A Hamtastic Day!

Today was a good day. No, it didn't involve Battlestar Galactica, but it did involve ham. Glorious ham. Mr X and I were out and about for the day and we inevitably wound up at Bristol Farms - a delightful place in which to wander and sample expensive morsels of food. While we were gazing longingly behind the cured meat counter, Mr X spotted some rare and incredibly expensive Jamon Iberico. It was $100 per pound. Out of curiosity he boldly asked the woman behind the counter if they get many requests for this expensive Spanish ham. She said not a lot of people ever get it except one day when it was 40% off (still a hefty $60 per pound). Today, sadly, was not that day. But to our surprise and delight, the Meat Lady asked us if we'd like to try some. Of course we would! She presented us with four mouth-watering slices to sample. (Probably about $10 worth, I imagine.) It was absolutely hands-down the most delicious ham I have ever eaten. I'm going to find out when it goes on sale again and then I'll run down to Bristol Farms and order four slices for $5. Or maybe I'll just have Mr X bat his lashes at the Meat Lady again so we can get some more free samples.

The Status of my Christmas Shopping

I'm proud to report that after this past weekend, Mr X and I are completely finished with our Christmas shopping. I'm thrilled as this means that the only thing left for me to conquer from my holiday to-do list (besides all of the frivolous baking of course) is mailing off all of my neatly wrapped gifts for people. Oh yes, I've already wrapped them all in festive paper and tucked them into their boxes for shipping.

Now watch, I'll end up getting everybody their gifts late this year due to a false sense of "being ahead of the game."

If you have time to kill or you are as fascinated with food pictures as I am, go here and enjoy. Or more appropriately - be prepared to be appalled.

Citrus season is looming

The season of citrus is nearly upon us and I'm pleased to report that I've got my first 'take' behind me now. My fruit bowl is filled with nearly 3 dozen limes in this photo. I made a key lime pie this past weekend. This coming weekend I'm going to make pomegranate-lime juice to quench our thirst and I'm going to cut the peel into strips and 'candy' them. Well that's the tentative plan, at least.

Gift Idea

Mr X took this picture while gallivanting about in Japan. I just never got around to posting it for your viewing pleasure. In honor of the upcoming season of gifting I thought I'd post this gift-worthy watermelon. I would be pretty ecstatic to receive this, but I don't believe one can purchase them here in the US. They're spendy little things too - Mr X reports this one was around $60.

Just for Briana: Sulu Kofte

Because I haven't been blogging lately I received a phone call from my lovely friend Briana, demanding to know if I was dead or not. (Thank you so much for your phone call and for keeping in touch, Briana!)

I'm not.

I just haven't felt like I had anything worthwhile to write about. I haven't been going to any exotic places other than Buckeye, Arizona. I've just pretty much been working a lot, working out when I can, baking and surfing the Internet for travel destinations in an attempt to live vicariously through other people's fabulous experiences. Though yesterday I attended a formal cooking class that turned out to be very blog-able. More on that later though...

Meanwhile, Briana also wanted a recipe from me, so here it is:

Sulu Kofte (Turkish meatballs in tomato sauce)

Kofte ingredients:
1 pound ground beef or ground lamb
1/4 cup short grain rice, washed & drained
1 egg
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)

1/2 cup flour

1 onion, grated
4-5 Tbsp crushed tomatoes
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
2 cups water
salt & pepper (to taste)
chopped parsley (optional)

Place the flour on a large plate. Knead the first 5 ingredients together in a bowl. Break off small pieces and roll them into a small ball shape. Roll them in the flour.

Meanwhile saute the onion with the olive oil and butter for a few minutes in a medium sized pot - until they are soft and tender. Add the crushed tomatoes, water, salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat.

Gently drop the floured Kofte into the pot and stir slowly. Cook for about 20 minutes on just below medium heat. Sprinkle some chopped parsley on top and then serve.

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Acibadem Kurabiyesi (Turkish Almond Cookies)

1 cup ground almond (available in specialty stores)
1 2/3 cup powdered sugar
3 egg whites, lightly whisked
Garnish: slivered almonds or almond halves

Place all ingredients except the garnish in a medium sized pot. Stir constantly at just under medium heat. Do not let the mixture boil. To ensure that the temperature is right, dip your pinkie in the mixture - it should be warm but shouldn't burn.

Pour the contents of the pot into a heat proof dish. Let it cool down. Oil 8 paper baking cups. Once the mixture has cooled down a bit, spoon it equally into the oiled baking cups. Place the almonds on top and put the cups on an oven tray.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Then turn down the heat to 240 F and put the tray in the oven. Bake for about 45 minutes without opening the oven door. If you open the door, the cookies will droop. Let the cookies cool before serving.

Kings in other countries

Several weeks ago I headed to the back of the building in which I work seeking out a few of my IT coworkers to ask them a question about something or other. There is room in the back where that has become their workspace/offices. It was a once cavernous stockroom that is now cramped and overflowing with cords, adapters, monitors, CPUs and all sorts of other technical IT necessities. Often the actual IT personnel can’t be found in this office because they’re out bustling about fixing things and causing trouble (the latter part is just my opinion). But on this particular day I got lucky and there they were…several of them…sitting around chatting and enjoying Moon Pies. I have never, to my knowledge, come across a Moon Pie before so I had a rather quizzical expression on my face when I saw the treats. But my coworkers apparently have guilty consciences and they somehow all decided that my facial expression conveyed disappointment in their snacking choices.

One of them desperately blurted out, “You know, we would be KINGS in other countries!”

To which I replied, “What on earth are you talking about?”

Coworker: “In some other countries they LOVE fat people because portliness is a sign of their power and wealth.”

Me: “Well it’s unfortunately then that you live in THIS country in THIS century then, huh?”

Coworker: *sigh* “Yeah, it is.”

After they discovered that I had never experienced the (apparently) delectable joy of the Moon Pie it was all I could do to get out of there before they had the chance to jam one down my gullet. And I never did get around to asking them my question.

In case of emergency

In Mr X's hotel these signs are posted up on the balconies between rooms. Apparently in Japan, if there's an emergency and you need to escape quickly, you really ARE supposed to karate chop your way to safety.