The gym has been packed lately, and we all know why…the dreadful, hellish act of penance we call New Year’s resolutions. I make them and then forget about them in the same instant.

Ok, ok I have one resolution and that is to eat six small meals a day. Personal trainer’s orders. He was horrified when I confessed my terrible meal habits. I usually eat a small breakfast followed by a small lunch, maybe some chocolate in the afternoon and then a HUGE dinner with a HUGE cocktail. I’d say 75% of my calories are consumed after 7pm. Isn’t this the way of the common (albeit obese) man?

“Eating smaller meals throughout the day will speed up your metabolism,” he admonishes as I roll my eyes, “and you’ll have more energy.” He’s pushing a bunch of diet jargon on me and it feels totally disingenuous.

“Yeeeaaah, I know, but I already have a fast metabolism and more than enough energy,” I reply all cocky.

“And you won’t binge at night because you’ve been starving yourself all day. That’s why you exercise to the point of exhaustion…you are compensating for eating so much damn food the night before. It’s called ‘exercise-bingeing’ and I see it all the time!” He’s almost shouting at this point. Deep breath. He’s right. So the real resolution is not to eat six small meals a day but to break this overeating – overexercising habit I’ve developed for god knows how long, and eating small meals is part of the solution. He also insists that I work out less, going from 6 days per week to 4, maybe 5 max. Less guilt, less exercise, more freedom…?

I have no idea how to eat six small meals. How many almonds or trail mix or veggies with hummus or cheese and whole wheat crackers or protein bars or yogurt with fruit can one eat before turning into a gerbil? It sounds so tedious and boring. The only way this is going to work is if I make amazingly delicious portable snacks. I start off my New Year’s resolution with a big pan of luscious spanakopita oozing with cheese under a bed of flaky buttery layers. Cut into small 4-bite squares, I eat them 2 or 3 at a time. They freeze well which makes them a fantastic emergency mini-meal. My trainer didn’t say the meals had to be diet-friendly; he just insisted that they be small and frequent. More to come…

Making the spanakopita became a kind of meditation…

The spinach and cheese layer…

The top filo layer with a light dusting of sesame seeds…

Scored in cute little squares and ready to bake…

Six small meals here I come…

It’s times like these that I feel blessed to have a few reliable recipes that also make awesome gifts. These sweet and spicy nuts are one of them.

I’m not going to lie here…I’d rather go to the dentist than shop for gifts on a capitalist mandate. At least I know I’ll have clean teeth after 30 minutes of mildly painful excavating whereas scouring stores for hours oftentimes yields nothing but a huge migraine. But I can certainly – and happily – cook for loved ones because I that’s what I do anyway. It’s something I actually enjoy doing which makes the whole gifting experience a pleasure rather than a major chore. There’s a whole process involved with giving food gifts that can be overwhelming to the novice. My strategy is pretty simple: I take an afternoon to draw up a few lists – family and friends, various gift possibilities – while assessing my time and energy level for these cooking projects. Then I make a long list of ingredients and hit the food co-op first thing in the morning  while the pickings are fresh.

I’ve been making these addictive nuts for three straight years because everyone loves them. The combination of spices give them a Cajun-y vibe, but they’re also pretty spicy which helps you savor them a bit longer instead of mindlessly munching on them like all the other sugar and butter bombs out there…Hey that’s for the next post!!!

SWEET AND SPICY NUTS

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (depending on how hot you want it!)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 5 cups unsalted mixed nuts, such as walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, and almonds (raw)
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 9 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• Mix spices and reserve.

Spread nuts on large baking sheet and lightly toast in 375 degree oven for 10 minutes. While the nuts are toasting, melt butter in large skillet over low heat. Mix brown sugar, spices, salt & 1 tablespoon water together to make a thick paste. Add the paste to skillet and stir to combine until brown sugar is just melted. Remove nuts from oven and add them to the pan with the butter mixture stirring constantly for 3 to 5 minutes until mixture gets thick and gooey. Line the baking sheet with parchment and coat with nonstick oil spray. Pour entire mixture onto baking sheet in an even layer and return to oven at 300 degrees. Check every 10 minutes to mix nuts around so they don’t burn. After 30 minutes, they should start to bubble and get super sticky. Remove baking sheet from oven and let cool. Break apart nuts while they are still warm or they will stick together in big chunks. Cool completely and then fill in pretty decorative jars. A perfect gift!

I am ready for a new chili recipe to rock my world. My craving hit an all-time high last Thursday which had me searching for the perfect recipe until the wee hours. I have an old standby loaded with ground beef, black beans, roasted poblanos, more chiles, all kinds of spices, tomatoes, good beef stock and about a million other ingredients. It’s really tasty, but I wanted to try something new. Cooking shouldn’t be a Julia Child version of Groundhog Day where the same recipe gets made and eaten over and over again. Yawn, boring, blah.

Five hours later, I discovered that chili has two distinct camps: the staunch traditionalist and everyone else. The everyone else is a complete wuss by traditionalist standards. The complete wuss makes chili that isn’t hot enough, authentic enough AND they add beans. The horror!

The truth is I like beans in my chili. I like the body and toothiness. I also like the idea of chunks of beef (instead of ground) simmered until it practically shreds – the way traditionalists do it. This recipe has a beef-to-bean ratio of 75/25. Mostly beef with just a smidgen of beans to make me feel like a modern day cave dweller. The real secret is in the sauce. It’s a heady blend of dried ancho chiles roasted in my cast iron skillet and ground into a fine powder with dried chiles de arbol, cumin, cocoa and oregano, similar to a mole. With the exception of the beans, the chili maintains its fundamentalist dignity. It isn’t compromised by a crazy improvised mash-up of corn, bell peppers, and an overload of muddy spices. I made one minor adjustment though: I added a ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper because…I’m no wuss….

Roasting dried ancho chiles gives them a deep smokiness

Mole-inspired chile paste

Cranberry orange cornmeal cake

First of all, is this cake sublime or what? It makes me happy to look at these pics.

Happy is good. I’ve been having a doozy of a week, and yesterday’s whippy, rainy weather wasn’t bringing on the holiday cheer. The previous night was awful. I was at an event mingling with well-known food folks when I noticed a guy standing three feet away from me wearing the exact same shirt owned by my ex. Within seconds tears sprang to my eyes, and I blearily made my way to the bathroom. It took a few minutes to pull myself together but eventually I made it back to the crowd. A friend noticed my puffy red eyes and giggled.

Why are you laughing at me? I’m suffering here! 

You have bits of toilet paper stuck to your eyelids. It’s so cute! 

Blech…time to make a cake.

Not many folks want to end a long workday (which began at 7am sharp with a personal trainer kicking my ass) by baking a cake, but I find it incredibly relaxing. Plus, I fell off the Thanksgiving wagon this year and made non-traditional dishes much to my dismay. I’m a sucker for nostalgia and tradition so I really missed the turkey with the works. To recapture some of the Thanksgiving spirit, I decided on a big beautiful cake studded with cranberries. I also wanted a sturdy cake that would last for a few days, the flavors developing and improving over time. I’m playing both hostess and dinner guest now through the weekend and hoped that one dessert would do the trick.

I found this recipe at LATimes.com. It has cornmeal, orange zest and a surprise element in the ricotta cheese. I made it in my bundt pan because it looks so pretty and festive. It’s a BIG, heavenly cake: moist, not too sweet, surprisingly light, and quick to fancy up with a dollop of whipped cream.

The cake looked so pretty in the morning light

I can count on one, maaaaayyybe two hands, the number of people I will do anything for. Anything. Daniel is one of them.

As one of my oldest and dearest friends, he gets all kinds of food love, including custom birthday cakes. Last year, he wanted lemon and chocolate together – not an easy challenge considering those flavors exist on opposite ends of the culinary spectrum. It took me a couple of days to figure out the perfect bridge, but once I came up with the solution, I just knew. People continue to wax poetic about his luscious butter cake filled with lemon curd and hazelnut praline, drenched in satiny chocolate ganache.

Daniel is not a big sweets guy, but he sure does love his cocktails. His regular habit is the Negroni, a slightly sweet, aromatic, bitter cocktail made with gin, campari and sweet vermouth. He began ordering it with greater frequency a couple years ago, and the thought of combining these flavors in a cake intrigued me.

First, what kind of cake? It had to be relatively neutral to allow the Negroni components to shine through. Since gin is the backbone of the cocktail, I decided that a sponge cake soaked in gin would be a fine anchor for the bittersweet campari and the complex savory-sweet vermouth. Luckily, I found a recipe for a campari buttercream frosting, which I adapted into a lighter, meringue-like consistency. I love butttercream, but it can be awfully heavy and rich.

The only thing left was the sweet vermouth. What to do? I thought about making a sauce….bad idea. We were celebrating at a restaurant, and having to deal with plating issues where I had very little control of the final presentation was a disaster in the making. How about candied vermouth bits, like a brittle? An even worse idea considering I wanted a light, refreshing cake. The aha moment came when I remembered a jello cake my ex’s mom made over the summer. Sweet vermouth gelee? Kinda like a grown-up jello? It suited the lightness of the cake, and it was ridiculously easy to make. A week of floating thoughts had finally come together. Daniel’s Negroni Cake: gin-soaked sponge cake with sweet vermouth gelee and fluffy campari frosting. The whole mess topped with heart-shaped orange zest. Now, that’s love!!!

Gin-soaked sponges

The sweet vermouth gelee reminded me of stained glass

The multi-tasking dessert!

Scrawled recipe notes

I vowed to be virtuous when I woke up this morning. Head throbbing from a nasty hangover, I stumbled into my gym clothes, brewed a strong cup of black coffee, and headed over the Y for a major sweat-fest. The Pacquiao-Margarito fight went on later than I had expected, and I was paying the price for staying up way past my bedtime indulging in booze, cigarettes, gossip, and greasy pizza.

Needless to say, I had a lot of fun.

My gym is next to Trader Joe’s which is mostly good except on days when my resolve is weakened by exhaustion and hunger, resulting in a term I’ve coined: “Rebellious Teenager Personality Disorder.” RTPD rears its ugly head more often than I’d like to admit. I’m 12-3 today.

I don’t want to get into the details except for this: I spent $33.02 on junk food ONLY. Think about that.

What that meant is that I now had to balance the scale by engaging in healthy activities like cooking good food, in particular my mom’s Korean pancakes which I’d been dying to make. I even had all the ingredients. I soaked the beans and took inventory of the vegetables. I had a long break before making the pancakes for dinner, so I decided to walk around the hood and check out some stores. This is an undisputed RTPD minefield, and I was in so much trouble. I ended up a little beat up (or shall I say my wallet) but thrilled by my new purchases. Yay!

Ok, time to make these pancakes. Prep time takes almost an hour, and that’s before actually frying them up. I needed music. I needed the Pixies. I needed beer. Easy, flavorful, drinkable beer. Ommegang Rare Vos. After pouring myself a large mug, I got to work and remained focused in between bouts of jumping up and down herky jerky.

Now I’ve got 10 beauties for eating and sharing.

Oh so good for you - pureed mung beans

An hour's worth of chopping

Second to last step!

Terrific breakfast with sweet, milky coffee

The text finally came through: you want to hang sometime next week?

I knew exactly what I was getting into before inviting him over for dinner. I’d heard the stories: he ate only hamburgers throughout college, didn’t touch anything with chlorophyll, showed no mercy towards unfamiliar foods. But I was so relieved to hear from him that I didn’t care if we ate Wonder Bread and bologna sandwiches.

Yes!!! Please come over for dinner on Sunday so I can feeeeeed you!

R. had come down with a case of the blues, and I’m 100% positive that eating take-out every single night wasn’t promoting feelings of mental ease. I’m a firm believer in the power of a good home-cooked meal as a healing balm for life’s troubles.

I texted him back: shoot me a list of things you won’t eat. How about beef? Do you eat beef? I decided on braised short ribs with cheesy polenta, salad that I’d probably end up making just for me, and apple strudel for dessert. Familiar, flavorful, and heartwarming. I was busy chopping radicchio and endive when R. arrived. I grilled him like a drill sargeant as soon as he’d taken off his shoes: do you like short ribs? Yes. How about carrots? Yes. And polenta? What’s that? Corn. Yeah, I like corn. How about salad? Pause…yes. Onions? No onions. And apples? I’m making a strudel. First time ever, so please don’t say no. Oh, I like apples. Huge sigh of relief. I walked around my butcher block to give him a hug. I had spent a couple days sweating this meal and it all worked out. I’d never been more delighted by the sight of a clean plate.

Braised Short Ribs for Picky Eaters

3 lbs boneless short ribs 

 2 large onions, sliced into thin rings

4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1″ pieces

1 head of garlic, cloves peeled

2 c. bold red wine

1 c. beef broth

6 springs thyme

3 bay leaves

1 T. tomato paste

salt and freshly ground pepper

olive oil

Heat the oven to 300 degrees.

Heat 1 T. oil in large dutch oven or ovenproof pot over medium-high heat. Season the meat with 2 t. salt and 1 t. pepper. Add 1/2 the short ribs and brown for about 5 minutes until a nice crust forms. Turn meat over and brown the other side for another five minutes. Put the browned meat in a bowl and do the same for the remaining ribs.

After browning all the meat, add the onions and cook until soft and tender, about 10 minutes. You want to caramelize the onions without burning them. Add a splash water if they start to burn. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Then add the tomato paste and stir into the onions and garlic until they’re coated. Add wine, give a good stir, scrape up the browned bits, and simmer over medium heat until about 1/2 the liquid evaporates, about 10 minutes.

Add the thyme, bay leaves, carrots, beef broth and finally the meat. Bring the short ribs and sauce to a simmer. Cover with the lid and transfer to oven. Bake the short ribs for 2-2:15 hours until the meat pulls apart with a gentle tug of a fork. You can cool the ribs and skim off the fat, but my ribs were extremely lean and didn’t require the usual defatting.

Serve with rice or mashed potatoes or polenta or a hunk of crusty bread.

A lot of folks are intimidated by baking. There’s the measuring, mixing, creaming, leveling, cracking, sifting, pouring, shaping, rising, and baking. Don’t forget the burning!

Alas, I really love baking. I find it both challenging and therapeutic. I’ve gotten skilled enough at it that I rarely measure out liquid ingredients anymore. I can accurately gauge a cup of milk  just by the speed and volume of the pour. Dry ingredients are another matter. I have a kitchen scale to weigh flour and sugar by the gram. I also use the scale to make perfectly proportioned cocktails as well as satisfy my fascination with how much things actually weigh. Iphone – 178 grams; lipstick – 69 g; 8 oz glass of water really does weigh 8 oz.

Why am I saying all this nonsense? I got lazy with the recipe. It was wonder enough that I turned on the stove, and I didn’t want a bevy of tools to disrupt this fragile momentum. So I tossed back the last bit of coffee in my mug, grabbed the flour from the cupboard and dipped the mug right in. Here’s my “cup.” I poured the flour into a mixing bowl. I dipped the cup into the flour again, but only halfway. Here’s my “half-cup.” Same for the sugar, butter and the rest of the ingredients. And you know what? They were phenomenal. Just ask my friend Ce Ce, the lucky recipient of 10 pieces. Or you can ask my fat ass, the lucky recipient of the remaining 26.

Easy, Tasty Blondies

1 c. walnuts or pecans, chopped and lightly toasted

1-1/2 c. flour

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

Whisk the above in a medium mixing bowl

1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1-1/2 c. packed light brown sugar

Mix butter and sugar in a large bowl.

Add 2 lightly beaten eggs and 1 T. vanilla extract. Combine thoroughly.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overwork!

Then add 1/2 c. white and dark chocolate chips, and then the toasted nuts. Mix until chunky bits are well distributed.

Grease a 9 x 13″ baking pan and pour the thick batter into the pan. Spread the batter evenly.

Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Ovens are quirky fire breathing machines, so make sure you don’t over bake the blondies. Nothing’s worse. It’s done with the top has a touch of gold and a nice sheen. Sigh…

Cool in pan and cut into small squares. Devour with a cold glass of milk as an afternoon snack, or for breakfast with black coffee.

Yeah, frying meatballs

Listen, folks. I’m as sick of my non-cooking spell as anyone else who reads this blog. There are a lot of reasons why I haven’t been cooking lately, a swelteringly hot summer and heartbreak being two biggies. But there are only so many dinners of scrambled eggs (with truffle salt) and toast (ok, amazing rye rolls from Nordic Bread) a bonafide food lover can handle before feeling like a zombie. I’d been feeling the urge to cook again with the cooler weather, but had neither the time nor motivation to turn on the stove. Until Saturday.

I woke up wanting to make it all:  blondies, kimchi, roasted root veggies, prosciutto and butter sandwiches, pot roast, Korean savory pancakes, and spaghetti with meatballs. Comfort food, food that reminded me of home, sweets – good, wholesome food. I wanted to get out of my head and into the kitchen where yummy things were possible in less than an hour. I wished for a weekend clear of any social or work commitments to putter around the kitchen and scour the pantry for recipe ideas. I still had to work on Saturday, and I still had plans, but the good news is that I finally eff-ing FINALLY made..some… food.. .from… goddamn…scratch!

I feel soooo much better now.

I decided to narrow it down to blondies (legal crack), roasted veggies (kabocha, carrots and parsnips) and spaghetti with meatballs. My friend Ce Ce dropped by on a whim after an afternoon of shopping for an evening of gab-n-grub. She looked awfully cozy bundled up in a blanket on the sofa while I shaped seasoned meat into little golf balls. The lovely familiar smell of sautéed garlic and onions gave me warmth and hope.

Simple Tomato Sauce

1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes

1 medium onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced or through a press

Olive oil, or a combo of oil and bacon fat, just because

½ t. salt

½ t. crushed red chili flakes

1 t. dried oregano

½ c. red wine

¼ c. fresh basil, chopped

Pinch sugar

Spaghetti

Parmesan cheese for garnish

Heat a couple tablespoons of oil or bacon fat / oil combo in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and sauté until onion are soft and wilted, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and stir sauté for another minute or two. Add salt, chili flakes and oregano and stir for combined. Add the crushed tomatoes and red wine; lower heat to medium-low. Taste the sauce when it starts bubbling and add more salt or chili peppers to taste. I like to add a small pinch of sugar to balance the flavors. Allow the sauce to simmer for 20 – 30 minutes. Serve with spaghetti cooked al dente and a light dusting of freshly shaved parmesan. Equally good eaten alone or with a friend.

Jina's Fresh Kimchi

I finally debuted my kimchi at the Brooklyn Flea last Saturday! I brought 8 jars to sample and sell. They sold out before 1pm – a testament to adventurous Brooklynites who didn’t seem fazed by the thought of eating kimchi at 11am. More importantly, the feedback was extremely positive. Lots of folks loved the intense heat and the freshness of the kimchi. It’s my version of my Mom’s traditional recipe. I added sliced jalapenos for a “greener” heat. By this I mean spicy yet refreshing. The other twist to the recipe is lacinato kale. It gives the kimchi an earthiness to balance the top notes of chili spice. Finally, I short-fermented the kimchi so the cabbage would remain nice and crunchy. I like all kinds of kimchi, but I find that in summer when it’s unbearably hot and humid, eating something cold and crunchy energizes me. So I left let the kimchi jars sit at room temp for 24 hours before refrigerating them.

I love eating kimchi on its own as a snack, and especially with just cooked, piping hot white rice. Deeee-lish!

Big 'ol batch of yummy kimchi!

This huge bowl from IKEA could hardly contain the kimchi!

Bottled and ready to ferment

Dark leafy lacinato kale worked well with the napa cabbage. The firm texture balances the watery crunch of the cabbage leaves. My mouth is watering as I type!