Asian Chicken Salad - Barefoot Bloggers

Sorry BB's, this is posted late. But I made it five days early.... does that count?
This was one of the best tasting chicken salads that I have ever had. Maybe it was the peanut butter in it. How can you go wrong with peanut butter? Oh yeah, that's right, you can't! What did you think?


Asian Chicken Salad
adapted from Barefoot Contessa
serves 5

1kg grocery store roast chicken
olive oil
salt and black pepper
1/2 pound asparagus, ends removed
1 zucchini, cut in coins
1 orange bell pepper, cored and seeded
2 scallions (white and green parts), sliced diagonally
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted

For the dressing:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup good apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp dark sesame oil
1 tbsp honey
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp peeled, grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Remove the meat from the chicken, discard the skin, and shred the chicken in large bite-sized pieces. Cook the asparagus and zucchini in a fry pan for 10 minutes until crisp-tender. Cut the peppers in thin strips. Combine the cut chicken, asparagus, zucchini and peppers in a large bowl.

Whisk together all of the ingredients for the dressing and pour over the chicken and vegetables. Add the scallions and sesame seeds and season to taste. Serve over rice noodles.

Picture Tuesday

Hi ho, its photo Tuesday everyone, yayyyyyy (flailing my arms wildly above my head like Kermit the Frog)! For this weeks Photo Tuesday, I decided to play around with a Self Portrait that I had taken a few weeks ago that needed a lot of work, with the intended outcome of having a painterly feel to the final image. See, I spent roughly 10 years in post secondary schooling studying and practicing Painting and Drawing, then suddenly found myself out in the real world where painting 4x4 foot portraits was just not a feasible way to pay my rent and bills. Now that I have spent a few years in an actual “career”, I have found myself slowly but surely floating back to my artistic passions, and photography has become the focus of that passion over the past year or so, with a real centered focus and commitment being made by me to get better at this medium over the past 3-4 months.

When I first joined Flickr, I was spending hours at a time just searching through Photostreams of these incredibly delicate, painterly images made through various processes. Sure, you can pick up a Photoshop magazine and learn how to quick paint with cloning brushes, but what fun is it if you let the computer do all the thinking for you? The chances of getting something that may give you that unexpected look is there, but if you want consistent results you really need to study, and more importantly play, with these new software’s, and work on your lighting as that really is the key to good photography, lighting. Getting back to the Flickr images, I started out trying to achieve painterly effects by layering textures over images I had already, and some of them worked alright, but nothing more than fairly cool looking graphic work, the images, for the most part, missed that warmth that I love to bring into my painting work. I kind of gave up on making quality images of this sort soon after, crediting a fair part of the work I was praising so much to far superior photoshoping skills then I possessed.

Fast forward a few months, and here I find myself having to use functions in Photoshop I didn’t even know existed in order to work on the Cocobean blog photography (note that my Photoshop skills were limited to rotating and applying filters from the preset menus previously). I have to point out here that it has helped me tremendously to have Christie there supporting my learning of various software’s as well as lighting, she even looks up images and articles that she thinks I would find interesting or inspiring and shows them to me. For Xmas this past year, Christie got me a Wacom Graphics tablet, which I now refer to as “my preciousssssssss”, as have a hard time imaging myself without one now.

Back on topic. Adding all these factors up, I decided this past Monday night to play around with a bit of everything, lighting, Photoshop and my Wacom tablet, and I am actually pretty happy with the results, I finally got that painterly feel that I aspire to get so much (I think). It was really fun seeing how comfortable I have become working in the software, and to see how much I have learned. it’s a good measure for me, having started out a few months ago frustratingly trying out different textures and modes of blending trying to hit the jackpot, to being able to use the tools and make what I want the image to be is great. Hope you guys like it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Technical stuff:

I started out with an underexposed image, about 2 stops too short, so it was going to be a good challenge. Luckily I had shot the image in RAW format, so it provided a lot of flexibility as far as exposure. For the Self Portrait itself I used the following setup

-Camera (Nikon D40 for this) on fully extended Tripod with 28-80mm set to approx 35mm F8, set to be triggered by remote (I had a small working space so wide was good for what I wanted to do)
-Vivitar 285HV flash on light stand, shot through a white umbrella at 1/16th power to my left, above my head and pointing at my face (about 3-4 feet away)
-Cheapo Vivitar flash with 4 Kleenexes held over the head of the flash with an elastic band to diffuse the light set behind me, pointing at my upper back
-Cheapo Ebay Cactus radio remote triggers
-Camera set to -1 ev to saturate the background :P

Photoshop work
Upped the exposure to +1.7 (anything more was going to blow out the darks)
Curves layer for further adjustment
Smart blur layer to smooth out the details
Some Shadow-Highlight tinkering
Crop
Rounded edges


Painter X
Traced the Jpeg using Wacom Tablet
Painted the image using an Acrylic dry brush

:D

Baby Back Ribs for Ian's Birthday

OK, so I lied. The pictures are actually being posted today, two days after we ate those beautiful baby back ribs. And the reason, well you see I am a secret spy and I was called away on a mission. Ian is also a spy but he works for a rival company and our code names are Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I have big lips and Ian looks very similar to Brad Pitt. This business that needed to be attended to, code name "sit on the couch and be lazy all weekend" was a very tough and complicated one. I can not tell you anymore, other than I was fighting off the evils that threaten our dear country, not anywhere near the living room or DVD player.

Ok, Ok, you got me...there is no need for spies in this country because no one would threaten Canada, what could they possibly want, our Maple Syrup? If they asked nicely we would give it to them.

The truth is that Ian and I had a nice quiet day inside eating delicious leftovers after he partied his birthday night away.

As you can probably guess the night of Ian's birthday was quite a blur for him. Luckily we had a nice dinner for two before the antics started. I knew that ribs were going to be on the menu because we watched this new show on Food Network Canada called "Chuck's Day Off" and Ian was practically licking the screen when Chuck made his signature ribs. Now this guy Chuck has a four star restaurant down in the Old Port of Montreal but the episode aired last Monday night and I knew that I would never be able to get reservations for Friday.

So, I called my mom and begged her for her rib recipe. My mom makes THE BEST RIBS EVER. Everyone knows it, and no one would ever dispute it. But it just started to get warm here and the BBQ's won’t be running for at least another couple weeks, so she sent me a revised version that uses the broiler. I didn’t want to make Chuck's because it was long and involved where as my moms recipe was super simple and I knew it would come out great. I also bought some amazing racks from our wonderful butcher down the street and the result was some fall off the bone, pure heaven ribs. If Ian had his way we would be eating these every day of the week.


My Mom's Amazing Ribs

2 racks Pork back ribs (makes enough for 4)
2 cups hot water
Kraft BBQ sauce
(some BBQ sauces are very strong and will overpower the ribs but this one has a subtle flavour. Use your favourite if you like.)

Pre-heat oven to 325°F
Remove thin, translucent membrane from the non-meaty (concave) side of ribs. This will allow flavours to penetrate more effectively, and give a more tender end product. The best way to do this is to loosen a little of the membrane at one corner using your fingernail. Then, with a paper towel, grasp the membrane firmly and pull it away from the ribs.
Place ribs covered lightly in BBQ sauce, meaty side up, in a 2-inch (5 cm) deep baking sheet or dish with water and cover with foil. Bake in oven for about 1 1/2 hours, or until meat begins to shrink away from the bone tip, and meat is easily pierced with a knife point. Remove from oven and at this stage, ribs can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.
Slather ribs with BBQ sauce and place on baking sheet lined with foil. Move oven rack up close to the top elements. Turn oven to Broil.
Baste and turn every few minutes or so until ribs are nicely coated and hot. Barbecue sauce burns very easily, so keep a close eye on them.
OR
Slather ribs with BBQ sauce and place on baking sheet lined with foil in the oven at 325°F (in one layer - no water) and check every 15 minutes until they are coated and sticky.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IAN

Well if you can't tell from the title.... it is Ian's Birthday today. I made him two beautiful racks of Baby Back Ribs and my famous caramelized onion mashed potato gratin. For dessert I created these two cute little key lime cheesecakes with candied lime slices on top(I also took a chunk out of my thumb with the mandolin while slicing them, hence the "thumb head injury" in the pic!). Pictures will be posted tomorrow... if there is anything left!

Picture... uhhh... Tuesday?

Yayyyy is picture Tuesday…. Umm… I mean Wednesday? Alright, so I was really tired yesterday and didn’t post, so my picture day has been pushed back to Wednesday this week, but I am still calling it picture Tuesday because this here is the interwebz and I can do what I want, well, almost. One thing you are going to notice right away is the lack of a picture in the context of this posting, and that’s kind of the point for me today. I’m getting ahead of myself, let me explain.

Flashback to this past Sunday, relaxed, nothing out the usual, Christie and I decided to venture to the downtown center of Montreal to do a little bit of shopping and to return a book at Chapters. Turns out the weather wasn’t so great, it was cold damp and rainy, not a fun day to be strolling around. Now Chapters isn’t exactly my favourite place to find books, I am one of those guys that prefers the second hand, musty disorganized type over the latte serving sort (not that there is anything wrong with that, I’m just a sucker for that old book smell). I seem to be like that with most things, and very much so with photography. I prefer my old, clunky heavy metal film cameras over digital, heck, I have a Mamiya M645 medium format camera that is in amazing shape, and this includes my flashes, old, battery heavy, and in need of large cables and plungers to get it all going off camera. This is why this recent upgrade to a Nikon D80 has been such a breakthrough for me, for the first time, I am embracing the technology, and that means learning all the things I can do with it. When I was avidly running around with my clunky Pentax KX, off camera flash meant studio lighting and equipment that was far financially out of my reach, but suddenly, for a nominal fee, I can have a high end flash, and it can be used off camera wirelessly, without any accessories… OMG. Seriously, to most of the photographic world this is now the normal, expected with almost all “Pro” Nikon digital SLR camera bodies, and this is just amazing to me. 10 years ago I would have needed long cables and diagrams and… ughhh… tons of expensive equipment, now you just need a good Nikon and a Speedlight or two or three. Amazing.

So, going back to Chapters here, I decide to take a little peak at the books in the Photography section while Christie is shopping about, and I stumble upon something totally unexpected. As you may have read previously, or assumed by now, I have become quite a fan of David Hobby’s blog, Strobist. On this site a few days or so ago, I read an article about a book that was reviewed and highly recommended, “The Hot Shoe Diaries” by Joe McNally. I was pretty surprised to find it, and had to pick it up to take a peak. Two flips later and I had to have it, I swear I put it under my arm and rushed down two flights of stairs to find Christie and show her my prize. I lied to myself for a minute that maybe I wouldn’t get it since it was 47.99 Canadian, but something told me I found it for a reason, so of course I got it.

Now back full circle to why I am not putting a picture here that has been specifically made with today’s post in mind. I know diddly squat, nothing, nada, about lighting. Really, I thought I was learning pretty quickly and getting on well enough, and honestly, I was seeing the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Did I mention that this book showed me that I know nothing? Yeah, I did, but wait, hold on here, it’s a good thing. I’m on the right path, and already I’ve learned that I am using wild light, not directing it or shaping, or even coloring the light. Damn. Be warned, if you are a Canon camera user, this book deals specifically with Nikon camera equipment as far as the setup is concerned, but it is a valuable tool nonetheless. My plan? I have a lot to learn, and I am in the middle of drawing up plans to make some of my own equipment to help me, such as diffusers and softboxe(s), snoots, grids etc. That’s a lot of jargon, but go ahead and do a quick search on Flickr for any of those terms and put “DIY” before it (ie DIY softbox), and you will get tons of results showing you completed plans and sample pictures of the results, you will be amazed at what a few pieces of plastic and cardboard with tape can do for your photos if you have a flash. You can also get a pretty nice bit of the book for free in PDF format by going to this site and clicking on “sample”, and there is always the completlely free lighting course on the Strobist blog, just click on Lighting 101. Go ahead, check Flickr, get the sample, read the lighting 101 course, you wont regret it, and I will keep everyone here posted with my results and my builds as I go.

Resources:

Strobist: http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/
The Hot Shoe Diaries (click sample): http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321580141
Some amazing DIY equipment made by a very talented Flickr user: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickwheeleroz/sets/72157604254959243/

Smoked Salmon, Dill, Goat Cheese, and Artichoke Quiche - Magazine Mondays

While browsing around Cream Puffs in Venice’s blog I came across this great Challenge. Basically you rummage through all those old foodie magazines that you have lying around or squirreled away from who knows when, and you finally make one of the recipes. This way you are trying something new AND getting some use out of that bookshelf full of dusty "meant to make it" recipes. (Seriously, it’s a bookshelf.)

If you know me then you know I am a crazy food magazine addict. I check the newsstand daily for my favourites, even if I know they won't be coming out for another month. I even buy them in French because it forces me to practice the language. Needless to say, the semester that we were studying grammar and names of food products I got an A+.

Even though I love reading these magazines, there are just too many and I completely forget to make any of the recipes. That is why this challenge was right up my alley. And even though I didn't use one of the French recipes I still re-read three of the magazines today searching for the perfect premier recipe. Yes, my French teacher would be proud.

This recipe came from Fine Cooking Magazine, a pretty expensive magazine (10 bucks in Canada) that is really worth the money. I only came across it a couple months ago when Ian was sick and I needed something to read and pass the time. Wow though, it's like a new little cook book every month. When I heard caramelized onions, goat cheese, dill, artichokes, and smoked salmon I knew there was no way I could go wrong.

We really didn't feel like making the crust for the quiche...so we bought it Gaaaaaspp! Whatever, it was so worth it. Two gourmet quiches with minimal effort, umm yes please.


Smoked Salmon, Dill, Goat Cheese, and Artichoke Quiche
adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine, April/May 2009 #98
makes 2 quiches

2 deep dish frozen pie crusts
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 386ml can of artichokes, drained and cut in quarters
4 large eggs
1 cup 10% cream
1/2 cup milk
3 Tbsp. roughly chopped fresh dill
salt and freshly ground pepper
Pinch nutmeg
6 oz. smoked salmon, roughly chopped
4 oz. fresh goat cheese

Preheat the oven to 400F. Prebake the two pie shells for 8 minutes on a baking sheet.
Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and turning translucent. Add the artichoke hearts and cook until softened and slightly browned, another 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Beat the eggs in a bowl with the cream, milk, dill, salt, pepper, and the nutmeg. Pour 1/44th of the egg mixture into each crust. Bake in the oven until the filling is partially set, about 15 minutes. Scatter half of the onion and artichoke mixture, the salmon and the goat cheese over the partially set egg mixture. Pour on the remaining egg mixture and then scatter the remaining onions, artichokes, salmon, and goat cheese over the egg. Bake until the center is set, another 20 minutes. If the crust is browning too fast, cover it with strips of foil. Cool for 5 minutes before cutting. Garnish with extra dill.

Peanut Butter Jelly Time...umm.. I mean Bars

Before I met Ian I was a real wild child. Eccentric to the bone. No one could stop me. OK, really, how much trouble could one little molecular biologist in training get herself into. So I wasn't as much of a renegade as I like to think I was. BUT, I did enjoy running around (at 23 years of age) singing 'peanut butter jelly time... peanut butter jelly time' (sing it Jen!!!) to anyone and anything that would listen. I have no clue why, I guess I am just 6 years old at heart and my roommate was totally into the childish song too. Now three years later, I am a tame and mature woman who still finds herself singing 'peanut butter jelly time!'

So even though I was in a baking stupor yesterday and did not want to go near the kitchen I was pulled in once again by "The Cookie of the Day" on the Martha Stewart website. It didn’t help that there was an 8x8 glossy photo staring back at me when I went searching for the recipe in my Martha Stewart Cookie’s Book. And the kicker that really did me in was that I know one of Ian's favorite things in the whole wild world is Peanut butter and Jelly Sammie's.

So girls, if there is one easy way to a man's heart, it is to make their favourite dish into a dessert (not that I don’t already have the key to Ian’s).

As one of Ian's best friends put it "they are like eating the PERFECT toasted and buttered peanut butter sandwich." Actually, I didn't totally make these just for Ian; I made them so that I could sing Peanut Butter Jelly Time.....


Peanut Butter Jelly Time Bars
adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookie's Book

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 cups smooth peanut butter
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups raspberry jam
2/3 cup salted peanuts, roughly chopped
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-by-13-inch pan with parchment paper. Whisk butter and sugar in a bowl until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and peanut butter; beat until combined. Mix in salt, baking powder, and flour till combined, then add vanilla. Transfer two-thirds of mixture to prepared pan; spread evenly with offset spatula or fingers. Spread jam on top of peanut-butter mixture. Drop pieces of remaining third of peanut-butter mixture on top of jam. Sprinkle with peanuts. Bake until golden, about 45-55 minutes, turning half way through. Cut into about thirty-six 1 1/2-by-2-inch pieces and refrigerate for 30 min.

Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna with an Abruzzi Flair - Daring Bakers March 2009 Challenge

I knew this month's Daring Bakers Challenge was going to be a long and tedious one, but I was up to the task. I also figured that if I was going to put so much effort into one meal Ian and I should share it with friends. And just like that, Supper Club was born.

The idea of supper club came from my brother who holds one every 3 weeks in Oshawa. Basically one person or couple cooks, then old and new friends get together for a delicious home cooked meal. Different people host every time so that it doesn’t get too hectic and new people are always popping in.

Of course I had to make this lasagna for the first club, but I changed it up to reflect my background. The Italian side of my family comes from the region of Abruzzi. There the area makes their lasagna with hundreds of teeny tiny meatballs in the tomato sauce instead of a simple meat ragu. My brother and I have all these great memories of our aunts and cousins making this dish for big family dinners. The Abruzzi version is a very simple layering of mini meatball tomato sauce and paper thin strips of fresh pasta. There really isn’t a lot of cheese involved, nor does there need to be.

My version has the hand made fresh spinach egg pasta and the béchamel sauce of the region of Emilia-Romagna, but with a little Abruzzi flair!

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

Cherry Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart

Hey BB's. What to say about this tart? Well how about crazy amazing. Or maybe insanely good. I guess just simply tasty will do. Anne Strawberry picked this Ina inspired tart (of course made with butter filled puff pastry) that BB's all over the world lovingly made and enjoyed.

I made three sizes of the tarts thinking that I could eat a couple small ones with my hands like appetizers, ummm...no, they were so good I ate all three sizes with my hands. Nuts to utensils.

The tomatoes were like fresh berries, they burst at every bite releasing delicious juice in your mouth. It was nice to have a 'summery' dish to remind us that winter (horrid horrid winter) is over and of what's to come.


Cherry Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart
adapted from Ina Garten's book 'Back to Basic's'

1 package (17.3 ounces/2 sheets) puff pastry, defrosted (PC makes it pre-rolled)
Good olive oil
4 cups thinly sliced yellow onions
3 large garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers
salt and black pepper
3 tbsp. dry white wine
2 tsp. minced fresh thyme leaves
4 tbsp. freshly grated Parmesan
4 ounces fresh goat cheese
20 mini tomatoes, cut in half
3 tablespoons julienned basil leaves

Unfold a sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured surface and roll it lightly to an 10 by 10-inch square. Using a 6-inch wide saucer, cut 1 circle from each sheet of puff pastry, discarding the scraps. Repeat with smaller round plate, and possibly a cup, until most of the pastry sheets have been cut out. Place the pastry circles on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and refrigerate until ready to use. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add the onions and garlic. Saute for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are limp and there is almost no moisture remaining in the skillet. Add salt and pepper, the wine, and thyme and continue to cook until the wine has evaporated and the onions are lightly browned. Remove from the heat. Score a 1/4-inch-wide border around each pastry circle. Prick the pastry inside the score lines with the tines of a fork and sprinkle a tablespoon of grated Parmesan on each round, staying inside the scored border. Place some of the onion mixture on each circle, again staying within the scored edge. Place the cherry tomatoes on top of the onions. Crumble goat cheese on top and brush the tomato lightly with olive oil and sprinkle over some salt and pepper. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. Once baked add the basil on top of each tart. Serve warm or cold.

Rum-soaked Current Coconut Cookies

I just got this wonderful call from my grandma all the way from Victoria BC. Yesterday I sent her a bunch of these cookies through the mail, all perfectly wrapped in super cute paper with little pink polka-dot bows and placed gently in a tiny square box.

I wasn't sure if it was worth the trouble to send 20 cookies all the way across Canada ( they wanted 30 dollars at first for the tiny box but I haggled them down in price and crammed them into a flimsy ugly brown envelope) but when I got that phone call I knew it was worth it.

I blindly assumed that I wouldn’t like this cookie mainly because the only food on this planet that I hate is coconut. Also I am not a big fan of the taste of booze in my sweets, but these scrumptious cookies didn't taste like either.

They did however have so many different depths of flavour that I couldn't stop eating them and I really did not think that there would be enough left for the picture.

The cookies in the picture that you see here were the last ones, and at the time of this post...well... they are gone.


Rum-soaked Current Coconut Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cookie’s Book

1/2 cup dark rum
1 cup dried currants
16 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
finely grated orange zest from one orange
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup finely shredded (powder)unsweetened coconut
1 teaspoon coarse salt

Combine rum and currants; cover, and let stand at room temperature overnight. Drain, reserving 2 tablespoons rum. Whisk butter, sugar, and orange zest until white, creamy and smooth. Add vanilla and reserved rum, and beat until combined. Add flour, coconut, and salt, and stir to combine. Stir in currants. Form dough into 2-3 logs, each about 1 1/2 inches in diameter; wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour Preheat oven to 300. Remove plastic. Slice logs into 1/4-inch-thick rounds, and space about 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake until pale golden, about 12-14 minutes