In my family, almost every birthday is celebrated with carne asada. It’s the meal everyone asks for. 

On the day of the party, my brother, Enrique, heads to the Albertsons meat department and gets the butcher to slice the carne asada meat as thinly as possible. Then, he goes to Top Foods (if we don’t have home-grown produce) to get tomatoes, onions, cilantro, avocados and limes. The last stop before the party is for fresh tortillas from Food Pavilion. Add a slice of cake and a scoop of ice cream, and the perfect birthday party is set.

Yesterday was my dad’s birthday. In addition to the carne asada, I made Mexican-style rice and fried up that huitlacoche from yesterday’s trip to the farmers market. When he got to the house, Enrique was thrilled to see the corn fungus. He started telling me how he used to eat the stuff all the time when he was a kid in Mexico. The two of us tried to get everyone else in the house to eat it, but there were no takers. All the more for us.

About a half-hour before we planned to eat, Enrique, Brian and I started salting the carne (also known as charrne at my house. Long story.). It was probably the thinnest carne asada we’ve had in a long time. Grilling it wasn’t so easy. Tongs were of no use. Instead, we had to use a grilling spatula. The paper-thin meat was perfect. In our family, the thinner the better. If it’s cut too thick, it can get tough.

My niece, Mimi, happily ate her 1/2 cup of guacamole and side of rice — she really likes avocados — and my nephew, Quique, happily ate a piece of carne.

I think it’s safe to say that we all had a really nice time.  

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Earlier this morning, I walked down to the farmers’ market to take pictures for an online photo gallery each of us reporters does once every few weeks. I was hoping to find lots of people and other interesting things. Boy did today’s market deliver.

Huge dahlias, mounds of colorful carrots, truckloads of melons, happy faces and lots of sun made the trip more than worth it. I found plenty of eggplants, just weeks after lamenting their absence here. I bought a really cool melon and subsequently forgot the name. I got one beautiful large dahlia to make my desk pretty. And, best of all, I was given fresh huitlacoche.

There, decorating a truck loaded with melons, were ears of corn with fresh huitlacoche sticking out the ends. As I eagerly approached the truck, Lou from Moses Lake, who was selling the melons, greeted me with “You know huitlacoche?” A short discussion ensued after I explained how I had eaten it a few years ago in Oaxaca. The two of us, along with produce vendor Amado Becerra from Quincy got into a discussion of how to cook the fungus and how few people around here know what it is. As it turns out, Lou wasn’t selling the huitlacoche, he just had it there for the sake of conversation. So, he gave me one for free. He offered more, but since I’m the only one in my family who likes the stuff, I declined, hoping to pass the earthy mushroom-like fungus on to the next food lover.

Huitlacoche, known as corn smut to most corn growers from the U.S. is considered in many places to be a fungal pest. But, in Mexico it’s eaten pretty frequently, and in some places the fungus is considered a gourmet item. You might even be able to find it canned in a really well-stocked Mexican grocery.

I know what I plan to do with mine today. It’s going to get sauteed with a few slices of onion and some butter and made into a nice taco with some fresh corn tortillas. How fun!

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For the last couple of days, there’s been bread on our counter, formerly fantastic bread from the Anjou Bakery, thanks to my friend Kathryn. I say formerly because I had been unable to eat the entire loaf by myself and the bread was quickly going stale. Hoping not to let it go to waste, I decided to make a variation on Italian bread salad. Usually bread salad includes veggies, but I wanted eggs and prosciutto last night.

Inspiration hit. Why not crisp up the prosciutto a little bit, poach an egg and make a fun Mediterranean take on ham and eggs on toast? Letting the bread soak in a bit of my crude dressing made me forget that the bread really was aging. The runny yolk from my poached egg, combined with the dressing to nicely flavor everything. With the lightly crisped prosciutto this quick meal really hit the spot. Although, I did feel like I should have added a vegetable or two.

Recipe

Egg and Prosciutto Bread Salad

About 4 cups cubed French or Italian bread

1/2 cup pitted, torn kalamata olives

1/2 cup diced fresh mozzarella cheese

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

fresh ground black pepper to taste

4 slices prosciutto ham, cut into 2 to 3 inch strips

4 eggs, poached

Drizzle bread cubes with olive oil and red wine vinegar and let it sit until bread has soaked up some of the dressing. Add fresh-ground black pepper to taste, diced fresh mozzarella cheese and kalamata olive pieces. Place ham strips in a pan over medium-high heat until edges begin to crisp. Add to bread mixture. Divide into 4 servings and top each off with a soft poached egg.

Yield: 4 servings

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One of my favorite things to do at Costco is check out the cookbooks. Lately, thought, there’s been a real dearth of books on cooking there. I know — I should say, I hope — that this fall will bring more books, you know, as easy gifts for cookbook lovers like me. I’m aware that this is the lean time for new cookbooks. I guess there’s enough to do in the summer that I shouldn’t notice the lack of food reading material.

It is true, that especially during winter, there’s little activity I love more than curling up in a chair, wrapping myself in a quilt and studying a stack of cookbooks and cooking magazines with my pen, notebook and sticky notes at the ready. Armchair cooking is a lot like armchair traveling. It’s fun to imagine and plan adventures. I have to admit, I really like looking at the pictures in cookbooks, too. I know that most of my food won’t look like the professional, and probably cold, food on those fancy plates, but good photos in cookbooks make my mouth water.

Usually, I buy cookbooks for myself, but when I receive a cookbook as a gift, I always remember the person who gave it to me as I turn the pages. Just about everyone in my family and many close friends have graciously added to my cookbook collection over the years. Often, the books come with a request, a request to share any cooking as a result of the gift.
Even though I have, and use, lots and lots of cookbooks, I don’t think I have a favorite one. There’s no “go-to” cookbook on my bookshelf. And if I were to be asked to recommend a single book, I just don’t know what I’d suggest.

How about you? Do you have any favorite cookbooks?

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Usually, when I watch food videos, they’re about the process of making food or the enjoyment of a food. Although, with the advent of YouTube, I’ve become a fan of food music videos.

Case in point: Remy.

My discovery of Remy was thanks to Serious Eats. Remy makes food music videos including this one on one of my favorite foods, hummus. However, after visiting Remy’s site, I have to say the following video he made is genius. It’s called, Slow Jam. Enjoy.

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Most mornings, and frequently in the afternoon, I buy an iced coffee drink. I usually don’t like homemade coffee. Although everyone in my family drinks coffee daily, we only make it at home when we have company. I think it has something to do with those automatic drip coffee makers we, and everybody else, have. Nescafé is better than that stuff that comes out of the glass carafe.

While in college in Seattle and living with my sister, I often used her espresso machine. I loved getting to botany lab with my homemade mocha and sipping on it as I dissected plants and flowers. When I moved back to Wenatchee, I no longer had the use of her machine. I had to buy the stuff at a store.

Last night, though, I was inspired by Mark Bittman’s blog to make a coffee granita. I had forgotten about it, but we do have something better to use than the 12-cup coffee maker that lounges on the kitchen counter. It’s a Bialetti Moka Express stove-top Italian coffee maker. It’s perfect and takes probably 10 minutes to create strong, smooth coffee. Every time I use that thing, I say to myself that there’s no need to buy prepared coffee.

Anyway, my coffee granita is good, though I didn’t follow his directions to the letter. I cut my Italian coffee with water and just froze the stuff overnight. I don’t suggest doing this if you want to drink it in the morning. But after thawing for a few hours and shaking my Nalgene bottle every half-hour or so, I’ve got to say, this coffee granita thing makes a nice start to the day.

If you’re looking to cut back on expensive prepared coffee drinks, I really do recommend any kind of stove-top espresso/coffee maker. They’re cheap, and fun, too.

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Last night, my friend, Brianne, and I were trying to convince both her husband and my fiance that, yes, there is such a thing as trendy food. And right now, bacon is a popular food trend. Both men were incredulous and laughing at the thought.

But it’s true, bacon has become trendy. Why else would products such as Bacon Salt and chocolate-covered bacon have buyers? Why are there books devoted to this single cut of meat?

In the earlier days of my subscription to Gourmet, there was a section on “what’s in” and “what’s out.” I was always disappointed to see favorites in the “what’s out” category. How could iced coffee be “out”?

A couple of years ago, I was reading how pesto was a fad in the ’80s. I was really, really sad to read that. I love pesto and didn’t discover it until the ’90s. Was I that out of style? I decided, instead, that I was just too cool to care about food fads or food trends.

A few minutes ago, Kathryn Stevens and I were discussing a grilling story. She told me that grilling is a summer trend. It goes in and out of style depending on the season. I have to agree. Rarely have I seen something more written about than grilling during the summer. However, does seasonality qualify as a trend?

I’ve also been pondering about eating locally. Would anyone care about eating locally if it weren’t trendy?

Have you noticed any food trends?

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Usually, when I roast tomatoes, I’m roasting home-grown, vine-ripened tomatoes. They’re always so sweet. When the tomatoes come out of the oven, they are soft and beautiful. The sugars caramelize and give fantastic flavor to everything they come in contact with.

I roasted tomatoes some tomatoes last night. Two of them came from my garden and the rest were leftover grocery store tomatoes from a couple of weeks ago, before my garden started producing. The results weren’t as good as they could have been. However, with the addition of a sprinkling of sugar and a bit more salt, you could have mistaken them for vine-ripened roasted tomatoes.

Instead of using them as an accompaniment for spaghetti, I snatched some couscous. It took about five minutes to prepare the couscous and about 10 minutes to preheat my oven to 400 degree, slice tomatoes, crush some garlic, sprinkle salt and olive oil and slide the pan of tomatoes into the oven. Overall, this dinner was quicker than most I make (unless you count the 45 minutes or so of roasting.)

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On Saturday, my fiance, Brian, and I headed up to Twisp. We don’t really know anyone there, we just like the drive — and the

Vienna Lager at Twisp River Pub. The two of us go to Twisp every couple of months. Usually, we eat dinner at Twisp River Pub. Occasionally, we’ll head to Winthrop and check out the western kitschiness.

Last year, on a Twisp foray, we decided to continue all the way over the North Cascades Highway. It was lots of fun. It’s become a bit of a tradition to stop at Orondo Cider Works as we make the way from Wenatchee. It’s a nice spot to stretch, plus they sell yummy apple cider doughnuts.

When we stop, we buy a couple doughnuts and eat them while making our way to the Methow. Often, they don’t survive the 10 miles to Beebe Bridge.

Anyway, instead of just hanging out in Winthrop and Twisp on Saturday, Brian and I decided to head just over the pass and make a short jaunt to Rainy Lake. The not-quite-mile-long paved trail to the high mountain lake is well worth the half-hour drive from Winthrop. I have a feeling almost anyone can walk the trail.

The drive to Rainy Pass, where the trail begins, is gorgeous. You can stop at Washington Pass overlook (which we forgot to do this time) for one incredible, and possibly scary, view of the North Cascades. Really, those mountains look like a scene from “The Lord of the Rings.”

I think we’re planning on making another trek up there soon. Maybe sooner than normal.

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About a half hour after I got home last night, I fell asleep, well almost. If you had asked me at 5:30 p.m. whether I was planning on cooking something, I would have grunted at you.

However, after a leisurely hour of tea with friends, I returned home and was greeted with blackberries. Lots and lots of blackberries. I guess my mom, brother, nephew and niece picked the berries yesterday afternoon “down by the river.” My mom said they were thinking I might make something from those berries. It’s nice to be thought of.

By 9 p.m. last night I must have caught a second wind. I was thrilled to see the bucket of berries. There are so many fun options with blackberries. However, being as late as it was, I knew I didn’t really have time to make a pie. I also didn’t want to have to follow a recipe. Blackberries make nice jam, but that was out of the question due to the time factor. Blackberries also pair nicely with peaches in pies, tarts and the like. Again, though, I had no time and no peaches. So I landed on the idea of a cobbler.

My cobbler is basically, as are most cobblers, I think, fruit filling topped with biscuits. I used our cast-iron skillet to make it because, well, it looks cool and was on the stove already when I decided to make the dessert.

I did have to look up ratios for flour to baking powder for biscuits, but other than that, I went with what I had on hand and what I remember from making biscuits a month ago or so. I have to admit, the cobbler turned out really well.

Rochelle’s Blackberry Cobbler

For dough batter:
1 1/2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup cream
1/2 cup milk

For filling:
4 cups blackberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons butter, divided

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix dry ingredients for dough. Slowly add milk and cream. Mix until combined.
Mix blackberries, sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon and lemon juice. Heat cast iron skillet or oven-proof pot over medium high. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in pan. Add blackberry mixture to pan and mix, heating until sugar is dissolved. Spoon flour mixture over berry mixture. Dab with chunks of butter and bake at 375 for 30 to 40 minutes, until lightly browned on top.

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