Internet, how I've missed you.

We have an Internet problem. And the household impact was unexpected. I did not realize how often I hop online; how often the whole family does.

We will get things fixed soon. Regular posting will resume soon too. The one good thing...lots of reading! ^_^

Jenn's iPhone

Dimming the Silver Apple

I saw a Twitter post that said it best - iSad.

Here at Brewed Bohemian we are more than just an Apple household; we pay our bills thanks to Apple.  So it is with a sad heart that I sit here writing this post on my MacBook Pro, listening to my iPod while hearing texts come in on my iPhone.  My, how this one man changed so many lives.  I remember my first Apple experience, before I knew the name Steve Jobs.  It was a Macintosh; I was playing Carmen Sandiego while visiting my aunt.  I loved the colorful Apple icon and the click of the keyboard.  I was younger than ten but I was hooked.  And thanks to this brilliant pioneer, we now have computers in our homes, our schools, our offices, our pockets.

Thank you, Steve Jobs.  You will be missed.  www.Apple.com/Stevejobs

Local Loves - Shinjuku Station

I am a big fan of locally owned business and Fort Worth has some great spots.  Many of these local dives, eateries and shops have become household favorites.  Shinjuku Station is one of our newer finds.  I say it is a find but in essence it's another venture by the folks at Tokyo Cafe.  We consider the owners of this wonderful sushi joint to be true Brewed friends so when they opened a new restaurant on South Magnolia, we had to give it a try.

Shinjuku Station is an actual rail station in Japan.  The Texas restaurant has great black and white pictures of its Japanese namesake on the walls.  It also has great steampunk lighting over the bar (Edison bulbs for those who follow that sort of thing) and a lovely brick wall.  The atmosphere is perfect for the current hipster crowd of the Near South Side.

But the draw of Shinjuku Station isn't the retro music or the funky lighting; it is the food.  These guys serve small plates - not quite appetizers but not quite full meals.  It's perfect if you want to go light and works well in a family style setting.  You are meant to share.  ^_^

We started with a spicy take on edamame.  I think it was actually called Spicy Garlic Edamame.

It was inventive and was an excellent deviation of one of my favorite Japanese eats.
We then ordered several "safe" items including a few sushi pieces (not their main prep style) and then stepped outside the box to try adventurous menu options such as saki steamed mussels and tuna tartar.  Everything was exceptional and we found ourselves looking at other tables when the waiters passed by with the plates.  Maybe there was a gem we hadn't tried.

Even the kiddo enjoyed the scene with a kobe beef dish you got to cook at the table.  The thin slices of beef were served with a hot stone which was used to sear the meat.  It was a fun, family friendly dish I would highly recommend.  The table next to ours ordered a round after spying our sizzling rocks. 

Everything was fresh and perfectly balanced.  Light, airy fish was paired with a salty crunch; earthy spinach was dressed with a nutty sauce.  We tried several menu items and left nothing uneaten.  Yes folks, it's a shock but we cleaned our plates. ^_^

They also serve tempura veggies ala carte for a great price and have Rahr beer on tap.  If you're ever on the South Side, check them out.  It will be well worth effort.

Epic Sugar Fail

I had the best recipe lined up; a Mexican chocolate-orange cupcake recipe.  I was excited; I took some great blog worthy pictures; I cracked open a bottle of wine to celebrate just before putting the cupcakes into the baking tin. It was going to be blog-tastic.

See the sugar hiding in the background??

Then I tasted the batter - and gagged.  Oh man; that is SALTY.  What did I do??  I checked the recipe and decided I had used a full teaspoon instead of a half teaspoon of salt.  Hmmmm.  I could fix that.  All I needed was more sugar and chocolate.  So I dumped a full cup of sugar and a stick of butter into a saucepan; I added the rest of my very expensive chocolate because I knew this fix would work.  I dumped the chocolate-sugar band-aide into the cupcake batter and proceeded to lick the chocolate covered spoon as I took the pan to the sink.  As soon as the spoon hit my mouth, I fell to the floor, my mouth burning with salty agony.  WHAT. THE. HELL???

My eyes were watering from the horrible saltiness of the chocolate sugar mixture and all I could think was, "How the hell did my sugar become so salty?? Is my sugar too old?"  I'm pretty sure sugar does not morph into salt with age.  And as I spun around in my salty daze looking from ingredient to ingredient I realized what had happened.

To get the full effect, let's back up approximately one year to my beautiful pantry make-over.  I put in shelves, bought organizers, labeled things.  My pantry became a total Type-A dream come true.  I spent hours creating and labeling all my pantry items; well almost everything. 

I did not label my pasta containers.  Who labels pasta containers?  Not I said the fly.  And this was my pasta container full of sugar...

Except it wasn't full of sugar; it was full of the recently purchased pickling salt I had needed for another project.  That's right math wiz-es; I had over a CUP of pickling salt in my batter.  YUM. O.o

All that wasted chocolate meant I had to drink the full bottle of wine as a sad panda instead of a super blogger.  Oh well.  At least I got a few laughs.

Jalapeno Ice Cubes

Stick with me on this; it will make sense, I promise.

One of my New Year's resolutions was to become more aware of what was going into my mouth.  Where did my food come from?  How was it grown, raised, processed, etc?  What did it take to get the meal on my table?  That is alot of thought for something I do every day, multiple times a day.  Of course, being lazy means I found the easiest way possible to meet this goal.

The easiest way to know my food was to begin shopping at a local farmer's market.  Not all FMs are created equal; some allow reselling and get certain produce from the same place as a super market.  It took me a while to figure this out although one would think lemons in Texas would be a good indicator. DOH!  Luckily, the Cowtown Farmer's Market has a strict policy on location of growth or production; everything is made within 150 mile radius of Fort Worth.  Yeah for Lazy Me!!

The only real down side to eating this way is, well the seasons.  It's not like grocery store produce.  If the temps get too hot, if there is a drought in your area, if the soil is more sandy clay than rich dark earth, you end up with limited food choices.  This means I've had to learn how to preserve food when it is in season (or when it's not a thousand degrees outside).  I've tried canning a few times.  But it's hot work, and it takes time, attention to detail, etc.  Have I mentioned I'm lazy?   Yeah, freezing is much easier and works just as well for some things.

This summer, as I began to notice certain produce becoming less and less abundant at the FM, I started freezing things so I would have the item this winter.  One thing I use in almost every dish - jalapenos.  Peppers have been scarce this summer, I'm assuming because of the extreme heat.  So the last big batch I purchased ended up in my freezer.  Since this whole eating local, preserving food concept is new to me, I'm trying different options.  I froze one set of peppers as is after a good wash and blanch.  I also tried a sauce approach with one batch.  I chopped the little buggers up, cooked them on the stove in some water then decided to put the whole concoction in ice trays for meal sized portioning. Can you say idiot savant??  My laziness really paid off this time.  Many of my "weird" ideas fail but this one is a total keeper.  AND I'm going to try it with other things that get portioned out in recipes.

The jalapeno ice cubes are perfect for tossing into a dish as you're cooking.  It also keeps me from needing to thaw out an entire bag of peppers for just one meal.  Instant flavor and heat in a perfect little square package. ^_^  Think of it as a frozen bullion cube!

Jalapeno Ice Cubes

• 12-15 fresh Jalapeno peppers
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 dash of sea salt
• Approx 3-4 cups of water

Method:

1. Wash and dry the peppers.  
2. Cut the stems off but leave the seeds intact.  
3. Place the peppers, garlic and salt in a chopper or food processor.  
4. Pulse for one minute or until everything is finely chopped.
5. Place peppers into a sauce pan with 3-4 cups of water on medium heat. (the less water used the more concentrated the pepper cubes will be)
6. Allow the mixture to boil then reduce to a simmer; cook for 20-30 minutes
7. Remove from the heat and allow the pan to cool completely
8. Spoon or funnel the mixture into a clean ice tray; freeze overnight
9. Remove the cubes from the tray and place in a freezer bag or freezer safe container for storage
10. Use cubes as needed in cooking.

This makes meal prep time easier and faster.  My next experiment will be with tomatoes.  What other produce should I try?  Leave your ideas in the comments below!!

BrewedB

Book Bust and French food

Guapo - BB Club pet of the month

We have had our first book club book bust.  What is a book bust?  A book no one finished.  I believe the description of the night was "too text book-ish".

Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation - Noel Riley Fitch

The first bad sign for this book - it was hard to find.  There was no electronic version for our e-readers; there were no used copies hanging around Half Price Books; there were no new copies in current book stores.  In the end, we all had to order the book on-line.  Not a great way to start.

Most of us were somewhere in the first half of the book, so we talked about a half-n-half approach.  Finally, we opted for a different book about the same period with the same basic characters.  Some of us might try to finish the Sylvia Beach book but it takes concentration; that means no reading close to bed time, folks. ^_^

Even without reading the book, it was a great meeting.  The French themed food was excellent and the conversation on "why" the book was such a hard read contributed to one of our better club nights.  There were certain aspects of the characters and time frame of the book that intrigued each of us.  Did everyone move around that much during the 20's?  And would we still find Joyce's Ulysses vulgar?  It was a good discussion even without a book conclusion.  And we have our first "book report" coming from one of the Brewed Bookies on Ulysses. ^_^

The food was delish, as usual.  And we had plenty (of course).  The foodie win of the night was the chicken in a port cream sauce.

We also had strawberry napoleons, roasted red potatoes in olive oil, French onion soup, eggplant with basil, and beignets.

Our wine was a wonderful French red Rhone, Chateauneuf-du-Pape.  It was full bodied and smooth. YUM.

Next month's book will stay with the French 20's theme: The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

The alternate selection for those who have already read this book is A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway.   It covers the same time and characters, but from Hemingway's point of view.

Club will be on Friday, 10/28 at 7pm.  It will be held at the Clover House.

I hope to see everyone there!
Happy Reading.
BrewedB