Reading, lately

Re-reading, rather.

{tea + a book}

I've already read Housekeeping, but I couldn't resist checking it out again when I was at the library last week. I read it slowly, because it is one of those books you want to get lost in. Quiet, sharp, witty and with an overarching aching feeling that hits you just slightly below the ribs. The words are beautifully crafted but never contrived.

Also, you might want to clean your house and cozy up in crisp sheets before you read the first couple chapters. There are some descriptions of domesticity in there that will have you feeling the urge to sun bleach all your linens, whether you have proper linens or not.

Greek almond bars - a work in progress

My life in Athens had a sort of fairy tale quality to it. Partly because I didn't work and my classes were a lot less demanding than usual, so I had a lot of time. I would wake up and drink tea with evaporated milk and chat with my roommates. I would eat oatmeal with honey and walnuts (and also with evaporated milk). And, if nothing in particular was scheduled, I would head out the door and walk. I would wander all day, with no destination in mind. I would get lost, but it didn't really count because you can't get lost if you aren't trying to get somewhere specific. I was almost never trying to get anywhere specific. And the city is relatively small, if you don't count the sprawling suburbs. I learned Athens with the sort of intuitive sense you only get from your feet.*

This is going somewhere, I promise.

One of my favorite parts of the city are the little peripteros that you can find on almost every corner. The kiosks sell just about anything a wandering person might want. Water, naturally. A huge selection of candy and ice cream. Plenty of Haribo gummies of various types. And nut bars.

{almond snack bar}

They are nuts (usually almonds or sesame seeds or both) bound together with honey or sugar syrup. So simple, practically virtuous. And much more effective walking fuel than the usual candy bars. Easier to toss in your bag than a container of yogurt and honey (also available at the periptero).

I find them here, sometimes. If you have a Greek market, you might see them. Oddly, Longs Drugs frequently carries them in their international section.

But with so few ingredients, why not make them? I dug out a recipe for sesame bars from my trusty Greek cookbook. It basically involves heating honey to the hard ball stage and then pouring it over roasted nuts. I did everything possible to mess it up. I heated the honey in the microwave (it's a long story) and I ignored the fact that it was raining. Rain + candy making are not a good match. My bars turned out sticky, difficult. But I have hope. The flavor was perfect and next time I will try increasing the temperature to hard crack, to get the sharper snap I want. I added salt to the recipe and I highly recommend that you do the same. The occasional flake of salt played beautifully with the depth of the honey (I used sage honey) and the slight bitterness of the orange rind.

{wrapped up}

I wrapped the sticky bars in wax paper. I nibble, and think of Athens. I will keep trying.

Almond-honey bars 
(adapted from The Food and Wine of Greece, still troubleshooting for my preferences)
Equal weights almonds and honey**
Freshly grated orange rind
Flaky sea salt, to taste

:: Toast your almonds in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Set aside in a bowl.

:: Heat the honey to 256 degrees (this is my biggest point of disagreement with the recipe - next time I think I'll be aiming for at least 300 degrees). You must measure this with a candy thermometer. Sugar follows rules, and the hotter it cooks, the snappier it is when it cools. You cannot eyeball candy making (unless you get really, really good at it and can recognize the different boiling textures).

:: Add the grated orange peel and the sea salt to the honey and then quickly pour it over the almonds. Stir briefly to mix and then pour out onto a lined pan and press the almonds into a single layer with a spatula. I just poured them onto my usual half sheet baking pan lined with a Silpat and I didn't care that it wasn't a perfect rectangle. Next time, I think I would choose an 8x8 pan and line it with parchment.

:: Let it cool for at least one day and then cut the bars and wrap them airtight. Share around, because you can't make a small batch of these. I had to use a full cup of honey because a smaller volume wouldn't have worked with the candy thermometer.

* I remind myself to do this in my own city as well. I'm so good about exploring aimlessly when I travel, but I tend to forget to do it at home. I've made a conscious effort to walk whenever I have spare time and I've found so many great little places in my area of Los Angeles that I never would have seen otherwise. Everything just looks different.

** They mean this - I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of honey, but you need it to make enough syrup. I ended up using a full cup of honey and approximately 2 cups of almonds, but I highly recommend using the weighing method if you have a scale.

The weekend, briefly

Quiet, hushed. That's how my weekend photos feel. It poured on Saturday, which makes it easier to stay home and get stuff done. We finally watched Inception. We got some time in the kitchen (me - chocolate chip cookies to freeze for emergencies, d - granola). EDIT - If you're curious about my emergency cookie stash, you can read my post about it here.

{breakfast}

{grater, cheese}

{breakfast quesadilla}

{morning}

{reading}

{kitchen afternoon}

{cookie dough}

{sage honey}

Friday flowers

D surprised me with flowers this week.

{tulips, lisianthus}

I added the hearts, naturally. I resisted the urge to glitter them, and I consider that my valentine's gift to him.

{tulips, lisianthus, hearts}

I'm always sort of bewildered by the fun valentine's day crafts you're supposed to make for your boyfriend. Because honestly, I'm pretty sure D would be touched by the effort, but otherwise uninterested in origami folded love notes hidden around the house or anything similar.

He did get brownies, but I only cut two of them into heart shapes. The rest we ate out of the pan, with a fork.

{valentine's brownies, 2011}

Tomato-coconut braised chicken and couscous

There haven't been a lot of recipes here lately because I've been busy and everything we eat has been of the throw-it-together variety. And it's hard to share those meals, because I don't have recipes and I'm lucky if I can even remember what I did. And even if I do remember, they're frequently decent but uninteresting and not really worthy of sharing.

But every once in a while I get lucky. Braised chicken thighs in a dish that ended up being vaguely Indian, because I had a sweet potato to use up and I decided to add some coconut milk, so garam masala seemed like the logical spice pairing.

{tomato-coconut braised chicken and couscous}

This is good. Good enough that I'd like to try to write down the gist of the recipe so that I could replicate it sometime. It starts, as most good things do, with a pile of sliced onions and some spice (garam masala, in this case). And then you braise some chicken, which is a thoroughly reliable cooking method for those of us who are just not so good with meat and quail at the thought of having to figure out exact cooking times. And at the very end, you stir in some couscous, to absorb the liquid and give the meal some heft.

The instructions for this dish make it seem more complicated than it is, but that's just because I gave you a lot of detail. And remember - you can adjust as needed. Swap veggies or spices or liquids. Add more liquid if you need it, add more couscous if you'd like. But I'll probably make it exactly this way again. 

Tomato Coconut Braised Chicken and Couscous (serves 4, probably with some leftover couscous)

3 - 4 yellow onions, sliced
A glug of olive oil, for the pan
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
3 carrots, chopped (just because I had them - you could leave them out)
1 - 2 tablespoons garam masala (one of my favorite spice blends, I get mine premade from the Indian market)
Large pinch of flaky salt (or whatever, in whatever amount you like)
3/4 cup red wine (totally optional - I just needed to use up the tail end of a bottle)
1 can diced tomatoes (14 oz), not drained
4 - 6 chicken thighs (I used bone in, but skinned them)
Extra liquid, as needed (I think I used an additional cup of beef broth, just because it was open, but you could use water or more tomatoes, or whatever)
1 large sweet potato, chunked (also optional, but it was sooo good in this dish)
1 can light coconut milk (14 oz)
3/4 cup whole wheat couscous

:: You want to use a large saucepan with a lid. I have a large straight sided saute pan (similar to this one, but in stainless steel), and it works beautifully here. 

:: Saute the onions in the olive oil over medium heat, until they're soft and starting to brown and caramelize (maybe 10 - 15 minutes).

:: Meanwhile, chop your carrots and press your garlic. Get out your garam masala, open your can of tomatoes. Take the skin off your chicken if you'd like.

:: When the onions are ready, toss in your carrots and garlic. Saute for another few minutes, then add the garam masala and stir for a minute, to get the spice incorporated.

:: Pour in the red wine (if using) and your can of tomatoes. Stir it up, add a pinch of salt. Place the chicken thighs in the pan.

:: If the chicken isn't covered by liquid (not swimming in liquid, just a very thin layer over the top), then add a bit of extra liquid to bring it up. I used broth, but you could use water if you'd like, or more tomatoes.

:: Let it come to a simmer, cover the pan and lower the heat. It'll need to cook for at least 45 minutes to get that nice falling off the bone tenderness.

:: After about 15 minutes, toss in the chunks of sweet potato. It takes a little less time to cook, so it doesn't need to be in there the whole time. Stir, turn the chicken over if you'd like, replace the lid, walk away.

:: Check it at 45 minutes to see if the chicken is tender and the sweet potatoes are done.

:: If ready, remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and set aside. Stir in the coconut milk. Bring it to a simmer and let it cook for a couple minutes, without the lid.

:: Stir in the couscous, turn off the heat, replace the lid. Give it at least five minutes to absorb. You aren't going to have light fluffy couscous - it just hydrates and thickens up the sauce and it's amazing. If you feel like you have way too much liquid, you can add a bit more couscous.

:: Add the chicken back to the pan, serve. Eat alone, or with naan.

Also very excellent cold out of the fridge the next day. I had way more couscous than chicken (only used 3 thighs) so I ate the leftover couscous on it's own. If you're vegetarian, you could still do this but leave out the chicken and maybe add more potatoes and I think it would be great.

P.S. - There are some nice variations in the comments! You guys are amazing. This is probably my favorite kind of cooking (start from a base and wing it) so it's great to see everyone chiming in with their own spin on it. 

The weekend, briefly

The weather was so gorgeous this weekend that walking was really the only thing to do. And we walked - about seven miles over both days, although we offset it by making frequent stops to eat delicious food. We specifically picked our neighborhood because it is so walkable and it's lovely when we actually have time to take advantage of it.

{pedicure weather}

{beard papa's}

{churros!}

{churros y chocolate}

We hadn't been to Beard Papa's for cream puffs in a while, so it was nice to stop in. Although I don't know if we'll be going back soon, because the next day we tried the new churro place and I'm smitten. They serve traditional churros for dipping into thick hot chocolate. They're a little skinnier than the ones we were used to in Spain, but such a great snack. And the cafe con leche was excellent. We pretended we were on vacation.

Friday flowers (crafty edition - take II, the evolution)

I'm still playing with these. I added some succulents and mixed in some candles.

{succulents, candles, paper flowers}

I think we'd need to use clear glass cylinders instead of mason jars. The jars photograph well, but in real life the embossed writing obscures your view of the succulents. I'd also use something other than dirty gravel that I scraped out of the yard, in case you were wondering about that.

{succulents, candles, paper flowers}

I'd like to have taller candleholders that could fit actual votives instead of tealights, but we have about 200 of these already (leftover from my sister's wedding). I'm still trying to decide how likely it is that the candles will set the paper flowers on fire. (Probably likely, if the flowers are loose and people start playing with them. Potentially less likely, if I glue all the flowers in place.)

The succulents weren't chosen specifically - they're just pups (baby succulents!) that my mom had lying around, waiting to be planted. That's part of what makes the succulents do-able for us. My parents already have a huge native garden to pull from.

This prototyping part is fun. Figuring out how many square feet of space you need per person for different seating layouts? Decidedly less fun. But much more important. So we're doing that stuff too.