The view from our porch
This is what the world looks like from our front porch at sunset.
I’m just playing with the camera, so forgive the random posting. 
Not up to much lately
Sean and I have been really busy lately… beer fests… work…visitors…etc. So I haven’t made any time for the blog lately, but I should. I live in a beautiful place, summer is almost here, and I have things to say and pictures to post. Also, I might be starting a new job soon, which means my weekends would be free for project cooking. My favorite.
So for now, check out the bagels I’ve been making on my days off.
Salt Bagels
They were delicious with curried chicken salad. Roast chicken breasts. Shred. Mix up with diced red onion, diced celery, chopped almonds, chopped dried cranberries, a small glob of mayo, salt, pepper, curry powder and cilantro. That was a good lunch.
A tasty lunch.
Also, there was a hot air balloon flying over the vineyards the other morning. It pretty much rocks to live here.
Hot air balloon over the vineyards. This is the view from our front porch.
Pictures of the enchilada sauce
Sean let me borrow his camera.
I also took a picture of our little window garden:
How cute are those little guys?
Enchiladas
I have the afternoon off, but I do have to go into work at 5:00. Weird…I know.
So I’m spending the afternoon experimenting in the kitchen. Sean made a pork roast yesterday for dinner, so I’m going to make enchiladas for dinner tonight.
I don’t have a good red sauce recipe, so I’m making it up as I go along.
Starting with what I have on hand:
2 dried pasilla chiles
4 dried guajillo chiles
2 chiles de arbol
2 New Mexico chiles
Tear the stems and seeds out, and toast them on the stove until fragrant.
It took about two minutes to toast the chiles.
Next I’m going to soak them in boiling water for twenty minutes to rehydrate them.
In the meantime I found half of a red onion in the fridge. I chopped that up, along with three cloves of garlic. I’m going to saute the onions until soft, then add the garlic.
I sauteed the onion for about twenty minutes. I added the garlic, two big pinches of Mexican oregano, one large pinch of cumin and one pinch of coriander. Then I added two heaping tablespoons of flour. I’m going to cook it for a couple of minutes so the flour doesn’t taste raw.
Next I added a can of tomato sauce (because that was what we had on hand,) two cups of chicken broth, the chiles, and then I got out the hand blender. This turned out to be a terrible idea, judging from the chile splatters on my walls and clothing. The sauce looked a little thick, so I added some of the chile soaking liquid. I’m going to let it cook for about twenty minutes to see how it tastes. It smells pretty damn good so far.
It’s missing something. I’m not quite sure what though. I think maybe I used too much tomato sauce, but it will be alright.
I would take a picture, but it seems my camera died during our move. That’s disappointing.
Spam Musubi
Hangover helpers.
Look, I’m fully aware that I just put up a post about all the healthy shit that inhabits our kitchen, mudroom and basement, so it may seem odd that my next post is about preservative-laden, meat-ish product Spam.
What I failed to mention in that last post is that our vice of choice isn’t really bacon, or candy, or even ice cream, but it’s beer, and wine. We live in a lovely little area on the Central Coast that produces incredible wine, and some of the world’s best beer. And, sometimes we overindulge. And sometimes the only cure to a long, lazy Sunday of wine tasting, beer tasting, cheese tasting, sherry vinegar finding(!!) and bike riding is junk food.
Hence, a breakfast of Spam Musubi. Deliciousness in a portable package.
The only way this would look better, would be if it were in my belly.
Just make some sticky rice in your rice cooker, fry some Spam in a pan and add a little sugar and soy sauce at the end. Cut your nori sheets in half, and press some rice into your musubi maker that your favorite brother’s girlfriend gave you for Christmas. Sprinkle in some furikake, lay on the Spam, more furikake, more rice and roll. And nom.
Dip in Sriracha and don't overthink it.
I served it with sliced avocado in sherry vinegar. Mmmmm. The sherry vinegar is just as delicious as I imagined. It will be appearing here on the blog soon.
