Birthdays with Hot Dog and Mustard

There is not usually much fanfare around my birthday for a couple of reasons. One - It's in the middle of the summer, which seems to create a dog days-related void around celebrating, what with people in and out of town. Two - Birthdays mostly end up being kind of disappointing, something I think we can all relate to. However, I am a Leo, and Leos, according to their astrological qualities, love to be the center of attention. That should mean throwing giant birthday parties every year, along with the desire to have lots of adoring fans present.

This year I indulged in more Leoness than usual, and with Trish, we threw a combo birthday BBQ party for ourselves in Prospect Park.

We grilled burgers, kebabs and hotdogs. We made potato salad and deviled eggs. Our friends brought a huge amount of food and beer and wine. But this was not the main food effect. The food, in fact, was quite overshadowed by our party mascots - the hot dog and mustard.



Trish's costumed friends exhibited huge and brave amounts of Leoness, leaping joyfully through the park grass as children chased them around, tugging at their costumes and posing for pictures snapped by their parents. Children were not mystified by the hot dog and mustard beyond the innocent question of, "Where is the Ketchup?". They were not weirded out, but immediately intrigued. The hot dog and mustard were loved by our party guests, too, as with command and expertise they refereed our field day games - the icing on the Sunday-BBQ-cake in the park. We willingly let the duo direct our relays and sack races and egg-on-a-spoon. They clarifed rules. They told us when to go and stop. They transitioned us between games. They were joyful. They were fun.

So the hot dog and mustard are no longer just a classic American comestible to be thrown on the grill and then gobbled down. They are the life of the party.

The little, expensive things

Saffron, lavender and white truffle oil. Out there floats a lot of criticism about gourmet foods and ingredients. But let's be fair. Sometimes the right gourmet ingredient will literally knock your socks off. Recently several key ingredients have shown up at my door step.

Lavender: After an extensive search for culinary lavender, which was finally located at the classic Upper West Side gourmet store Zabar's, Meredith and I made a Cherry-Lavender cake for Ann's summer garden party. Some previous research on cooking with lavender revealed that we might not be able to just pick lavender stalks from a garden, but that certain types are cultivated and harvested especially for cooking. We indulged in all parts of the making process - zesting the sunshine-yellow lemons, pitting the ripe, dark magenta cherries and sprinkling in the grey-blue lavender buds. Such color, such texture, such aroma and joy!






The end product was somewhat flatter and more pancake-like than we expected; therefore we will reveal the recipe following some more testing. I have been informed by the food blogger source of the recipe that cake baking is a chemical art and process and thus it must be done exacting and carefully.We were baking very late at night, so another go at the cake is worth it.


Saffron: What is this mysterious and whispy dark-pumpkin colored spice? I still don't know. With it, Trish made a rice with shrimp and chicken sausage. It was delicious, of course, though we were trying really hard to distinguish and appreciate the saffron flavor and aroma from everything else. Going in I knew basic things about saffron: it's expensive, aromatic and lends a distinct golden color to foods. All facts have been checked. It cost Trish $18.00 for a little envelope of the crimson threads, which were locked away in the back room of a store. Saffron is serious business. It comes from the saffron crocus, which yields only three threads per flower. Also true is that it has an international grading system for quality. The chemical composition appears to be very complex and makes up it's flavor, dye qualities and aroma. And this spice has been used medicinally for thousands of years. What we know now is that saffron has a history. We did not know this when eating the rice.

White truffle oil: Unlike saffron, there is no need to look up the history and context of white truffle oil. Its hugely intense, earthy aroma speaks for itself. Alix and I used it to make what we call our most refined dish yet. We almost staggered under the weight of sheer eating pleasure.

Orzo with White Truffle Oil

Orzo, cooked
Marinated sun-dried tomatoes, chopped finely
Pine nuts, toasted
green beans, fresh from garden, trimmed, blanched and cut
1 tsp white truffle oil

Directions: Mix all ingrediants together in proportions to your liking.

A gift from fellow foodie Joe, this truffle oil is part of a 90-ish day recipe challenge, after which the oil is supposedly is no longer fresh.

Specialty Ingredient:

Culinary Lavender
Saffron
White Truffle Oil

What's in Season - June:

Green (string) beans (June - October)

We ate Acapulco: Food and Politics

Vacation in Mexico with the van Fleet brothers - what more could a girl ask for? Margaritas, sun, good food and company. Simple. Except the travel books that Ryan and I had doggedly studied all had disclaimers for Acapulco, concluding that, "She's a diva past her prime". In the fifties Acapulco tourism was defined by its small hotels built on the cliffs overlooking the bay, Pacific landscape and the city. Then the new, huge all-inclusive resorts on the beach came in.

The brothers and I spent a timeshare week at the Grand Mayan, one of these mega-complexes and lived like pseudo Mayan royalty, tanning and sipping the daily fruity cocktail by the pool. This was by day. By night, we left resort-land, making a good effort to find our food experiences by asking taxi drivers and the resort staff for recommendations. The travel books could not be trusted, because they generally led us to the turistico and "international" places we were trying to avoid.

First, travel with us outside the resort, beyond the "largest golf course in Mexico" and "biggest pool in the world." Looming ahead is a mammoth Super Wal-Mart and a bit further down the road mixed in with the Acapulcan madness is a McDonald's, KFC, and Starbucks. You have to wonder what places like Acapulco would look like if at least in the food realm they were left to evolve independent of middle-America eating and buying.

But, this is as far as I'll go with the editorializing on tourism and local economies and will let the food and politics speak for itself.


La Lomita and La Tejamil: When we told our cab driver we wanted to go to La Lomita, he told us he'd wait for us in the taxi while we ate. Cabs didn't pass by these restaurants outside the boundary of Acapulco tourism. In fact, we drove several miles down roads in very poor neighborhoods - the sturdiest structure for miles had been the ubiquitous Coca-Cola factory, standing prisonous with armed guards in front. La Lomita was completely deserted at eight in the evening. They weren't serving food. Next door, La Tejamil looked the same, but they were open. The brightly painted pavilion was emtpy but for us, crickets chirping outside, neighborhood dogs barking, and crazy game shows on the TV. What we later learned, after some deliciously strong margaritas, salty queso fundido, fresh guacamole, "little birds" and fish tacos and was that los jueves and los domingos are the days and nights to go to both places for lively music and lots of food and people. We never did make it back for los jueves, so to us it remains a food mystery unsolved, and we are left to imagine how fantastic it must be.

La Tortuga: By far the best place where we ate, and in fact we went twice. It's nicely tucked away into a hillside away from all the hustle and bustle. It's a space in which you don't know exactly where it begins and ends - there are no walls but one, and tables strewn about on the bi-level patio under fauna and outdoor ceiling fans. It's a quiet and happy place. Our server was very kind and attentive and remembered us the second time we came. We shared combination platters with tostadas, enchiladas, chiles rellenos, guacamole, and frijoles. The sopa de tortilla was a meal on it's own, chiles just over the brim of comfortably spicy, cooled off with slices of avocado and melted cheese. Then out came the helado coco (coconut ice cream) with toasted coconute flakes and drizzled with a coffee liqueur. Sigh. We also had this marvelous liqueur in our coffee. This was the closest we came to food heaven the entire week.


La Perla/La Quebrada: On a day of sightseeing around the city, our cab driver took us to La Quebrada, the cliffs where for over fifty years divers have jumped from daring heights into treacherous sea water. And this is good entertainment, so we watched from a hotel restaurant built into the cliffs, drinking cervezas and eating tacos with a bird's eye view of the spectacle. It was food with a view.

It's true that the diva is well past her prime, but she can create an amazing food effect.



La Tortuga Restaurante-Bar
Avenida Lomas Del Mar 5
Acapulco, MX 39690, GRO
Since 1960
Tel. 52-744-4-84-69-85

Liz's June Wedding

Midway through June was cousin Liz's wedding in Cleveland. The twenty-something cousins had already predicted who would be married first within our bunch, and Liz was not the first we had guessed. But at times the best thing about families is the "who knows?" unpredictability. The extended family converged for the affair, starting the Thursday before with a food party for the soon-to-be newlyweds. All guests brought a dish and recipe to share = tables of food. We met a lot of new people through their food. Groom Jason's grandma was my favorite - the way she simply, yet exquisitely described a two-ingredient sloppy joe and waldorf salad made me wish she had a cooking show I could watch every day.

So food is the great social integrator at weddings.

At the food party, my sister and I ran a smoothie station and blended a few original fruity creations. Teresa capitalized on her smoothie-making skills gained during her famous college-years stint at the Orange Julius in the mall. Especially popular at the party was the Magic Mojito (and it was good even without the rum!)- all recipes can be found below.


The Sunday after the wedding, Liz and Jason were already on their cruise ship ready to sail out into the Caribbean and our family was playing croquet and prepping for an after-party and Father's Day picnic in Auntie MJ's and Uncle Don's backyard.

Family picnics are great casual affairs where lounging, eating and talking are the primary activities. We got stuffed on Italian sausages in toasted rolls that were topped with roasted red peppers, onions and spicy mustard. Auntie MB's rosemary potato salad had me swooning under the fragrance, and we grilled some corn smothered in chili-lime butter for twenty people, all on a little hibatchi.




Following were some s'mores and Liz's homemade birthday cake for Teresa and Anthony. The bride even took time to bake her cousin a birthday cake - amazing. It was a fluffy white cake with a mysterious lump of chocolate in the middle - delicious! Still full, though wanting more family fun and food, Dad took me to the airport so I could get back to NYC in time to catch my flight to Mexico, thus setting us up for the next food episode.

Sister Smoothies*

Magic Mango & Mint Mojito
1/2 can of Limeade concentrate
1 cup of Seltzer
1 sliced Mango
1-2 sprigs of Fresh Mint
1 1/2 cup Ice
Blend!

Love Monkey
1 1/2 cups of Chocolate Soymilk
2 sliced Bananas
1-2 teaspoons of Honey
1 cup of Ice
Blend!

Smooth Sailin'
1/2 cup of Sliced Strawberries
1/2 cup of Sliced Pineapple
1 1/2 cups of Orange Juice
1-2 teaspoons of Honey
1 1/2 cups of Ice
Blend!

*Adjust proportions of ingrediants to your liking.*

*Rum can be added to any of these if you need to feel extra smooth.*



Grilled Corn with Chili-Lime Butter

If done right, this corn will take you to new heights in flavor. The trick is to do an initial smother of the mixture, grill it, then spread on some more with an extra squeeze of fresh lime juice.

Fresh corn (husked)
1-2 Sticks of butter
1-2 Limes
Chili Powder

Directions:
1. Soften butter in microwave. In bowl with butter, squeeze in the juice of one lime. Sprinkle in chili powder to your taste. Blend.

2. Spread on corn ears. Grill and turn until golden brown.

3. Spread another layer of chili-lime butter on corn and squeeze on a little more fresh lime juice.