Brown Sugar Shortbread with Lemon Curd and Fig Jam

I've been reading a lot of food blogs lately, especially after my Epic Roasthouse dinner with all the Fabulous Foodies of FoodBuzz, which I still need to post about.  I found a blog of a foodie in Japan which has incredible recipes.  One of my coworkers was leaving to take a new job up in Chico and so I gave him a handful of recipes and told him to pick one for his “parting treat”.  He picked this one.

The cookies and the jam are both super easy to make.  In fact, I couldn’t believe just how easy it was!  For the wine in both the shortbread and the jam I used Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc.  They turned out quite nicely, so nicely in fact, that I made a batch Monday night and a batch Tuesday night. 

Here is the jam reducing on the stovetop.  It was such a gorgeous color.  I didn’t cut the figs into small enough pieces so I had to use my Pampered Chef Chopper in it to get it saucier.  It worked perfectly.  I could have used my immersion blender as well, but it was in the pantry and the chopper was right next to me.

Finished Fig Jam

   

Max, keeping an eye on the cookies while they bake.

Lemon Curd

My good friend Amber made this incredible lemon curd for her wedding cake. (Oh yes, she baked her own cake for her wedding!) On her wedding day, as she was icing her cake, she commented to me that she made too much lemon curd. Me, being ever resourceful, asked what she was going to do with it - especially as she was about to leave on her honeymoon in a few days. Suffice it to say that I finagled the beloved lemon curd and packed it away in my cooler - with a promise that I would blog about it when I was done. So here is one of the ways that I used the curd.

One of our interns at work had taken another job and so I needed to bring a treat in for the office. I decided to make some cupcakes with lemon curd frosting. They were quite popular at work. In fact, in the afternoon of the day that I brought them in, my boss called me into his office. He told me, quite sternly, that he was unhappy with me. I got a little fidgety, thinking "Crap! What did I do?" Then he says, "I ate three cupcakes today." LOL! I guess they were pretty good.

I used some of the curd on a spoon, straight out of the jar. I spread some on pancakes as well. Lemon curd is really delicious and I'll have to learn how to make it. Maybe I can finagle some lemons from my neighbor's tree...

Here is a photo of Amber's wedding cakes and cookies. Much nicer than my little cupcakes!!

Amber & Matt's Wedding

Amber and Matt were married on September 9, 2009 in Oakhurst, CA. It was beautiful and I'm very honored to have had the opportunity to marry two good friends who are so in love.

How does your garden grow?

It's been a while since I last ventured into my garden to harvest any veggies and man, oh man, are there zucchini. There were two ginormous ones that probably should have been picked a week ago. Oops. I'm a haphazard gardener at best. I hope they make good zucchini bread, because I could make about 4 loaves with those whoppers.

I was very excited to see so many lemon cukes coming in and I also have quite a few pickling cukes as well. Good thing we're going through those homemade pickles because I am going to have to make another batch this weekend! Also, my beans are starting to come in nicely. I'll have to find a tasty recipe that includes bacon for those bad boys. And I have a handful of ripened tomatoes as well, with lots of green ones still waiting for that sun.

As you can see, I've got a wild garden. I didn't pull the grass weeds and so they are growing everywhere. I can barely walk in there to harvest my bounty. Anyone want to come over to pull some weeds for me? I'll pay you with dinner....

Bacon Jam Follow Up

Here is a follow up to my previous post on Bacon Jam. I put some Bacon Jam on my cheeseburger tonight. It was delicious, adding a little sweetness coupled with the caramelized onions and the ketchup. Just a little bit of barbecue sauciness and a hint of smokiness. Much better than a bacon jammed piece of bread with avocado and tomato. And the pickles were a nice contrast, tart and crisp!

Pickles and gardening

My garden has been growing nicely and I have had a lot of cucumbers come in, specifically, pickling cucumbers. They're the little ones that are really crunchy and good for making Japanese style pickles as well. My friend gave me his mother's recipe for Dill Pickles and so I made a batch last week. The recipe is super easy and I was able to get everything done within an hour, from cleaning the pickling container to setting wrap over the top to let sit.

The pickles are very crunchy and perfectly tart. I cut them in quarters or halves depending on the size. I figured that would help them cure quicker and then I would be able to eat them sooner. The recipe basically consists of cucumbers, vinegar, water, pickling spice, garlic, dill, and salt. You put them all in a container and a week later they are pickles.

The recipe said to put them into glass jars, but I didn't want 3-5 glass jars hogging up precious space in my refrigerator. So I went to Target and got a gallon plastic container with a locking lid. It was only about $6 - a real deal! I'm sure it will smell like pickles from here to eternity, but I figure if I just keep making pickles in it, who cares?

These are some of the cukes from my garden - the pickling cukes and a lemon cucumber, my first so far. It was delicious in a salad. I have a couple more growing but they are still too little to eat. I also have about 15 watermelons growing and a couple of zucchini are starting to grow as well. My beans are finally starting to come in and I have a bunch of green tomatoes. Unfortunately, I don't think it's been hot enough for them to ripen. I might have to make some fried green tomatoes though because I don't want them to go bad. My potatoes are also all over the place and I think I need to thin them out and harvest some. I have no idea when they're ready though, so that will definitely be a learning experience! I'll post some photos of my garden later this month. I'm SO excited for the watermelon!

Bacon Jam

Well, here it is. The Bacon Jam. And the name says it all. It's bacony and jammy. To be honest, I was a little afraid when I opened the box from Fedex. For the Bacon Jam looked a little like potted meat in the clear plastic container. It looked a little fatty and a little potted and I was afraid. I brought it home and contemplated just leaving it sit for a while but then I decided I needed to open it right up and give it a shot. So that's what I did. I took a little spoonful and I ate it.

The Jam is smoky and a little sweet, kind of like the sweetness from caramelized onions. The bacon flavor is not as powerful as I expected. In fact, when I told some people that I was hoping to spread it on a BLT, they thought that it would be too much bacon. HA! First, I scoff at the notion that you can have too much bacon. It's simply not possible. Second, I thought the crunchiness of the bacon would enhance the jamminess of the bacon jam. I'll have to try it this weekend.

I put the bacon jam on some toasted sourdough bread from Boudin, along with a few slivers of avocado and some tomatoes from my garden. It was tasty. I think the heat of the toast helped bring the bacon jam a little bit more warmth and the thought of coagulated bacon fat fled from my mind as I contemplated my first bite. The jam is very smoky, with that little tinge of sweetness. Jalapenos would probably be nice with it, giving a little more heat and a bigger kick.

Once Aaron gets home I will make a little up and see what he thinks.

Catch up

It's time to catch up...

It's been several months since my last post and although I've thought about all the things I should be writing about I have failed in my execution. I've got a ton of photos that need to be uploaded of meals, fun times and various things that I want to write about and I am determined to get back on track. So as a precursor, I offer this...

A sample of my weekday of late:

5:00 am: alarm goes off
5:30 am: get out of bed and get ready for work
6:00 am: grab my coffee and head out the door - in the car today since it's going to be a long one
6:50 am: arrive at work and roll up my sleeves
11:00 am: stop working and head over to the farmer's market at the Ferry Building to pick up some fruit for the office, some salad stuff for my lunch this week and some bread at Boudin for dinner tonight
11:35 am: back at work and in front of the computer
12:20 pm: 10 minute break to reheat my dinner from last night - korean bbq beef, steamed rice and broccoli
3:30 pm: 5 minute break to see what the girls on the other side of the office are doing
6:55 pm: leave work and head back to the car for the drive home
7:50 pm: arrive at home and give the hubby a kiss and the bread while he's making dinner: spaghetti!
8:00 pm: grab the last of the Hall wine, drink, savor, shower and get in my comfy clothes
8:15 pm: head back upstairs, plate up some spaghetti and head back down into the basement with my man and my dog to eat and watch America's Got Talent
9:00 pm: go upstairs, put away the leftovers, do the dishes and pour another glass of wine, this time a Rosenblum Syrah
9:15 pm: turn off the fan and the lights, lock up the upstairs and head back into the basement.
9:16 pm: look for the dog, head back upstairs and let him in.
9:17 pm: head back downstairs, login to the computer and check email. Finally update my blog, albeit without photos or anything truly interesting.

So that's where we are. It's about 9:30 pm, I've still got 1/2 my glass of wine and I'm going to make a To Do list, Facebook, finish my glass of wine and get ready for bed. Just another day in my life.

South Bay Run Team - Wing Champion 2009!

That's right, I am the 2009 Champion. This past weekend I beat the other 5 people who were competing to be the fastest wing eater from the South Bay Run Team of Team in Training. This was a fundraiser for the team, with each contestant asking for pledges per wing. I wasn't going to do this fundraiser but I decided since I was a little behind in my fundraising that I would just go for it. I received pledges from 10 people totaling $11 per wing. I was hoping to manage to eat 20 wings in the 1o minute time limit, after doing some research on the web. I also figured that if I could eat 3 pieces of pizza and 4 wings for dinner that I could probably manage to eat at least 20 wings.

The Community Captain for the team, Brian (the Killer Bee) put me in the competitive heat. He told me that his goal was to eat 1 more wing than I could. I had done some research as well about the best method for eating wings quickly. There are several nice videos from Cluckbucket that detail different methods. I decided to go for "The Grenade" technique, minus tossing the wing after pulling the pin. This method served me well as I was able to eat 29 wings in 10 minutes. Really, I blew away the competition as the 2nd and 3rd place winners both had 25 wings.

As you can see, it wasn't pretty. But I was focused. People were cheering us all on, taunting the two guys who were on either side of me... I just kept shoving that chicken in my mouth, trying to swallow and drinking a sip of water from time to time. It was insane. I was pretty happy when the 10 minutes were up. I wasn't quite full yet but I knew that I would be stuffed once my stomach realized how much food I had stuffed in it.

The amazing part is that we raised over $2,000 for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society in pledges alone! Smoke Eaters, the wing establishment where this fundraiser took place, also said that they would donate 15% of all receipts during the fundraiser to LLS. It's amazing what we can do in just a few short hours if we try!

If you would like to donate to LLS, please click on the link to go to my LLS homepage. Your money will go to fund research that is making a difference to those who suffer from blood cancer.

And if you want to know when I'll be eating wings again...I'm going to say, maybe in a few weeks.

Go Team!

A long week

It's Wednesday night at 9:30 pm and this is what I'm surrounded by - my puppy, my mother-in-law and my husband are all sound asleep. I guess that's what a dinner of Wing's Chinese food will do to us! The dog didn't get any Wing's but did have a full bowl of adult dog food. I guess you could say we're all fat and happy. I think it's almost time for me to shower and get in bed as well, but as long as I'm here I might as well give an update!



Saturday we had a great run in Capitola. I ran just under 12 miles due to a short-marked course. I felt pretty good for the first half but I was definitely lagging during the second half. I managed to pick up the pace a little but I kept thinking I wanted to stop and rest. Over all I averaged 9 minute 17 second miles. Not too bad for 12 miles and me being a sprinter and all!

This week we had Cause for Celebration at Foothill College. One of the scientists who has received funding from LLS spoke. Wow. It's amazing to hear about the research that is being done and he was every bit the excited scientist. I'm thankful that there are people out there who are able to do this research and who will hopefully find a cure for cancer one day soon.

I'm not a believer in super-long life. I really want my life to be full and if that means that I only live to 50 or 60, so be it. I've had some conversations recently about how this or that is bad for people and we should cut back on meat, or sugar, or cheese, or wine, whatever. Yes, I believe that it's better to have everything in moderation. But if I want to enjoy a nice juicy steak or a sugar filled marshmallow, so be it! I work my butt off (well, not literally!) and my heart is healthy. But I love rare meat. I love sushi. I love...SUGAR! And I'm okay with that. I'll never be 130 lbs. again (hm, maybe someday, but that's a different blog post...) and that's okay. I'm happy with who I am and what I eat. Mini Raviolis from Chef Boyardee are okay once in a while. So is my beloved bacon. I don't eat them every day. I eat a lot of veggies, some yogurt, some lean proteins. My belly is happy and so am I.

ANYWAY, we had a mini-workout on Monday after the speeches. And last night I led 5 other runners for a buddy run where we stopped about 1/2 way through to do some core work. It was awesome. I hope they want to continue with that because I definitely felt it today! I'm leading another buddy run tomorrow night and then Saturday we're running at Almaden Quicksilver. I'm excited for some hills. It'll be great!

A new week

I've been a running fool this past week. Tuesday we had a great first Buddy Run leaving from the LLC Office. We only did 2.75 but I actually ran closer to 4 miles between running back and forth between the different groups. It was fun, except the part where I tripped. My husband says I have problems because I always get banged up, at least once a week! What can I say...I'm talented that way I guess. I've always had at least one scrape on my body between nicking my hands on cupboards or tripping and skinning my knees. I think I must have weak skin... :)

Thursday we had another fun track night. I just wish they would get those lights turned on - it would be nice to be able to see everyone at track! We ran 2 x 400, 1 x 800 and repeated. Nice, quick, and easy. I love track. It's so fast!

Saturday we had our OYO run and I joined up with Chris and Stan at Rivermark. All our runners worked their tails off and had a good 4 mile run. I managed to go 5 miles, doing the running back and forth between the groups.

On Sunday I went down to Sports Basement to join in on their run. I only did 4 miles. It was raining and very windy and the trail was closed at the 2 mile mark. I met a nice woman named Amy who is starting to get back into running with her boyfriend. We chatted the whole way and the time flew by!

Tonight I took Max for a run. He's been cooped up for a while because of the stormy weather. He's finally tuckered out, thank goodness! I'm tuckered out too but need to get everything ready for tomorrow - gotta leave for the train at 5:30 am to prep for those auditors!

Brand New...

It's a new year and I've been a huge slacker. Well, sort of, I guess. I joined Team in Training for a second season, this time to run the full marathon. I think. ;) I started taking the final class I need in order to start taking the CPA exams. I'm working some overtime, trying to catch up on all the piles of work on my desk, preparing for the auditors, working on the financial statements. So although I've been a slacker in terms of laundry and blog posting, I've still been busy. That's my excuse, anyway!

So here's a quick recap...

Team in Training started last weekend and I currently have 9 great runners to mentor. Our first track practice is tomorrow, and I am SO excited! I love track! I'm really looking forward to getting to know my mentees and am slowly working up the courage to commit to the San Diego RockNRoll FULL marathon. I'm having a hard time getting past the idea that it's 26.2 miles, but whatev!

Second, I'm taking an online course at Foothill College. So far, so good. It's Excel for Accounting. Pretty relevant to what I do on a daily basis and so I've been able to coast so far. The great thing is that there are no tests, just homework due on a weekly basis.

Third, work has been super busy. This makes me happy, but I have a lot to get done before next week and tomorrow is Thursday. GAH!

Also, during this time period, I started riding my old mountain bike to the train and to work because it's faster and easier. Plus, since I'm the first stop on both sides, I always am able to get on the train. When I took the train out of Sunnyvale there were always bikes that were turned away and that's why I got the Xootr. Well, a couple of weeks ago I hit a car that pulled out in front of me. It was drizzly and he didn't turn to look my way before he turned. Suffice to say that my front tire was bent and my hip and shoulder were less than perfect. And get this, the guy who pulled out in front of me was a personal injury lawyer! I went to my chiro and he started working to heal me. After 3 treatments I was almost as good as new and finally had clearance to run. After some haggling, the lawyer agreed to pay for my chiro and pay for the repairs to my bike. I took my bike to my local shop and George, the owner, wrote up an estimate. It came to like $90. But George says...."You're not really going to pay to fix this bike up, are you?" My old bike was a steel Mongoose that weighed about 40 lbs. I had to bend my knees to pick it up on my shoulder in order to get it on the train. LOL! We talked about bikes for a bit and he showed me some Bianchi hybrids that he had.

Isn't it beautiful? It took about a week and a half to get everything picked out, test ridden and purchased. In the meantime I started riding Aaron's Cannondale to work. It was a little scary, being a big fancy mountain bike and all, but boy, was it light. I could curl my bicep to lift it! Me being the do-do that I am, I locked it up in front of my building in SF, just like I locked up my Mongoose. Well, day 3 and it was stolen. Dirty rotten bastards. It still pisses me off. I guess they didn't care for the Mongoose but a Cannondale was a different story. Turns out that it was the second bike stolen that week. Um, hello, Mr. Security Guard, couldn't you have given me a head's up earlier??? So, my pretty new bike will be going up the service elevator with me everyday and coming into the office. And even then I'll probably still lock it. :)

So I think that's about it. That should catch me up through the beginning of February. And I promise that I'll update more often in the future. I've got TNT happening and so I might just use this for my training journal.

Happy New Year!