August is over, and the kids are back in school. The transition
from summer to fall took but a minute. The minute was at 6 a.m.,
which is when our youngest daughter decided to wake up for her
first day of middle school so she would look presentable.
August is over, and the kids are back in school. The transition from summer to fall took but a minute. The minute was at 6 a.m., which is when our youngest daughter decided to wake up for her first day of middle school so she would look presentable. By 6:30, she looked great. By 7, she still looked great. But at 7:30, when it was time to leave, she was still asking if her outfit looked OK. It did.
This youngest one is ready before anyone else. She has time to feed the dog, the cat and herself and still be ready before I am.
I don’t think I was ever that quick. I remember my dad yelling at me from his post at the kitchen table: “Who cares what your hair looks like if you can’t think. Come and eat NOW.” He hated our blow dryers, and swore each month while looking at the PG&E bill that our clothes dryer and our hair dryers were causing our bills to go through the roof. (Of course, with four women in the house, he was probably right.)
He used to threaten us that if we missed the bus due to our morning primping, we’d be stuck at home all day, pulling weeds or building fences. If that isn’t incentive, I don’t know what is. I recently ran into Annie Shrull, my grammar school bus driver. She remembers the mornings when my sister and I would come flying out of the house as she sat at the bus stop, honking her horn.
“I never left you,” she said. And it’s true. Annie saved us many times from weed-pulling duty, and I am still grateful.
And now for some
recipes …
• End of summer dinner: The end of summer is bitter-sweet for me. I look forward to the schedule, but wish the more freeform days of summer could last just a bit longer. School means we actually have to accomplish something (besides swimming) each night. It means the kids have to be in bed at a certain hour so they can get enough sleep. And it means we have to eat at a more decent hour, instead of our summertime practice of looking at the clock and exclaiming, “Wow, it’s already 8:30. I guess we’d better do something about dinner.” Here’s a quick one for “Fall Fajitas” if you’re not quite on school time yet. For a quick clean-up, eat it on the patio on paper plates and serve ice cream sandwiches for dessert.
• Salad days: When it’s too hot to cook, and you’re not cooking for very hungry people, a salad will suffice. Make it with cheese and nuts and serve with French bread and you’ve got a light meal. Grill a few sausages to serve on the side and you will please almost anyone. The recipe for “Tart Greens with Warm Balsamic Vinegar” is from the Junior League of San Francisco.
• Easy beef: My friends Joe and Julie Morris are producing grass-fed beef in San Juan Bautista, marketing it to people who want this healthy style of beef. Joe’s mom came up with this recipe for “Baked Steak” (on the Web site at www.morrisgrassfed.com). It’s an easy one for entertaining because you don’t have to watch over it. This is a “to taste” recipe, because you add ingredients according to your taste.
• A reminder: The restaurant review column will run next Saturday! Write in a short comment about your favorite restaurant and e-mail it to [email protected].
Happy cooking!
Notes & Quotes
• Anonymous Etiquette:
Q: “My wife and I can’t agree on what side to put the knives and forks. Does the knife go on the right or left? Do the tines point in or out? Where should the napkin go? Thanks for settling this argument.” ~ Hollister reader.
A:There are many different opinions on this. However, three out of four etiquette books agreed that the knives go on the right, tines pointing toward the plate. Forks go on the left, with the largest dinner fork nearest the plate. Napkins can go either under the knife or on the plate. (If you have a different opinion, please share. This reader would like input.)
• Cooking questions: Maria Sharpe of Morgan Hill asked for wedding gift ideas for new cooks. She wants to put together a package. I suggest one or more of the following, which are basics for the kitchen: chef’s knife, paring knife, bread knife; set of good wooden spoons (heavy ones are best because they last the longest); nice kitchen towels; measuring cup; measuring spoons. Put the whole package into a set of mixing bowls or a nice pasta pot or a couple of Pyrex baking dishes. All of these items will be used, I’m sure.
• End note: Edmund McIlhenny of Avery Island, La., began producing Tabasco sauce in 1868. At first, he used discarded cologne bottles to hold his innovative pepper sauce. Soon he was making his own bottles, which originally had sharp shoulders. However, those bottles broke so easily that he switched to the round-shouldered bottle still used today. Recently, a 130-year-old Tabasco bottle was unearthed at an archaeological excavation in Virginia City, Nev. It had been in the Boston Saloon, which catered to African Americans and operated from 1864 to 1875.
• Quote of the week: “‘Tain’t the things we don’t know that makes us so ignorant. It’s the things we know that ain’t so. Most of us dislike changes and we oppose them in most cases. Every improvement ever made was done so reluctantly. Nothing new is considered practical or possible – until someone with broader vision than our own does the things that can’t be done and gets better results by methods that ‘won’t work.'” – Mark Twain
Fall Fajitas
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast cutlets
2 T. soy sauce
Fresh black pepper to taste
1 T. freshly squeezed lime
Step 1 Preheat broiler or heat up the grill. If using broiler, position rack 4 inches below the broiler. If desired, pound the chicken breasts to a uniform thickness between two sheets of wax paper.
Step 2 Brush the chicken with soy sauce and sprinkle with pepper. (Let sit in refrigerator for an hour or two if you have time.) Grill or broil the chicken very quickly; 3 to 4 minutes per side. Sprinkle with lime juice.
Step 3 Put onto the table with the following “fixings” and let family members make their own fajitas. Serves 4.
Fixings: 1 cup each sour cream, guacamole, salsa
2 cups each shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, shredded cheese
1 small can sliced olives
8 to 12 flour tortillas
Tart Greens with Warm Balsamic Dressing
1 red onion, thinly sliced and separated into rings
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons Cabernet or other red wine vinegar
1 small head romaine lettuce
1 small head radicchio
1 head red leaf lettuce
1 head curly frisée
(Or replace all above lettuces with six cups mixed salad greens)
1 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted in a dry frying pan
3 to 4 whole scallions, cut into thin slices
3 oz. Parmesan cheese, shaved into curls
3 oz. thinly sliced prosciutto, torn into bite-sized pieces
1 cup fresh basil leaves
1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
8 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
3 T. balsamic vinegar
1 T. packed dark brown sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Step 1 In a small bowl, soak onions in the 1/2 cup red wine vinegar for 30 minutes. Tear the lettuce leaves into bite-sized pieces. In a large bowl, toss lettuce with all but 3 T. of the pine nuts, most of the scallions, half of the cheese, half of the prosciutto, and the basil and parsley. Arrange the mixture on a large platter.
Step 2 In a medium saucepan over low heat, heat the olive oil and cook the garlic cloves for 8 minutes or until barely colored. Transfer cloves to a bowl, leaving olive oil in the pan. Increase heat to medium high and add 3 T. wine vinegar and 3 T. balsamic vinegar. Cook for 2 minutes, then stir in the brown sugar. Let bubble slowly for 1 minute. (If the dressing is too sharp, simmer a bit longer to boil off some of the acid in the vinegar. Stir in the garlic cloves and season with salt and pepper.
Step 3 Drain the onions and discard the vinegar. Place onions on top of greens and scatter the remaining pine nuts, scallops, cheese and prosciutto over the salad. Stir the dressing vigorously to blend and spoon over the salad. Serve immediately.
Baked Steak
Chuck roast or London broil, cut 2 inches thick
Onions
Sliced mushrooms
Chopped garlic
Worcestershire sauce
Dry mustard or Dijon mustard
Sliced tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
Step 1 Salt and pepper meat and broil it for 10 minutes on each side.
Step 2 Sauté onions, mushrooms and garlic while meat is broiling.
Step 3 Remove roast, drizzle Worcestershire and mustard on top. Put sliced tomatoes and sautéed onions, garlic and mushrooms on top of meat. Salt and pepper to taste.
Step 4 Bake in oven for half an hour at 350 degrees. Serves 4.
