TIMBER!

Kitchen Ninja built a bench! Thanks to my Dad up in the gorge that supplied the scrap piece of wood and two logs. All I did was buy a box of nails, pick up a scrap piece of metal border material and slap it together. Below you can see the log, and the metal border stuff -I'm attaching it the back of the bench this evening. As you can see in my drawing at the top of this post, I plan with near engineer-like precision. down to the primroses and spiderwebs.

Just look at those little suckers! Heirloom tomato seedlings, hanging out in the sunny apartment, waiting for warmer temps so they can burst forth with weird and colorful tomatoes.

Below (from left to right) Snap Peas, Strawberries, Primroses, empty yellow pot (soon to be home of Basil), Thyme, BOTTOM: Red Lettuce and Spinach, Rocket and Butter crunch Lettuce.

THIS POST BROUGHT to YOU BY:

this awesome t-shirt from http://www.timberpreservationsociety.com/

and the Kitchen Ninja. She's got skills, Knife Skills.

Chocolate Walnut Pie

Last night Kitchen Ninja made a lot of deliciousness. The kitchen is only now starting to recover.

The Menu?

Ciabatta Crostini's with Goat's Milk Cheese and Red Peppers
Ceasar Salad
Pesto Chicken Pasta with Pan Grilled Asparagus
Chocolate Walnut Pie with whipped cream

The Pesto - my poor man's pesto recipe (using parsley instead of basil) came out awesome. lots of garlic, parm, lemon juice = yum.

Here's the recipe for the pie I made up on the fly.

Chocolate Walnut Pie

2 deep dish pastry shells
2 c. sugar
1/2 c water
2 c. cream
1lb 8oz bag of 60% cacao chips
1lb 8oz bag of walnuts, chopped
5 eggs, beaten
2 tsp vanilla essence

combine water and sugar in a saucepan. let it boil, don't stir, allowing sugar to turn golden brown. take off heat, add cream. Should turn into a lovely caramel sauce. Add chocolate chips, walnuts, vanilla essence, mix well. finally, add egg to mixture, incorporating completely. Pour into shells, bake for 20 mins at 400 degrees.

serve warm (inside has consistency of molten chocolate cake) with some freshly whipped cream.

Also, I was asked how I make my asparagus, so here's the method.



Mia's Asparagus

Chop Asparagus spears in half.
Put olive oil, crushed garlic, salt, and Italian seasoning in pan. Allow garlic to brown a little.

Add Asparagus. Do not stir, allow to lightly char on one side. Once slightly charred, flipped asparagus over, put on lid, turn down heat to low. should be al dente and awesome in 5 minutes depending on the thickness of the individual spears. The slight charring adds another dimension of flavor to the asparagus.

Enjoy!

~kitchen ninja.

tasty things and ongoing projects

I am in love with block printing. I took a class in printmaking in Undergrad and loved it so very much that I do it on my own. For fun. Now that's dedication...or something. I don't claim to be very good at it, but there's something oddly satisfying about thinly shaving layers of lino off a block to create a picture (as long as I don't jab too deeply and stab myself with the speedball cutter).

I've always had difficulty finding linoleum to use for my blocks, without going into a specialty art supply store. In the past, I've had to use the rubber blocks, which, in my opinion, aren't as good. They cut easily ("like butter" according to the package), but I've never been able to achieve the level of detail I get with the tougher lino.

Long story short, I found rather inexpensive lino blocks in a craft store and I was determined to do an honest-to-goodness lino block print for my Christmas card this year. Time, unfortunately, wasn't on my side, so no Christmas cards went out this year. Boo.

(Fortunately?) I came down with a bout of the plague last month and had some free time on my hands (you know, in between the copious kleenex consumption and the shuffling round the apartment in my bathrobe) and decided to work on a lino cut. It's ready for a test-printing, and will probably need some cleaning up, but I'm proud of it.

As for the subject of my project, I chose the Divine Sarah Bernhardt and her famous tears. Below is the original photocopied picture and my rendering. I love high contrast.

Here is the wonderful lino block and the drawing, ready for transfer. I used graphite paper to transfer the reverse of the image to the lino.

Here is the finished transfer, ready for carving. Haven't taken any photos of the finished block. I will do so and post them when I get the chance to do a test printing.

Back around the New Year, when Kansas City was buried in snow, I was adventurous and made some chili. My dad always made huge pots of chili in the winter, never, of course, following a recipe. I decided to try the same. The result:

So very tasty. The recipe is below. The measurements for seasoning are just starting points. I added more to my taste. I like my chili to have a bit of a kick to it.

Two-Bean Turkey Chili

1 lb ground turkey 15 oz. can red kidney beans, drained

1 small red onion 16 oz. pkg. frozen butter beans

4 cloves garlic, minced 15 oz. can tomato sauce

3 tsp. chili powder 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained

1/2 tsp. salt 1 c. water (more if needed)

1/2 tsp. dried crushed basil 1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper 1/2 tsp. Cajun seasoning

In a 3 qt. saucepan, sauté onion in olive oil, until onion is tender. Add garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes more.

In the same pan, cook ground turkey until the meat is brown.

Stir in all other ingredients. Bring to boiling, reduce heat, cover and simmer for at least 20 minutes, stirring occasionally (or, if you're me, keep at low simmer for at least an hour or more to let the flavors meld).

Serve garnished with shredded cheese (I used New York white cheddar), sour cream, and red pepper flakes.