I may be losing my mind

A funny thing happened at lunch yesterday.

There was hardly anyone in the office so I decided to take a leisurely lunch to kill a little time instead of eating at my desk like I usually do.

I walked over to Fog City Diner which is just a few blocks away. It has a nice bar area for us singles to eat at, and lots of people watching out the window.

They had a special lunch menu called the "Neighborhood Lunch" where you could choose a cup of potato soup or small Caesar salad and then either a albacore cheddar melt, sesame chicken salad or Southern fried chicken sandwich.

It seemed like a lot of food for lunch. But then I knew we'd be eating dinner late on New Year's Eve. And that potato soup sounded so good. So I ordered it. What the heck. I was going with the soup and the chicken sandwich. I'm by myself. Who would know except me and my ever growing waistline? And then I thought, "Oh, I'll just eat half the sandwich. It will make good leftovers." And that was that. Lunch was ordered.

I felt guilty ordering it the second the server walked away.

I shouldn't have ordered the soup. Too fattening.

I should have ordered the salad. What was I thinking? What is wrong with me?

I know what I was thinking. I was thinking how yummy that soup would be and the fried chicken would be juicy on the inside and crunchy on the outside. Perfect on a cold winter's day.

I sat there drinking my iced tea, looking at the people outside, and felt really guilty.

What has happened to my will power? I used to be so strong. I could say no to the bread, fried chicken and yummy potato soup. It's like my brain is rebelling.

My brain and waistband are at odds with each other.

I should have ordered the salad.

And then the server appeared with the cutest little cup of soup. It had a delicious drizzle of olive oil on it and crispy little pieces of bacon. 

And then he set down a salad.

The sesame chicken salad.

I looked around suspiciously.

I looked at the salad.

I looked at the server.

I know I said fried chicken sandwich.

"Everything ok??" he said

Uh......

"Yep."

How did that happen?

I am positive I said "Fried Chicken Sandwich" out loud. I know I did. Because the moment It rolled off my lips the guilt set in and I wondered if anyone heard me order it.

I didn't say a word. I just took the soup and salad as if I had ordered it.

It's like he could read my mind.

Or am I losing my mind? 

Did I order the salad?

We'll never know.

San Francisco with the cousins

We spent last Saturday in San Francisco with my sister Kathy, her husband Mike, and their two kids. We had a blast walking all over Union Square. We darted in and out of shops looking for the best Christmas decorations. Of course we did a little shopping, too. The Paul Frank store was definitely a hit with the kids.

Our first stop was Macy's. We were all quite impressed by the large, shiny red balls hanging in the entrance to Macy's. We ooed and aaah'd as we went up the escalator trying to find Santa. Once you get to the top floor (where Santa is) you can go up one last escalator to the Cheesecake Factory (inside Macy's) and go on a deck outside! It's pretty cool.

We all posed in the big window in front of all the beautiful Christmas decorations and experienced a bit of vertigo as we pressed our noses against the glass and looked down.

The best part for the girls?? Trying on glittery Ivanka Trump stilettos that were not on the sale rack. eeeks! After that I said "don't touch" about a hundred times. "Look with your eyes!" I kept reminding her. "Then why are you touching things?" she asked. "'Cuz I'm the mommy." Smarty pants.

Ivanka Trump Stilettos

I don't think they're ready for these shoes.

Remember the movie Elf? Yep. We watched it the night before.

We made quite the grand entrance at Neiman Marcus with the kids going round-and-round-and-round in the revolving door. Lucky for us there are other people out there that have seen Elf, so we were safe. In fact, they actually smiled as we walked in. Impressive for Neiman's.

We checked out their giant tree, even going up a few floors into the restaurant so we could pose for photos near the top! My sister and I drooled over the beautiful clothes, shoes and Christmas decorations as we zipped up and down the escalator.

Hi, enjoying your high tea? Don't mind me. Just getting a picture.

After a quick swoop through the huge Nike store we walked to Chinatown for lunch. Don and I wanted to take them to House of Nanking for some authentic Chinese food. It was a great lunch. I'm not sure my niece and nephew would completely agree with that statement, but my sister and brother-in-law seemed to enjoy the experience. It's definitely not like the Chinese food you eat in the burbs.

Chinatown in SF.

The House of Nanking is crowded, cluttered and the waitstaff can be a little, shall we say, short when it comes to serving? They were very nice to us - very accommodating and quite funny!

We sampled a bunch of stuff. That's the best way to do it. Some dishes take a little longer to prepare than others and they don't wait for everything to be ready before serving. They serve them as they're ready. So the best way to eat there is to serve everything family style and just start passing plates around as food arrives.

Our tasting menu:

Fried Pork Pot Stickers

Onion Cake

Steamed Dumplings

Sesame Chicken

Beef and Mushroom dish (special of the day)

House Noodles

Blossom Tea

House Noodles

Beef and Mushroom

This is what you get if you ask for hot sauce.

This is all that is left of the Sesame Chicken and Sweet Potatoes

Elli loved the Sesame Chicken. Maya, her cousin, is looking on saying "Ewwww." She was not very adventurous and spent the meal hugging her plate until the white rice arrived. Poor baby missed out on all the good stuff.

Blossom Tea (it blossoms right before your eyes in the mug.)

If you're ever in SF I highly recommend a visit. They prefer cash. But don't worry, if you forget your cash there are plenty of ATMs close by.

After lunch we wandered all over Chinatown going in a bunch of the crazy tourist stores. The kids were on a mission to find knit animal hats. Elli found hers and was dancing around the sidewalk like a proud peacock. We're not entirely sure what the animal is. But it sure is cute, and she loves it.

Silly monkeys.

The girls loved the Joe's Jeans store. Not sure the dude's there felt the same way.

The street performer captivated the crowd, and the girls.

Me and my honey bunny.

That's it! So glad my sister has a new iPhone 4G with an awesome camera, because I forgot my camera. DOH!! All these pictures are from her. YAY!  Thanks, Kathy!!!

Come back soon! The pink canopy room with the view of Mt. Tam is ready anytime.

I think I just invented Asian Sloppy Joe Lettuce Wraps

What's for dinner? How about Sloppy Joe's in a lettuce wrap - with an Asian twist. Invented by yours truly.

Here is why I will probably never have a future in recipe creation. I think I have a good idea. And I probably do. But it's all in the execution. But I'm sure stuff like this happens with people that create recipes all the time. In fact, it's probably how a lot of things get discovered.

Here's what happened. I had some ground turkey to use for dinner. There are three things I typically make with ground turkey, 1) spaghetti sauce 2) turkey meatballs and 3) turkey tacos. I thought I would branch out and make lettuce wraps with ground turkey. Sounds like a good idea, right? And to make it even easier and FASTER, I decided to use a sauce I have from Trader Joe's called General Tsao's sauce.

Well, I've never used this sauce before, cuz if I had, I wouldn't have used it in the lettuce wraps. The sauce is sweet and spicy with flavors of sesame oil and rice vinegar - - and tastes just like sloppy joe if someone from China had invented it!

They tasted good, but were way too sweet for my tastes. Elli loved it - she said it was like dessert for dinner. She even had one in her lunchbox the next day!

The next time I have ground turkey meat, which is often, I'm going to try again - using a real recipe this time. Cuz lettuce wraps are tasty and healthy for you.

My recipe inventions didn't stop there on this particular Sunday evening. I was reading the current issue of Food and Wine magazine, while the meat was simmering on the stove, when I came across a dumpling recipe that looked awesome. I didn't have the stuff to make dumplings, but I did have wonton wrappers and turkey meatballs in the freezer. So I sprang into action and made turkey wontons served with the dipping sauce from the magazine. These actually tasted good!

Dumpling Dipping Sauce

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1 T. Chinese chili garlic sauce
1 t. toasted sesame oil

Whisk ingredients together. Or, if you're like me. Combine all ingredients in a small jar and shake it up. You can make your own dumplings. Or buy the frozen dumplings at Trader Joe's. They rock.

Now back to the story.........

Does anyone else do this? Is it just me?

Don always looks at me like I'm from another planet. Although I must say he ate most of the wontons. AND this was a good invention. The turkey meatball was perfect for a dumpling filling. They tasted just like the filling you get in a Chinese restaurant! Well, ok, maybe not EXACTLY, but pretty darn close and mighty tasty for something I literally threw together on a whim.

My energy in the kitchen didn't stop there. I know. There's seriously something wrong with me. After dinner I made the banana chocolate chip muffins which were in the magazine too. Only I think I may have had one too many glasses of wine at this point in the evening 'cuz I poured in 3/4 of the bag of mini chips when I was only supposed to pour in 1 cup. Needless to say, the muffins are VERY chocolatey.

I stopped there. All of a sudden I was really tired! I had absolutely exhausted myself and still had to watch The Apprentice - my current Sunday night "must see tv."  (Can you believe what happened to Bret Michaels. Yowzer.)

As I sit here typing this I realize maybe I shouldn't have eaten one of those banana muffins right before typing. My brain is flying from all the sugar!! And they say sugar doesn't affect people. HA. They've never been with kids at the Giants game after eating cotton candy.

Sending mixed messages about your brand

The other day I was talking to one of the mom's at Elli's school. She asked what we were doing that evening, I told her we were going out for Chinese at Harmony. She asked if it was good and I enthusiastically said, "Yes! I love their signature beef dish, their calamari, green beans, and dumplings especially."  She replied, "Oh, I thought it was a dim sum place. I'm not a huge fan of dim sum so we've never been." I then told her they have a regular menu, plus a separate dim sum menu.

Then it got me thinking.... I don't think of them as a dim sum place at all.  I think of them as a Chinese Restaurant that also has a dim sum menu.  Mainly because they give you the regular menu first then say "We also have dim sum. Here's the menu."  It's an "also have..." type thing to me.

I can see why she's confused, but they are so much more than dim sum. I wonder if other people think the same thing? The restaurant is relatively new. It was started by a chef that worked at a very famous dim sum place here in San Francisco called Yank Sing. And, they had a banner hanging from the roof for a while that said something about dim sum. On their website they describe their food style as "classical and innovative Cantonese fair with it's specialty - freshly hand crafted dim sum."

So maybe they want to be known as a dim sum place.  That's not how I think of them, but now I'm a little confused too.

We run into this branding-type problem all the time with our advertising clients. Determining the right brand message is really tricky. Talking to customers is a good way to find out what people think about your product. So since I really like Harmony, and want them to be successful, I think I'll send the owner an email telling him that there seems to be a bit of brand confusion out there. "Why?" you ask. Because I know how hard it is to run a small business. And I hope someone would do the same for me.

Everyday Food. Beef and Orange Stir-Fry

Day four.  On to beef.  We like beef here in the Mulkey house. I know you're not supposed to eat much beef anymore.  But once in a while is ok. Right? (You can also make this recipe with chicken.) The thing that I like most about all of the recipes in the "Everyday Food. Great Food Fast " cookbook is that the prep is easy and the cooking time is short. Oh, and the food is delish!!!!

Beef and Orange Stir Fry (photo from marthastewart.com)

Beef and Orange Stir Fry 

3 oranges (or 2 oranges and 1/4 cup orange juice) 
2 cloves garlic, minced 
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce 
1 1/2 pounds trimmed boneless sirloin or rib eye, cut into 1/2-inch-thick strips 
1 tablespoon cornstarch 
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
6 scallions, green parts only, cut into 1-inch lengths 
 
1. Into a small bowl, finely grate zest and squeeze juice from 1 orange. Add garlic and soy sauce. 
2. With a sharp paring knife, peel remaining 2 oranges. Slice oranges crosswise 1/2 inch thick, then halve slices; push out, and discard any seeds. Set aside. 
3. In a medium bowl, toss meat with cornstarch until coated. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Working in batches (adding more oil if needed), brown beef on all sides, 3 to 5 minutes; transfer to a plate. 
4. Pour juice mixture into skillet, and boil until syrupy, about 1 minute. Return beef to skillet; add orange slices and scallions. Toss until coated and heated through. Serve hot. 
 
Variations:
Use chicken breasts and/or shrimp instead of steak and it's great.
I've made this with orange juice - and not fresh oranges at all. Still tasted great!
I've added broccoli near the end to have a vegetable included.

Click here to order the cookbook: Everyday Food. Great Food Fast.

Everyday Food. Cashew Chicken.

I decided I would have a theme this week. Everyone is always looking for good, easy recipes for every day. So I'm going to highlight some of the recipes from one of Martha Stewart's cookbooks.

Cookbook:  Everyday Food.  Great Food Fast. I love this book. The recipes are easy and tasty.  And there is a picture with every recipe. That's a good thing.

Chinese food is really easy to cook. It's fast, can be prepared so it's healthy and tasty, and once you have basic asian ingredients in your pantry it's easy to make in a pinch. You can have the rice cooking while you make the chicken. I have all of the ingredients on hand except for the scallions. I also steam some broccoli so we have a veggie with the chicken. 

Cashew Chicken

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons dry sherry
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
3 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
Coarse salt
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2/3 cup unsalted cashews, toasted
2 scallions, white and green parts separated and thinly sliced

 

1. In a medium bowl, toss chicken with sherry, ginger, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch; season with salt. Let sit. In another bowl, combine broth, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and 2 teaspoons cornstarch; set sauce aside.  

2. In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat. Add half the chicken and cook until golden and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Repeat with remaining chicken. Transfer to a plate.  

3. To same skillet, add 1 teaspoon oil, garlic, cashews, and scallion whites. Cook, stirring constantly, until garlic begins to soften, 30 seconds. Whisk sauce and add to skillet along with the cooked chicken.

4. Cook until sauce thickens, about 30 seconds. 

5. Top with scallion greens and serve with rice.

Asian

 

We like to serve our chinese food on fun square plates that I picked up at Cost Plus World Market and use chopsticks. 

If your kids are having trouble getting the hang of chopsticks, look for a hinge that connects the chopsticks for them.  Here are some cute ones called Chopstick Kids.

5/1 - Update.  Elli had her friend Lili over for dinner last night so I made this recipe.  The girls loved everything but the scallions. Don and I enjoyed it with a nice glass of Merlot.