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Fondue

I’ve been trying to use up some white wine (originally found on the sidewalk when walking back from the train station). Thanks to Reddit, I made a couple of really good and quite novel (for us) dishes in the last few days. The first was Swiss fondue, recipe courtesy of half-Swiss friend S! Thanks~

Fondue

  • 40% by weight Gruyère
  • 40% by weight Emmental (can substitute with Jarlsberg or similar American “Swiss” cheese)
  • 20% by weight Appenzeller (can substitute with havarti)
  • 50% of the total weight of the cheese of dry white wine (e.g. Sauvignon blanc) (1 cup ≈ 0.5 lb)
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 tsp cornstarch
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • Pepper
  • Nutmeg
  • 1/4 cup kirsch or water
  1. Rub pot with cut side of garlic clove.
  2. Add grated cheese and wine to pot on low heat.
  3. When melted and bubbling, add cornstarch dissolved in kirsch, lemon juice, and spices to taste.
  4. Simmer for 2 minutes to thicken.

Exact measurements for garlic, cornstarch, and lemon juice are meant to serve 4 people. Adjust to taste/number of people/amount of cheese. The experts tell me Trader Joe’s has most of the requisite cheeses for cheap.

I can’t say the presentation is great, but it was good! We ate the fondue with homemade ciabatta (in background) and kimchi.
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American, Korean, Chinese…

As so often happens, J and I had nothing in the fridge to eat. No greens, no leftovers, no beans soaked and ready for boiling. Fortunately, we were able to scrape together some lingering and more robust ingredients to cook.

Korean glazed potato side dish from Maangchi.
Korean-style mapo tofu, with some substitutions made (as always)…
The final desperate meal. I do believe the avocado half was our last fresh veggie.

Aaaaand we got our produce delivery today, so we’re back to having fruit and leafy greens!

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Pizza at home

Although I’ve been buying (second-hand!) accessories for our stand mixer, we don’t have a dough hook yet and haven’t been able to make pizza dough. As a substitute, Imperfect Produce recently had “imperfect” pre-made pizza crusts. Maybe they were short-coded? They were some sort of fancy, too, multi-grain with sprouted wheat, I think (although they were essentially big tortillas… Not very fluffy at all).

Imperfect Produce has recently expanded into non-produce items, so we’ve been able to get pasta, cheese, butter, and even goat milk from them. They have a “perfect” line, but I avoid that.

Broccoli and other random veggies. Both pizzas had Italian cheese mix and some Gruyère.
Pepperoni and mushroom. The pepperoni was a free leftover from a recent wedding! We also got about 3 quarts of paella, a pint of mini macarons, and some appetizers.
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Tender cookies!

One of my favorite, exceptionally tender cookies! Fatty nuts (pecans) make them even better, but other nuts also work. The recipe is from The Joy of Cooking (my mom said it might be from Betty Crocker).

Mexican wedding cakes/Russian teacakes

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped nuts

Thoroughly mix butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add flour, salt, and nuts. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 10-12 minutes at 400°F until set but not brown. While warm, roll in powdered sugar. Roll in sugar again once cooled.

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I gave up a while ago on my gray linen shirt, after extensive patching failed to halt its rate of degradation. I still really like it, though, and I’d like to recreate it in the future, so I’m trying to trace its pieces to make a pattern!

Tracing the yoke! The pattern paper is from my grandmother’s sewing collection (or, y’know, maybe it’s a really low quality tablecloth that I failed to identify correctly).

Cutting the garment apart wasn’t as easy or as clean as I would have hoped, so a copy-cat shirt might end up a little wonky… We’ll have to see. I also tore the sleeves into strips before deciding to make a pattern, so… I’ll have to wing those when the time comes.

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Decluttering art supplies!

Here are some old projects I found. I think I made them in middle school – I was really into beading and jewelry then.

Collection of pendants made out of polymer clay!
This is a waterfall jungle scene, complete with vines and reptiles. You’re supposed to hang dangly things from the bottom holes.
Some abstract thing I actually turned into a necklace. It looks kinda like corn…
My mom’s grade-school watercolor kit (we did not get rid of it), and her scientific drawing dip pen! Vintage~

Both of my siblings are strangely attached to crayons. Although they allowed many of our crayons to be given away, the compromise was that we had to keep the 96-color set. As sibling C said, “Who knows when the world will end and we realize we need crayons”.

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Estate sale find: safety razors!

Sibling C and I went to a cool estate sale in Austin a few weeks ago! It was particularly well-organized, and much of the normal junk that clutters estate sales (old food, low-quality mismatched silverware, low-quality pans, etc) had either been hidden or sold.

I was excited to find a small collection of old shaving accoutrements. I have a straight razor (that I need to get sharpened), but I’ve also been interested in trying out safety razors, with the particular goal of being able to recommend them to friends in good faith.

I bought 2 of the razors from the sale for $3.75 each, which seemed like a good price 👍

On the left is a Gillette “Tech” made in the ’40s. It is stainless steel and essentially the same design as modern razors. On the right is a Gillette “Old Type” made in 1914 (105 years old!!). It is silver-plated brass.
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Deviled eggs

My mom’s favorite deviled egg recipe, from the Better Homes and Gardens 1981 cookbook! Perfect for picnics and potlucks.

  • 6 hard-boiled eggs (aim for mostly-crumbly yolks)
  • slightly less than 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 tsp white vinegar
  • 1 tsp prepared mustard (most commonly, the non-fancy smooth yellow kind)
  • 1/8 tsp salt

Halve eggs lengthwise, removing yolks and mashing with a fork. Stir in mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, and salt. Fill eggs halves with mixture, garnishing with paprika or parsley.

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New York: A Dash of Dashi

Friend J, N, and I went to the Japan Society to learn the secrets of making dashi.

N asked the presenter where to buy high quality bonito for making dashi. Turns out that the secret supplier is Amazon.

They gave us sample of three types of dashi: kelp, bonito, and mushroom. Only the bonito one tasted like anything to me. Some salt would have been nice.

The Japan Society seemed pretty nice. They offer Japanese classes there too!

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HiroNori Craft Ramen

Went to HiroNori Craft Ramen in Santa Clara. It had 4.5 stars on Yelp so I was obligated to go.

Yelp reservation only. Worked out pretty well, and it was a better experience than waiting in line for 2 hours at Ramen Nagi. Although I do like waiting in lines…

The menu.

Tonkotsu ramen. It was pretty good! Would recommend. For first timers they give you the “garlic black oil” (you can see it in the picture below), a $1 value, for free. The garlic oil was quite good and I’ll probably order it next time, so I guess their advertising scheme worked.

Chicken karaage. Also quite good! It came with some sauce that was also very good. The aforementioned black garlic oil is in the upper left.

Overall I’d say it was solidly solid. I think I like the ramen and the customization options at Ramen Nagi a bit better, but HiroNori compares quite favorably (with no waiting in line). And the chicken karaage was really good, which Ramen Nagi doesn’t offer. I’ll be back.