Barefoot Bloggers: Catching Up

I know, I know - I've sort of abandoned this blog for the past month or so. I've been in something of a funk recently, and despite the fact that we continue to cook really great food on a regular basis, and I've been keeping up with my assignments for Barefoot Bloggers, I just haven't had the motivation to come here and sit down and spend the hours required to get any of it down on virtual paper. To tell the truth, I still am not feeling particularly motivated, but I'm trying to force myself through some of my self-imposed backlog in the hopes that once that source of stress is gone, I'll be more interested in writing about the new stuff.

To that end, I'm going to bend the BB rules a bit and post the last three challenges in this post, so I can start fresh with the second recipe for April.

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1st Recipe for March: Chicken Picatta
plus a bonus recipe, Sauteed Broccolini



Chicken Picatta is definitely one of those classic dishes that I think every cook should know how to make, and though I've made it myself once or twice, I was usually guessing my way through it. I was thrilled when Lindsay of Noodle Nights and Muffin Mornings chose Ina's recipe as one of the challenges for March, as I would finally have a recipe to follow from a cook I trust.

I made only a few small changes to this recipe (and for once, halving it wasn't one of them - I made the full recipe in the interest of having leftovers for lunch the next day). First, I used panko breadcrumbs that I seasoned myself in place of the seasoned Italian breadcrumbs Ina calls for. Second, I couldn't quite see my way to making chicken picatta without capers, and I put garlic in everything, so when I saw that Ina's recipe called for neither I knew that would have to change. I used a couple of tablespoons of brined capers and a couple of minced cloves of garlic and sauteed them in the pan before adding the stock, wine, and lemon juice. I also used just a tiny bit of cornstarch near the end to thicken up the sauce a bit, as I wanted it to sort of hold its own on top of the chicken rather than being immediately absorbed, as clear-liquid-based sauces are wont to do even when reduced. Finally, I topped our servings of chicken with a fine fresh grating of real parmiggiano reggiano, because everything deserves a little cheese.



I also used this as an excuse to make one of the BRCs (Bonus Recipe Challenges) for March, Ina's Sauteed Broccolini (technically I guess this was supposed to be February's BRC, but whatever) as chosen by Mary of Meet Me in the Kitchen. Since the recipe called for garlic and lemon and I already had all that out for the chicken, it seemed like a perfect match.

And indeed, it was. This was just about exactly what I expect when I think of chicken picatta. The chicken was toasty and crunchy on the outside while still being tender and moist inside, and the sauce was tangy, savory, briny, and bright from all the fresh parsley. And I'll say it again, I really can't imagine this dish without capers, as the little pop of salty pungency you get when you bite into one with the chicken is just perfect.



The broccolini was also a really great side for this, very clean and fresh-tasting, the simple preparation and seasoning allowing the flavor of the broccolini to really shine. I love broccolini though and cook it pretty frequently, and this is pretty much my usual method for cooking it - sometimes I roast instead of sautee, sometimes I use balsamic or soy instead of lemon juice, but the basic idea is the same - so I knew before I even made it that it would be good.

I do feel like the meal as a whole could have used something a little bit neutral, like some whipped potatoes or bread, to help counteract the acidity from all that lemon, so next time I'll probably add another side to help round things out. But overall, this meal was definitely a winner, and I can certainly see myself going back to these recipes.

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2nd Recipe for March: Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts



I just recently saw Ina make these Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts on her show, and I remember thinking that it sounded extremely good. I was pretty happy when I saw that Anne of Anne Strawberry had picked this as one of our challenges, because I was sure it'd be tasty.

I had to make a few small changes to the recipe out of necessity, specifically because we neglected to buy either basil or thyme that week at the grocery store. I had dry basil that I could use as a substitute (not that dry basil is ever a good substitute for fresh) but didn't even have dry thyme, so I had to improvise with some oregano and poultry seasoning. I couldn't find garlic and herb goat cheese that didn't cost an arm and a leg, so I bought fresh plain chevre and added seasonings myself (a grated garlic clove, some dry basil, oregano, and poultry seasoning, and some black pepper). I couldn't find a nice big tomato that looked like it'd be tasty to cut into big single slices, so I had to use a small vine-ripened tomato and use two slices per tart, halved and arranged as evenly as possible. Finally, I grated the parm instead of shaving it, which was really just an aesthetic change more than anything else.



The tarts came out perfectly, they really did - I was actually really shocked that Ina's technique for creating the tart shell worked as well as it did, and I think I will be using that technique quite a bit in the future - but I have to say, I was not thrilled with this. At all. And its not Ina's fault.

See, I used to love goat cheese, but last summer J and I had sort of a binge on it after visiting an incredible cheese shop in Mattituck and picking up the best chevre we'd ever tasted, a local product from Catapano farms. It was mild and creamy and incredibly fresh, and I think we ate goat cheese on bread every night for a week as an appetizer. But at the end of the week, after eating said goat cheese, later in the evening I wound up sick for some other as-yet-undetermined reason, and let me just say that no matter how good that cheese tasted on the way down, it was NOT pleasant on the way back up. I know, TMI, but I think you'll all understand when I say that ever since then, my taste for goat cheese has waned somewhat.

Its a shame, because recipes that call for it always SOUND so good, much like this one did. But I just couldn't do it. I got through half my tart, and despite it being perfectly cooked with deliciously sweet caramelized onions, juicy tomato, and crisp pastry, that pungent goaty flavor just got in the way. So, unfortunately, the remainder of my tart went in the trash. Sorry Ina... its not you, its me.



J gave the tarts his seal of approval though, so that's something. I'm thinking that if I ever made these again, I'd just make mine with feta - I KNOW I'd like that.

(I have since discovered that I'm still pretty much ok with goat cheese when eaten plain, just on some bread or crackers - I think when it gets muddled up with other flavors, though, particularly sweet ones, it just doesn't work for me. Will continue to experiment until I figure it out.)

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1st Recipe for April: Chinese Chicken Salad



This recipe was a surprise hit. When I saw that McKenzie of Kenzie's Kitchen had chosen this recipe for Chinese Chicken Salad, I was a little skeptical - my first thought was of that salad that people make with uncooked instant ramen noodles, which I happen to love but couldn't imagine Ina making in a million years. When I saw the actual recipe, and how simple it was, I expected it to be ok, but not great. I must admit to being totally wrong.

As usual, I made some changes here, but the biggest one was something I really had no choice over. I have a very severe peanut allergy, so the peanut butter-based dressing was definitely a no-go. Instead, I used tahini, as its texture and flavor seemed like the closest thing to peanut butter that I could safely use. (Am I the only one who always thinks that toasted sesame smells vaguely peanutty?) I also upped the veggie quotient by adding some sugar snap peas and baby carrots to the asparagus and red bell peppers that the recipe called for, making this even more springy and fresh. Finally, I made some small adjustments to the dressing itself to compensate for the tahini substitution and my own tastes, adding a bit more soy and using sugar in place of honey (which I didn't have) and even a smidge of spicy dijon mustard for tang and body.



This salad was excellent - a great mix of flavors, colors and textures, supremely fresh and light while still managing to be completely satisfying all on its own. I was a hair's breadth away from cooking up some soba to have with this, but it really didn't need it. I had one noodle-bowl's worth of the salad and was perfectly content and full, without feeling stuffed. We loved this, and I am certain we'll be making it again when the weather gets warmer - I think this will be perfect picnic and bbq chow, just screaming to be eaten outside in the sunshine and fresh air, preferably with a cold beer or a glass of white wine.



Even though I didn't try it this time, I do think that this dressing would be perfect for a cold soba salad as well, so I'm pretty sure I'll be trying that out at some point soon.

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PHEW. All caught up. I've got some other backlog to work through, along with another Ile de France cheese review (more goat cheese... ack!), but then I promise to start posting new stuff again. I've got a great original soup recipe to share, and my first original cookie recipe, both from the past week. So stay tuned!

"Dim Sum", sort of

In planning this meal, we referred to it as a "dim sum", despite the fact that it didn't really include any standard dim sum fare, and one of the dishes was really more Thai/Vietnamese than Chinese. (As a matter of fact, I've never even HAD dim sum. I love the idea of it, but my food allergies make me wary of any situation where I can't feel sure of what's actually in what I'm eating, and from what I've seen that has a lot to do with the dim sum experience.) Whatever you call it though, it was one of the most satisfying meals we've made in recent memory, not just because it tasted good (because it most certainly did) but because we learned how to make two new dishes that we were curious about, and finally succeeded at a dish we've been struggling with for ages.



And yes, this was totally vegetarian. We've been experimenting more with meatless meals, in an attempt to save our grocery money for the really GOOD cuts of meat, and also to cut back on the amount we eat. Although we are really good about our vegetable intake and try to severely limit the fat, sugar, and carb content of our meals, we do tend to eat more meat than is really necessary or healthy. Cutting back a bit will hardly be a challenge when we can throw together delicious vegetarian meals like this!



The first component of our dim sum was baozi, or Chinese filled steamed buns. I have never actually had baozi before, but have always thought that they sounded and looked delicious, so we finally bit the bullet and made them ourselves. Typically baozi seem to be filled with either bbq meat, soup, or sweet things like bean paste, but J made the filling for ours with shelled edamame, shiitakes, green onions, and carrots all chopped up and stir-fried in sesame oil and thin teriyaki sauce until softened and a little caramelized. The dough that I used for the wrappers was actually a naan dough from my current cookbook love, the Best-Ever Curry Cookbook by Mridula Baljekar. A typical baozi dough is much simpler, but as I was already making a batch of the dough to actually make naan later in the week I thought it would make a reasonable substitution. I added a bit of sugar and sesame oil to the portion of dough I was using for the baozi to enhance the flavor of the filling.

I had some trouble actually filling the buns - the tops didn't want to stay closed at first - but after two pseudo-failures (one of which looked fine when it went into the steamer but sort of exploded while cooking) I managed to put together two well-sealed buns. They went into the steamer for around 12 minutes and came out soft and fluffy with a lovely glossy skin. I loved the texture of these, the way the dough yields between the teeth and reveals the savory-sweet filling. I desperately want to make them with that ubiquitous char siu bbq pork filling now, though.



The second component were some vegetarian summer rolls, which couldn't be easier to make once you've had some practice rolling. I filled them with shredded carrot, bell pepper, and cabbage, cooked rice noodles tossed with soy and sesame oil, and fresh basil leaves. To make the rolls, each rice paper wrapper got a quick dunk in some warm water to soften it, then got laid out on a flat board. I laid a basil leaf flat on the wrapper, then topped it with a small pile of noodles and a tumble of shredded veggies. The actual rolling was a bit tricky, but after the first one I think I got the hang of it - its just like wrapping a burrito, except with a very flexible, sticky, and fragile wrapper. The key is definitely to roll it as tight as you can without tearing, and as long as you use a gentle touch that's fairly simple to do.

These were so light and crisp and refreshing, the perfect counterpoint to the warm and hearty baozi, and totally delicious when dunked into a dipping sauce made from sweet chili sauce, ponzu, and rice wine vinegar. I think next time I'd use bean thread noodles rather than rice noodles, because the rice noodles were a bit too firm here, and I'd like to include shredded lettuce and bean sprouts next time, but even so these were a total winner. I think the basil is what sends this over the top - the heady aroma of fresh basil is just killer alongside fresh veggies and savory soy, adding a really complex note to an otherwise straightforward little roll. I can see myself making these a lot once the weather starts to get warmer - they're just to quick and easy, and the package of wrappers I bought has a TON. I may also experiment with meat or seafood fillings - I know that shrimp or even pork can be fairly traditional, but what about a miso-glazed seared salmon, or a ground chicken satay filling? I bet I could have an entire summer roll party!



But as good as these two dishes were, the real winner of the night was J's fried rice, because this time it really WAS fried rice. I am ashamed to admit that I didn't pay very close attention to how he made it, being preoccupied by my summer rolls, but this was exactly the kind of fried rice I've always hoped to be able to make at home and have always failed at before. Pre-cooked basmati rice (I know, you'd never expect it, but this worked incredibly well) stir fried with diced carrots and onions and a handful of frozen peas, simply seasoned with just a bit of soy and black pepper, and bulked up slightly with the addition of a scrambled egg, this was unspeakably perfect. The holy grail of fried rice. The kind of fried rice I could probably eat every day and never tire of. Which is bad because, lets face it, fried rice isn't healthy. It takes a fair amount of oil to keep it from sticking to the wok in a hopelessly coagulated mess, and instead get crisp and toasty and delicious. But once in awhile, man is it worth it.

And so, J is now Fried Rice Man, and we are one step closer to making our favorite Chinese takeout meals at home. I think our next challenges will be orange/sesame/General Tso's chicken (lets face it, they're all pretty similar) and boneless spare ribs, though they may have to wait until we feel deserving of a treat. Or, you know, tomorrow.

Negimaki - Beef & Scallion Rolls

One of the reasons I love Japanese food as much as I do is its inherent simplicity. Most of my favorite dishes call for just a handful of ingredients, and achieve their delicious success through the perfect balance of salty, savory, sweet and tangy. Negimaki, the much-loved staple of most Japanese restaurant appetizer menus, certainly falls into this category.



We recently decided to try making these tasty beef and scallion rolls at home using a bit of surplus beef roast from our Sunday dinner. I didn't look at a recipe, but just trusted my instincts and my previous experience with restaurant negimaki to put these together. Overall, they were pretty darn good, but I know some things I would do differently next time.

First of all, I'd use a more tender cut of meat, and try harder to get each slice to an even thickness - J and I both took a turn with the knife, but neither of us were able to get good, clean slices. It would probably also help to be cutting the slices off of a full roast, rather than the small piece we reserved. I'd marinate both the beef and the scallions in some soy sauce and sesame oil, and possibly just a bit of sugar, before rolling. And I would cut the scallions to fit the width of each piece of beef, rather than cutting them into uniformly-sized lengths and then piecing everything together on the roll.

For now though, here is my recipe. Feel free to try it as written, since they were quite tasty, or make your own adjustments. Just remember - keep it simple!



Negimaki - Beef & Scallion Rolls
4-6 slices of beef, somewhere in the neighborhood of 4x6", cut or pounded to 1/16" thickness (you could always simply ask your butcher to cut some beef scallopine style, if you don't want to mess with this yourself)
1 bunch of scallions
salt
black pepper
sesame seeds
toasted sesame oil
soy sauce

Condiments - sweet asian-style chili sauce, wasabi, soy sauce, , sriracha, teriyaki sauce

Trim the ends of the scallions, then quarter lengthwise to get something that resembles long blades of grass. Now cut them into approximately 2" lengths. Divide equally into as many portions as you have slices of beef.

Lay a slice of beef out on a clean plate or board with one of the shorter sides closest to you and season lightly with salt, freshly-cracked black pepper, and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. Place one of your portions of scallions on top of the beef, about 1" in from the narrow edge closest to you and arranged across the full width of the meat, with all of the scallions lying parallel to each other. Now fold the exposed edge of the meat over the scallions and roll up as tightly as you can without pushing out all the scallions. Use some butcher's twine to hold the roll together, wrapping it around the center and both ends. Set aside and repeat the technique to make the rest of your rolls.

Season the outsides of the rolls with a bit more salt and pepper and a drizzle of soy sauce and toasted sesame oil.

Heat a griddle or large frying pan on the stove until very hot. Add a small amount of vegetable oil, then the rolls. Sear very well on all sides - it shouldn't take more than a minute or two on each side - then remove to a plate or board to rest briefly. Drizzle on a bit more soy sauce and sesame oil if you like.

Use a sharp knife to slice each roll into three pieces, then cut away the butcher's twine. Serve standing on-end with your choice of condiments - teriyaki is pretty traditional, but I found I liked them best with some sweet and spicy asian-style chili sauce, while J preferred wasabi and sriracha (as pictured).



We made these into a meal with an incredibly simple stir fry of baby bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, onions and red bell peppers, seasoned with just some soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, garlic and black pepper. This was shockingly good, and far more than the sum of its parts, much like the negimaki themselves.



Its a difficult thing to remember at times, but sometimes simple really is best.

Why yes, I CAN, in fact, cook fish.

Being home for nearly two weeks straight while J had to work basically everyday but Christmas and New Year's Day, I pretty much took the reigns for dinner almost every evening. This tends to be the arrangement when one of us is home and the other is at work, and is rather a change from our usual well-established kitchen roles: J takes charge of the meat, seasoning, prepping and cooking whatever protein we happen to be eating that day to follow the concept of the meal we have planned, while I'm generally in charge of sides, usually vegetables and the occasional starch.

I rather enjoy shaking things up myself - it gives me the opportunity to flex my culinary muscles, cooking entire meals and preparing things that I normally wouldn't, with plenty of time to experiment and really do things right. I also get to enjoy the satisfaction of serving a hot, homemade meal to someone I love every day, which makes it a win-win situation as far as I'm concerned. Of course, it also makes things more challenging, because no mater what I plan to make, I succeed or fail all on my own. And when it comes to cooking fish, I just don't have enough experience yet to be confident of success when I'm the one responsible for it.

That's why I was so proud of this salmon dish - I made it all on my own, and it came out just about perfect.



This meal combined two of my favorite things ever in the world of food - salmon and noodles - with something that is one of my least favorites, prepared in a new way - cucumbers - to create a surprising and satisfyingly successful dinner on a chilly post-holiday weeknight.

Early in the day I peeled a whole cucumber in stripes, then cut it into a pile of thin slices with my brand new mandoline (a Christmas gift from J - he certainly knows the way to my heart!) and tossed the slices in a marinade of soy, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and rice wine vinegar. The soon-to-be pickles went into the fridge for the rest of the day while I took care of some things on my to-do list.

Late in the afternoon, it was time to start dinner. The salmon came as a steak with the spine and pinbones still in-tact, which meant I had to figure out how to remove the bones and create two thin portions - not something I've ever done before. But with a little searching online and a lot of intuition, I was able to separate the flesh from the spine with a long thin paring knife, the closest thing we have to a proper boning knife, and then remove the remaining pinbones with a pair of tweezers. I used a paper towel to pat away excess moisture and create a slightly tacky surface, then pressed the top of each fish portion into a mix of ground wasabi-soy almonds and panko. Finished with a gentle brushing of olive oil over the top, they were ready for the broiler.



I knew that the fish would cook quickly, however, so I let it sit and come up to room temperature while I started work on some noodles. I sliced an entire green bell pepper into thin ribbons with my mandoline along with most of a package of white button mushrooms. These went into a hot skillet with some warmed safflower oil and a bit of minced garlic and were sauteed until softened and browned in places. I made a simple sauce from some soy, sesame oil, jarred minced ginger (don't really like buying that sort of thing, but we never use fresh ginger before it goes bad) black pepper and sugar, and tossed the veggies and sauce with some flat lo mein noodles that I'd boiled to al dente in salted water. When the fish went under the broiler, I tipped the whole mess back into the skillet and stir fried it until the sauce was absorbed and the noodles took on bit of crispness around the edges.

The fish was golden brown and crisp on top and just cooked through in the middle within 5 or 6 minutes, at which point I removed it from the oven and took my pickled cucumber salad out of the fridge. Onto each plate when a heap of the stir-fried noodles, then a portion of salmon, and finally a tumble of the thin cukes on the side. At this point I was pretty pleased, as everything LOOKED more-or-less how I'd hoped.



But as usual, the proof was in the taste, and I think I won this battle. The fish was just right, flaky and tender with a lovely crunch from the nut and panko crust. The noodles were slightly sweet and savory, with soft sweet peppers and tender earthy mushrooms in every bite. But the cucumber salad was the real revelation for me - normally I pretty strongly dislike cucumbers in their natural form, and I was suspicious of any pickling recipe that required less than a couple of weeks in boiling-water-processed jars to transform their flavor. But this method made a shocking transformation in very little time, yielding still-crisp cucumber slices with a salty, tangy flavor that was damn-near addictive. I honestly think I could eat cucumbers every day if they were prepared like this.

Aside from being a tasty meal, this dinner proved to me that if I trust my intuition and remember everything I've learned by watching J in the kitchen, I can probably manage just about any meat or fish preparation. I just have to put my mind to it and stay confident in my skills.

Maybe one day I'll even have the guts to tackle that roast beef that J's already mastered. But then again, sometimes its not worth messing with perfection. ;)

Goodness, gracious, great balls o' meat!

Sorry. I couldn't resist.

The meatball is, I think, a vastly underrated thing. Most people think of meatballs as only those things you have with spaghetti and red sauce to make a meal more substantial, or perhaps as the little bite-sized morsels served with sweet-and-sour sauce at new year's eve, or in gloopy brown gravy over egg noodles that somehow get away with calling themselves "swedish". Usually made of beef and with far too few seasonings, quite often lacking pleasing texture or moisture, we're all familiar with the mediocrity of the standard meatball. But does that mean they can't be really, truly GOOD? I don't think so.

I also don't believe that meatballs should be relegated to the dishes above. Ground meat (or chop meat if you're from on Long Island or New Jersey, apparently... I haven't been a New Yorker long enough to hear that phrase without a certain confused tilt of the head) is endlessly versatile, refreshingly inexpensive, and usually quite tasty when its of high quality. When you start with a pound of ground meat - be it beef, pork, chicken, turkey, some sort of game, or a mix of two or three - the possibilities are practically infinite.

That's why last week we decided to devote an entire week of dinners to the humble, forgotten, oftimes-abused meatball. And 4 meals later, we've barely scratched the surface.

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Meal #1: Chicken Koftas Avgolemono

I know, I know, here we go again. But hear me out. This was my brainchild, being still enamoured with the Avgolemono Soup from a month or so back and craving those flavors again, but wanting to mix it up a bit. I knew when we decided on this meatball week experiment that I'd want to do something Greek, and this dish sort of just tumbled out on a whim. Apparently the idea had merit, because J declared it a definite addition to our future dream restaurant menu.



From Wikipedia:

"Kofta ... is a Southeastern European, Middle Eastern and South Asian meatball or dumpling.

In the simplest form, koftas consist of balls of minced or ground meat — usually beef or lamb — mixed with spices and/or onions. The vegetarian varieties like lauki kofta, shahi aloo kofta, and malai kofta are popular in India, as is kofta made of minced goat meat." More...

Traditional beef or lamb koftas (often made in cigar shapes rather than spherical ones) are delicious in their own right, and deserve a post of their own later this year when the weather gets warmer and we can grill them properly. But for this meal, to remain faithful to the original Avgolemono that was my inspiration, I knew that chicken would be the proper choice.

Each of the components of this dish are simple, but as there are several the prep was a bit time-consuming. First, the meatballs were made with ground chicken that was seasoned with oregano, garlic, lemon zest, crumbed feta, a tiny drizzle of honey and a goodly amount of salt and black pepper. We use the Alton Brown method for cooking, and a pound of chicken yielded a dozen two- or three-bite koftas. While those baked away, I boiled some orzo in chicken stock fortified with a bay leaf and extra black pepper, prepped some baby spinach, carrots, garlic and onions for the sautee pan, and whisked the juice of a lemon into an egg in preparation for the sauce.

The carrots, garlic, and onions were sauteed until just softened, then the spinach was added and cooked until it just started to wilt. By this time the orzo was done, and I drained off the remaining stock in the pan into a bowl to use for the sauce. Finally, when the meatballs were done and resting out of the oven for a few minutes, I made the sauce by adding the hot stock to the lemon-egg mixture slowly, whisking constantly to temper the egg, then heating the mix gently on the stove to allow it to thicken.

To serve, a bed of orzo was laid down on each plate, topped by a generous helping of sauteed spinach, a trio of keftedes, and a few spoonfuls of sauce drizzled all over. Finish with a sprinkle of crumbled feta and some chopped fresh parsley, and you've got yourself a meal.



The flavor of this dish was outstanding, and the meal felt quite healthy with the lean chicken and good green spinach. I know that the sauce needs some work, as it never got to quite the consistency I wanted, and a few bits of egg curdled while it was cooking and needed to be strained out before serving. I think with some tweaks here and there and a good reliable recipe (next time, I'll write it down), J is right - this just might have a place on the menu if we are ever able to open the little cafe we dream about.

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Meal #2 - Almond-crusted Asian Meatballs with Vegetable Stir Fry

Think of these as dumplings without the wrappers and a with a bit more attitude. We've made similar things before with sesame seeds that have come out terrific, but I'm a bit of an almond fanatic so when J suggested the almond crust as something different, I was hardly going to argue.



The meatballs were made with a mix of pork and beef and seasoned with soy garlic, onion, ginger, dry mustard, sesame oil, and a bit of sugar. Before dropping them into their individual muffin cups to bake, each ball got rolled around in some finely-chopped toasted slivered almonds to make a crust. Word to the wise - although the meatballs might seem rather fragile when you're working with them, you really want to press the almonds in there so that they stick. J made these and found that when he tried to be more gentle on the meatballs, the almonds all fell off as they cooked - where they'd been pressed more firmly into the meat, they seemed to adhere and get nice and crunchy as we'd imagined they would.



We ate these with a simple stir fry of sugar snap peas, carrots, green bell peppers, and onions in a basic sweet-and-salty brown sauce, which is hard to screw up and always tasty. The meatballs themselves were tasty but seemed a bit on the bland side - next time we'll up the seasonings by at least half. And my previous comments about the almond-crust aside, the bites were the almonds really got attached to the meat and got super golden-brown and crunchy were absolutely delicious and had great textural contrast. If we can get the crusting technique down next time, I think they'd be insanely good. I'd hate to suggest that they could replace J's current signature Asian meatballs for a party appetizer but, well, I think they could.

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Meal #3: Curried Turkey Meatballs with Chana Masala

I've been looking for an excuse to make my new favorite chana masala recipe recently, so when J suggested an Indian-style meatball I jumped at the chance. Turkey may seem like an odd match for curry seasoning, but really, it works. Its distinctive earthy flavor was a really good base for all those aromatic spices.



J made these as well, using his own homemade curry powder blend as the main seasoning base and adding a bit of garam masala, sugar, and extra salt and pepper to round out the flavor. Nothing fancy in the cooking step here, just form and drop into the muffin tin to bake, so they were especially easy. I made the chana masala almost exactly the same way as last time, but upped the veggie quotient with some cubed zucchini in place of the potatoes, and it was just as good as I remembered.

This was definitely another winner. The best part was scooping up a bite of chana masala with my fork and spearing a piece of meatball on the end and eating it all together - the meatballs may have tended a bit toward the dry side, so the moisture from the tomatoes and onions and squash really improved the texture, and all of those great Indian spices blending together made for an intense explosion of flavor unlike anything in Western cooking. Quite exciting, really, for a weeknight dinner.

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Meal #4: Italian Sausage Ball Pizza

I don't actually have any photos of this one, which is a shame because it was really, really good. Like, almost I-can't-believe-I-made-this good. But, well, because it was so good, we ate it before it even occurred to me to take pictures.

I decided that if we were making meatballs all week, we really ought to do something Italian. But I wasn't about to make spaghetti and meatballs - as a matter of fact, I didn't want regular meatballs at all. But SAUSAGE balls, now that I could get behind. But we didn't just buy sausage - we made it, fresh, from just some ground pork and spices.

Bet you didn't know it was that easy, did you? Well, it is.

A pound of ground pork mixed up with a generous amount of garlic, onion, black pepper, salt, and most importantly, fennel (we used fennel pollen because we didn't have any whole seed, and since we were making the sausage mix the day of rather than ahead of time, it would ensure a more pervasive fennel flavor) created a pretty authentic-tasting Italian-style sweet sausage. The mix was formed into slightly flattened balls and seared in a pan this time around, then sliced to make a more easily distributed pizza topping.

The pizza itself was built on some whole wheat dough I'd been saving in the freezer, starting with a thin layer of J's homemade marinara, a sprinkle of shredded mozzarella, some pieces of brie, and the sliced sausage. Into the oven on the pizza stone at the highest heat we could get for maybe 5-10 minutes, and we had a bubbly, melty pizza with a golden brown crust.

The sausage was perfect here, with just the right amount of savory spice. The creamy brie and mozz complimented it really well, and although the crust was more chewy than crispy, the whole wheat flour gave it a pleasing texture. And with the dough made ahead of time, we were able to make the whole meal in about 25 minutes. Can't really beat that!

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We have one more meal planned that we never got around to making, which we have high hopes for - venison meatballs in cherry sauce. If it comes out as good as I expect it will, I'll be sure to share it with you. But in the meantime, I highly recommend that you give the lowly meatball a bit of thought, and a chance to elevate itself beyond that boring plate of pasta. Its a blank slate upon which fantastic meals can be built, and deserves a second chance at your table.

Why We Don't Go Out For Thai

Consider, for a moment, the plight of the peanut-allergic American. If you don't have to worry about dying from accidental contact with this particular legume, you probably don't even realize how much it's used in everyday foods. Cereals, snacks, candies, and convenience foods often contain things like peanut flour or peanut oil when you'd least expect it. Even those which do not intentionally include peanut products in their ingredient lists will frequently carry that potentially life-saving warning, "Manufactured in a facility which also process peanuts." While this means that your granola bar probably does not contain, nor has it come in contact with, a peanut or its byproducts, it also means that it MIGHT have, and you'd just better not take the chance.

Then there's fried foods, which have at least a 50/50 chance of having been cooked in peanut oil, and sometimes its almost impossible to tell. I often wonder how many unaware folks with peanut allergies get sick every year from innocent trips to Chick-Fil-A. (Because yes, they fry just about everything in peanut oil, and the warning signs in their restaurants are notoriously small and easy-to-miss. I had a close call there myself a few years back.)

If you don't have to think about it, you probably don't realize just how dangerous the world can be for someone with a severe peanut allergy, and how limited the options become when you really take every step possible to keep yourself. And no matter how hard you try to protect yourself, there is still always the slight possibility that, under the wrong circumstances, you just might get hit with an allergy attack seemingly out of nowhere due to a chance encounter of your purse with a peanut shell on the ground.

And possibly worse than all that is the fact that it is damn near impossible to go out for Thai food.



As you may have determined, I am one of those unlucky 1.5 million Americans whose bodies cannot process the proteins in that beloved of all "nuts", the peanut. I've learned as I've grown up how to best avoid accidental ingestion of the evil little beans, and know to be very careful when eating out or trying new foods. However, in my younger days I was sometimes a bit more reckless than I should've been, and it was during those years that I first discovered Thai food.

I suppose I was lucky. There were a lot of Thai restaurants in New Haven County in CT, where I grew up, and I went to at least three different places where I was able to enjoy untainted Thai food, probably due to some extreme care and consideration by the restaurants' chefs and servers. Through these visits I learned to love Thai cuisine, its unique, fresh, and vibrant flavors, colors, and textures, and I became a regular customer to the restaurant closest to home, craving their food constantly between visits.

And then I moved to NY, where there must be a thousand Thai restaurants to try. And it was then that I had my first bad experience in a Thai restaurant, one which must not have taken such impeccable care in keeping their kitchen clean and their peanut products quarantined, because despite having ordered a dish that I knew full well should contain no peanuts whatsoever, I had a reaction and was sick for days.

Since then I have not set foot in another Thai restaurant, other than the one back home that I know is safe.

Just try to imagine not being able to go out for your favorite kind of food because, well, it just might kill you. I probably don't need to spell it out, but I will: IT SUCKS.

But, not being one to take my eating limitations lying down, I resolved that I simply had to be able to make my own Thai food at home, where I knew it would be 100% safe for me to eat. And after introducing J to my beloved "safe haven" Thai restaurant in CT and turning him on to the stuff, he was more than willing to take on the challenge with me.

Since then we have made several soups, stir fries, and noodle/rice dishes from various cookbooks and online recipe sources, some more successful than others but all of them better than no Thai food at all. We will continue to experiment until we have a retinue of reliable, delicious, and authentic (as close as possible, anyway, working within the no-peanuts limitation) recipes that we can turn to whenever we feel that particular, special craving that no other food can satisfy. But for now, the one recipe we've come back to time and time again has been this, my favorite Thai noodle dish and one of my favorite things to eat, ever: Pad See Ew.



A relatively simple dish of wide rice noodles stir-fried with Chinese broccoli or gai lan, egg, and thin strips of chicken or pork with a sticky, sweet soy sauce, pad see ew is a popular lunchtime street food in Thailand. It is hearty and incredibly flavorful, and like so much of the Thai cuisine I've tasted, incredibly well balanced. Sweet, savory, peppery, and tangy flavors meld together into a truly perfect sauce, binding the tender chicken, soft eggs, crunchy broccoli and chewy rice noodles into what I can only describe as the ultimate noodle dish. Seriously, I could eat this stuff every day for a week and not get bored with it. It is amazing to me that such a simple dish with such basic ingredients can taste this good.

The recipe I follow for this dish is slightly non-traditional, but it achieves the same flavor that I fell in love with back in CT, and for that I don't mind breaking the rules a bit. I always use chicken and have never had it with pork, even though I'm pretty sure that pork is the standard protein in Thialand. I also use regular-old broccoli florets instead of Chinese broccoli or gai lan, because frankly I have access to neither. It doesn't matter. Because really, the star of this dish is the noodles; wide ribbons of chewy, starchy goodness that soak up all that delicious sauce and become almost unbearably addictive. I bet you won't be able to stop at one plate.



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Pad See Ew
Adapted from a bunch of recipes that I can't really remember all mashed up together; technique adapted from Pim's Pad See Ew for Beginners.

If you can't find fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, or dark sweet soy in stores near you, try ordering them online from any of a number of Thai ingredient suppliers. That's what we did, and unless you cook Thai every day, they'll probably last you a good long time.

12oz flat, wide dry rice noodles
1 large boneless skinless chicken breast, sliced thinly (you could substitute pork or even tofu here if you wanted)
2 cups broccoli florets (one large crown should do fine)
1 egg
6 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced

Marinade:
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Sauce:
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
3 tsp dark sweet soy sauce
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1-2 tbsp white sugar
1/2-1 tsp black pepper

Vegetable oil for cooking (Choose something with a high smoke point like safflower or grapeseed oil or, if you aren't allergic like me, peanut oil. I won't even bother giving a measurement because it depends on too much - the seasoning of your wok, the type of noodles you use, how hot your stove gets, etc. - just be aware that you will probably use a lot.)

30-60 minutes before you intend to start cooking, mix together the ingredients for the marinade and pour over the slices of chicken in a large bowl. Toss around to coat each piece with the marinade, then cover with plastic wrap and let stand until you are ready to cook.

Place the rice noodles in a dish and cover with hot water (I bring my tea kettle up to just shy of the boiling point) and let stand long enough for the noodles to become pliable. You'll want to move them around every so often with a fork or tongs to keep them from sticking together and forming one giant noodle clump. 5-10 minutes will probably do it, depending on how hot the water is. Just don't let them get soft or mushy, or you'll be setting yourself up for failure later. They need to be able to finish cooking in the wok. Once the noodles are pliable, drain them in a colander and rinse well with cold water, then let stand to drain completely.

Make sure the rest of your ingredients are prepped and ready to go - cut up your broccoli florets and put them in a bowl. Do the same with the garlic. Scramble the egg in another bowl, adding a touch of soy sauce if you like. Finally, make the sauce, whisking all of the ingredients together to help the sugar dissolve. I used the full 2tbsp the last time I made it and felt it was a little too sweet for my tastes, so next time I'll cut it back to maybe a heavy tbsp, but season it according to your tastes. Same goes for the pepper - I like a lot, but use as much as you like.

You should now have a bowl of chicken in its marinade, a colander full of flexible but not-exactly cooked rice noodles, a bowl of broccoli, a bowl of garlic, a bowl of egg, and a bowl of sauce. Now get out your vegetable oil and a big wooden spoon or spatula, and make sure everything is within easy reach of the stove; its time to start cooking, and it's going to move quickly.

Place a large wok over high heat and preheat for at least 5 minutes to ensure the whole pan is heated evenly. Add a tablespoon or two of oil to the pan, enough that you can swirl the pan around and coat as much of the sides as possible. Let that heat up for just a few seconds, then dump in your marinated chicken and garlic. Keep the chicken and garlic moving around the pan by swirling the pan gently and tossing/stirring the meat with your wooden spoon or spatula, letting it cook on all sides without burning. You'll probably get some smoke and some spatter, so just be careful when you move the pan. Once the chicken is cooked and browned in places, remove it and the garlic back to its bowl. Wipe out the pan with a couple of paper towels and replace on the heat.

Now, the broccoli. Add some more oil to the wok, then dump in your broccoli and cook the same way that you did the chicken, though you probably won't need to move it around as much because it wont be as likely to stick as the chicken was. Cook until the broccoli is bright green and slightly softened but still crisp in the stems, and the florets have gotten brown and crispy in spots. Remove from the wok back to its bowl, and replace the wok on the stove. No need to wipe it out this time.

Drizzle some oil over the noodles in their colander and toss around gently so that all of the noodles are individually coated with oil, then add a bit more oil to the wok. This is where things can get tricky, as rice noodles tend to stick like crazy and will break apart and completely lose their structural integrity if they do, so although it goes against my usual healthy sensibilities, use as much oil as you need to keep that from happening.

One the noodles are coated and the oil in the pan is hot again, dump in the noodles and get them moving in the pan immediately. The longer they stay stationary, the more likely they are to stick. Stir fry them until they start to show crisp, brown spots. Now, this is the only part that I still have trouble with - move the noodles up the sides of the pan where it will be cooler, creating a well at the very bottom of the pan, and pour in the scrambled egg. Resist the urger to start shoving it around in the pan the way you have every other ingredient - the noodles at this point should be lubed up enough that they won't stick, and the egg needs to cook without being fooled with for awhile so that it can actually set up. You want to be able to break it into pieces once its cooked, not turn it into a coating for the noodles.

Give it just a minute or two until it looks mostly opaque, then get in there and stir to break it up a bit and toss it with the noodles. Now dump the chicken, garlic, and broccoli back into the pan, toss it all together, and finally pour in all the sauce. Do your pan-shaking/hot-food-tossing bit until everything in the pan is coated in sauce, the noodles have absorbed most of the liquid, and the heat has thickened up anything that's left, just a minute or two. You should get a bit more caramelization and browning during this step. Remove from the heat and serve immediately, with an extra shake of black pepper and a drop or two of soy sauce as a final flavor boost.

Sesame Tuna

Iavarone Bros., the specialty Italian grocery store where we do the bulk of our weekly shopping, has been carrying some absolutely gorgeous sushi-grade tuna steaks every week for the past couple months, and every single time we're there I gaze longingly at them, consider buying one, then glance at the price tag before shaking my head mournfully and walking away. But this week I vowed that we would have one for dinner, and I kept my promise, walking resolutely up to that fish counter with head held high and declaring that I would have on of their fine sushi-grade tuna steaks, please. And then the fishmonger handed over that parcel of pure culinary gold, and all pretense of sophistication disappeared as I skipped off to present J with our newest treasure, giggling maniacally.

This, my friends, was some truly beautiful fish.

What a shame that I didn't think to snap a photo before it was cooked. It was about a 3/4 lb steak, all deep red and semi translucent, just barely marbled, firm but ever so slightly soft to the touch, practically glowing with fishy goodness.

For once I really took my time on this meal, being careful to time things correctly so that everything would be done just when the fish was medium-rare and slightly cooled from a brief rest after cooking in the fridge. I kept things simple so that the flavor of the fish would really show through, and paid special attention to things like complimentary textures and temperatures. And my, oh my did it pay off. I don't like to toot my own horn too much, but honestly, to me this rivaled anything I'd ever had at a restaurant. The fish was tender and buttery with a delightfully crisp and crunchy exterior from a generous coating of white and black sesame seeds, and especially flavorful from a brief marinade in soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil and black pepper. Sticky jasmine rice seemed to be the obvious pairing for such perfect fish, and a quick stir fry of simply seasoned, still-crisp veggies rounded out the plate quite nicely. This was a truly special meal, one worth savoring. And a good thing too, because I doubt I'll be shelling out the cash for one of these babies again anytime soon, however much I might like to. :(

Check it out, I finally got a tripod and set up my light box at home, and I really think my photos are coming out much better now. I still have to get the lighting and backdrop right, but at least they aren't blurry and washed out anymore!

Sesame-crusted Tuna Steak with Jasmine Rice and Vegetable Stir Fry

Tuna of this high quality really should never be cooked above medium rare, and rare is really preferable. Cooking it all the way through would completely ruin the nuance of flavor and velvety texture of the fish in its raw state. Honestly, I only cooked it at all because although I enjoy raw tuna as sushi or sashimi, I can rarely eat much of it, and I just loved the contrast of crisp, cooked exterior to meltingly soft interior. Best of both worlds, if you ask me. But please, if you can't handle raw fish, give this dish a pass, because I can pretty much guarantee that you won't like it cooked well-done, either. Stick to tuna salad, in that case.

1 sushi-grade tuna loin steak, about 1 inch thick and about 3/4-1lb in weight
marinade: 1/2 cup soy sauce, 2 tbsp mirin, 1 tbsp sesame oil, 1 tsp honey, 1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup each black and white sesame seeds
2 tbsp vegetable oil (we use safflower)

Combine the marinade ingredients in a shallow bowl, whisking gently with a fork to ensure that the honey dissolves and everything combines evenly. Place the tuna steak in the bowl and turn over a couple of times to coat all sides in the marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand no longer than 30 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Remove the fish from the marinade and gently pat dry with a paper towel. Combine the white and black sesame seeds on a large plate. Lay the fish on the plate and press gently into the seeds, then flip to cover the opposite side. Use your hands to carefully press the seeds onto the fish to ensure they will stick. Transfer to a clean plate and set aside while you prepare to cook.

Heat a cast iron or other heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat until a drop of water dances across the surface and evaporates rapidly. Add the vegetable oil and let stand for just a few seconds to heat, then very carefully add the fish (watch out, it'll sizzle pretty aggressively and some of the seeds may pop). Cook without moving in the pan for approximately 3 minutes. Keep your eye on the sides of the steak: when you see the flesh of the fish start to darken and turn an opaque brownish-grey about 1/4 inch from the bottom, its time to flip. Carefully slide a thin spatula beneath the flesh and flip, using your fingers to help stabilize it. Cook for another 2-3 minutes or until cooked to the same degree as the first side - again, watch the sides of the steak to determine how far its cooked. You want the majority of the steak to remain red and uncooked in the middle.

At this point you should remove the fish to a plate (you can use the same one as before, it wont hurt anything) and place in the fridge or even the freezer to stop it from continuing to cook from residual heat. Let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.

To serve, slice the steak into 1/4 inch thick slices with a very sharp knife (if you're eating with chopsticks) or simply divide the steak into two even portions (if you prefer a knife and fork - trust me though, go for the chopsticks. Its infinitely more fun and satisfying.). Serve over cooked jasmine rice (plain or seasoned with rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and/or sesame seeds/oil) with a crisp vegetable stir fry as accompaniment (we chose a mix of julienned broccoli stems, green bell peppers, baby carrots, onions, and sugar snap peas) and garnish with a drizzle of soy and a scattering of fresh-chopped scallions.

(For an extra treat, nibble on a handful of Wasabi-Soy Roasted Almonds for a highly addictive and tongue-tingling pre-dinner nosh! Peanut-free nuts FTW!)

Lessons Learned

I've been a little absent from the blogosphere this week. I'm sorry. Its way too early in the game here at "Table for Two?" for me to disappear for 6 days straight, and I apologize. I'll try not to let it happen again but, well, you know how it is. Life gets in the way sometimes.

That being said, there are a couple of legitimate reasons for my neglect. The first is that the Olympics started last Friday, and I've been watching them just about every night. I've been looking forward to the games for months, and there's been some really great stuff going on this year (Michael Phelps, anyone?) and I just don't want to miss a minute of it if I can avoid it.

The second is that we naively planned a couple of positively epic meals this week, and when we spend 2-3 hours making dinner after a full day of work, its all I can do to sit in front of the boob tube for an hour or so of Olympics coverage afterwards before passing out for the night.

This week did, however, yield quite a few valuable learning experiences which I'd like to pass on.

Mmmm. Melty Mexican goodness.

Lesson #1
Enchilada sauce, or red chili sauce, is shockingly easy to make at home, and tastes SO much better than the canned, store-bought variety that I've always used. J actually made the sauce this first time around, and although he used Emeril's recipe as a jumping-off point, he changed enough as he went along to render the original probably nearly unrecognizable. The end result? Pretty much what I would consider the perfect enchilada sauce: rich, savory, and tangy, with just a bit of warmth from some dried chilis. Poured under and over whole grain tortillas wrapped around smoked pulled pork and black beans, it yielded what J called "the best enchiladas EVAR" but I'll leave the details for a separate post.

Lesson #2
Cleaning your own squid is an absolutely monstrous job, and not at all pleasant. More importantly, its a hell of an undertaking for a weeknight. I don't think we ate dinner until after 9pm that night, and when you're used to eating dinner closer to 7:30pm, that is a seriously late meal.

I volunteered to do the squid-cleaning first, and I have to admit that my knee-jerk revulsion to handling shellfish innards (and having my fingers anywhere near a dead creatures eyes) lessened significantly after the first 2 or 3. I managed to get through about 8 before deciding I'd had enough, and passing the torch to J to finish up. Of course that meant he ended up doing almost twice as many as I did (the package we bought had a shockingly large number of whole squid in it) but he was graciously silent about the clearly unfair division of labor. I think I owe him a 6-pack or something for that.

We cleaned out all the bodies (or tubes) so that we could stuff them with a mixture of veggies and breadcrumbs, then bake them in a basic tomato sauce. The tentacles ended up getting discarded because, frankly, they just didn't look that good after being frozen and thawed. But of course, what you really want to know is, was it worth it?

No. Not at all. Never mind the fact that the plate of food up there will never win any beauty awards. It just didn't taste that good. The sauce and the stuffing, taken individually, were delicious. And being that we based it on one of Mario Batali's recipes, I'm not surprised. But the squid itself? Meh. Not impressed. I do think it was cooked just about right, as the finished product had a texture somewhat like al dente pasta. However, I'm used to squid being relatively non-fishy, and this was definitely fishy. I'm not sure if that's because it had been frozen whole and then thawed, or if we just didn't do a thorough-enough job of cleaning it (I suspect the latter, because some pieces were significantly more fishy than others) but quite frankly, I couldn't finish it. It was dsappointing, to say the least, and not something we'll be repeating anytime soon.

Now we've got a bag of about a dozen squid tubes in the freezer that we'll need to use up, though. I'm thinking we'll probably just fry them up at some point. Not anytime soon - I've got some mental scarring from this first fresh-squid encounter that needs to heal before I even look at it again - but eventually.

Lesson 3
Those little mini-springform pans I bought on my birthday are every bit as awesome as I expected them to be. I used them this week to make these delicious single-serving broccoli quiches, and they were really the perfect size for dinner when paired with some sauteed snow peas. The quiches rose in the oven and then held their form perfectly when removed from the pans, and were just perfectly cooked. I can't wait to find more uses for them.

Lesson 4
Sometimes, just sometimes, you want something simple. Something comforting. Something that fills your belly and warms your soul without breaking the bank. Something like... franks and beans. Or as J calls them, beanie weenies (*gigglesnort*). However, just because you're making a dish that your father made for you for dinner in grade school, doesn't mean you can't make it spectacular. We had this deceptively simple meal one night this week and made it amazing by making the baked beans from scratch, using dry beans that were soaked overnight and then cooked for a looooong time (over 12 hours) in the crock pot while we were at work. As a pleasant counterpoint to the squid fiasco, this made for a quick and easy dinner once we got home - all we had to do was crisp up the hot dogs a bit and then toast a couple of hot dog rolls in the rendered fat to have a supremely satisfying and surprisingly delicious dinner.

You know you want some of this. C'mon, don't try to hide it.

Even more surprising is that this particular dish was really not that bad for you - if you skip the bread-toasted-in-hot-dog-fat part, the franks and beans themselves have no added fat (helped along by that pre-cooking step with the dogs). There's a fair amount of sugar though, so diabetics may want to keep away from this sort of dish. The rest of you? Go get some beans soaking. Because I can guarantee there'll be a day this week when you won't want to cook, and this bowl of hot, hearty goodness is sure to soothe you after even the most difficult day.

Lesson 5
I still can't make fried rice. I tried my hand at a thai-style vegetarian fried rice on Thursday, and although it was basically ok, it just wasn't quite right. I'm pretty sure I overcooked the rice the night before, so it was a little too sticky and mushy when I tried to stir fry it, and fried rice just shouldn't be mushy, ever. I also think I used too much fish sauce in the seasoning, because the flavor was just a bit too prominent for me to really enjoy the dish. The basic premise was good, and the bites that got a piece of fresh tomato or pineapple were really delicious, but I couldn't quite finish my serving. J loved it, which I'm glad of, but I just know I could make it better if I could just get the rice part of it right.

Lesson 6
Rabbit is delicious. Also, "deconstructed" dishes are a ton of fun. But, I'll leave those details for my next post.

Bonus Lesson:
My photography SUCKS. Its virtually impossible to take decent photos in this dim-as-hell basement apartment. Normally I enjoy the gentle lighting we've got going on down here, but its not at all conducive to taking attractive photos of our dinners. I've really gotta work on that lightbox...