Egg Dyeing on Dana (and another soup!)

Five girls of very different nationalities (Filipino, Taiwanese-American, Indian, Irish, Persian-Polish-American) gathered on Dana St. Easter Sunday to decorate eggs. A few hours of neon dyeing, glittering, and painting later...

Claire's meta chick egg.

Happy's tuxedo-inspired egg.

My neon, animal print-inspired eggs.

Growing up, I always decorated eggs at my Nana's on Good Friday, a day off for most American schools. Myself, my two brothers and mom, my four cousins, and my aunts would each bring over a dozen boiled eggs, and my aunt Michelle, head organizer of almost all Wegrzyn family activities, prepared dozens of cups of dye and drying stations. Each of us grandkids would suit up in one of my grandpa's old snap-up work shirts, always ready for wear in the smock cabinet, and then we were left to our own creative inspiration.

We'd apply rubber bands, ribbons of glue, or hidden messages in white crayon on the eggs and then experiment with different dyes, sometimes just using one color, sometimes layering a few to make different shades or color off sub-sections of the egg. My cousin John almost always ended up with a range of brownish green eggs from layering too many colors at once

Michael displaying his orthographic collection of dyed eggs from Easter 2010.

Any of the eggs that cracked during dyeing (and usually a few of John's ugly green-brown eggs!) where sacrificed to a greater good, the customary egg salad lunch. And alongside egg salad, we always eat my mom's clam chowder. Why clam chowder? I have no idea. I'm quite sure there is no significance to Easter, but she made it one year, it was delicious, and thus, another detail added to our annual tradition.

After we're tired, fed, and our hands are raw from trying to wash off food coloring, each family gets to take home a Nana-made lamb cake. This is a cake made of cake and shaped like a lamb, not a cake made of lamb and shaped like a cake. I suppose both might be delicious, but the latter is a bit weird. Two years ago, my mom and aunts made competing lamb-shaped edibles in a lamb-off.

Only one of these is a genuine lamb cake! Can you guess which?

The egg dyeing tradition continued in Chicago without me last Friday, but I'm happy I was able to reenact some of it in California with friends.

I wanted to make a soup for our party too, but since Geta was coming, clam chowder was out, so I got out my ole Soup book and made a veggie-friendly alternative. And though I didn't really have any expectations for the soup, at least compared to the rest of the days' activities, it was pretty yummy and is going in my collection of repeat recipes.

Chickpea and Spinach Soup with Garlic

Recipe from SOUP

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 1/4 quarts vegetable stock
• 2 1/2 cups finely chopped potatoes
• 15 oz can of chickpeas, drained
• 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 Tablespoons tahini
• 3 1/2 cups shredded spinach
• cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper

Directions

•  Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes, until the onion is soft and golden brown.
• Stir in the ground cumin and coriander and cook for one minute.
• Add the stock and potatoes, bring to a boil, and then simmer for 10 minutes.
• Add the chickpeas and simmer for 5 minutes longer, or until the potatoes are just tender.
• Blend together the cornstarch, cream, and tahini and blend into the soup.
• Stir in the spinach and season generously with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then simmer for another 2 minutes.
• Serve sprinkled with cayenne pepper.

Engineering Manager Survival Kit

 

Thanks CB :)

29

Beach, Goats, and Olallieberry Pie

Last weekend, my mom and I took a trip to the coast. We started with a short walk around Bean Hollow State Beach. The sky was blue, the view was gorgeous, the rocks were covered in seals... and the trail was lined with my nemesis! So far, no outbreak. Now that it's been a week, my scratching paranoia has died down and I'm cautiously optimistic that I'm safe.

We continued on to Harley Farm in Pescadero. Harley Farms is the only farmstead dairy in California, and one of the few remaining in the U.S. This means they control all aspects of their cheese production, from the grasses the goats eat and how the goats are raised to each detail of the cheese production. They let people tour the farm and dairy, play with their goats, and taste their cheese.

The farm has around 200 goats and a lama, who protects all the goats. Here is my mom, standing next to the stately protector.

We first met some of the pregnant mother goats, and then continued on to the week old kids.

Hi there.

One of the momma goats gave birth to three kids an hour before we arrived. All together now: Awwwww...

They decorate some of their cheeses with edible flowers, also grown on the farm. I asked about possible internships in their cheese decorating department. Waiting to hear back.

After the farm, we made a stop at Duarte's Tavern in Pescadero to have some of their acclaimed half and half soup (half cream of artichoke, half cream of green chili) and a slice of their olallieberry pie. Yeah, I was skeptical too, but I guess it's a legit berry. You can even pick them at a few farms in Pescadero.

  

All in all, this was a really nice and relaxing day trip. If you're in northern California and want to get away from Silicon Valley for awhile, go check out Pescadero!

30b30#4.3: Purple Cauliflower and Walnut Soup

I'm a sucker for color. It's more expensive and has no discernible difference in taste, but I had to have the purple cauliflower over the white because, well, it's purple!

It's purple because it contains anthocyanin, plant pigment molecules that can appear red, purple, or blue, depending on the pH. They're also found in wine and red cabbage and can act as an antioxidant, so they may have some extra health benefits... yup, I'll use that as my justification.

Anyways, Dawn and I picked some of this pretty cauliflower up from the farmer's market and made an ultra-simple, particularly healthy, particularly purple soup.

The picture is kinda crap, and will be added to my ever growing pile of crappy indoor photos, but the soup was good. It's ultra-simple to make and has a nice creamy texture, without the cream. I'd make this one again and recommend it if you need a quick, light, and healthy meal.

Recipe 
Based on "Cauliflower and Walnut Cream Soup" from SOUP.


Ingredients

• 2 heads of purple cauliflower
• 2 cups of stock (vegetable or chicken) 
• 2 cups of milk
• 1 onion
• 3 Tablespoons of walnuts
• Paprika and crushed walnuts to garnish

Directions

• Trim the cauliflower and break into small flowerets. Roughly chop the onion.
• Place the cauliflower and onion and stock in a soup pot.
• Bring the stock to a boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Add the milk and walnuts and then puree until smooth.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve with paprika and crushed walnuts.
  

Blockbuster Blowout!

Last, last weekend, Dawn visited and we started watching Mad Men while making purple soup (yet another soup post coming soon). I finished up the first season two nights ago, and on a total whim, I thought I'd go see if I could rent season 2 from the Blockbuster near my house. Yes, I still do antiquated things like visit physical stores to purchase physical video rentals.

The store was a wasteland of abandoned DVD piles, mostly empty shelves, and "Everything must go!" (including the furniture, shelves, and office supplies) signs -- not surprising, given the recent announcement they're closing a third of their remaining retail stores. Anyways, I thought I'd do a once around the store to see if any of the leftover DVDs were worth their $0.99 purchase price, and I hit a total jackpot!

First, I found the complete season 2 and 3 of Mad Men for $4 and $5, respectively. This was totally serendipitous because they only had about six popular TV DVD series to choose from, and only one set of season 2 and a handful of season 3 sets.

More Don Draper and Peggy!

Second, I found the complete SAW series! If you know me, you know I love my psychological thrillers. While SAW probably ran a few movies past it should have, I still enjoyed and watched every movie in the series, and made the $7 purchase for sentimental value. Perhaps it will be something to pass down to the kids one day.

SAW marathon material... who is in? Steve?

I know video rental stores are on the outs, and it makes me a bit sad. For the same reason I fear we won't have physical book stores one day, I'll miss walking into a video store with nothing specific in mind and perusing cover art and descriptions or letting a friendly clerk sway my choice. I still have fond memories of Rentertainment at UIUC, and not just because of the ultra-cheap $1.00 rental price.

C'est la vie.

30b30#4.2: Kulajda

This soup is dedicated to my colleague, Martin Straka, who encouraged me to foray into Czech cuisine during my soup making adventures. My initial research into Czech soups led me to an onion soup and a garlic soup, but Martin tells me these are reserved for hangover recovery, and a finer choice was Zelňačka (a cabbage soup) or Kulajda. I chose the latter because it had less funny decorations on the letters, and I was in a mushroom mood.

Mushrooms simmering.

This soup has a lot of dill. A lot, a lot. I'm used to using dill by the teaspoon. I put in a whole cup!

Dill!

I think the real kicker is the white vinegar, which adds some tang to the savory, creamy broth.

Unlike the last butternut squash soup, this one comes with my recommendation. Great for a quick vegetarian meal, especially on a cool winter evening.

Kulajda
Recipe based on a handful of different Kulajda recipes I found on the web and some gut instinct.

Ingredients

• 8 cups of stock (vegetable or chicken) 
• 1 lb of potatoes
• 1 cup of fresh dill
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
• 15 oz mushrooms
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 2 Tablespoons of white vinegar
• 1/2 cup of flour

Directions

• Peel potatoes and dice into small cubes. Cook potatoes in 8 cups of broth until soft (8-10 minutes, depending on size of cubes). Don't cook too long or the potatoes will turn to mush.
• Add sliced mushrooms to the soup pot.
• In a separate pot, heat milk and cream, and whisk in your flour. This will be a thickening agent. Use your muscles and whisk vigorously until all of the flour lumps are out. (You can alternatively make a roux for this step, but this is the lazyman's and slightly healthier option since it has less fat.)
• Pour milk-cream-flour into the soup pot, along with the dill, caraway seeds, and white vinegar.

Serve with a boiled egg and rustic bread.