when. This is adding to my unhappiness, because the toxins or whatever are not getting released. Also, I am getting fat.

NY food, and friends on the LA freeways

On New York:

I have been surfing Chowhound for the past hour, trying to find a good but not overly expensive restaurant to try during a quick trip to New York next week. But sadly, on Chowhound the prevailing opinion seems to be that $60 a person is a bargain.

If you are seeking to spend less, Chowhound may not be friendly territory. Just ask the poor guy who was looking for suggestions on an anniversary dinner for two for around $100. He got a list of top-notch carryout options and was directed to a previous post about "cheap eats" around the city. But in a nice way.

Despite this, and in the spirit of splurging a bit, I've narrowed it down to 3 places I'd like to try: The Spotted Pig, a British-Italian "gastropub" whose chef worked at Chez Panisse; Aquavit, a Swedish place that serves things like herring, salt-baked fennel and house-made flavored liquors; and Convivio, where I read you can get a good southern Italian prix fixe dinner for $59.

On L.A.:

Twice now, I have re-seen the same person on a freeway during my commute, days or weeks apart! It gives L.A. such a small-town America feel, just like running into people you know at the post office or market.

1) The first guy is a motorcyclist. He wears a helmet that is not so much a helmet as it is a costume mask shaped like a brown, wrinkled demon's head, with curved horns at the top. I have never seen his face, only the back of him as he zooms through traffic on the 10.

2) A dark green Nissan 240SX. It has stickers all over it, and a stuffed blue M&M character dangling from its rear bumper, really close to the ground. The M&M is wearing a Santa's hat. I spotted it for the first time on the 110 a week ago, and again this afternoon on my drive home on the 10.

Annoying Edison radio spot

There is a radio spot that comes on every day during my morning commute. It's been driving me crazy. I used to change the station as soon as I heard it, but it's still there, won't go away. So now I am on the offensive. I am going to break it down, put it out there, and see if anyone else finds it as annoying as I do.

Here is what it says:
Support for KPCC comes from Southern California Edison. Electricity is different from other things we use. It can’t be stored and it must be used wisely, but we can’t do without it completely. Electricity is a special form of energy that brings us light, comfort, and progress.

I find it extremely annoying for these reasons:

1. It's read by one of those annoyingly bright and wholesome girl-next-door voices.
2. The grammar is annoying. Why is it "BUT we can't do without it completely" instead of "and"? There is nothing in that third clause that contradicts the first part of the sentence.
   
3. "Light, comfort, and progress" is an annoying sequence of words.
4. Come to think of it, it's as if someone just took a list of things they wanted to say about electricity, and just strung it all together in an atrociously written paragraph. ie. Things to Convey about Electricity in the KPCC radio spot: a) different, b) storage issues, c) responsibility, d) necessary, e) light, f) comfort, g) progress.
   
5. Seriously, try listening to it - in your head - using the annoying voice I mentioned before. Every morning between 8:30 and 9. You'll be annoyed too.

* I forgot one last reason. In order to do this blog entry, I've had to stalk the ad in recent days and jot down pieces of it to get the whole thing right. I tried looking on the Internet for a transcript of it, but apparently no one has seen fit to commit it to print. Until now. Just sharing the joy.

Mom's amazing bento boxes

My mom is the best mom for a lot of reasons. The latest reason is the delicious and very inventive bento boxes she packs for my dad and me to eat for lunch at the office. The meals used to be just as tasty, but more predictable (A typical one would be soy sauce-simmered chicken, stir-fried green veggies, and a fried egg over rice).

Nowadays, she seems to have gotten into lunch-making with extra gusto:

Today's bento box:

Steamed rice
Salt-and-pepper pork chop
Calamari with Chinese chives
Stir-fried bell peppers from mom's garden
Soy sauce-simmered tofu and carrots

I don't blog enough

My reasons:

1) The stuff on my mind lately is not appropriate to blog about. Like personnel issues at our company. Especially on a blog with my name on it.

2) Blogging is a creative activity. And I don't do anything creative on a regular basis anymore. That includes reading. Not that reading is especially creative, unless you consider as creative the act of having new thoughts and feelings. The only things I do regularly now are go to work, make breakfasts and dinners, clean my apartment, and groom the cat.

Nevertheless, a short blog entry follows:

Yoga and beach volleyball yesterday have left me tired and sore today. But I feel good and happy to be alive.

Lulu is back at home after 2 weeks at the vet. She is recovering from leg surgery. My dad calls her the "iron dog" because she now has metal in her leg and pelvic joint. I'm going home this afternoon to see the dog and submit to the weekly family BBQ.

A difficult week ... for my mom

Tuesday
- 5.4 Chino Hills earthquake

Wednesday
- Mom's college friend is in town from Taiwan, but her visit is gloomy due to family problems
- Lulu, who is more Mom's dog than anyone's, escapes from the backyard. Takes off down the street in search of avocados fallen from our neighbors' trees, and is hit and dragged by a driver who leaves the scene.

Thursday
- Vet is unsure whether Lulu can be saved; extent of nerve damage in her legs unknown

Friday
- Mom gets a flat tire on freeway on-ramp
- Still no decision from the vet; but Lulu wags her tail during Mom's visit

ISO of a good employee, and sweet irony

As it turned out, the bad 20% overwhelmed the good 80%. So we are now in the market for a new assistant.

I turned to Craigslist, and while figuring out how to write a good listing, was entertained to read this in a job ad placed by another company:

"HS dilpoma required, BA/BS degree preferred. Must have extremly strong verbal and written communication skills - spelling, punctuation and grammer;"

The vagaries of international mail

China and the U.S. are among a handful of countries that have linked up their postal systems, so that a package from China can make it to the U.S. in a miraculous 3 days (less time than it takes the U.S. Postal Service to deliver something coast to coast here), and for not a lot of money.

The system works well most of the time, but sometimes not.

This week, not.

My current stressful situation: An important customer is freaking out about the color of a hat they have ordered, because they are worried it will not turn out to be the shade of teal they need it to be. We had the factory in China send out a sample on Friday, and it should have gotten here on Monday or Tuesday.

Unluckily, it got stuck at customs in Shanghai. By comparison, another package sent to us by the same factory on Monday is already in Los Angeles - and scheduled to be delivered today. The factory will send out another color sample today, but with my luck I bet it will not arrive until after the main shipment of 20,000 hats.

=*(

A new emoticon

Born as a result of a typo while trying to type the more well-known =(

I give you ... "crying face"

=*(

A good lunch & a promise

I am having a delicious lunch today: A salad with grilled salmon, half an everything-bagel, and a peach from a central California farm stand I visited last weekend.

The salad is romaine lettuce, a small vine tomato, some cucumber, and a sprinkling of radish sprouts, topped with a cold piece of grilled salmon. All great ingredients, but the key is the vinaigrette. My recipe follows:

Simple Vinaigrette

• Olive oil
• Mustard
• Vinegar
  
• Salt
• Pepper

Making a vinaigrette from scratch is easy and takes about 1 minute, and it raises a salad to a whole new level. I've never measured the amounts of the ingredients I use. Instead, I just add and taste as I go along.

Take a small bowl and add to it a small amount of mustard. Add a few dashes of some type of vinegar you like (I usually use red wine, but cider or white are also fine. Balsamic is only good if you want a really strong tasting dressing). Stirring the mixture continually with a spoon (or a whisk if you want to be fancy and have more dishes to do), slowly pour in the olive oil. Stop pouring when it looks like you have the right amount of dressing for your salad. Salt and pepper to taste. Adjust with more vinegar or mustard as needed. Keep playing with the relative amounts until the dressing tastes good.

The only thing that can go wrong as you keep adding and tasting is you end up with too much vinaigrette. But vinaigrette stores very well in the fridge, though the oil may harden and need to be returned to room temperature before using again.

I promise to make a video soon showing how easy it is to make, with a couple of my favorite variations using ingredients like honey, herbs, shallots, or cream.

A new post

1. The sushi chefs at Hide do not do omakase, as it turned out the other day. So we consoled ourselves by trying out the sweet shrimp. They serve you the sushi first, glistening pink flesh that is crisp-tender when you bite down (in the manner of very fresh shellfish - not green beans!). Then the head, delicately fried, on a separate plate.

2. Dealing with employees may be the hardest part of running a business. Do you give up on a person because he or she is not measuring up 20% of the time? What about the really good 80%?

* Addendum, 08/17/08. Yes, you do give up on that person. And you learn from the experience and move on.

A passing

This is very difficult to write.

A good friend's death is hard to put into words, especially in a space as weightless as a blog. And because of the vanity that goes along with any writing, it can feel like you are doing something wrong by writing at all. This touching tribute to Chris Ewell by a mutual friend changed my mind. I hope you will have time to read it.

There was also an obituary that ran in The Sun, the newspaper where Chris and I worked together.

Observation: When a journalist dies, as opposed to anyone in any other profession that toils in near-obscurity, there is an unusually large amount of words put into print about it. That does not mean that the world of journalism is self-absorbed. The heartbreak is just as real.

Christian Ewell, center, with close friends.

Cooking video: Ramen!

This is my first cooking video ever! Thanks to Eric for the great camera work, editing, and laugh track. Scroll below the video for ingredients and cooking tips.




For a quick, yummy, and complete meal, all you need is (love) and:

1 package of ramen
1 fresh egg
1 handful of spinach leaves
1 green onion stalk

A good way to make Ramen Noodles with Poached Egg:

In two cups of boiling water, add ramen and contents of seasoning packet and allow to cook on high for about a minute.

As soon as the noodles are soft enough to break up, make a sort of nest in the noodles for the egg you are about to poach. Crack an egg (in a bowl first, if you want), and slide it into the nest. Take care that the egg does not slide to the bottom of the pot, or it will overcook and possibly break!

Turn the heat to low-medium and add spinach to the pot. Simmer for about 2 minutes more. Finish off with a sprinkling of sliced green onions, and pour everything gently into a bowl: Some soup first, then some noodles, then finally your softly-poached egg on top of the noodles.

Monkfish liver

Ate monkfish liver for the first time the other night. It was a pale, grayish-beige mixture piled in a big mound on top of rice wrapped in nori, and garnished with some thin curls of green onion. It looked a little daunting. But the taste was very mild, and the texture a bit like cooked fish roe and a bit like foie gras. The chef had taken spoonfuls of it from a bowl in the fridge, so it was cold. Ankimo is filling and left me more satisfied at the end of this meal than any previous sushi meal.