Dal

Aaron bought the book Six Spices recently:




It's all Indian food. Yum. He's only tried a couple of recipes, but they were really good, and the other day I was seriously craving some lentils. So I made the dal recipe that Aaron had tried: brown dal (except made with yellow lentils instead) and rice with cumin seed.



I love this stuff. It may look like yellow mush, but it's delicious.

And I'm learning that ghee makes everything taste better.

the last supper

This is the last meal I'll be cooking in our Kerman home. Eggplants, tomatoes, and basil from our garden, plus carrots, garlic, green pepper, olive oil, and spices.

All the kitchen stuff is packed except a few essentials. It's sad to leave our friends here, and our still productive garden, but we're excited to be in La Jolla and for a new adventure.

The trip to Utah and elsewhere was fantastic, so thanks to all of you Jorgies for making it wonderful. Kris has been sick for the past 3 days so I've been packing on my own and with a little help from some wonderful ladies in the ward.

Sam has been having a rough time post-trip with all the traveling and now all the packing and big changes. Oh, and the fact that he's getting 2 molars and a very painful front, top tooth. Despite this he has figured out how to do the sign for milk, say cookie (cah-koo), and incorporate a few more dance moves into his repertoire.

Zucchini Quesadillas

Guess what! I made something. Me. Not Aaron.

I saw this yummy recipe and made it since we have zucchini from our garden. I didn't have corn, so I put in some green pepper, and I added a can of black beans. I used a combo of jack and cheddar cheese.
The garlic makes it.

Delish.

On Homemade Ice Cream

We have three ice cream makers. One (a small one that you stick in the freezer and then use a hand-crank) I got for Aaron on Father's Day when our oldest was a baby. Number two was one of those traditional ones that makes a lot - loud, with the wood exterior - remember? Three, we just got.

We've used it twice now, both times vanilla (once vanilla bean - which is amazing), both times for Mom and Dad. Both times the ice cream was eaten too quickly for (good) photos.

Something that's interesting that we've learned about making ice cream (from Alton Brown) is that you can substitute fruit preserves (not jam, preserves) for part of the sugar in equal amounts. The pectin is supposed to help the ice cream set up, too. So we take out about 2T of sugar and add 2T peach preserves. It adds just a really subtle flavor - not even a flavor, more like a layer of taste or something. It's definitely still vanilla.



But it's extra delicious. Especially when served with warm chocolate chip cookies (or, when forced, lesser white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies from dough you were suckered into buying for a fundraiser from a neighbor kid).

pie for breakfast

This was the best pie I've ever made (now that I have 3 years of pie making experience, thanks to Kris's love of it). I made it for a 4th of July party and came across the picture the other day. This was before the top crust was put on and it was cooked. Fresh, local blackberries and strawberries, sugar, butter, and flour. It was amazing--and that's from me, Jenn, and I am not much of a pie enthusiast. Of course it was served with vanilla ice cream. Oh, and the title is such because pie is probably Kris's favorite breakfast food.

milk bars

Milk bars were subsidized cafeteriaswhich were developed during the Soviet Era, so that anyone could afford a big plate of hearty food. Lucky for me, these places are still around. I eat at one of these almost everyday, because they offer so much food for so little money. This potatoe pancake dish, served with cabbage, carrots and peppers, is a big hit with us grad students here in krakow. 

Camp Food

I just got back from Girls' Camp with my stake. We were up at the Heber Valley Camp, which is seriously amazing. The church is really doing an amazing thing making all these camps for Young Women. It was an awesome setup.

I'd heard such praise about the food the girls eat at camp. One of my neighbors is the camp cook, and has been for years and years. She has other callings, but insists on keeping this calling as well, which isn't easy. She is crazy-organized.

A huge part of why the food is good is because she can bake. She does use Dutch ovens for some stuff, but she uses these box ovens that she's made. On the ground is a piece of foil with a raised rack and hot coals surrounding the rack. Then she puts this foil-covered box over top and she can make anything.



When I first arrived at camp there were fresh from-scratch chocolate chip cookies to munch on. It was kinda funny, as people from other wards would walk by our campsite and be like 'How did you make those?' and people from the stake and from the campground were always hanging out watching Susan bake. As part of the girls' service project they made some box ovens to give to the couple-missionaries who live at the camp.

It's pretty cool because if you have an 'oven' you can make just about anything while you're camping. Really opens up your outdoor meal options.



That night she baked hams and parker house rolls (from scratch), made a yummy cheesy potato dutch oven dish (it had sprite in it!), (salad), and fried up donuts. Her spudnuts are a huge tradition at camp.



Pretty decent food when she cooked - but some of our meals were by the stake all together in the pavilion. My second night we had Hawaiian Haystacks by the stake. I tried to explain (just to those sitting by me) that that dish is not Hawaiian. It's such a 'Mormon' dish and I've never had it anywhere but Utah. People were shocked. It's standard Utah fare.

This particular batch of 'haystacks' was not so tasty.

Pierogies

Today after class I ate lunch at this super cheap and eccentric hole-in-the-wall place.  I had some pierogies which were very tasty.  

calzones

We made the pizzas Kirsten blogged about again but didn't use all the dough; we froze 1/3 of it. For Father's Day I got that out and made calzones. We've made them before but don't repeat it often because they're too involved with baby around. With frozen dough it was easy, and with this particular dough they were amazing. The best I've made.

I cut the dough into 4 pieces for 4 calzones--each one was enough for a meal, even though starting out I thought they looked small. The filling was yellow tomatoes, pattypan squash, basil, and oregano from our garden, plus onion, garlic, and mushrooms.

I sauteed that with salt, pepper, and thyme. The filling and little cubes of mozarella cheese went on the inside. The outside got a brush of olive oil and was placed on the pizza stone, cooked for about 15 minutes at 425, then a little grated parmesan cheese was added on top.

We topped it all off with tomato sauce (also made ahead and frozen, with fresh rosemary, garlic, basil, and oregano). They were amazing.

furthering the quest

In Petaluma this weekend I found this book:


They're ripping us off! Or perhaps the book will help us enlarge our understanding of the true meaning of food. Except that, I didn't buy it. Oh well.

Also in Petaluma a restaurant that is working in opposition to the true meaning of food:



Dumbest restaurant name ever. And of course it was way, way fancy.

Lastly, we made the pizza Kirsten posted about--so good! Has anyone else noticed that the food most commonly blogged about on here is pizza?

Artisan Bread

Aaron checked out this book* and here's his 3rd batch.

I want to wolf whistle at these loaves - they're just gorgeous, right?

The first was just as pretty, the second was a whole wheat recipe.


*Yes, Aaron does all the good cooking here ... pretty much, anyway. But he doesn't think to blog it now, does he?
Nope, that's where I'm a viking.

this week for dinner

I have taken a new approach to cooking: I plan out a weekly menu (inspired by this blogger who I met once), buy groceries accordingly, and make meals. I love it. Yes, I'm slowly becoming my Mom. But...Now we eat foods we've never made before, I consult cookbooks and food blogs more, food rarely goes bad in the fridge, and it's never stressful because I have meals planned out. I can also prep various stages of the meal whenever I have a minute throughout the day since cooking in one, long stretch is practically impossible with baby. One of my latest was dinner crepes:


We put spinach, cheese, tomatoes, basil, and grilled onion in them. Avocado would have been good. Yummy. I made fish tacos for the first time yesterday, but have also been mixing in some old classics. One I took a picture of, but can't find, is cabbage salad. My Ukrainian friend whips this up now and then and I love it. It's just cabbage chopped fairly skinny (not chopped all up, just chopped long and thin off the head), grated or shredded carrot, pine nuts, olive oil, salt, and pepper. It is really tasty, refreshingly cool on hot days, very light and thus an excellent between meal snack, and probably not very fattening.

Ignore what it says just below, this was posted by Jenn N, not Kris J.

Pizza Perfection

Dude.

We just ate the best pizza.













(Mind you I'm no food photographer - so just trust me that it tasted better than it looks here).

We are all full and happy and our house smells amazing.

Now you know we love pizza, and make it often, but Aaron checked out this book from the library called American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza. Sounds awesome, right?

This guy traveled the world searching for the best pizza secrets. There are tons of different crust and sauce recipes. Tonight we tried one and holy cow.














It is as good as The Pie pizza.

I know, that's saying a lot, and we weren't expecting such spectacular results. But it's true.

And we've got leftovers for lunch. Yeah, buddy.

Next up we're going to try the grilled pizza recipe. We already like grilling pizza, so that'll be fun - and won't heat up the house in the summer.













And now to go enjoy smelling my pizzeria house again.... mmmmmmm.

sun dried tomato and basil hummus

kari made the delicious falafel, and i made the hummus: basil, and sun dried tomato. you probably all have your own recipes/brands you swear by, but if not, here's my recipe:

2 cups chickpeas (i cook dried ones in a crockpot with salt and water)
1 cup water
2 handfuls fresh basil leaves, or 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 tsp. salt
fresh ground pepper
3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbs. tahini
5 cloves garlic, pressed

puree in a food processor. you may want to taste as you go and adjust seasonings/ingredients to your own taste.

bread

Kris has been talking about making this bread recipe for forever but has yet to do it. My cousin beat him to it and it looks so amazing and sounds delicious. One of us should try it out, maybe Kris...

a "taste" of las vegas

what a cheesy title for a post!

anyway, when i was out in las vegs we ate a lot of good food. of course there is in - n - out, and cafe rio. and i did eat those places, and loved it, as usual. but caroline and i decided to have an authentic las vegas night out. we chose mamacita's on east fremont street (not to be confused with west fremont street that's covered with an LED dome) for great mexican and cuban food.

and for dessert, frozen treats from luv-it custard. both places are small and independent, have been around for awhile, were full of locals, and are delicious.



just look at her impish delight!

Tradition

For a number of years, the Jorgensen tradition has been to have cinnamon rolls the Sunday morning of General Conference weekend. Here's a picture of the ones we had this morning while watching Church conference. They were melt-in-your-mouth great! Thanks Gayle!

I love taking pictures of people eating.

Here are a couple: (above) My mom and dad eating some delicious bagels. ( In my book, there's hardly anything better for breakfast than a bagel with a generous schmear of cream cheese.) (below) Francesco eating maybe the best pizza in New York or anywhere: Grimaldi's. It's under the Brooklyn Bridge, and we had to wait in line for an hour, but it was worth it. Fresh sliced mozzarella, basil, the perfect sauce, thin tasty crust. I admit, the pepperoni was much better than the plain cheese... So it's #1 status can be challenged.

On a weird side note: I thought Grimaldi's was a one of a kind hole in the wall type place... but then I was staying with Caroline last weekend, and saw an ad for Grimaldi's "the famous Brooklyn pizzeria" in Las Vegas! I wanted to eat there, and make some kind of record for having eaten at both locations within the same week, but alas, did not get the chance. In -n- Out was calling.

Pizza Pie

We found out that our local pizzeria, Grandma's U-bake, sells large pizzas on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for five dollars even. Yesterday we picked one up and Sam loved it. Enough with the mush--give me some pizza! Welcome to the family Sam!

funeral food

These nice ladies from my great grandmother's ward at church put on a dinner for the family after her funeral. This kind of really traditional Utah food isn't normally my thing, but after not eating all day, it tasted good...especially the funeral potatoes.

It really did have all the traditional, joked about Utah mormon foods: funeral potatoes full of cheese and sour cream, ham, iceberg lettuce salad with the little carrot strips and ranch dressing, jello fruit salad, dinner rolls...When we walked up to the table, my dad cracked a joke; "Where's the green jello with carrots?". My mom's cousin, Becky, was standing there and said, "Oh, you missed it. That was the first thing to go." And she was dead serious.

p.s. the carruths enjoyed the dinner, too. oh, i forgot to mention the chocolate chip cookies.

Saffron

Last night Aaron made naan bread and we got out some saag (spinach curry) and saffron rice from the freezer (freezers rule).

Aaron said something to the effect of: Here we are, eating rice made with the most expensive spice in the world, and (2nd born)'s putting ketchup on it.

No accounting for taste, right?

Beef Pho (Vietnamese Beef Soup)

This recipe is from The Essential Rice Cookbook, which was a gift from Kirk + Eva to Aaron a while back. It has some tasty recipes in it - here's one we've made several times (and tonight!):

13 oz. Rump steak
1/2 onion (chop into wedges)
1.5 tablespoon fish sauce
1 star anise (we've skipped these, as they are pricey and we didn't already have them - it's still delicious.)
1 cinnamon stick
pinch of ground white pepper
48 oz. beef stock
10 oz thin rice noodles
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 small red chili, thinly sliced
lemon wedges
fresh cilantro

Put the onion, fish sauce, anise, cinnamon, pepper, stock + 2 cups water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Discard the onion, star anise and cinnamon stick.

Meanwhile (back at the ranch) in a separate pot, add the rice noodles to boiling water and turn off the heat. Cook until tender, then drain and rinse with cold water.

Slice the meat across the grain and sear or saute.

To serve, put some noodles, beef, lemon, cilantro, pepper, and green onions in a bowl. Pour hot broth over it.
(Can you see the steam?)

This stuff rocks - and Aaron made it for me when I had strep throat - it was the best.


The kids kinda like it. The noodles are entertaining, anyway. (The youngest) mostly stirred his...(2nd born) had his noodles + meat (+ ketchup!) sans broth, as all the beef broth (at Smith's anyway) has MSG in it. And we like to be extra careful with that guy. So, gotta find a new way to get broth without that nice little additive.

It would be tasty without the meat, too!

feel free to change it...

if you hate what i did to the blog colors.

borscht

The first time we ever had borscht (sp?) was at Kirk and Eva's place in SLC. Even though I'm not a fan of beets I really liked it, and the yummy bread we ate with it. Now that we live far from them we don't have the benefit of free borscht and have not attempted to make it on our own. However, lucky us, we have a Ukrainian friend (Lilia) who makes it. Hers is a little different from theirs, but also delicious.

Well little Sam is just beginning to discover the true meaning of food and today I introduced him to borscht made by Lilia. He loved it. I just gave him pieces of beet and beans which he devoured. Can I request a recipe post of borscht?

Pork Barbacoa - for the meatatarians

So, we're officially Cafe Rio addicts. They never should have opened one so close to our house.

In an effort to avoid the place, we've tried making our own pork barbacoa - so here's the recipe I've altered - it's not exact, but it's yummy and getting closer to the original each time we make it:

2.5 lbs pork
1/3 cup water
1/2 - 1 cup salsa verde (we use the small mexican cans)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. minced garlic (1/4 powdered, probably)
1/2 tsp. salt
dash pepper

Throw everything in the crockpot for a few hours. When the pork is nice and tender, drain the liquid into a small saucepan. Add a little more brown sugar (1/4 cup? I added 1/3 last time and Aaron said it was too sweet) and a tablespoon of ketchup. Let the liquid reduce until it's thicker.
Meanwhile, shred the pork with two forks. When the sauce is thicker, pour over the meat and combine.

Now's the best part - serve on tortillas with beans, rice, homemade guacamole, whatever you want. It's good, I swear.

potatoes eva

i had a request for this recipe, so here it is.

no, i did not make it up. and no, i did not name it. but i do really like it - even if i can only eat it about twice a year.

1. pour frozen hash browns (the kind with onions and peppers mixed in) into a casserole dish. pour a little at a time so that you can add plenty of salt and pepper as you go.

2. pour cream into dish until potatoes are covered.

3. cook at 350 until done. (could be an hour or two)

*if you thaw the potatoes, it won't take so long to cook.
* it's named after me because i accidentally bought the hashbrowns with onions and peppers, but everyone ended up liking it... so granny renamed it after me.

The People's Cookbook

While searching for the true meaning of food, Jenn and I had the idea to compile recipes for a cookbook that features typical peasant and pauper food from different parts of the world--what the People eat! Like black beans, corn tortillas, and chiles from Guatemala. I think the People understand better the true meaning of food than anyone else. The book can be divided by season and will feature foods that are popular during each season, like tomatoes in the summer and turnips in the winter. It will require a a lot of research and travel so if you want to help, let's get cracking!
I also have a suggestion to improve the blog. I think that the song from Oliver (the musical) should play while someone is visiting the blog. It approaches the true meaning.
Food, Glorious food
Hot sausage and mustard!

salad schmallad

i love salads. i had salad overkill for a while and couldn't stand the thought of eating another one, but now they are back in my good graces.

this one had romaine lettuce, shredded carrots and romano cheese, black olives, sun dried tomatoes (so much better than "fresh" tomatoes this time of year), and homemade vinaigrette dressing. kirk prefers to just drizzle it with some extra virgin olive oil.

p.s. i love that box the clementines came in! don't think i'll have the heart to throw it out.

the Kupcake Kraze

So I am the latest supporter of the national trend of eating cupcakes. Why are these mini cakes such a hot commodity? Why are there bakeries specifically dedicated to cupcakes rising up in cities all over the country? (Sorry for the very bad puns.) Maybe because they are delicious. Like the above specimen from our neighborhood cupcake bakery that just opened. It was coconut.

And unlike other food trends (like wraps, which are always disappointing) i think this one may stick. They ARE trendy, but they're classy and simple and satisfying.

rot n' cheese

Today I (Jenn) made homemade macaroni and cheese, except we didn't have any macaroni noodles, we had rotini. Kris dubbed it rot n' cheese.


It was really good and easy. You just melt butter, stir in flour, then mix in milk and let it boil. Then goes in grated cheeses and I added veggies. Mix in the noodles, sprinkle bread crumbs on top, bake in the oven, and that's it! Delicious.