Guest Post by Jordan: The Fifty Dollar Chopped Salad

I think I've told you before, but my twin brother Jordan is an incredibly talented character. He's an amazing source of humor and inspiration for me, even when whole oceans or endless stretches of land seem to surface between us. So here he is with a tale of the family, and of a particularly special salad...

Some iteration of this sentence has surely appeared in the stream of consciousness below: There are two things that my family likes to do--play tennis and eat really good food. Neither my twin sister nor I had the attention span to endure anything beyond the youth tennis camps our mother so happily forced us to partake in; however, we both did come to love eating, and what better setting to do so in than at the all too frequent five-o-clock dinners our family has whenever we're both home. Then we were naive children who were unaware of our future as gourmets. Now we are mistakably pretentious (or as we prefer to say, passionate) about really good food. What facilitated the transition were the dinners we had with our family that exposed depth and intricacies of food. I might add that our family loves to characterize the behaviors of each of its members--so naturally, everything from Uncle Terry's classic ice-down-the-back to our Mom's erratic photo-shoots (look at our fridge the next time you make it to the Orinda house) sends our twin-telepathic hilarity into overdrive. Yet, the end product of these lovely gatherings is always the same: a massive feast and a great deal of laughter.

Living on my own and supporting myself the past few months has afforded several great life lessons. Always take the subway ten minutes before you have to, because if you don't the train will probably break down and you'll be late to work. Don't borrow your best friend and roommate's car while he's studying abroad in Germany if you're probably going to rear-end another car and end up with a big bill to pay. And, if you get invited to a potluck with your coworkers make something that they will remember. Well, when I was invited to attend my lab's cookout it wasn't difficult for me to decide on an unforgettable dish.

The heat of a Boston summer is unforgiving and oppressive. The humidity weighs you down so much that you'll avoid eating anything that you might feel sitting in your stomach afterwards at all costs. So what better to bring to a cook out than a colorful chop salad. In fact, the chop salad I had in mind was the one that my Uncle Terry typically prepared for our summer dinners. He was flattered to give away the recipe because, as he said, "Nobody asks for my recipes"! Well, a $50 trip to whole foods (who knew cucumbers were so damn expensive!?) and a few hours of chopping later I had a wonderful salad. So blow off some steam from your long commute home from work where you're the only non member of the army of mesmerized blackberry and iphone users. Look at the recipe below and write it down. Go buy the ingredients and don't open your computer until after you've enjoyed this wonderful salad. We all need a break from our overly connected lives, better to do it eating a great meal!

Uncle Terry's Chopped Salad

2 avocados
6 tomatoes
5 small cucumbers
6 green onions
2 bed bell pepper
4 radishes
Parsley
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Optional: Bacon

Chop the ingredients into small cubes and garnish with a Balsamic Vinaigrette. The final tossed salad should be colorful, textural, and tasty.

Guest Post: Turkish Coffee

Hi everyone...as you can see by the title this is not your favorite Kelsey anymore but a friend of hers who asked if she might add to the general spirit of this blog by contributing a guest post. I won't be nearly as whimsical and creative as her (and let's face it, who is?) but I hope this might at least somewhat compliment all the amazing things she has going on here!

To begin with, let's clarify: I am no authority on Turkish coffee. In fact, I should probably apologize in advance for posting this in case someone who is a professional Turkish coffee brewer reads this blog and finds my methods offensive or in any way distasteful. I am no connoisseur. But I do think it has a valid enough social meaning to many people and cultures to be on this blog!

My parents are Serbian, and as far as Serbians are concerned, Americans don't know what coffee is. The stuff they sell at big-name coffee shops? It's just dirty water to begin with. Then we go ahead and add milk, cream, and sugar to it? Crazy Americans! [Note: The author of this post worked in a coffee shop herself as a barista and means no disrespect to coffee fanatics whatsoever.] Long story short, to Serbians - this is coffee: the dark, rich, frothy coffee that has all the grounds boiled right in, and collecting at the bottom of the cup.

And the thing about coffee with Serbians is, they drink it all the time. Not like Americans though. If you step into anyone's house in Serbia (which happens all the time, as people pop up totally uninvited as a way of life), there is immediately an ibrik* on the stovetop anticipating your Turkish-coffee-drinking, and some fancy dessert is pulled from behind a magic curtain. You are here to stay, at least for a while, and chat with your host about your house, your family, the weather, those crazy teenagers, and the crick in your neck that you just can't seem to get rid of. My point is, Serbians don't buy coffee on the go, they don't drink coffee in their cars, and they certainly wouldn't dream of having a cup by themselves. Turkish coffee is all about the experience of sitting down and socializing. And, luckily, it tastes wonderfully.


Some tips:

1) I learned this from my dad: Don't sweeten your coffee. Instead, eat something very small and very sweet like these walnut bars with a hint of lime with it. That way, you can alternate between the bitter (but tasty) coffee and sweeten your pallet with a fun dessert.

2) For a rowdy good time, try fortune telling after you've sipped all your coffee! It sounds ridiculous but this is the most fun part, in my opinion (and goes precisely with the theme of socializing). I have no idea how you are actually supposed to tell fortunes with your coffee grounds, but basically what I've been doing with friends is just drinking all the coffee, swirling around what's left of the coffee and grounds for a little bit to mix it well, and flipping the cup upside down onto the saucer. There, you let it dry for a few minutes and when you pick the cup back up, pretend you're looking at a cloudy sky and try to see some images in them and tell a story. When my mom was teaching me how to make this, we found we could see a llama, a koala, a road leading somewhere, a man, and something medical (I forget what). We concluded based on the placement that the llama indicated my past (study abroad in Chile), and the koala was on my 'road to the future' (clearly I'm going to Australia). And there is a man there I am going to meet, for whatever reason (I'm not one to dream of romance or weddings all that much) who will either be a doctor or will need me to help him somehow. Anyway, it's fun!

Turkish Coffee
~the only way I know how~
____________________

Items needed:
1 ibrik
Turkish coffee sized cups (like tea cups, they are small)
Turkish coffee (not just any coffee)
Sugar

Directions:

1. Measure out water for the ibrik by simply filling one of the turkish coffee cups as many times with water as you have people you are making coffee for.
2. Mix in a little sugar, to taste, to the water. (If your'e just starting, try about 1 tsp sugar per cup of coffee you are making).
3. Boil the sugar-water mixture, remove from heat.
4. Pour ONLY 1 cup's worth of water back into one of the turkish coffee cups.
   
5. Add about 1 tbsp coffee to the ibrik for each cup of coffee you are making. You can add more if you want it stronger. Stir well with a metal spoon.
   
6. Return the ibrik to the flame, BUT BE CAREFUL BECAUSE
7. Allow the coffee mixture to heat up, watching carefully, and to rise in the ibrik as much as you can without letting it overflow. Seriously, the coffee rises quickly so watch this (it's pretty cool) and try and remove it from the flame just before it boils over in the ibrik.
   
8. Pour the previously removed water back into the coffee mixture (my mom says she's guessing this is to help you NOT boil over the coffee mixture, but she's not sure).
9. Stir for a little while - if you've done it right, it should be kind of foamy/frothy near the top. This is the mark of good turkish coffee. =)
   
10. Use a spoon to evenly distribute the frothy part between all of your cups before pouring coffee from the ibrik into each cup.
    
11. Let the coffee settle (you don't want to be drinking the grounds).
12. When it has settled for about a minute, enjoy!
    

Pad Thai - Guest Post from Frances

One of the most amazing things about my life this semester is that I'm living with two really incredible roommates. I can't emphasize enough how fulfilling it is to share good conversation, laugh, and embark on spontaneous adventures with them each week. One added bonus is that they're both amazing chefs!

Frances works wonders with vegetables and grains- I once claimed not to bat an eyelash at brussels sprouts, but after tasting her brussels sprouts- enhanced tabbouleh I fell in love with them. That said, I'm so lucky that she was willing to post this delicious pad thai recipe (which I definitely savored both hot and cold this past week!) Enjoy! -Kelsey

Part of the fun of cooking pad Thai is the melody of sizzle, crackle, pop, hiss that results from tossing cold, watery onions and mung beans into a wok full of hot peanut oil. Because of the heat intrinsic to preparing pad Thai and the fact that Berkeley experienced an unexpected heat wave this week, I couldn’t bring myself to start cooking until the sun had set and the air had cooled, around 8:30 in April. The disgustingly hot weather had stinted my appetite during the day, and pad Thai proved itself nutritious dinner I needed.

Pad Thai is a noodle dish with broccoli, spinach, and mung beans and is high in vegetarian protein from tofu, egg, and peanuts. The ingredients for the sauce are simple, just peanut butter, brown sugar, soy sauce, and vinegar, but their interaction creates the tantalizing blend of sweet, sour, and saltiness characteristic of Asian cuisine. Each component of the dish absorbs the flavors differently so that every bite is unique.

Pad Thai makes great leftovers if you can’t finish the entire batch in one night. Don’t worry if you lack a microwave, it’s just as delicious cold and makes a refreshing lunch.

Most of this recipe comes from Mollie Katzen’s Still Life with Menu but the spinach and broccoli are my dad’s ingenious additions. Enjoy!

Pad Thai

6 oz. uncooked rice noodles
5 tablespoons soy sause
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 tablespoons peanut oil
3 eggs
6 scallions, sliced into 1 inch pieces
1 lb. fresh mung bean sprouts
1 lb. spinach
1 lb. broccoli florets
3 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
1 lb. firm tofu cut into small cubes
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups chopped toasted peanuts
wedges of lime

1. Cook your noodles in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes. Drain, and rinse with cold water.
2. Mix the soy sauce, peanut butter, and brown sugar into a thick paste.
3. Scramble the egg in a tablespoon of hot peanut oil and set aside.
4. Heat the wok. Add more peanut oil. Stir fry scallions, garlic, mung beans, red pepper, broccoli, and spinach for a few minutes. Next add the tofu and stir fry and couple more minutes. Add the noodles (make sure they're completely drained) and stir fry about 5 more minutes.
5. Add the paste from step two and vinegar. Stir and cover. Let it cook for several more minutes.
6. Lastly, add the scrambled egg.
7. Serve with toasted peanuts and lime.