Suburban Homestead

Happy Halloween!

What an exhausting day and it isn't even lunch time yet!  I just got back from the big kid's class party and costume parade.  My contribution -- skeleton gingerbread men, animals and dinosaurs!

I've been wanting to try these for years, ever since I first saw them over at ohdeedoh.com

Here are the kids on Saturday, before heading out to the mall.  I shared this photo of Mr. Noodles in his chicken costume with our sitter... who then showed it to her friend... who just happens to have the adult version of the EXACT SAME CHICKEN COSTUME!!!  She sent it over to our house in case I would want to wear it. Um -- let me think abo---  YETH PWEZZZ!!!  (more photos to come :)

Yugoslavian Finger Squash

I came across this goofy looking squash at the grocery story recently.  It was labeled *Finger Squash*, which seemed so perfectly appropriate for a pre-Halloween dinner!

So I brought one home and cooked it up for dinner alongside a butternut squash. I baked both with just a little olive oil, salt and pepper.  The Yugoslavian Finger Squash was pretty bland, especially next to the butternut.  But if nothing else, it's just a really fun looking vegetable.  I love the way each *finger* sticks out on each wedge.

Even though the flavor isn't one to rave about, I saved some seeds for next years garden.  This squash is too much of a conversation piece not to grow.

'Orangelo' Watermelon

I'm happy ecstatic to report that I spoke too soon when I complained about our heirloom watermelons being tasteless.  Please forgive - I'm such a novice when it comes to growing my own food...especially watermelon, which I'd never attempted before.

After our recent hot spell (aka: Indian Summer) all our giant melons seemed to get the required heat they needed, and they sweetened up perfectly.  Almost overnight, we had a huge crop of ready-to-eat Orangelo and White Wonder watermelon - albeit in the middle of OCTOBER!

So we got juicing!  Instead of completely de-seeding each fruit, and quickly juicing it in the electric juicer, I hand cranked it, seeds and all, through the Squeezo.  It worked pretty well, but because of the large size of the seeds, they did tend to get jammed under the screen, requiring an occasional clean out.

I was surprised though that the watermelon juice did not taste nearly as sweet as the whole fruit did.  But the kids didn't seem to notice.

(An Almost) Wordless Wednesday

 

2006  A Chicken!

2007  A Cowboy + An Octopus

Model Apartment: Before + After

Last week, I headed out to Denver, Colorado for a quick trip to visit this project which I've been working on for several months.  I met with the landscaper, who is almost finished with the exterior improvements, but the bulk of my time was spent remodeling the model apartment (!!!) as well as having it professionally photographed.  All of it was exhausting, but great, great fun!

Spiderweb Cookies!

I have been making Martha Stewart's Halloween Pumpkin Spice Cookies for years now. YEARS!  I'm not sure why she mentions pumpkin in the name, there isn't any in them. Possibly because she recommends you decorate them as such. I tried that once, and failed miserably. It appeared to be a near impossible task, one only achievable if you have no kids, no friends, no job and endless hours on your hands to fine-tune the consistency and colors of Royal Icing to *just right*.

Nuf said.

I usually just make the icing, divide it up and color it with various Fall colors.  Like this batch which I made last Thanksgiving.  But this morning, I decided to try my hands at spiderwebs.

How cute are these?!?

This recipe makes a ton of cookies.  So this time, after rolling the dough into four logs, I refrigerated two of them, and froze the other two for Thanksgiving time.  Then I made a half batch of Royal Icing.  We still have too many cookies, about 24.  But we are going to dinner at a friends house tonight and will bring some over to share.

This day last year: "The Accidental Genius"

My Newest Melamine Tray

When I was at IKEA last week, in search of a an affordable train table, I came across a giant stack of these beautiful melamine trays. They are very Charlie Harper, don't you think?  At just $6.99, I picked up two, one for the kids to use in their coming-soon-art-and-craft-room, and one for me, to add to my growing melamine tray collection.

Wordless Wednesday

This day last year: Red. Plum. Tomatoes.

 

Best Tuna Tartare

Think about the best Tuna Tartar you have ever sunk your teeth into.  Now imagine having the secret recipe and enjoying it in your own home.

(Knock-knock) 

Hey Ina Garten!  Thanks so much for coming over tonight!!

This stuff is as good as it gets.  It's one of those recipes where it's just too good tasting, and too complex looking, to feel like it could be homemade. But it is, and you can make it in like, thirty minutes.

A great appetizer for a party of 6-8, or serve it atop mixed greens tossed in an Asian vinaigrette, for two.  That's what I did last night, dressing up the salad with sesame seaweed crackers.  It was the perfect dish to enjoy on an Indian Summer night.

Here's the catch:  The recipe I've always followed, that offers the quantities mentioned above, is only available in her Barefoot Contessa Family Style cookbook.  For some reason it, this version is not available with her other recipes on the Food Network's website and I'm not about to print it and go to jail for copyright infringement.  (My kids need me.)  So I will tell you to go out and get her book - it's an absolute classic - or go here and get the same recipe, but for 50 servings. You'll be glad you did!

Dragon Fruit

Have you ever heard of it?!  Before yesterday, I had not.

I saw a small stack of them at Mollie Stone's and thought, What the heck, let's get exploring!

After doing a little online research, the kids and I learned that this beautiful, exotic cactus fruit is imported from warmer climates like Southeast Asia, Mexico, Central + South America and Isreal.  We also learned that ours was perfectly ripe (not blotchy, and a little bit soft to the touch) and ready for eating.

It sliced open easily to reveal the most beautiful shade of fuchsia speckled with tiny black seeds. (These pictures do not do it justice.)  I diced it up like I would an avocado and returned it to its shell for eating.  It had the consistency and texture of a kiwi, with the flavor of a fig!

The big boy was so excited to share our discovery that we gently packaged up the second half of the fruit and sent it off to school in his backpack for show and tell.  Too cute!

A Beautiful Train Table

Even though I value wide open spaces, free of kids toys, I have secretly always wanted a train table. Behemoth as they may be, a train table can entrance any child for hours upon hours. The only problem was, I could never bring myself to spent hundreds of dollars on something as unattractive as this.  The only train table I've loved, cost almost $1000 (and can be viewed here).

Then I had an idea - what about taking one of those great LACK coffee tables from IKEA and turning it into a train table?

$40 later, we had a beautiful one that I was happy to share our living space with.

Fruits, Vegetables and OCD

I once read that it can be extra challenging to rehabilitate a *domestic clean freak* of their OCD, because it’s so easy for one to justify their behavior.  Unlike other habits that can be argued to be "not necessary", or "disruptive to others", one's need to clean can easily be justified as a win-win for everyone. What the heck do you care if I clean all day – look how great and germ-free our house looks!

I’m kind of feeling it might go the same way when growing ones own food.  I mean, if you grow your own food and have OCD about it.  Like someone we might know…

Who me?!

It’s fig season and I’m obsessing again.  Our newest Kadota only produced a few fruits this year, but right now, our six-year-old Black Mission Fig is giving us buckets everyday. I just can’t stand the thought of any figs going to waste but because I haven’t found the time yet to kill six pounds of them with some jam, I’ve had to get quick and crafty.

Here’s is my figgy week in review:

Monday:  Fig puree – why not!?  I made tons and packaged them into 1 cup containers to use at a future date for these muffins.  I also I quartered a bunch and froze them for smoothies.  I think they’ll be great blended with peaches, dry rolled oats, milk (and a couple kale leaves ;)

Tuesday:  12 beautiful ripe figs to my MIL and a Fig Almond Tart

Wednesday:  3 recycled clamshell fruit containers, filled, and frisbee’d out to fig lovers in the neighborhood

Thursday:  I’m out of town but schedule a friend to come over and take what she can.

Friday:  Still out of town! :(

Saturday:  A *light dinner* of figs and goat cheese, wrapped in prosciutto.

Sunday:  Family for dinner, figs and goat cheese, wrapped in prosciutto for appetizers.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get on that family dinner!

Fig Almond Tart

This, my friends, is one for the history books...

...at least, the ones on figs, that is.

See, I am very, very picky about my fig recipes.  I want to love them all, but I rarely find one that I can.  Last years caramelized fig ice cream did not *live up*, and 2009's fig pie turned out to be nothing more than two pounds of dead weight at the bottom of my garbage can. (That was before chickens, of course.)

Set me up with figs topped with goat cheese and wrapped in prosciutto, and I'm good, top to bottom. Start adding them to my baked goods, and that's when I'm going to have to ask that we sit down and talk things out.

And yet I experiment, every year.

So I did not have high hopes for Bon Appetit's Fig-Almond Tart, a recipe printed at the request of a reader, wanting the secret to their favorite dessert from Marinus Restaurant in Carmel, CA.

But man-o-man, was I happily surprised!  You really can't go wrong with figs when you dress them up with 3x's their weight in butter, eggs and almonds. And the crust - THE CRUST!! Tasted just like my great grandmothers shortbread...

We ate ours for dessert, but this would be great for breakfast as well. Its flavors are ideal for Fall, Thanksgiving and the Holidays.  I'm going to have to experiment with making this tart using figs frozen from this months backyard harvest.

Here is the recipe as found in Bon Appetit Magazine's July 2011 issue, with my notes:

 

Fig-Almond Tart

Ingredients:

Crust

• 1 large egg yolk (I accidentally used one small egg - yolk and white - and it was fine)
• 1 tbsp. heavy cream (I just used 1/2+1/2, and it was fine)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose for plus more
• 6 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, diced plus more

Filling

• 3/4 cup half-and-half
• 1/4 cup plus 2/3 cup sugar, divided
• 3 large eggs (our girls lay *medium* eggs, and they are fine)
• 1 tbsp. all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cup (scant) slivered almonds (I only had whole almond so I pounded them first)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 12 oz. fresh mission figs (about 12 medium), stemmed, quartered

Special Equipment: Use a 10″ – diameter tart pan with a removable bottom is ideal. If you don't have this, get creative. :)

Directions:

Crust

Whisk egg yolk and cream in a small bowl.  Mix 1-1/2 cups flour, sugar, and salt in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  Add 1 cup butter: mix on low speed until coarse meal forms. Add egg mixture.  Blend just until moist clumps form.  Gather into a ball, flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill for 1 hour.

Butter tart pan.  Roll out dough to 13″ round on a lightly floured surface.  (I found I need A LOT of flour on the counter and on top of my dough to get this done. The dough is very *wet* but the upside is this crust will taste like shortbread!)  Transfer to pan.  Press onto bottom and up sides.  Trim excess dough.  Chill 30 minutes.

Filling

Bring half-and-half to a simmer in a small saucepan.  Whisk 1/4 cup sugar, 1 egg, and flour in a small bowl.  Gradually whisk in half-and-half.  Return to sacuepan.  Whisk constantly over medium heat until mixture thicken and boils, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl.  Stir in vanilla.  Set over a bowl of ice water; stir pastry cream until cold.  Remove from ice bath; set aside.

Finely grind almonds with1/3 cup sugar in a food processor (do not grind to a paste).  Using an electric mixer,  beat butter and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a large bowl until smooth.  Add 2 eggs, 1 at a time, beating well between additions.  Gradually beat in almond mixture, then 1/2 cup reserved pastry cream (reserve remaining cream for another use).  Cover; chill until firm, about 4 hours. 

Preheat oven to 375*. Spread filling over crust.  Arrange figs, cut side up, in concentric circles over filling.  Place tart on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until filling in center is golden and set. Bon Appetit says this is about 1 hour 15 minutes, BUT mine was fully baked in just 40 minutes so be careful with cook time. 

Let tart cool completely in a pan on a wire rack.  Serve at room temperature plain or dressed up with a dollop of whipped cream or, better yet, some lemon curd.

Mind Your Manners

Not too long ago, some friends of ours were moaning and groaning over the fact that their kids were almost out of the house, and that they hadn't really started teaching table manners yet.  (OK, there was obviously some hearty laughter in our conversation as well.)  They acknowledged that they'd focused their time on just getting food into their kids mouths (and keeping it there), and that they'd turned a sleepy eye when it came to everything else meal-related.

Huh. I thought. Table manners? Do I even know what those are?

It really hadn't occurred to me that I might need to give my kids a head start in the manners area. Wasn't it enough, I wondered, that my kids eat a fairly varied diet? Must I really address their feet being on the table as well?

So when I noticed a class called Youth Good Manners and Dining Etiquette being offered through our local recreation department, I thought - No worries!  I'm just going to source this part of my parenting responsibilities out to an expert.

When the evening of the class arrived, I told the seven year old to change into something "more presentable". I wasn't shooting for the moon.  I was just aiming for *fresh*.  And so I told him to get out of his shorts and jersey, and into clean jeans and a new, long-sleeve t-shirt.

He wouldn't have any of it.  His anger towards me boiled up like a hot-water bath ready for some jam jars. The impending class, the request for clean clothing - it was all too much.  He unleashed his rage:

"I-WANT-to-WEAR-my-black-CORDS-with-a-button-DOWN-SHIRT!"

Ummm. OK. If you want to dress better than I'm asking you to, go ahead.  Feel free to look your best!

So off he went (looking fabulous, I might add) into a big, classy restaurant at dinner time.  Little did he know he was about to learn the ways of well-behaved children everywhere, and that he would love every minute of it!

"What did you learn?" I asked him when he was done.

"I don't remember...but I really liked it.  Can I do it again?"

(Cue the screeching car brakes)

I know, I know!  I'm still processing the whole event myself.  It was definitely one of those proud parent moments, never to be forgotten.

I got right on it and signed us both up for a parent/child seminar that was held just three days later, or, this morning.  We drove into the city,  gathered in the banquet room of a nice hotel off Union Square and learned the basics with a small group of mothers and kids.

I was amazed at how little I knew about table manners learned so much!

Here I was thinking it was enough to just be a nice person, that as long as I just did that and remembered to floss once a day, I was ahead of the curve.  But no, apparently, it helps to know how to eat soup properly... and when to put your napkin in your lap, and how to eat your dessert with both a spoon AND a fork, every time.

Amazing stuff!

I made a promise to myself that I'd continue to send my kids to these classes annually. Good table manners are such an advantage in today's world.

I, myself, promise to pick-up a copy of this:

...because that's what it's there for, reading!

To learn more about this great opportunity to ship your kids off to a night of finishing school, or to take a seminar with them, visit:

www.advancedetiquette.com

Now if you'll excuse me....

Wordless Wednesday

Vegetable Tarte Tatine

Last year, I made an incredible vegetable tarte tatine, and served it up with a favorite mustard and honey glazed pork chop. This weekend, I made it all again, only this time, I supplemented garden-fresh carrots for potatoes, and used a mixture of colorful sweet potatoes. It was still delicious, but oh, SO much *prettier* than the first one!

I couldn't help but share.  This is a relatively easy dish to make, not to mention, it serves 8 with a big, bright punch!

The whole time I was making it, the colors and shapes of the vegetables kept reminding me of this post from last Thanksgiving.

Lunch at the Japanese Tea Garden

After the Picasso exhibit on Friday, we walked next door to the Japanese Tea Garden for lunch.  It had been a long, long time since our last visit.  Here we are in 2007:

...and here we are in 2011:

When it comes to ethnic foods, I really don't care how much fat or sugar is in any one dish.  As long as my kids are willing to eat something that looks TOTALLY different than what we eat every other day of the week, I'm happy.  Some of my proudest parenting moments have come while watching my kids nosh down things like fried fish butts or raw, dark greens. (pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat...)

These noodles were not even that great. They had a heavy, fishy taste to them that I personally did not care for.  But he slurped them down and so I said, "Good call, Sweetie."

If you haven't seen the Ramune soda from Japan, you are missing out!  Our cousins taught us all about them recently while we dined on sushi together. They are a carbonated soft drink that the kids love due to their unique packaging. To *activate* your drink, you must puncture the top of your glass bottle in order to release a glass marble down into the soda which then activates the carbonation.  So gimmicky, so clever, so completely irresistible!

Go ahead, take a big, teethy bite out of that green tea mochi!

After lunch, and a bit of running around the gardens, we crossed the street and visited another set of gardens - the botanical ones.

Silly little Miss under one of my favorites - Angel's Trumpet.

Happy, happy day!

Picasso Exhibit with Kids

The little man had Thursday and Friday off school. So I pulled his sister out of pre-school, and treated them to a special day in the city. First stop, the Picasso exhibit and the de Young.

I feel very fortunate to live so close to San Francisco, and all the culture it has to offer.  I try to expose my kids to as much as I can (within reason).  I rarely invest in things like audio headsets (too much work, sensory overload for little brains) but instead, spend a little in the gift shop, treating the kids to something they can take home and remember their experience by, like a book, or in Picasso's case, a postcard to hang in their rooms.

These sorts of exhibits can be tricky.  The kids may think they want to go, but upon arrival into this exhibit, everything appeared to be turning South, rapidly.  My quick save went like this: "If I hear anymore fussing before we are out of here, we will not be visiting the Japanese Tea Garden as requested. K? All right, now everyone pick your favorite picture in this room and tell my why you like it the best!"  And from there, our time at Picasso became a series of games  - "I see a chicken! Who can find a chicken in this room?" "Try to find a picture that you think would be easiest to recreate and home and tell me how you'd do it." "Show me an example of one of Picasso's abstracts and tell me if you can figure out what any of the shapes represent." 

But the best lesson of the day came with the story of Picasso himself, and how he chose a path different from everyone else, how he was told his contributions were worthless and how he persevered regardless of what people said.  "Because everyone is different and unique and every one of us has something wonderful to contribute to this world. Got that?!?"

The kids ended up having fun (I'm pretty sure) and I'm certain they learned a itsy-bitsy-tiny-wini bit about Pablo Picasso and what it means to just be proud of the person you were born to be. After that, it was off to the Japanese Tea Garden for lunch!