the eilembergs: September 2009

Monday, September 21, 2009

BBQ privelages suspended

One evening last week I put some nice rib-eye steaks on the grill. I thought to myself that I should keep a close eye on them because they were particularly fatty. Well, after three minutes on the grill, I went outside to check on them and to my surprise, there were flames coming out from the back of the grill, scorching the siding. Ugggh! There goes dinner! And this isn't the first time this has happened to me. (I can't believe I am revealing all this information; I guess so I can put my silly mistakes to good use and people can learn from them.)

The first time was when we had Moises' business partner and other colleagues in town for dinner. I thought I would try grilling cedar plank salmon for the first time (there is a reason they say you should try a dish out before serving it to guests). So I soaked the cedar plank in water like you are suppose to. I put it out on the hot grill to heat it up. I go back inside the house to socialize a bit and as one of the guys was telling a story I kept thinking to myself, "I really need to check on that plank. How do I politely interrupt?" So finally I found a break in his story. I step outside to find our gas grill AND house on fire! The siding was melted through, exposing the wood. I turn off the burners and run inside yelling, "FIRE, HELP!" They all run outside and start hosing it down. One of the first things Moises said to me was, "Well, it could have been a lot worse!" This, by the way is one of the reasons I chose to marry Moises; he never worries about the small stuff, laughs it off and puts it all into perspective.

After it was all under control we laughed and joked about it the rest of the evening; and just about every time I see them they have to bring it up.

Playdate at the park...

...with Meredith and Jade.

Shoes

Lately Asher has been really into putting my shoes and slippers on.

Ohhh, I'm melting!

Happy Birthday Max!

On Friday Max had his 8th birthday and Asher sang happy birthday to him all day. Here is what I was able to get on camera.

Roasted Tomatoes and Cipollini

I got this recipe off of a food blog that I recently discovered and absolutely love called Smitten Kitchen. This dish is highly addictive and is also one that gets better the next day as leftovers. I used plum tomatoes but I know I would prefer using cherry tomatoes next time. You could also substitute the cipollini onions for shallots cut into quarters.

Roasted Tomatoes and Cipollini

Serves four as a small dish, two as a main

1 pound cipollini onions
1 pound small Roma or large cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
Coarse salt
4 slices of country or ciabatta bread, one-inch thick
1 15-ounce can of white beans, drained and rinsed or 1 1/2 cups cooked beans of your choice

3 tablespoons of balsamic
Garlic clove (optional)
Few fresh basil leaves, slivered

Preheat oven to 375°F. Boil a small pot of water and blanche the cipollini for 10 seconds, then plunging them into cold water. Use a paring knife to make a small slit in each, and slide them out of their skins and outer layer.

Spread peeled onions and tomatoes in a roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil and a few good pinches of coarse salt. Toss everything together until well-coated and roast in preheated oven for about 45 minutes, reaching in every 15 minutes with a spatula to roll the tomatoes and onions around to ensure all sides get blistered.

Just before you take the tomatoes and onions out, place your bread slices on the oven rack and let them toast lightly. You can rub the toasts with a halved garlic clove, if you like, while still hot. Use tongs to arrange toasts in one layer on a serving platter. Toss the beans with balsamic and dump the white beans over the bread, and using a pot holder, scrape the entire contents of the tomato-and-onion roasting pan, still hot, over the white beans.

Sprinkle the dish with the basil and eat at once.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

L'Shana Tova!

May the New Year bring good health and happiness to you and those you love!

Tomorrow night at sundown Jewish families will be celebrating Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, by having a festive meal that includes dipping apple slices into a pot of honey. This is to ensure that your New Year will be "sweet".

This is why the traditional dessert is honey cake. I have looked through so many different honey cake recipes and came across one that looked very different from most traditional recipes called "Apricot Honey Cake", so I thought I'd give it a try. It came out delicious!

And then I decided to create my own by taking my zucchini bread recipe, substituting shredded apples for the zucchini, honey instead of sugar (but half the amount), cut oil in half to decrease the amount of liquid ingredients, increase baking soda by 1/2 tsp because honey is acidic and the baking soda counters that, and finally decreased cooking temp by 25 degrees because honey browns faster. I was a little nervous that it would turn out to be a disaster. But I must say I was very satisfied!

Apricot Honey

1/2 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
1/4 cup dark rum
2 large eggs
1 cup clover honey
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Grated peel and juice of 1 lemon
Grated peel and juice of 1 orange
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup apricot jam
1 3/4 cups white rye or unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cake or unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup slivered almonds, or roughly chopped walnuts or cashews

In a small bowl, soak the apricots in the rum for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350° and grease a 10- by 5-inch loaf pan.

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Stir in the honey, vegetable oil, grated lemon and orange rind and juice, sugar, salt, and apricot jam.

Sift the 2 flours and the baking soda into another bowl.

Strain the apricots, reserving the excess rum.

Add the flour alternately with the rum to the honey cake mixture. Fold in the apricots. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle with the nuts.

Bake in the oven on the lower rack for 50-55 minutes, or until the center of the cake is firm when you press it. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack. If using mini loaf pans, bake for approximately 35 minutes.

Honey Apple (my experiment)

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup honey
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups shredded apples (about 3 medium)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter and flour 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Sift first 5 ingredients into medium bowl. Beat honey, oil, eggs and vanilla to blend in large bowl. Mix in apples. Add dry ingredients and stir well.

Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 20 minutes. Cool bread in pan on rack 15 minutes. Cut around bread to loosen. Turn out onto rack and cool completely. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Wrap in foil and let stand at room temperature.) If using mini loaf pans, decrease baking time to about 35-45 minutes.

Those little moments that make it all worth it...

The other day when Asher and I were on our way back home from a run, he looks up at me through the canopy window on the jogging stroller and says, "Mommy, I yuf you!"

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Costa Rica!

Last Sunday we got back from a week-long vacation to Costa Rica. What a stunning country with all the exotic wildlife, rain forests and volcanoes. Moises, Asher and I spent our first half of the week in the Northern region of the country near the foot of the Arenal Volcano where Becky, or Tia Bebe (is what Asher calls her) met up with us after the second day.

On Wednesday, the four of us drove to the Northwest Coast to a nice resort hotel with a great beach. And finally by Thursday everyone (Gabi, Naty, Michelle, Danny and Wendy) else joined us for the weekend. So we had a nice little family reunion with all of Moises' siblings.

The first half of our trip... near the Arenal Volcano

Asher made friends with this really friendly cat at a cafe along side the road where we stopped for a coffee and pastry.

The Arenal Volcano is one of the world's top 10 active volcanoes. We went up to the observatory deck to get a closer look. You can actually hear and see it spewing lava as it crackles down the sides and gives off steam which you can kind of see in the photo below (the white foggy-looking line going down the left side).

Moises on a suspension bridge. They have these going through a lot of their jungles. They remind me of being in an Indiana Jones movie.

"Bebe's" first day. We took a tram up through the rain forest and went on a little trek through part of it. We got to see a lot of really interesting plants and birds.

Our trek through the rain forest.

We visited some thermal waters from the volcano. In fact in 1975, the volcano erupted, ripping through this whole area. Several times a year they evacuate the area as soon as they see any signs the volcano may decide to erupt.

Asher making a piece of art with Aunt Becky that says, "I love Bebe"!

In this video Asher is counting ants. He has the uno-dos-tres down but then he'll jump to "sete, ocho, webe, diez"

Wild Life

We stopped by a butterfly observatory where we saw some pretty exotic-looking caterpillars and butterflies including some chrysalises. Asher was really excited about this red and yellow fuzzy caterpillar below.

This butterfly's wings were about six inches long. They come from caterpillars like the one below.

Vultures! We saw trees full of vultures and on the side of the road.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Monkeys

I was in awe at the sight of monkeys in their natural habitat. Several times while driving down the road we would see a tree full of them swinging around doing their thing. I was so excited I felt like a little kid.

Coati: a cousin of the racoon

We saw packs of these along the road. When we stopped the car to take their picture it was almost as if they would freeze and look up with a little head tilt to pose for the camera. So adorable and friendly-looking!

Mami!

Asher loved getting his cousin Michelle's reaction by shouting "Mami". Every time they saw each other he would get her started whether they were sitting across from each other at the table in a restaurant or at the pool.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Time out...

Becky, Naty and I left the kidlets with Moises and Gabi while the three of us got much needed massages.

The last half...

...of our vacation we stayed at a resort on the Northwest coast. We basically hung out by the pool, beach, ate good food and enjoyed every body's company.

Asher and Moises