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Today is my father’s birthday.
Even though my father lives 2000 miles away from me, he has an enormous influence on my life. How could he not? When he suddenly found himself raising three girls on his own many years ago, two of whom were under the age of 12, he didn’t buckle. He not only acted as our chauffeur and cooked us a meal every single night as we were growing up, he taught us to be thoughtful and brave when we encountered life’s challenges.
This year, I decided to time my summer visit with his birthday. Just because. For his birthday dinner, my wonderful Aunt Joyce shared with me two recipes my father loved when he was growing up: peas ‘n’ noodles and peach cobbler. I’m not going to share the recipes with you because I prefer they remain a family secret (selfish, I know 
). However, I CAN show you pictures!
Peas and noodles:
Served with crispy seared garlic shrimp, courtesy of Peter:
Peach cobbler, made with fresh Colorado peaches:
Aunt Joyce, you probably shouldn’t look at the next picture – the cobbler overflowed! Blasphemy!
Served with ice cream AND whipped cream. We live large in our household.
Happy Birthday to my father
Who is my favorite sister? I’ll give you a hint: she’s extremely smart, loves good food, and lives west of the Mississippi. I wore her hand-me-downs (and hand-me-ups) when I was younger. I look forward to seeing her every Christmas. Lastly, her birthday is on August 13th.
Any guesses??
The answer(s) is in this picture!
I'm the pasty one on the left.
That’s right! Both of my sisters were born on August 13th … six years apart. When I was little, I remember wondering what it was like to share a birthday with my sister. Neither of them seemed to mind, but that nonchalance could have been due to their understanding personalities. Also, when I say that I wore their hand-me-downs AND hand-me-ups, I wasn’t kidding: Courtney is younger than me, but she’s been taller than me since she was about 10 years old. Yeah, I feel … short
So! In honor of BOTH of my sisters’ birthdays, I made some special grub. I hope to whet their appetites so that they’ll be looking forward to when I can actually make them a birthday meal.
First up: tacos! When we were growing up, my older sister D would always request tacos for dinner. I always looked forward to tacos, too, especially those little bowls of taco toppings.
D’s Birthday Tacos
Ingredients:
1/2 Tbsp veggie oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 hot pepper (jalapeno, etc.)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/3 cup beer (!)
6 – 8 oz. of some sort of protein. We didn’t have beef, so I defrosted and crumbled up a couple of veggie burgers. Beans, tofu, chicken, even tuna would also suffice. Note un: If you use a veggie burger as your protein, make sure you actually like the taste of it. Because I didn’t.
Salt and pepper.
3 – 4 tortillas or taco shells
Toppings:
Lettuce and tomato
Cheese
Salsa
Guacamole
etc.
Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and saute until soft and translucent.
While the onion is sauteing, roast your hot pepper. You can roast the pepper by broiling it in an oven or toaster oven until the outside blackens. If you’re like me and you don’t want to turn on the oven in the middle of summer to roast a tiny little pepper, you can use this handy device:
Or, if you have a gas stove, just use heat-safe tongs to hold the pepper in the flames. Be careful, of course.
When the pepper is cool, peel off the skin, mince, and add to the onion along with the minced garlic and protein (crumbled veggie burgers here). Saute for one minute.
Add tomato paste and heat through. Pour in beer and use a spoon to scape all the tasty bits off the bottom (deglaze). Lastly, add salt and pepper to taste. Note deux: If you are using veggie burgers as your protein, you may wish to exclude the salt, as veggie burgers tend to be very high in sodium.
Prepare the rest of your fixin’s. Preparing the taco toppings was always my favorite part. Well, specifically this part:
That would be a delectable smoked cheese from Sugarbush Farm in Vermont. Most of the cheese made it in the tacos and not in my mouth, I swear.
Shredded.
As I alluded to before, I wasn’t crazy about the veggie burgers I chose for the taco filling, but if I had used some other protein the filling would have been EPIC! The beer was a nice extra
Now, I DO have another sister. One who happens to be a Master Gardener. You’ve previously met Courtney in this guest post, and I’m sure you’ll agree that you just can’t get enough of her! In honor of her green thumb, I decided to have a simple heirloom tomato and wax bean side “salad”.
I prepared the tomato by slicing it and sprinkling it with a little sugar. Before you explode on me, I just want to clarify that yes, I PREFER tomatoes best with their natural sweetness and no additional enhancement. However, sugar on tomatoes is a common simple dish that I enjoyed in China and wanted to recreate at home. While I won’t be sweetening my tomatoes often, a little sugar was a nice treat for a special occasion. Even if that special occasion isn’t technically my OWN birthday.
Lastly, a peanut butter mousse cake to finish the birthday dinner:
Preparing the chocolate ganache, made from 1/4 cup heated cream poured over 2.5 ounces chocolate, then stirred until the chocolate melts:
Peter spreading ganache over the frozen mousse cake:
Happy Birthday to my favorite sisterS in the whole wide world! I cant wait to see you both soon! 
Love,
Jessie
… to have salad and chocolate cake for dinner – sometimes!
So says well-read Jessie.
Case in point:
After a long morning of browsing the stacks at a library book sale (see above) and a very late lunch, I had a hard time even THINKING about dinner. I decided to eat what my body was craving at dinnertime: an enormous bowl of veggies with egg.
I steamed some carrots and threw them over a bed of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and red peppers (fresh from our deck!), then topped the veggies with a poached egg and Amy’s Goddess dressing. I must have been deficient in micronutrients because I felt much better after eating this salad (I also need to empty the fridge of perishables). Lately I haven’t been taking advantage of summer’s fresh fruits and veggies, which is silly. We need to eat vitamin-rich fruits and veggies every 4 to 6 hours to take advantage of their antioxidant properties, so I will be making more of an effort to include these nutrient powerhouses in my diet.
That said, I knew I had to try a little of the chocolate cake we bought yesterday for dessert. This chocolate cake is from Billy’s Bakery in Fairfield, CT and it is the most decadent mousse cake I’ve ever eaten.
Look at that glassy ganache frosting!
You gotta really like chocolate to enjoy this cake. A little goes a loooong way. While I won’t make a regular habit of veggies and chocolate cake for dessert, it was a nice treat.
Hmm, these food pictures are pretty disappointing: no natural light, the glare of overhead 60 watts apparent. Let’s look at some gorgeous island pictures instead:
Q: Do you get your 5 A Day? How do you incorporate fruits and veggies in your meals and snacks?
Gummy macaroni and congealed baked beans?
[source]
Of course not! Instead, I’m craving this little gem right here:
With the exception of the cafeteria’s seaweed salad, this noodle dish was the only cafeteria food that I LOVED while I was in China (I eventually had to discontinue consumption of the seaweed salad, as it gave me a rumbly in my tumbly – and not because I was hungry). I often tried to fight my way to the front of the cafeteria line stand close to the cook so that I could watch his deft hands grab the huge chunk of stiff dough and, with a knife at least twice as long as would be allowed in a U.S. cafeteria, shaving long noodles into a huge vat of boiling water below. No guards for his hands nor protection again splatters of boiling water. A dangerous meal, indeed. I wish I had taken a picture or video for you guys, but …
So! Since I arrived home a few weeks ago, I’ve been determined to make this shaved noodle dish. First, a stop at A Dong for some essential supplies.
Including these funky items that took me forever to find:
That would be dried black fungus, a delicious addition to many Chinese dishes. What? You don’t believe me? When have I ever steered you wrong? Okay, there was the Cookie Disaster of Feb 2010, but I was a younger person then! Besides, look what happens when you put the dried black fungus in water:
Püf!
Let’s back up to the part where I make the noodle dough. I used this recipe, skipping the step where I toss the noodles in peanut oil. Who needs oil when I have delectable toppings?
At first I was confused when the directions said to mix the flour and water until the dough is “shaggy”.
Ah. Let’s let the dough rest for several hours.
And then, the attempted noodle-shaving. I won’t sport with your patience by posting pictures of my pathetic attempts to whip a knife through that dough. Suffice to say that it didn’t work (the chunks of dough I splatted all over the kitchen agree with me). I also didn’t take any pictures. Instead, I commenced rolling and cutting.
While the noodles boiled, I prepared the toppings. In Beijing, I always chose two toppings: scrambled eggs and tomato (a very common dish in Beijing) and some sort of pungent dark sauce with black fungus and mushrooms. I didn’t know what the dark sauce was … until today. Behold, soybean paste:
On a whim, I bought this paste at A Dong. Mixed with a little water, this sauce was a dead ringer for the sauce I had in Beijing. Go me.
Noodles together with the two toppings:
Nom nom.
These noodles were delicious! With some Urfa red pepper flakes sprinkled on top, this dish brought me back to the hot, loud, and pungent atmosphere that was the University’s cafeteria. The noodles were perfectly chewy.
I also discovered a slightly sweetened jasmine tea that I chugged by the bottleful in China, right here in A Dong! Oh A Dong, how I adore thee!
I wanted to turn this bottled tea into bubble tea, so I bought dry tapioca balls from A Dong, but when I tried to rehydrate the bubbles …
Oh, well. Tea with milk, then!
Finally, after LeQuan showed off some figgy art, I knew I had to jump on THAT wagon.
… aaaand, that is the limited extent of my creativity
Q: Have you ever tried to recreate a dish you ate in a restaurant or cafeteria? How did it turn out?
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