Attack of the Green Tomato Hornworm

I often leave for work before the sun rises.  This means that I often water the garden before the sun comes up, so I occasionally miss a pest problem in the early stages.  This week was no exception.  I went outside to pick the first of the beefsteak tomatoes and a handful of cherry tomatoes and found that both plants had been decimated by a hungry critter.  As I reached down to look at the half of a tomato dangling from the vine I saw a huge caterpillar.  I'm talking about a 4-inch long green behemoth as thick as my thumb clinging to the stem below the fruit.  Green Tomato Hornworm.  After further inspection I found at least one more, and a few other tomatoes that were likely harboring smaller versions of the buggers.  I removed the worms and the infected fruit by hand and fed the worms to some hungry birds.

The tomato in the back of the picture has been hollowed out, and contains a fat green worm, a bird swooped down and nabbed it while I was working in another part of the yard so they must be tasty.  I did some research and supposedly hot pepper and dish soap in water will keep these guys at bay, so I'm mixing up a batch and will return to my plant with spray bottle in hand this evening.

City Review: Ann Arbor Michigan

I recently spent the weekend in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Coming from the desert climate of Southern California, I often forget how green and lush other parts of the country can be.  Ann Arbor is the perfect small college town where local businesses thrive and there is an emphasis on locally farmed food.

A few recommendations:

Cafe Zola

Need a big breakfast?  Head to Cafe Zola.  Giant portions of tasty breakfast foods are what you will find.  Sweet or savory crepes, pastries, omelettes, or Mediterranean olive and veggie breakfast platters, no matter how exotic or eclectic your breakfast desire Zola's got you covered.  If you are in an adventurous mood, try the Moroccan coffee, it is Turkish coffee made with an espresso grind with mint, cardamon, and toasted almonds mixed in.  The coffee is strong and unusual, but in a good way.  Come hungry.  

Grange Kitchen and Bar

Everything that hit the table was excellent.  I had Parisian gnocci with goat cheese and fiddle heads.  It was my first time trying fiddle heads, and they were so good that I will do a follow up post as soon as I can find some to make myself.  The menu is constantly changing depending on the season and availability of foods from local farms.  The farms that provide the produce you eat each night are listed on the menu.

Vault of Midnight

A locally owned and operated comic/game/geek toy shop.  Prices on some games we were looking for were lower than anywhere else we had seen them (including Amazon).  It was well lit and well ventilated and was not at all intimidating to those in our group who do not frequent comic shops.  The selection of off the beaten path games is great and the employee I spoke with knew what was in stock and offered to order a copy of a game that I have had my eye on but was not in stock.  

One for the wishlist

At the Anaheim Comic Con last weekend Geek Chic was displaying some of the most beautiful and well thought out furniture I have seen in a long time.  I have added the Alexandria Codex shelves and the Emissary gaming table to my mental wishlist.

Prices start in the 4 digits, but the CAD images from the website do not begin to do the tables justice.  They are all functional works of art, and would see a lot of use in our house.  

  

Experimental Cooking - Pork Tamales

This week's Can you make it/is it worth it challenge:  Pork Tamales

I frankensteined together a couple of recipes because I also wanted to try making my own mole sauce.  I used steps one through five of this recipe.  But I used a 2 lb pork loin cut into chunks instead of the suggested 7 lbs of pork butt.  I also cut down on the water so it just covered the pork.  The cooking time is the same.

I made one batch of mole as seen here, tossed it on the shredded pork, and used this recipe for the masa.  2 lbs of pork uses up about a double recipe of the masa recipe.  I used the broth from the pork for the first masa batch and a can of chicken broth for the second.  They were both delicious.

Notes for next time:

The flavor was awesome.  I'd do it the same next time.  I was a bit worried that the meat/mole needed more salt, but the amount of salt in the masa dough made balanced the flavors really well.

From start to finish, this was a 6 hour cook-a-thon (granted most of it involved leaving a pot set to a low boil and doing something else for a bit).  The amount of time you spend making these means it is worth doing in large quantities and freezing.  We easily made enough for 5 dinners for 2.

The mole recipe I used was quite spicy (perfect for Mr C and I), if you like it on the mild side I'd use 1/2 a can of diced chilis.

We used 1/2 a bag of corn husks for this batch.  No need to soak the whole bunch.  Also, the corn husks at my supermarket are kept in the produce section under the apples.  I can't tell you how many other places I looked before giving up and stumbling upon them as I went to get some apples to use with the pork.

Also, use the big corn husks.  Save the little ones for making dessert tamales like pineapple flavored ones.

Summary:  Can you make tamales at home?  Absolutely!  The main ingredient was patience, and even two people who have never seen a tamale made figured it out really quickly.  Is it worth it?  Yes!  I'll do this again for sure!

$1 Gourmet - Carbonara Challenge

This is a quick recap of the first of many $1 gourmet events. The task is to cook a delicious meal for $1 per person. Each dinner guest was to provide $1 worth of ingredients. We had 2 late additions so they were assigned bread and dessert. We started with one of the easiest and cheapest meals you can make - carbonara. It is also super tasty, so I knew we'd get repeat customers.

For 6 guests the price break down was as follows:

$1 box of angel hair pasta

$1 worth of eggs (2-3)

$1 worth of bacon

$1 worth of bread

$1 worth of cookies

$1 combined - butter (2 tbs), garlic (4 cloves), salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese

The recipie:

1. Put a large pot of water on to boil.

2. Chop up $1 worth of bacon, in this case it was about 4 thick cut slices. Also chop up the garlic, but keep seperate from the bacon.

3. Once the water boils, salt the water and add the pasta.

4. Immediately start heating the bacon and butter in a large frying pan. Add pepper and mix continuously until the bacon browns. Once the bacon is browned add the garlic and turn the heat to very low or off.

5. Cook the pasta al dente, turn off the heat on the bacon. Then drain the pasta and throw it in the pan with the bacon and butter and toss frantically for at least 60 seconds.

6. Mix the eggs in a separate bowl and pour slowly over the hot bacony pasta. Continue mixing frantically. The goal here is to get the eggs to coat each strand of pasta rather than scramble as it hits the side of the pan, so a slow pour while mixing is crucial. You really don't need the heat on the stove to get the eggs to cook, the pasta is still about 200 degrees F and will do all the cooking you need.

7. Once the eggs are in and have kind of disappeared top with a few shakes of Parmesan and toss to coat. Eat while hot.

This is a dish that does not reheat well, so only make what you can eat. All of the $1 gourmets had 1 slice of bread, a couple of cookies, and we had a little pasta left over. Reviews were really positive, even from two of the more doubtful participants. So far everyone says they will come to the next one!

Cocktail Corner!

August and September are typically super hot and dry here in Orange, and this year has been no exception. It is also the first year in at least six years that Mr C or myself have been without air conditioning. It is frequently over 95 in the living room, and the indoor temperature typically stays in the high 80's overnight. We have been, in a word - melting.

Hot and lazy Sundays always make us crave a simple drink that cools and refreshes.

We have been frequenting a new wine shop in town that has a huge selection, 10 cent wine tastings, and obscure liquors. Last week, I stumbled upon a bottle of Aperol in the aperitif aisle. I tried Aperol while traveling in Italy in college. A friend of mine was studying abroad for the year and some of our group went out to visit. He had been told that when in Venice, we must try a cocktail called a Spritz al Aperol. We had several rounds of them in Venice and I remember the drink being refreshing and tasty. I also remember it having an olive floating in it. It sounded like the perfect drink to cools us off this evening.

I bought the supplies to make a Spritz al Aperol (but forgot the olives) and followed the recipe on the back of the bottle.

Experiment 1

1 1/2 oz Aperol

2 oz dry sparkling wine

a splash of sparkling water

Mrs C says - "The drink is more of an orange color than I remember, and really good until the bitter aftertaste catches up with you."

Mr C says - "Refreshing followed by a bitter explosion"

Experiment 2

1 1/2 oz Aperol

2 oz sparkling wine

a splash of sparkling water

slice of lemon

Mrs C says - "I think that helped make it better- Oh no, no, here comes the bitter again"

Mr C says - "I think that made it worse."

Experiment 3

1 oz Aperol

2 oz sparkling wine

2 oz sparkling water

Mrs C says - "Better. Less of a shock to the taste buds, although still a bit rough on the aftertaste"

Mr C says - "Still bitter. I don't like bitter. At all."

Mr C's final tally 1 out of 10 taste buds

Mrs C's final tally 5 out of 10 taste buds

Experiment: A/C alternatives

These are the ways we have tried to ride out the 100+ heatwave rolling through the South Coast right now:

Feet in bucket of water with ice cubes - Pros :definatly cools you off, can be done while sitting or standing, free. Cons: Can't be done while you sleep, not so great if you have cold sensitive feet, no good for cats who are doing their best puddle impersonation. Total Score: 7 out of 10 ice cubes

Soup bowl of ice in front of a fan - Pros: None, didn't work. Cons: didn't work, and now we are out of ice.

Laying under the ceiling fan in the dark, trying not to move - Pros: Can be done while sleeping. Cons: Can't do anything but lay there... in the dark.

Massive doses of ice cream: Pros - More ice cream? Yes please! Cons: Body by ice cream.