I found a new produce—new to me at least—at Trader Joe’s this week, Thomcord grapes. These grapes are a crossbreed of Thomson seedless and Concord grapes. They have dark purple skins and a wonderful flavor. While my wife Jan does not like grape jelly—growing up her mother bought nothing but Welch’s grape jelly—daughter Eilene loves it. She asked me to turn these grapes into a jam.
Karl’s Thomcord Grape Jam
Filed under Breakfast, Treats, Vegan, Vegetarian
Last week, we were at a local restaurant that served lau lau pork (leaf leaf pork). Miriam bought a side dish of this and it was amazing. In reading about it, it appears that it is usually made with both fish and pork, but the restaurant and many of the recipes I found on-line replace the salted fish with soy sauce.
Karl’s Hawaiian Lau Lau Pork
Filed under Main Dishes, Pork
Jan asked for chicken soup with rice—props to Maurice Sendak—for a weekday dinner, but that seemed too common to me. I decided to make Thai Chicken soup with rice stick. I can make it a bit less spicy than it is made authentically.
Karl’s Thai Chicken Soup
Filed under Chicken, Main Dishes, Soups
We have a new neighbor across the street and my usual practice has been to gift new neighbors with a jar of jam as a welcoming to the neighborhood. Surprisingly, I had no jam on hand—normally I have 4-5 jars ready to distribute or for personal consumption. I needed to make a new batch.
Karl’s Ginger White Peach Jam
Filed under California Fusion, Vegan, Vegetarian
I recently learned how to make pancakes from scratch. When Jan decided to go to Burning Man this was an obvious choice for one of their meals. There was how ever a hitch, out in the middle of the desert there would be little refrigeration available—which kind of knocks out using fresh milk and eggs.
Karl’s Blueberry Pancakes for Burning Man
Filed under Breakfast, California Fusion, Main Dishes
Wife Jan is going to Burning man and a lunch side dish had been requested. I put forward several options and a variation of a dish I made a few weeks ago has been requested. I wanted something that would be quick and easy, so I decided to use orzo spiced up with za’atar.
Karl’s Za’atar Orzo for Burning Man
Filed under California Fusion, Pasta, Side Dishes, Vegetarian
A pilau is properly made with rice, and I had originally intended to make this a rice dish. Wife Jan though that rice would take too long to cook. Israeli couscous was invented as a rice substitute when the fledgling state of Israel could not import as much rice as people wanted. This could therefore be called “Israeli pilau.”
Karl’s Saag Pilau for Burning Man
Filed under California Fusion, Main Dishes, Vegetarian
Jan’s Ethno Breakfast has come around again. For the last one I had made 2 dozen Cajun deviled eggs. I did not want to make exactly the same thing again, so I thought I would make these Middle Eastern with za’atar.
Karl’s Za’atar Deviled Eggs
Filed under California Fusion, Side Dishes
Last week, I made what I thought was a fruit cobbler (fruit on the bottom). On further research, I found that I had made something closer to a tart (fruit on the top). I was planning to try making a cobbler again when my wife, Jan, said that she preferred the fruit on the top.
A Serving of
Karl’s Peach Pie Cobbler
Filed under California Fusion
I started with a recipe from a King Arthur, each time I make it a tweak it a bit further from the original. Today, I am making some rolls to go with my simple cioppino. These rolls started out as pull-apart-rolls, but I decided to space them further apart as individual loaves.
Karl’s Dinner Rolls
Filed under bread, Side Dishes, Vegetarian
karllueck
Miriam
Jabberwocky Stew 