RoundAbout San Diego

It's Christmas Eve and we all spent the day preparing for tomorrow's dinner. Before Janet and Klaus arrived I had made a 'To-do-list' for everyone. We had to run to the store for last minute items but generally it was a relaxing day at home chopping, slicing, and dicing for various recipes for our big Christmas Day dinner. We also had last minute presents to wrap and I had an early huge surprise. Around 4pm this afternoon Alex sent me to my room saying he had something he had to do but didn't want me to see. I was all excited thinking he and his Dad were putting together a bicycle for me which I had been asking for for a while.

It turns out that Alex had repaired some of the brick work in our fireplace and had a chimney sweep come in and fix our chimney for us and he surprised me with a roaring fire in the grate. We have lived in this house for over 4 years and one of the reasons we wanted it was because it had a working fireplace. Now at last it is really is working. Well, it actually smoked the house out a bit but we soon got over that after the windows were opened. We had to rearrange the fire a bit to make sure the smoke went up the chimney and not into the living room.



Anyway, with the warm glow of the fire, the tree with all it's lights in the front bay window it is definitely beginning to look like Christmas. We sat around drinking the eggnog that Janet had made using an old family recipe, and admired the flames for a while before I started putting dinner on the table.

Tonight's dinner was cooked 2 days ago before Janet and Klaus arrived. Just under half is already in the freezer for some future meal for us. Meantime, the cassoulet had sat for a couple of days and the flavor improved considerably. This is a perfect dinner for a cold winter's night. It's unfortunate that San Diego doesn't get many cold nights and tonight was no exception - especially with the fire going. Anyway, it was Christmas, it was winter, and we imagined the cold. I did make a couple of changes to the recipe - I took half of the pork and substituted with boneless, skinless, chicken thighs cut into chunks. I also omitted the directions in the last paragraph. I served this meal with a salad and a baguette for sopping up the sauce and it was fabulous.

Shortcut Pork Cassoulet

Ingredients

1 pound dried Great Northern beans
5 bacon slices, coarsely chopped
1 3 1/2-pound boneless pork shoulder, trimmed of excess fat, cut into 1- to 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 pound kielbasa, cut into 3/4-inch-thick slices
2 1/2 cups chopped onions
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup sliced peeled carrots
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon dried thyme
2 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
1 14 1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 cups coarse fresh breadcrumbs made from French bread
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small red bell pepper, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
Chopped fresh parsley

Preparation

Place beans in large saucepan. Add enough cold water to cover by 3 inches. Bring to boil. Remove from heat. Cover and soak beans 1 hour. Drain.
Return beans to pan. Add enough cold water to cover beans by 3 inches. Bring to boil. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat until beans are almost tender, about 30 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 300°F. Cook bacon in heavy large ovenproof pot over medium heat until crisp, about 8 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to large bowl. Discard all but 2 tablespoons drippings from pot. Increase heat to medium-high. Working in batches, cook pork shoulder and kielbasa in pot until brown, about 8 minutes per batch. Using slotted spoon, transfer pork and kielbasa to bowl with bacon.

Add onions, celery and carrots to pot. Sauté until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and thyme; sauté 1 minute. Mix in broth, tomatoes with juices and tomato paste; bring to boil. Stir in meats from bowl, then drained beans. Return to boil. Cover pot. Transfer to oven; bake until pork is tender, about 1 hour. Maintain oven temperature.

Using slotted spoon, transfer 1 cup beans and vegetables from pot to processor and purée. Return purée to pot. Stir in wine. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Refrigerate uncovered until cool, then cover and refrigerate. Bring cassoulet to simmer before continuing.)

Smooth top of cassoulet. Mix breadcrumbs, Parmesan and oil in bowl. Sprinkle half of crumb mixture over cassoulet. Arrange bell pepper atop crumb mixture. Sprinkle with remaining crumb mixture. Bake cassoulet uncovered until pork and beans are very tender and topping is golden and crisp, about 45 minutes.
Garnish cassoulet with parsley.

Serving size 8 - 10.

Yesterday was my birthday and we went to one of my favorite restaurants in the North Park area - Apertivo.It is a very loud and lively place to eat dinner. You are surrounded by groups of people having animated conversations, drinking wine, and sharing small plates of fabulous Mediterranean food. The food is reasonably priced and the wine list offers a great selection at lower than usual prices. There's a small bar in the back corner where, if you're lucky enough to grab a spot, you can sit and talk about wines and food with the owner. The idea is to relax and order a medley of small plates to share with everyone at the table. With the wine and conversation flowing, you'll find yourself sitting there for hours. Last night we started out with a Caesar salad and capelinni with gorgonzola cream sauce and pecans. We then went on to the osso bucco d'angnelli (lamb braised in red wine), the criimini mushrooms cooked in sherry, the oven roasted potatoes, and the broccoli sautéed in butter and garlic. We finished with the lemon cheesecake mousse and hazelnut port. Everything was really great and the lamb was spectacular. I'd like to say we walked out of there but I think it was more of a waddle. As a last note I started this post by saying Apertivo was loud and lively and it is. This is the one complaint that many people have after eating there. It is not a place to go for a nice meal with quiet conversation. Apertivo is a great restaurant and I really enjoy the vibrant atmosphere.

One last thing - I finally joined the masses last night by becoming the proud owner of a cell phone. It's not yet charged but I look forward to walking around with it glued to my ear.

This is not your typical dry roast turkey. Because you just cook the breast it is extremely moist (don't overcook it). I served this with little roasted red potatoes and roast carrots, and a salad.

Roasted Turkey Breast with Balsamic Glaze and Bell Pepper-Onion Saute

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 2-pound turkey breast half with bones
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

2 red bell peppers, cut into 1/3-inch-wide strips
2 yellow bell peppers, cut into 1/3-inch-wide strips
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, divided
3 tablespoons drained capers

Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Brush turkey breast with 1 tablespoon oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on prepared sheet. Roast until thermometer inserted into thickest part of turkey registers 170°F and juices run clear when pierced with fork, about 45 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes (internal temperature of turkey will increase to 175°F).

Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell peppers and onion; sauté until tender and brown around edges, about 10 minutes. Add thyme; stir 2 minutes. Mix in 2 tablespoons vinegar and capers. Season with salt and pepper.

Remove bones from turkey. Thinly slice turkey crosswise. Transfer to platter and keep warm. Place baking sheet over 2 stove-top burners; add remaining 3 tablespoons vinegar to baking sheet and bring to boil, scraping up browned bits. Pour vinegar over turkey. Arrange bell pepper mixture around turkey and serve.

6 servings.

A couple of years ago Alex and I spent a few days in France. We were able to visit Paris for 3 days and then travelled by train to Le Havre to visit his Tante Margerite et Oncle Andre. Of course our favorite part of the trip was the food. We ate crepes for breakfast in Paris served from street carts; had wonderful filled baguettes for lunch; and bought fresh cheeses, fruit and bread for dinner. A bottle of wine rounded out the evening so perfectly.

In Le Havre Tante Margerite would walk down to the local bakery, before we were even out of bed, for fresh croissants. We had a 'lite' 4 course meal for lunch and a more substantial 5 course dinner later in the evening - it was all totally amazing. One of my favorite meals was a cheese souffle so of course I had to try making one when I arrived home.

Once again epicurious.com provided the perfect recipe. So easy! The first time I made it I cut the recipe in half for me and Alex. The next time I made it my in-laws were visiting so a full recipe was prepared. Both times the souffle came out successfully.

Gruyere and Parmesan Cheese Souffle

Grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
5 tablespoons all purpose flour
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Pinch of ground nutmeg
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1/4 cup dry white wine
6 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons (packed) coarsely grated Gruyère cheese (about 6 ounces)
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
8 large egg whites

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400°F. Generously butter one 10-cup soufflé dish or six 1 1/4-cup soufflé dishes; sprinkle with Parmesan cheese to coat. (If using 1 1/4-cup dishes, place all 6 on rimmed baking sheet.) Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add flour, cayenne pepper and nutmeg. Cook without browning until mixture begins to bubble, whisking constantly, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk, then wine. Cook until smooth, thick and beginning to boil, whisking constantly, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Mix yolks, salt and pepper in small bowl. Add yolk mixture all at once to sauce and whisk quickly to blend. Fold in 1 1/4 cups Gruyère cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (cheeses do not need to melt). Using electric mixer, beat whites in large bowl until stiff but not dry. Fold 1/4 of whites into lukewarm soufflé base to lighten. Fold in remaining whites. Transfer soufflé mixture to prepared dish. Sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons Gruyère cheese.

Place soufflé in oven; reduce heat to 375°F. Bake soufflé until puffed, golden and gently set in center, about 40 minutes for large soufflé (or 25 minutes for small soufflés). Using oven mitts, transfer soufflé to platter and serve immediately.

When we first found this recipe we made it all the time. It was so refreshing on a hot day and we had the lemon tree in the back yard dropping lemons by the dozen. This is a really light dessert for a summer dinner.

Lemon Buttermilk Sorbet

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons grated lemon peel
4 cups buttermilk

Stir sugar, lemon juice and peel in medium bowl. Add buttermilk; stir until sugar dissolves. Chill until cold, about 4 hours. Process mixture in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to container with lid; freeze. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Keep frozen.)

Thank you epicurious.com.

I love this for dinner on a cold winter's day. I know we don't get them that often here in Southern California but to me anything below 65 degrees is a cold winter's day. I found this recipe in an old cook book I had called "Low-Fat Ways to Lose Weight" by Cooking Light. Serve with quinoa or brown rice. Alex likes it with grated cheese and sour cream but that kind of defeats the purpose of a low-fat meal.

Lamb Chili with Black Beans

1 ½ lbs lean ground lamb
1 C chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 X 14oz cans tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1 C dry red wine
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 ½ tsp grnd cumin
1 ½ tsp dried oregano
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp salt
3 X 15oz cans black beans, drained
¼ tsp hot sauce
Fresh cilantro sprigs (optional)

Combine first 3 ingredients in a large skillet and cook over medium heat until browned, breaking up lamb into crumbles. Drain in a colander and pat dry with paper towels. Wipe drippings from pan with a paper towel and return mixture to pan.

Add tomatoes and next 6 ingredients and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Stir in beans and hot sauce. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. Spoon into bowls and garnish with cilantro.

8 X 1 cup servings

We had heard great things about Ponce's Mexican Restaurant - and it came highly recommended. There were long lines when we were there, indicating that it's a very popular restaurant. We arrived at 5:30 and immediately got a table, but by the time we left at 6:45 a long line had formed. So it was very busy. The ambiance is casual with most people were wearing jeans and t-shirts and the service was quick and very friendly. The decor is an eclectic mix of spanish medieval gothic (two suits of armor in the corner - very cool) with a few sombreros also hanging on the wall, as well as old Mexican record covers. With all the recommendations we had been expecting extraordinary food, but we thought the quality of the food was simply good. We think this may have been a case of ordering the wrong thing. Beverley had the steak picato, and I had the chili verde. Beverley thought hers was a little watery, and all she could taste was the pepper - no other seasonings seemed to be involved. Mine was better than Beverley's (but it wasn't the best chili verde I've ever had). Looking at what other people were ordering, we thought some of their food looked better. So we're definitely planning on going back and trying other things on the menu. The margaritas were good. It's a great place for families: a cheap, casual night out at the local hangout. The cost of our meal here was $40 total. This included a cheese quesadilla as an appetizer, two entrees, two margaritas, and the tip.

I've occasionally heard that the Point Loma peninsula is hollow. The story is that the Navy hollowed it out and installed huge fuel tanks inside of it during World War II. While visiting Cabrillo National Monument I took the opportunity to ask the park ranger in the visitor center if there was any truth to this claim, or if it's just an urban legend. He assured me it was an urban legend.

According to the ranger, the Navy does maintain large fuel tanks on Point Loma, but for the most part they're above ground. There may be one or two small underground tanks, but there's no massive underground cistern. However, the ranger did say that Point Loma is riddled with underground tunnels, but they're off-limits to the public. He also said that if you want massive underground fuel tanks, you need to go to Hawaii. After Pearl Harbor the military realized the potential vulnerability of having above-ground fuel tanks there. If the Japanese had targeted the fuel tanks instead of the ships, they could have crippled the entire American fleet. Realizing this, the military subsequently moved the tanks on Hawaii underground.

Janet, Klaus, Alex, and I visited The Lavender Fields today.


Row upon row of all kinds of lavender


They even have a lavender maze


The gift store sells all sorts of oils, creams, soaps, shampoos, etc.


What better way to end a day out than with a wine tasting. Orfila Winery is just south east of Escondido on the road going out to the Wild Animal Park.


They offer a great tour of the wine making process and you can finish up with several tastes of their products which includes olive oils, vinegars, jams, mustards, relishes, etc.


Here's me with Janet and Klaus


And the gift store offers a ton of gourmet goodies to take home with you

(Originally posted on The Museum of Hoaxes)

For Christmas I received a great book, Weird U.S.: Your Travel Guide to America's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets by Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman. Immediately I flipped through it to find anything about San Diego, and soon came across the legend of Midgetville.

Midgetville refers to the legend of a town consisting of scaled-down houses built for little people. Midgetville is said to exist in various places throughout America. As Moran and Sceurman note, the most credible rumor locates such a town in Jefferson Township, New Jersey, on the former estate of circus mogul Alfred T. Ringling. There really is a collection of small-sized houses there that could conceivably have once been home to a colony of midgets. However, another very persistent legend locates a Midgetville in San Diego.

Moran and Sceurman don't go into much detail about the San Diego Midgetville, but I realized that I had heard this legend before (my wife had also heard it). This is how it goes: back in the 1930s a group of little people who had made a lot of money in Hollywood appearing in movies such as The Wizard of Oz supposedly came down to San Diego and built a collection of miniature houses on Mt. Soledad where they could live in comfort together. But of course, nobody seems to know exactly where on Mt. Soledad this group of small houses was or is, though everybody has heard of a "friend of a friend" who once accidentally found the houses (though this FOAF can never remember how to get back there).

Determined to find the houses, I did a google search and came across an article from 2003 written by Kenneth Smith for the Daily Aztec detailing his own efforts to track down San Diego's fabled 'Munchkin Houses'. After many false starts, he finally discovered that they were most probably "a group of four cottages on Hillside Drive in La Jolla... built by famed architect Cliff May." Although no midgets or little people were ever known to live in these houses, Smith says that, "The houses do indeed have smallish features, accentuated by an optical illusion. The steep road that passes them makes them seem even smaller than they actually are." Unfortunately only one of the four cottages remains standing, but Smith provides directions to find it: "take Hillside Drive from Torrey Pines Road. The house will be on your left-hand side. Look for the crazy midget handwriting." He also mentions that if you peek through the window (the house is unoccupied) you'll see "cobblestone-like tiled floors and a little round fireplace."

Of course, I had to see this for myself, even if no colony of Wizard-of-Oz midgets had ever lived there. So on New Year's Day I convinced my wife to accompany me on a search for the Munchkin House. The results were mixed. It was no problem finding Hillside Drive, but as it turns out Hillside Drive is fairly long. We were driving up and down it (as a line of cars formed behind us) wondering 'exactly which house on the left did he mean.' None of the houses leaps out at you and screams 'Munchkin House.' But finally we settled on one house that we figured must be it: Seventy-Four Seventy-Seven Hillside Drive. It had small windows and a small door. Plus, the address written beside the door looked a bit like 'crazy midget handwriting' (though I think Smith was joking about this). Ignoring the 'No Trespassing' sign (even though part of the legend of Midgetville is that the midgets who live there fiercely defend their land from the Bigs), I peeked through the window and saw the cobblestone-like tiled floors and a little round fireplace. So I think I found the Munchkin House, though I'm not 100% sure. It's certainly not anything that would catch your attention if you weren't specifically looking for it since it's really not that small, which made the trip a bit disappointing. But the weird thing is, I've already forgotten how to get back there.

This was a great cake to end the St. Patrick's Day dinner I had prepared for friends. I served it with vanilla-whipped cream (1 C cream, 2 Tsp vanilla, 2 Tsp powder sugar). However, there are a couple of things that didn't quite turn out as well as expected.

First, all my raisins sank to the bottom half of the cake. I believe that by the time I had completed all the creaming of the butter/sugar, whipping the egg whites and folding them into the batter, more than 30 minutes had passed for the soaking of the raisins. Maybe they had soaked up more whiskey than intended and then settled during the baking time. Second, the cake took only 35 minutes to cook and even then was a little dark around the edges - probably 30 minutes would have been perfect. I don't know if this was a mistake in the recipe or if I did something wrong in the preparation.

Despite all this we really liked the cake and it was all gone by the end of the evening.

Irish Whiskey Cake
Arlyn Hackett via San Diego Union Tribune

1 C raisins
2/3 C plus ¼ C Irish whiskey (divided Use)
1 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest
1 Tbsp finely grated orange zest
1 C unbleached all-purpose flour or whole-wheat pastry flour
1½ Tsp baking soda
¼ Tsp salt
4 eggs, separated
1 C butter, room temperature
1 C brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In small bowl, combine raisins, 2/3 cup whiskey and lemon and orange zest. Let stand 30 minutes.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In another bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, to the butter/sugar mixture. Mix well. Stir in the raisin/whiskey mixture. Mix well. Stir in the flour mixture.

When batter is well blended, fold in the egg-whites. Pour into a lightly oiled 9- or 10-inch round pan and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a tooth-pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and immediately puncture the top of the cake several times with a toothpick. Gently pour 2 Tbsp whiskey over the top of the cake. Let the cake cool and remove from the pan. Sprinkle another 2 Tbsp whiskey over the top of the cake.

Wrap the cake in plastic wrap until ready to serve. The cake may be served hot or cold and is best made a day ahead.