When tri-tip roast is on sale

I make steaks. Not as tender as a rib eye or NY,  but a lot of flavor and nice to eat. Today I rubbed it with my spice rub, cooked it in a hot cast iron pan on top of the stove and while it was resting grilled some veggies in the pan. I took them out and made coffee gravy in the pan and poured it over the steaks.

The sweetness of corn, the beefiness of beef...

You thought pasta salad was boring, didn't you?

I got to eat this!

Today's blog (smack) is about (nom nom nom) pasta (gorge) salad. On days when I have a rehearsal or concert in the evening I frequently skip dinner so I like to have a good lunch. I've got a rehearsal at Stanford Chamber Choir this evening in Memorial Church. This is a 12" serving bowl and there are about three cups of pasta salad. Those are four large, juicy shrimp.

I started making this salad when my kids were small and I wanted a way to get green things in their tummies. This worked!

The shrimp were coated with olive oil and curry powder then grilled in a hot cast iron skillet. I deglazed the pan with orange juice (from the tree) and kept that aside. Hmm, got one shrimp left. Must..type..

The pasta is acini di pepe (pickle seeds!) shaped like little pencil erasers. I added olive oil and red wine vinegar, a bunch of cilantro, most of an English cucumber cut into dice, the zests of two oranges and a lemon and the juice from all three, celery seeds, ground cumin, black pepper and salt.  I have garnished it with the shrimp, some peeled cherry tomatoes and Kalamata olives. I poured the deglazing liquid over the shrimp.

Total cost for my meal today including the shrimp is about $3.25. And I have about a gallon of pasta salad left over.  No more shrimpies though. Sigh.

Since pasta is bland and the basic recipe is just pasta, oil and vinegar you can do just about anything with this. Maybe next time I'll make it with cider vinegar and chopped green apples.  Maybe ham and pineapple.

Can't..type..must eat..pasta salad..

Grow your own garlic, bay leaves and rosemary!!

So many things we can grow and enjoy. Edible plants look beautiful and taste glorious.

We love to grow our own garlic. Once you have used it right out of the garden you'll realize what you have been missing  We love to use immature plants that have not developed a bulb yet. They look like scallions but are a little tougher and have a mildly garlickly flavor. They are great pureed into a black bean dip or soup.

Just break the cloves apart

 If you harvest them after they have developed a bulb but are not quite mature they will have a water chestnut type of texture and a mild garlic flavor. They will not have the dry papery cover they develop later.

It's easy to grow.  You can use store bought garlic to get started as long as it hasn't been irradiated or totally dried out.


Just take the cloves, paper and all and plant 1/4" deep. Just push them in the ground. Push the flat end into the soil and leave the pointy end up, just below the surface.

We use old plastic containers.

You just fill the container with fairly rich soil and plunk the cloves in there. The green tops are tougher than scallions but they have a nice light garlicky flavor.

Mediterranean bay leaves have a wonderful fragrance

We like real Mediterranean bay leaves which are not the same as the bay laurel we get from California.

The California laurel has a eucalyptus aroma but the Mediterranean ones are mild and flowery.

Rosemary is really pretty when the little blue flowers show up!

Trip to Gayle's

I played two concerts in Watsonville this morning and convinced my carpool to let me stop in Capitola to get some food from Gayle's Bakery. I got an oak-roasted chicken, a beet and endive salad, Kalamata olives and boquerones, those fishly little fish from Spain.

Simple and delicious

I tore up some olives and added them to the salad with some shredded orange peel and juice, a splash of cider vinegar and some boquerones.

Some dry toasted rye bread, fresh fruit and pickled tobasco peppers filled out the meal.

How many things are there that are wrong with this presentation? Ow, quite a few. Notice that there is just too much food for this plate. Also the lack of a real shape makes it difficult to look at.


It looks difficult to eat. Plates should look inviting!

An elegant little appetizer

I like to use a big sharp knife!

Today's blog is about presentation. If you know a few rules you can make plates that would make a 3 star restaurant proud.

First here is how to cut cucumbers so thin you can see through them, without losing any fingers!

Notice how the knife rests against my fingers. 

Using a big sharp knife means all you have to do is guide the knife. The weight of the knife and the sharp blade do the cutting for you. Since you don't have to press you have more control.



If you are more comfortable with a smaller knife use it. In any case try to make the cut in one sweep of the knife to get a clean cut. Going back and forth creates an uneven surface.

One rule to remember in knife work is that no sharp part of the knife, the tip or the blade, should ever be pointed at a part of your body! If you keep that in mind you will never get cut.

Here we have a very simple geometric pattern.  It will showcase whatever we put in the middle.

This is a zester, which removes the zest or outer layer of a citrus fruit. The side you see has sharp ridges and the other side is smooth.

I like this kind of zester because it makes strips and I can cut them into the size and shape I want.

Here I have cut up a single Kalamata olive and put some long shreds of orange peel on top. You see how you hardly notice the cucumber or the plate now? They frame the olive.

Major faux pas here, enough to get you detention in cooking school. When your food extends beyond the rim it looks sloppy and casual.

 Here is the finished dish. You can add whatever goodies you have, from a little chunk of left over steak or pork or chicken to a fine cheese or an oyster. All I have here is a tiny chunk of orange, an almond roasted in walnut oil, a small piece of mozzarella and a piece of Italian sausage. The olive and orange mixture has a touch of olive oil and the specks you see are black pepper. Good eating, nice looking and it probably cost a quarter for all the food.

No cooking this weekend so here is some food bling

http://www.balletsj.org/I was running from place to place and ate out twice yesterday. I had a nice bowl of minestrone and a small plate of mediocre pasta at Il Fornio near the ballet, then dinner with my squeeze at Vung Tao where we always have great food. We had a bowl of pork and shrimp won ton soup and a whole crispy pompano. So crisp! Fantastic.

So since I don't have my own food photos for yesterday or today (teaching, then Swan Lake then over the hill for Santa Cruz Symphony) so here are two pictures of my food from before:

A tray of my home cured, hot almond wood smoked bacon!

Pork ribs rubbed with spices, hot smoked for an our then baked. Nom nom nom nom!

A man's salad for lunch

On old French saying is 'Any idiot can make a roast. It takes a genius to make leftovers taste good.' I think the secret is to have good leftovers!

Today we have a plain, undressed salad, leftover pork tenderloin and a whole wheat tortilla toasted over a flame.

Since the salad is not dressed a) it has to have good ingredients and b) the pork has to be well seasoned. The pork is dressed with a little olive oil, a sprinkling of lemon juice and some vinegar from Trappey's Pickled Tobasco Peppers.

It's a great lunch with lots of crunch, low in calories and fat and with a snack I'll have later should keep me going until the end of the ballet tonight, somewhere around 11 pm.

Lord knows what I am going to eat tomorrow. I have a gig at Stanford in the morning then I have to run to play the ballet. Hmm, House of Falafel is right on the way...