Throwback Thursday: Mi Lechuga and My Laziness… (2009)

BTW, that first sentence can sub for what I would tweet, if I gave a twit teeheehee. I remember my blog buddy Jacob trying to convince me I should tweet and at the time of the text conversation we were having, I was getting my nails done. I told him, ‘What would I tweet? That I’m getting my nails done and then I’m on the way to one of my favorite restaurants?” … he said “yes”. I have still yet to tweet away. I still don’t know if I have an interesting life. I currently am truly enjoying the Wendy Williams Show and she constantly talks about what she likes to do most is pretty much nothing. Same here, I enjoy staying at home and cooking and playing video games and watching television. I do love going places, but I just don’t think it’s exciting or note-worthy enough.

Ok, so anyway … i digress … here’s a shot of my lechuga, aka lettuce in my garden!

It grows like crazy when I clip it and because it’s mixed, it makes a real pretty salad. My radishes didn’t make it and it was totally my fault, I kept saying I needed to thin them out and never did :-(. I am so not letting that happen to my fennel! I’m a bit worried about the tomatoes even though they are looking great, the weather and other reports from gardeners makes me feel like they may not taste as tomatoey as they should. I am thisclose to pruning them while they are green and frying away. In the top left of the pic is a look at one leaf of my collards, they are big and feeding little herbavores, not me … not yet. Other than that I’m, a lady in waiting for my onions and can’t wait to see if they are big and juicy.

Alright now for another picture. I was in recipe development a couple of weeks and back I’m still wrapping up all my recipes for the next episodes I begin taping in August. I always try to bring you the flavors of my kitchen with an emphasis on easy and accessible recipes. I really want you to watch and see that it’s possible to do and there are no real tricks involved in getting good food on the table everyday. Well, on a future show I’m planning I wanted to demo a dish that I love to eat in my new neighborhood in Brooklyn. They are called pastelillos de carne and basically it’s seasoned ground meat wrapped with pastry and fried, yummy. There are many variations and really a great comparison is an empanada, if you are familiar. So, I was working on developing the pastry dough part and came up with something great, but for such a yummy treat, the steps involved would be lengthy on television. I don’t mind showing long steps because sometimes we alllll know good things come to those that wait. But, shortcuts are fun too, when they don’t mess with the integrity of the recipe. Look, when I make pot-stickers, I’m not making the wonton papers, I’m buying them. Although I know how to make them, and have a great recipe from my days making their cousin yakimandu in South Korea … laziness is what will keep me from cooking, so wonton papers are a miracle in my freezer. Now … on what I call a “spelunking grocery store trip” just yesterday I found the way to faster empanadas and the aforementioned pastelillos de carne I have planned for a future show. Take a look!

Who knew? Not me, so I thought I’d share for a few reasons;

1) If you don’t have these at your local grocer, you can get them. All you have to do is take the name of the product to the customer service window where you get the membership cards and stuff and ask for it. Enough people asking, and they are sure to stock them. I’ve gotten stuff stocked after only asking once … and don’t think they know I work in the food industry, they don’t. I just put on a smile and ask. Goya is a national brand, but I find sometimes they are mostly in ethnic areas. So, if you don’t have these or any other thing you see being used on Food Network, empower yourself and ask for it at your local grocer.

2) I just want to inspire you to do some of your own grocery store spelunking. You never know what you are going to find when you open your eyes. I know it’s economically safe to walk in with a list and a full belly, but try to look at your grocery store in a different way. New items are constantly arriving and you never know what you’ll find if you just do a stroll instead of a marathon. I usually take forever when I’m in the mood and it’s as if I look at every single row, high and low, very slowly. Like it’s a museum.

3) After I took the picture of the empanada wraps in my freezer, I realized the borders reveal a few of my freezer items … can you tell what they are? Just a fun game to play if you happen to be working when you catch this post and need a little 5 minute distraction. Ok, enjoy the day! I’m headed off to get my nails all pretty for tomorrow’s big shoot … details to come.

p.s. this isn’t an advertisement for Goya or it’s products, just a friend telling a friend :-).