Ginny's Kitchen blog is moving to www.dragon-oma.com ("oma" = Mom in Korea).  We will post new cooking entries and restaurant reviews on the "Dragon Mom" site.

Please click on the link above to visit the new site.

We will continue to blog family happenings on ian-pix.com.

Thank you and Happy New Year!

Ian & Ginny

                                              Cheese, glorious cheese.

The Christmas tradition of cheese and chocolate fondue continued this year with a very generous gift from Sophie and the in-laws.  Le Creuset fondue pot I love you!  

For the cheese fondue I used Mark Bittman's recipe (halved).

1/2 lb. grated Emmenthaler cheese

1/2 lb. grated Gruyere cheese

1 cup white wine

1 TBS cornstarch mixed with 1 TBS cold water

1 clove garlic, smashed

In a pot (or your fondue pot if it is OK on the stovetop) heat the white wine and garlic over medium heat.  Gradually stir in the grated cheeses.  It always looks like a hot mess but keep stirring and don't over heat.  When the cheese is all melted whisk in the cornstarch/water slurry gradually.  Heat for another minute or two.  

We served with steamed broccoli, apple slices and bread.  This is enough to serve 3 people as a main course who are: 1. still stuffed from Christmas brunch and 2. saving room for chocolate fondue.  We made white chocolate fondue this year, but personally I found it a little too sweet.  I will go back to dark chocolate next time.  For the fondue heat ~1/2 cup heavy cream to just under boiling.  You can add a tablespoon of your favorite liqueur to jazz it up if you like (Grand Marnier).  Remove pot from heat and stir in about 6-8 oz of chopped chocolate. Continue stirring til smooth.   Make sure the flame under your fondue pot is pretty low for the chocolate fondue or you could scorch your creation.  You might not even need to keep it on a flame because chocolate fondue rarely lasts long enough to cool.  We dipped strawberries, marshmallows and bread.  This amount serves 3-4 people for dessert.

Looking forward to more fondue in my future. I also received a crepe pan and portable induction burner from Ian. Stay tuned for crepes!

                                     So easy a monkey could make it....

Ian's family has a traditional Christmas breakfast that involves monkey bread.  The only downside to their breakfast is that they ate it before opening presents!  Coming from a family whose parents allowed them to get up as early as they liked (think 3:00 a.m.) to open stockings provided we were quiet, I adopted the monkey bread but not the timing of breakfast.

I made this two days earlier using my friend Arielle's recipe. She does say you can attempt to refrigerate after assembly and let it rise that morning but I was too afraid.  I wound up using a lot more brown sugar as well.  If you do bake ahead of time, wrap well and reheat in a 350F oven for 15 minutes or so.

 The gingerbread flavor is not overpowering--you could make this any time of year.   I made a big bowl of grapefruit supremes.  I added some pomegranate for color and because Sophie said, "You never buy pomegranates," after going to Jamba Juice with Ian.  Ian's sister and her family came for brunch, and there was much merriment with sparkling/blackberry wine cocktails, card games and the antics of Pom Diggity. 

 The other star of the brunch table: my friend Abby's make-ahead bread pudding.  Ian and Sophie made this on Christmas Eve while I was bumbling my way through my first day in a new clinic.  In between looking for tape measures, urine cups and VBAC consent forms I was answering texts like, "where is the rosemary? Can we use more than 6 cups of bread? Where do I get tsp pepper?"  Abby would be proud because we duded up the casserole with a layer of grated cheddar and sliced scallions on top.  The casserole shared the oven with the Christmas ham (made my own glaze with brown sugar/mustard/cider vinegar) and came out puffy and beautiful.  Sophie was sad that the cream cheese layer didn't spread out--consider this advance notice--don't expect the cream cheese to melt and spread.  Nobody will care. 

 

                                                     Actual size=1"

I bought a bag of dried shrimp at H-mart expressly for use in the carrot salad from Naomi Duguid's "Burma."  A book I hope will be forthcoming from a certain family member this holiday season.  Luckily, the Tipsy Baker posted the recipe here on her blog.  If you like the Thai green papaya salad, you will love this recipe, and you won't have to source green papayas.  You will have to find some dried shrimp and grind them up in your food processor.  Creepily, their little eyes remain intact after grinding.  You can just tell people they are poppy seeds.  They keep indefinitely in the refrigerator.  You can also use them when you make kimchi.  Sophie didn't even notice them in the salad.

If you don't own a largish mortar and pestle you can just use a rolling pin or a muddler to pound your carrots.  I scaled back the pepper by half because I used an extremely hot Thai chile pepper.  It was just perfect for our family but almost too spicy for Sophie's friend.  I added the fried shallots last minute because I didn't want them to get soggy so they aren't visible in the picture below.

It was nice to eat something that didn't contain butter, flour, sugar or eggs after all the baking.  After hearing Duguid's recent interview on the "Good Food" podcast, and tasting this salad I am even more excited to get my hands on this cookbook.  I may break down and buy pre-fried shallots from the Vietnamese grocery.  According to the Tipsy Baker, the shallot chopping and frying is a part time job when cooking from "Burma." 

We went to Hmart and Wegman's today and it was a total goat rodeo.  I am hoping I don't have to go back to the grocery store before Christmas.  Why is cheese so expensive?  I bought a ham to supplement my Christmas brunch/dinner in case we don't have enough fondue.  We found Chocolate Pirate's Booty which looks like dried dog turds.  We finished the bag on the way home; it's that delicious.  I swam a mile this morning so it doesn't really count anyway. 

We were in Hawaii this time last year, and I remember looking all over for Saffron James perfume for Maddy.  This year I love the Bobby Brown fragrance, Beach.  Maddy thinks it smells like sunscreen.  To me it smells like our beach towels do after a weekend at the beach--sunscreen + salt + something undefineable.  I keep sniffing my wrists and thinking of mai tais and sunsets.

Mele Kalikimaka.

                         Taken on the shores of the Han River in Seoul ~January 2010. 

 The sign says, "Please throw the life ring to the drowning person."  Koreans are so polite even in crisis.  I am glad the world didn't end today.  I had a nice week.  I helped deliver a 9 lb. baby girl (my first delivery since July--it is like riding a bike) yesterday, and my trail run training group did a night run through the woods with headlamps on Wednesday night.  It was the Blair Witch Project combined with how it felt to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night as a teenager.  Pom Diggity and I went shopping today for some last minute gifts, and I saw just a few snowflakes fluttering by as I walked to the mailbox.  We are staying home for the holidays this year and will be missing Maddy who will be with her dad and his family in Florida.  We are planning a Christmas brunch with Ian's sister and her family.  I observed a moment of silence today at 9:30 along with others nationwide to honor those killed during the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary last week.  I cannot imagine how pervasive the silence must be in those homes who lost loved ones so needlessly. 

Listening to the song "Head full of doubt/Road full of promise," by the Avett Brothers I was struck by this line:

"When nothing is owed, deserved or expected

And your life doesn't change by the man who's elected

If you're loved by someone, you're never rejected

Decide who to be and go be it."

We all hope for change.  Maybe we need to stop hoping and start acting.  I don't think our founding fathers anticipated the horrific combination of a disturbed individual with an assault weapon and a wanton disregard for his fellow man.

 With enough advance notice and proper ID, they will let just about anyone into the White House....

As promised, here are the snaps of our tour from Ian's iPhone. 

The White House model pictured above was constructed from gingerbread and white chocolate.  They toss it after the holiday, a fact that made Sophie sad.

                                               Fool-proof, made by a non-fool.

Sophie and I finally made the gougeres from Dorie Greenspan's "Around My French Table."   The recipe is straightforward, and the results are delicious.  Sophie said, "It didn't make 3 dozen."  Somehow it felt better to say that I ate 4 of them, instead of 8.  We used cheddar cheese because it's what we had ready, but I would love to try the Gruyere version.  I am saving my Gruyere money for the cheese fondue we will have at Christmas.  

 Feeling cocky with my recent baking success I decided to tackle some cookie recipes from this month's issue of Bon Appetit and an "easy macaron" recipe from my new cookbook.  Your mom was right, when something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  The easy macaron recipe called for adding the unbeaten egg whites to the nut flour/sugar mixture.  Total fail.  I like to call them "macawrongs."  I used pistachio flour hence the goose turd green color.  Sandwiched with some Nutella (the spackle of home cooks) they were delicious enough to send off to the teacher's holiday lunch.  The "Beure and Sel Jammers," from Bon Appetit (another Dorie recipe) made 15 cookies instead of the 36--luckily great in the taste department but more work than anticipated.

For Ian's department at work (can you make some treats for me to hand out?) I used the French Macaron recipe from the new cookbook with excellent results.  It calls for starting at low heat (200F) for 15 minutes instead of piping and letting cookies sit for an hour to develop the shell.  The oven temp is then raised to 350F and the cookies finish in another 11 minutes.  Macaron perfection. 

                                   One of these things is not like the others.....

I used a little cinnamon in the shell, the book recommended pairing with Cinnamon-Apple butter or Oatmeal Cookie buttercream.  I used dulce de lazy, I mean leche.....Delicioso! Feliz Navidad people.

                                 Current odometer reading: 10.38 miles

Had my first trail run on my new shoes.  Somebody told me I looked so light on my feet, maybe it was the shoes.  They are light, but not as minimalist as Vibram 5 fingers or the New Balance Minimus.  They dry quickly too--beneficial since even our urban trail runs seem to have a stream crossing or two.  We aren't too far off the grid, and we even joked that we could find our way back to the parking lot by just asking Siri to find the closest Starbucks.  In Hawaii and Texas getting lost on a trail run meant you might be featured on "I Shouldn't Be Alive."  

 Here's a close up of Sophie's new pajamas, complete with loop for hanging.  She's excited today because I told her we are going to make "real popcorn" and because I am not putting the wild mushrooms in the coq au vin I am making for dinner.  My mom used to make coq a vin all the time except I thought she was saying coq au "van".  It was probably best since my sister and I were more likely to eat something we thought was some how related to the Mystery Mobile vs. having an entire bottle of red wine in it.  It is sort of a dreary grey day here, perfect for braised chicken.  We had a great time yesterday in D.C.  The White House Tour is something everybody should do once in their life--especially awesome during the holidays.  They let you take pictures!  We went to a holiday market and the National Portrait Gallery and then to Church Key for beers and snacks.  Altogether a perfect day.  I bought a new cookbook at Anthropologie called "Les Petits Macarons."  It is wonderfully written with multiple sections for trouble-shooting what went wrong with your cookies.  Now I have a reason to buy licorice powder too.  The sections on fillings alone made it worth it--they would all translate well to cupcake toppings.

            I know, we need another cupcake picture like another hole in our head.

I promise you these are worth it.  They are from David Leibovitz's, "Ready for Dessert" and you can see the recipe here.  I actually substituted grated fresh ginger for the ground ginger and grapefruit juice for the lime juice in the frosting.  We brought them to a holiday party and they were gone in seconds.  Sophie was very sad to see me with the empty cupcake carrier.

This is the closest I will get to a juice fast.

Remember K.C. and the Sunshine Band?  I am listening to them now compliments of Spotify.  We watched "Freaks and Geeks" last night.  Specifically the episode where Sam wants to change his look--with disastrous results.  Some things like feathered hair, jumpsuits and platform shoes for men shouldn't ever get another turn on the style merry-go-round.  Totally cringe-worthy.   We told Sophie we would never let her out of the house looking like that.  I made her some flannel pajama bottoms yesterday so she doesn't wander around the house complaining about the cold.  I finished Maddy's Christmas socks but Sophie won't let me send her a picture of them.  She is a stickler for Christmas surprises.   We had French onion soup for dinner and butterscotch pudding for dessert.  If you find yourself without dry white wine when you are making a batch of soup, sake works just as well.  I registered for this 25K trail race in April.  It's only an hour away from Charlottesville and I can stay with Maddy for the weekend.  I briefly contemplated registering for the 50K, but then I looked at the finish times and the course hill profiles.  Committing to a race always keeps me honest.  I am happy to be back at work but quite honestly, I am even happier that it is only part time.  The other night after a busy 12 hour shift L&D (with a huge headache and an empty stomach) I came home to a sink full of dirty dishes and lost it.  My family has become too accustomed in the last 6 months to my excess free time.  I need to work just enough to keep them grateful for the time I do spend at home.  We are going to the White House Christmas Tour this weekend.  We had to give them our Social Security numbers for a background check, and you can't bring bags or cameras.  I wonder if the Obama's tree has a lot of Hawaii-themed ornaments like ours.  I'll get back to you on that.

The holiday party was a success with a giant slab of roast pork and some last minute teriyaki chicken done in the pressure cooker.  Last minute because I realized that somebody coming from a Hanukkah party probably wouldn't do roast pork.  For once I didn't over prepare, everything was bite-sized, and we stomped a big carbon footprint by using disposable everything.   It was the easiest party I have thrown in recent memory, and the low stress=less wine consumption.  This was excellent since I had a trail run at 0730 the next morning.  Sophie suggested linzer cookies as our final dessert option.  By cutting them into squares I maximized dough utilization and minimized rolling time.  Both important when your cookie is essentially two cookies.  I got the recipe from Alice Medrich's "Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy" and used the almond option.  I only chilled x 3 hours and had no trouble rolling this dough. 

2 1/4 cups (10.125 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup (5 oz) almonds and/or hazelnuts

1/2 cup (3.5 oz) granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 lb. unsalted butter

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 tsp grated lemon zest or 1/4 tsp lemon extract

1 tsp grated orange zest or 1/4 tsp orange extract

(now that I am typing this I realized I actually used a tsp of each of the extracts and everything came out fine)

Preserves

powdered sugar

Combine flour/nuts/sugar/salt/cinnamon/cloves in a food processor.  Pulse until the nuts are finely ground.  Add the butter (cut into pieces if firm) and pulse until the mixture looks damp and crumbly.  Add the extracts/zests and pulse until the mixture begins to clump around the blade.  Remove the dough and press into a ball.  Form into two patties and wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and preferably overnight.  The dough may be frozen for up to 3 months.

Preheat oven to 325F.  Remove dough from the refrigerator and let sit at room temp until supple enough to roll but still quite firm.  Roll to a thickness of 1/8"  Cut into shapes. Transfer to ungreased cookie sheet. Use a smaller cutter or a large pastry tip to cut out a hole out of half of your cookies.  Bake 13-15 minutes until the cookies are just beginning to color at the edges.  Let the cookies firm up on the pan for 1-2 minutes and then cool completely on racks.  To assemble spread a thin layer of preserves on the solid cookie.  Dust powdered sugar over cookies with cutouts. Place on top of cookie with preserves. 

They are softer but no less delicious the next day.

I had a great first group trail run--10 miles in the rain with two stream crossings.  The herd mentality really helps motivate on bad weather days.  Could there be a trail marathon in my future?  Stay tuned.