Category: Certain Someone

I Have Been Tagged

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I feel weird telling people things about myself on demand. Its like a job interview or date. You can totally weird them out or leave strange impression. I’m a complex character and that’s due to my background. My own people and family find me odd but fascinating, and I tend to grow on them. Certain someone once complained that sometimes ‘I’m just to over the top”. So that being said the lovely Mary over at Shazam in the Kitchen. Has tagged me. I have seen a person being tagged since I started food blogging .It is a fun way to learn about people outside the standard posting of recipes. I love my blog sphere friends, and while we may never meet, they feel so familiar. So here’s the skinny on me:

1) I was born in Washington D.C to an American mother and Nigerian father who met at Howard University. My mother’s families are African Americans rumored to be descended from the Confederate General Robert E. Lee. My father descends from a very prominent family of tribal chiefs and politicians. He had 48 brothers and sisters. Both parents are deceased. I have family throughout the world. Ironically I have both a paternal and maternal uncle in Vienna Austria, one of my favorite cities. How weird is that!

2) I studied Fashion Design at Parsons School of Design at the American University in Paris France. Some of the best years of my life!

3) I meet Certain Someone a year and half ago at a dinner party. I never would have meet him, if I hadn’t had a brief fling with someone who’s best forgotten. The night after we met, he went to Stockholm (his previous home) and I went to Minnesota for work. We communicated via Blackberry constantly and the relationship was sealed. A sign from above was when Certain Someone ran into my Swedish Cousins in Stockholm. A freaky coincidence! We have lived together since last December and are very happy. I have traveled to Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Essen Germany. The friends and family seem to approve. Looking forward to another Swedish visit this spring/summer.

4) Barack Obama lives in our neighborhood a few blocks away!. I worked a catering event last summer in which I waited on another candidate ( former) for President Bill Richardson. Six degrees of seperation. And along those lines,I had a friend from college, whose father was pardoned by Bill Clinton right before he left office which caused a big old stink!

5) I love food, drink, and anything culinary related. But that’s not a surprise is it! Oh and I have another blog that has been defunct for a while.But One day I’ll get back to it. Check out the links I put in point 3. I made several posts on our vacation last summer to Sweden and Germany.

So thats me! I tag :
Oh I forgot! Here are the rules. Post 5 facts about yourself. Link back to the person who tagged you, and tag five additional people at the end of your post, who you also notify in their comment section.Whew!

Clean Eating

I fell upon this magazine called Clean Eating this week. I’m not one for diets and I find the weight has crept up on me over the years. Nesting with Certain Someone hasn’t helped. We love food, good food, and don’t necessarily want to sacrifice that.My current physical activity is just walking at any opportunity I can.I used to belong to a great gym which my bank account couldn’t sustain anymore.I admit half the time I went there was for its country club like atmosphere. But I did go to classes and while I felt it didn’t make much of a difference, I see that now without it , it did.Certain Someone leads a fast paced work life with most of his time spent flying all over the world. Needless to say his diet needs careful attention as well. We both need to do something and I love this magazine because it focuses on good healthy food that doesn’t necessarily mean tasteless sacrifice. So I plan to work some of these recipes into our diet. I already did a variation of one( just used some other ingredients(peppers,tarragon, shallots and brined the chicken) but followed the technique of baking in parchment. OK, I added a drizzle of olive oil, but much better than pan frying or adding a heavy sauce.Certain Someone ate it up with some brown rice.

Today I making these fabulous Chocolate Almond Meringues made with natural sugar,cocoa,and almond extract. 5 of these little bites comes in at just 77 calories. I had planned to bake some cookies, but will satisfy myself with these morsels. I’m not swearing off all good decadent food,just trying to be more aware and balance things out for us.

Miso Soup…Western Style

I’m telling you right off the bat,I’ve never been a fan of Miso soup. Instant or the ones I have had at some sushi places really don’t appeal to me. I want to like Miso,I really do.I hear people wax poetic over it and I never got the hype. I have had some terrific dishes with Miso as a component and have loved it!Just not the soup.There are so many benefits to Miso that I want to explore it more, on my terms.
Saturday I have a big last minute invite to a Gala at the Opera.I had been quite involved with them for some years, but have dropped out of the ‘scene’. My aunt is still a grand dame on the social scene and quite the fashion plate. Pick up a magazine or social page and there she is. So what does this have to do with Miso? Not much, but I can’t fit into any of my many ball gowns and need to eat light for a few days and drink tons of green tea. Not much notice is there? So trying to figure out a low cal healthy dinner with Certain Someone out with his boyz all night, I ventured to the new improved Hyde Park Produce. Since Co Op is no more and Treasure Island is still not ready, the expanded neighborhood produce shop was packed.It has everything. It reminded me of a mini Whole Foods with good prices. In wandering the aisles I found this.

I decided to revisit the Miso and have a light dinner. The instructions were simple enough. It takes no time and its essentialy simmering onion, Wakame Flakes, carrots, etc. in a broth or water(The Miso soups I have had before didn’t have much in it). You add the Miso diluted slightly in water , but NEVER LET IT BOIL(or it loses it good properties). In quick research of Miso and Wakame I find its packed with health benefits( reduced cancer risks,restorative powers,etc). Wakame has been found to burn fatty tissue! I was amazed how this sea vegetable expanded!There’s a lot of it in the world and we need to eat it up. Wakame if anything, was the only thing I ever liked about Miso Soup in the past and now I want to find other ways to use it like a Tofu Salad. My contraversial deviation was that I used chicken broth( I hear the gasps) rather than dashi. I know its not pure Miso Soup, but tough , I liked it!I also added some fried tofu cubes. A light refreshing lunch/dinner that I plan to consume until Saturday. I have changed my mind and homemade Miso soup is pretty good.

Improvisation Can Be A Good Thing

I wasn’t planning on being home tonight , nor cooking.My catering job was cancelled due to water main break. Certain Someone had to fend for himself the night before with his favorite ‘Cluck, cluck’,Harold’s Fried Chicken. I bet you he was anticipating it tonight too. No such luck. I took some frozen beef cubes and placed in the Dutch oven to roast a few hours until he came home.I knew I wanted to use these spices I picked up at World Market the other day.And this beautiful Swiss Chard that screamed healthy! I have a zillion cookbooks but still find myself referring to Internet searches for ideas .I love the look of Star Anise , but feared it due to bad experience with Chinese 5 Spice once. Chef uses it quite a bit in passed appetizers and seared tenderloin.So I wanted to revisit this spice. The meat was roasting nicely and called me to do something. I ground the Star Anise and threw it in. I saw on searches that cinnamon , star anise, and beef seemed to be a popular theme. I threw in some Sherry, vinegar, Soy Sauce, Thai Chili’s,onions,and water to the pan. The result was a slow cooked caramelized melange of aromatic spices and tender beef. Certain Someone came home and sniffed the air. The one drawback was that he wanted his noodles and more of a sauce. No to worry. Although I said I was trying to avoid his ‘Big Ass Food'( ie: noodles).He retorted who was I calling Big Ass! I added more water to the roasting pan to deglaze, and boiled up some noodles. The result was this.A rather good improvisation if I do say so myself. Even Certain Someone agreed.

Coco’s Asian Style Beef with Red Swiss Chard
* this recipe was improvised so measurements were approximated.
1 lb beef cubes
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2-3 ground Star Anise
1 cup sliced onions
1 bunch Red Swiss Chard
1 cinnamon Stick
2 Thai Chili’s
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 Sherry
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 cups of water
Asian noodles

Roast beef cubes in oiled covered Dutch Oven seasoned with salt and pepper for 1 hour. Add sliced onions , spices,Soy Sauce, Sherry, Vinegar, sugar, garlic and continue to roast covered for another hour. Check pan periodically and add water as needed . You want a small amount of broth /sauce in the final product.
Wash and stem the Swiss Chard. Roll leaved and slice like chiffonade. Oil fry pan. Saute Swiss chard until just wilted. Salt and Pepper to taste.
Prepare noodles.
Assemble beef atop noodles. Top with Swiss Chard and drizzle with juices from the roasting pan.

Sausauge Making Part 2

Not another sausage post! When you find something fun you want to improve on it. Last week or so I attempted sausage making for the first time. Certain Someone loved them and ate them all up. We both agreed however we didn’t care for the collagen casings. Maybe it was my cooking method. But we cut it away. Nevertheless who knew he would devour chicken sausage. I found natural hog casings on the Internet and decided to try them. They came dry packed in salt and I had to soak them for one hour.Natural Hog Casings reminded me of chitterlings( which I guess they are without the lings).
I took approximately 6 pounds of lean stewing beef and pork loin and ran it through the Kitchen Aid food grinder. Certain Someone and I had seen Tina Nordstrom make Swedish meatballs using pork and beef , and figured why not make our sausage this way. I added a leek to the grinder as well.I had made a seasoning in the spice grinder using juniper berries, a dried chipolte chile, mustard seeds, salt, brown sugar,garlic granules, and paprika. Juniper berries are common in marinades and German cooking. Next was the down and dirty part. I rolled up my sleeves to blend in my spices in the meat mixture. I attached my sausage hose and took one of the long hog casings. Amazingly that one casing was enough for all but a little meat! I still had about 11 more casings soaking I didn’t want to waste. They ran about $3.25 but I hate waste!So I figured you could freeze chitterlings, I would freeze the casings and that and re soak for another time.And I still have another dry pack from the order. The hog casing is very thin but durable. I had to use the smaller stuffer, but they expanded to accommodate the meat nicely. If your squeamish about meat and casing which a lot of people are then you may have a problem. I’m all about the process and its great to learn how things we take for granted are made. I feel way better about eating it. These sausages cooked up great. The casings didn’t slip, shrink or break way. They browned nicely. Certain Someone gave his approval. He has his supply for the mans weekend he planed. We are checking out the Boat Show(indoors) in this – 3 degrees weather outside.We can dream about summer days on the lake. And his games tomorrow. All in all it took me about 2 hours to process and cook. But that’s me .