A friend of mine pointed out this recent study, on the “Dirty Dozen” fruits and veggies that apparently run amok with pesticides. And conversely, fruits and veggies that stay fairly pesticide-free, organic or not.

Onward with smart purchasing decisions!

“You can reduce your exposure to pesticides by up to 80 percent by buying the organic version of the Dirty Dozen.”

• Celery
• Peaches
• Strawberries
• Apples
• Domestic blueberries
• Nectarines
• Sweet bell peppers
• Spinach, kale and collard greens
• Cherries
• Potatoes
• Imported grapes
• Lettuce

The “Clean 15″ contain little to no pesticides.

• Onions
• Avocados
• Sweet corn
• Pineapples
• Mango
• Sweet peas
• Asparagus
• Kiwi fruit
• Cabbage
• Eggplant
• Cantaloupe
• Watermelon
• Grapefruit
• Sweet potatoes
• Sweet onions

Okay, it’s not real Cuban mojo sauce. Real mojo sauce looks crazy dangerous. I didn’t feel like setting my kitchen on fire (we’re renting), so, I went with this “new take on mojo.”

Behold… Shrimp Escabeche with Blood Orange Mojo

It’s a lovely, light, summer dish. I had it with a Corona.

I was pretty much drooling when I boiled the orange/lemon juice with garlic. I wouldn’t have thought to put those two together, but it smelled fantastic. There was a lot of chopping involved, but, that relaxes me now, after a long work day. Fun to make. Fun to eat. Two thumbs up.

I still don’t like bell peppers though, so I picked those out for mine.

My husband actually found this recipe. Then he told me I had to find a recipe for him to make tomorrow. I told him I didn’t like this change of rules, lol. So then he had me pick two number. I picked 12 and 52. He used them as latitude/longitude and came up with a space between Yemen and Somalia. Now he gets to make a Yemenese dish. ha

Behold, the crazy pasta maker.

It’s kind of old. And foreign. It was generously passed down from the husband’s Italian grandmother. No pressure.

Today was the first day I used it by myself. It’s pretty simple to use, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a death trap. It’s mechanical, so, if your finger gets in there, it’s going… I kept all my fingers, so I guess it was a success!

I found this recipe the other day, carrot tagliolini with zucchini walnut pesto. I thought it sounded delish, and more exciting than regular pasta, so, that’s what I made today. It’s Sunday. I have HOURS to dawdle away in the kitchen.

The dough was a pain in the ass, because I kneaded it by hand. Well, I kneaded for half an hour, and my husband went for another 10 minutes or so. We didn’t have the carrot issue that the original recipe maker had. No added flour here! I don’t think I pureed the carrots enough though, so maybe they were less watery. Instead of having orange-colored pasta, mine was yellow with pretty orange flecks.

Here it is hanging on a microphone stand in our kitchen. We didn’t know where else to put it, lol.

We have a ton extra, actually. Yell if you want some.

I only used one zucchini for the pesto, too. Coincidentally, I didn’t need to add extra oil. It came out good. I still like traditional pesto with pine nuts and basil best though.

Here’s the final product.

Homemade pasta is so good. This tasted nice and fresh. And no, you couldn’t taste the carrots. The recipe gets a thumbs up from me!

My absence can be summed up in one sentence:

“The boyfriend” shall now be known as “the husband.”

I just helped him make tsatsiki. AND he just got me a beer. I’m going to like the married life…

Now that all the rigmarole has died down, it’s time to get back to the blog. Allow me to jot down a few thoughts I’ve had regarding food and weddings.

1) We attempted to introduce our friends and family to the wonders of asparagus by including it on our reception menu. But it was soggy. Damn it. Now we’ll have to invite them over to dinner one by one to make them some good asparagus, just so they don’t keep the wrong idea.

2) You know how you are supposed to freeze some wedding cake and then eat it on your first anniversary? Yeah, our freezer isn’t that big. We’re eating it now instead. Screw it. It was a delicious carrot cake tier and I would rather eat it sans freezer burn anyway.

3) The wedding even helped me in my attempt to recreate Chipotle’s chicken. I stopped in on my way back from my hair and make-up trial. There was some 16-year-old kid behind the counter who got all slack-jawed and was like, “You have beautiful eyes…” “Hey, thanks. So…. what do you put in the chicken?” heh heh heh. More on that in a later post.

4) We went to Sonoma/Napa on our honeymoon, so we tastes a lot of wine. Our favorite was Bartholomew Park in Sonoma. They don’t distribute, but you can buy online. We ended up buying the cab (2005) and the sauvignon blanc (2006). The sauvignon blanc was actually a big deal for us, because we don’t like white wine all that much. Damn, I’m using “we” already. It’s true though! The husband likes it a wee bit more than me though. But this was pretty tasty, so we decided to go with it.

Stag ’s Leap was delicious too, especially their premium stuff. But it costs way too much money. I’m also happy to report that Malbec is popping up in Napa here and there. If you aren’t aware, I’ll drink Malbec with anything. It’s my favorite. The Napa versions weren’t as good as the stuff from South America, but, I’m glad they are trying.

5) We bought a lovely set of Riedel Vitis champagne glasses for our toast. If you are looking for a high-quality set, I recommend them. Especially if you are a giant, because they are enormous.

6) A channel wedding ring makes cooking… interesting.

7) Licking envelopes still tastes nasty. I’m waiting for someone to invent glue that tastes like cupcakes.

All in all, my cooking skills have grown tremendously. I’m reaching the point where I don’t need a recipe anymore. That’s huge! One night, my husband even reached for seconds of something I made. That’s even huger than the no-recipe thing, because he never gets seconds of anything. We alternate cooking nights, so I’m always on the lookout for fun and interesting new food to try.

It’s nice to be back!

Have I ever mentioned I’m a Taurus? And therefore, stubborn as hell?

I’m still on a mission to master chipotle chicken. As in, duplicating the flavor you get at the fast food place. I knew my latest attempt wouldn’t be spot on, because it looks totally different, but, I was hoping to learn a little more about the flavors used in various chipotle chicken recipes. That’s the plan anyways.

There are certainly enough chipotle chicken recipes to learn from. My goodness. My boyfriend tells me that chipotles became quite “trendy” a few years back. That would certainly explain the 33 pages of chipotle chicken recipes found on epicurious.com. When I search for “chipotle” alone, I got a whopping 266 pages. Holy crap. Whadda think? Should I change this blog to a chipotle cooking blog? A recipe a day? Think I’ll get a movie deal?

The recipe I used comes from Gourmet magazine. I changed it up a teeny bit, by using chicken breasts instead of two whole chickens. My cat’s on a diet*, so, I was just cooking for me and the boyfriend. We don’t need a chicken apiece.

Therefore, I had to guess on the cooking time. I think, just by comparing pictures, that I cooked it less than they did in the magazine. But I’m cool with that. It came out really tasty.

That first night, we had it in tacos. Like the last time I mixed chicken with taco ingredients, the flavors were overwhelmed by the other taco ingredients. It was still tasty, but, it just tasted like ordinary (yet moist) chicken.

The next day at lunch, I had the leftovers with some mashed potatoes. That was delicious. I didn’t even care about the chicken actually, I was just sucking all the sauce off. That pretty much made it BBQ chicken, but, mmmmm. Tasty.

So yeah, it still tasted nothing like the stuff in the restaurant, but I was really happy I made it. I’ll be making it again. The directions were easy to follow, and we had all the non-fresh ingredients in the cupboard. I love it when that happens.

* She’s lost three pounds! I’m so proud.

I made wiener schnitzel again!

I even remembered to save some lemon for garnish, and to put my greens on the plate. See, I’m learning! The point of this project, actually, was to play around with a different breading technique.

I used panko this time. That’s not too crazy. I doubled it again. That’s not too crazy either. But it was a little much. Double panko tasted great, but it also stuck together to itself and totally ditched the veal. It was almost like oil and water. I couldn’t get them to stay together no matter how hard I tried.

A slab of unbreaded veal looks pretty gross, for the record.

It’s good to have a little mystery in life.

Hmm. I seem to be imagining history wrong in my head again. i can’t find any pictures. I guess that really does make this post crazy.

I’ll start with the food food, and then elaborate on the sauces, or mad science as I like to call it.

But yum, huh? Doesn’t that spring roll look good? I snagged the recipe from one of my “Foodbuzz Friends,” Filipinalovesfood. She recommended making them with pork, cucumber, noodles, mint, lettuce, and pineapple. I had never had a spring roll with pineapple in it before, but I loved it. Spring rolls are probably the “freshest” tasting food around. So that’s awesome right there. But when you add sweetness? I’m twice as sold.

And here’s the dumpling recipe. Also yum. We were so full from the spring rolls though, that we didn’t eat many dumplings. Most of them are sitting in my freezer right now, to be enjoyed for lunch later on this week.

Sauce, Sauce, Sauce, Sauce, Sauce

I’ve been quite interested in sauces, as of late. I actually have a copy of, “Sauces: Classic and Contemporary Sauce Making,” by James Peterson sitting on my coffee table. I’m curious about the structure of sauces - why they work like they do, what thickens and why, etc.

Like I said, we made a total of five sauces for this meal. Two were marinades - one from the spring roll recipe (for the spring roll pork) and one my bf just made up (for the dumplings). I liked them both a lot. Marinades are awesome. There are so many different possibilities. My favorite so far has been a lime-flavored marinade though. I was going to make that again this weekend actually. Anyhoo.

Then I made some peanut sauce for dipping. That was hilarious. I wasn’t paying too much attention to the recipe and I accidently used a tablespoon of sesame oil, instead of a teaspoon. Dammit. A little sesame oil goes a long way. So in an attempt to fix it, I just quadrupled the rest of the ingredients. I ended up with more peanut sauce than I would ever use in my life. My bf delicately suggested afterwards that sometimes it’s better to throw the mistake away and start over, instead of trying to fix what you have. Oh yeah. That would have been smart. I used about half a jar of peanut butter up! It’s a good thing I love it and have 2 1/2 jars left over in my cupboard still.

Also made a soy sauce-based dipping sauce. And a sauce to mix with the marinated pork for the dumplings.

I didn’t care for either of the dipping sauces, actually. Those are all personal preferences though. I’m not a big dipper. Or even a little dipper. I don’t use salad dressing. I eat chips plain. I’m just weird like that. My spring roll tasted perfect just as I had made it, I thought. I also don’t like soy sauce. I’m trying to like it, but it’s way too salty for me. I can put it in things, but when it’s the main ingredient, it’s nasty.

But, that’s fine. The science of a sauces is still fun for me. Here’s me playing with some corn starch and water. That s*it is crazy! Fun times, fun times.

It’s just that, this is a really tough problem! I’ve been gathering information for the past few weeks. Gathering recipes that other people recommend, gathering food substitutions, and gathering lots of (conflicting) information about what people can and cannot tolerate on chemotherapy.

Here’s my unscientific list of that last so far:

Food that cannot be tolerated
Onions, many herbs, vegetable juices, broccoli, milk & dairy, ice cream, vegetables, chicken, chocolate, italian food, hot liquids, garlic, red wine, fried foods

Foods that can be tolerated
Dairy, potatoes, pickled things, chocolate, fruit smoothie, rice, ginger, green tea, greek salads, broccoli, green beans, caesar salads, starches, pasta, soups, sandwiches, fruit, chicken chop suey, salads, creamy soups, veggie soups, cheese, zucchini, lemon-flavoring, jello, banana bread, bananas, cool whip, scrambled eggs, toast, oatmeal, pudding, applesauce, tomato soup, baby spinach, dark greens, avocado, portabella mushrooms, goat cheese, feta cheese, scallions, strawberries

Foods that tasted different
Sweets, watermelon, ice cream, water, grape faygo (soda)

Foods that were easiest to taste
garlic, salt

Seriously, putting that all together is quite the puzzle. But I like puzzles. I LOVE puzzles, in fact. So I shall prevail.

In the meantime, does anyone out there on chemo have any input? What tastes good/bad/awful/bland? Lemme know!

Instead, I will tell you all about these awesome chicken nachos my boyfriend and I made.

We experimented with the chicken marinade/rubs, so there are actually three different flavors of chicken in there. Yum…

These were all the ingredients we used. As you can see, we just went nuts. It was fun.

Dish one was an ordinary dry rub. I forgot what was in it. I apologize. I wasn’t paying too much attention. I was much too excited about dish two, which is where we tried to recreate the chicken they use at Chipotle restaurant.

I’m from the Albany, New York area, and I live there now, but for some years in between I lived in Denver, Colorado. Chipotle stores are every three feet in Denver, so it was inevitable that I’d go in someday. Once I did, I was hooked.

It’s ridiculous. They have a ton of options, but I order the same, plain thing every time: chicken tacos with cheese. That’s it. No salsa. No guacamole. No nothing. Just the yummy, yummy chicken offset with some cheese. I’d get it a few times a week. Kinda sad really. But I have no shame, so I don’t care.

I went for years without it, once I moved away. It made me sad, but that’s life. I always kept an eye out though, to see if they would ever expand this way. And a few months ago, they finally did.

I’ve settled back into the old routine. We’ve reached the point where the folks behind the counter knew what I wanted without me telling them, just like their counterparts all over Denver, lol.

So, yeah. If I could create that flavoring on my own, I’d be so happy. It turns out I have some work to do though. That smokey flavor is hard to get! Seriously, if anyone reading this works there, or knows someone who works there, hook me up. We used hot sauce, dried chipotle and some balsamic vinegar. And cilantro and garlic. I think that’s it. I should have written it down, lol.

The third dish was my boyfriend’s special, make-it-up-as-he-goes-along concoction. I liked it the best out of the three, due to the lovely sweet and spicy mix he had going on. He used brown sugar and cocoa for the sweetness, cumin, oregano, and cilantro for the inbetween, and sriracha for the heat - that’s a Thai hot sauce for those of you (like me) not in the know. Plus some salt and pepper just for fun. The end result was really tasty all by itself, but the subtlety was overwhelmed by the rest of the nacho stuff, like the cheese and sour cream.

That was my common complaint actually. The nacho stuff tended to drown out a lot of the seasoning. I’m not sure if that means more seasoning or less other crap though, lol. Next time, we have plans to marinate them longer than two hours, baste while grilling, and to actually tenderize them and flatten them out to increase the surface area of the chicken. That all should help.

My boyfriend liked the dry rub the best, actually. I appreciated the crispy crust it made, I didn’t like that the chicken was dry compared to the marinades.

It was really weird to me how different each piece of chicken looked after marinating for a while. I should have been surprised by the different staining, but I was.