townbeet

Visiting the Poached Pair

2011-07-22T13:59:00.000-07:00

Summer, 10 am in Santa Clarita doesn't lend to longings of hot beverages. But after15 years of trying American pastries I have found that an unadulterated hot beverage is the perfect weapon to combat the sweetness that dominates the scones, cup-cakes, biscotties and all that morning fare. So, I ordered a hot coffee at The Poached Pair this morning, no cream or sugar. After that, I ordered one each of their cranberry orange and maple oatmeal scones. I got a bacon-cheddar-chive one to go as well. Marcie rang my order on her I-pad and with a touch of the screen a drawer opened underneath the impecable grey marble countertop and she gave me a receipt and change. I put some change in a tin cup labeled "tips" and noticed a perfecty woven basket holding some yellow and green summer squash onsale for 50 cent each.
I sat close to the bay window overlooking Lyons Avenue Memories of early dates at the old Java and Jazz in the Victoria Plaza flooded my brain, and I reached for the comfort of the cranberry scone. I tasted the crispy airy crumb of the scone and tangy bits of cranberry wrapped in the orange-sugary glaze. The mouth was happy to taste all things at once and sweetness was only part it. It wasn't super sweet. My coffee weapon was not needed. I was disarmed. I tried the maple oatmeal scone too. That was another level of comfort. The type you need on a cold day. The rich maple and chewy oatmeal made this scone taste almost like a cookie. Marcie the owner, had come close by and asked me what I thought. We talked about their pastries the other part of the pair. Her daughter who had graduated culinary school one year ago. She said her daughter had gone to Costco to get the butter they forgot to order from their normal vendor Altadena. She said Fridays are service days; sure enough in addition to the other customers, the place was busy with the mail-person, gas-person, icemaker-service person and so on.

A lady from Camarrilo walked in with her daughter. She said they had dropped the boys at Magic Mountain and had come to taste the cupcakes they followed through the shop's facebook page. We all talked about the process of making the frosting. Marcie mentioned that for the strawberry cupcakes she has to make a swiss cream and then add a few extra steps once adding the strawberries. It is labor intensive and time-consuming so she and her daughter have resisted opening the venue at night or have live music like Java 'n Jazz once had. They have chosen to focus on their craft. I found that admirable. I learned that they had opened on a Friday nine weeks ago and have celebrated the opening every week. I hope they continue to do so. Next week I plan to go and try their biscotti.

Morning plums

2011-06-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

These days I'm walking more frequently and for longer periods of time. Our second dog Archie loves these outings and so does my waistline. Certainly not a creature of routines, I try to break the monotony by inventing different loops around the neighborhood. But route repetition is inescapable, the neighborhood sights are so familiar now and I have started noticing even the slightest changes. Most cacti now have flowers; people beautify their surroundings cactus the other day I spied one sidewalk's newly laid concrete adorned with hearts and initials. I have noticed door flags that herald Valentines day replaced by a four- leaf- clover flag which in turn was taken down and then replaced by graduation cap flags hanging proudly. Recently my attention is held captive by orbs in all shades of red, orange and purple hanging from the trees. They were flowers a few months ago and through the rainy days the resilient little things just hung tight in their branches. Here they are now, all grown up, aromatic, sweet and ever so tempting. Peaches, apricots, plumbs. Each time I see them I want to go, reach, grab and fill a basket with the fresh fruit. Sometimes I feel a strong urge to knock on the lucky fruit tree owner's door, offer a few dollars for a bagful. But I never do any of this. Instead Archie and I walk by these beauties and leave them to squirrels and the crows and a whole lot more closeted fruitarians of the animal kingdom that make south Newhall/Valencia their home.
Walking down my street this morning, I ran into a woman who was picking some Santa Rosa plums from her very productive front yard plum tree. The jingle of Archie's tag against the collar distracted her from her plums. She looked down and we exchanged "good morning" greetings. But then she quickly read my mind and offered a zip-lock bag of plums. I was as stunned as I was thankful about her psychic abilities and generosity. With a dozen ripen plums from my neighbors tree to brighten my morning, I walked back home smiling. This morning the universe aligned just perfectly.

kumquat butter

2010-01-26T15:20:00.000-08:00

Time to burn rustic rolls

2009-12-06T17:42:00.000-08:00

These are the rustic dinner rolls I made yesterday. Kneading the dough by hand was quite a work out. In addition to the calories burned, I am sure I created new pathways for my nerves, since this type of movement is quite new to my digits as they only get keyboard exercises on this one and on the other one at work.

I followed the instructions on the Cook's illustrated November 2008 issue step by step, but somehow forgot the salt. The process of kneading, letting rise and then bake these rolls was quite long: a good five hours.

We ended up cutting the rolls in half and pouring salt on their still-steaming lacerations. We thought nothing of this torture and because we ate the rolls so quickly I doubt they even felt any pain.

They were the perfect companions to the- just-like-mama-also-makes-birthday stew which Jeff loves so much.

Broguirere's 2%

2009-11-02T11:18:00.000-08:00

Milk is not an essential part of my diet although as a child I did have many a warm cup of hot cocoa with sugar and whole milk too. Now, I mostly cook with milk, substituting for cream in quiche fillings, using it in potato purees and such. My husband often treats it as emergency sustenance, having it with cereal when there's no dinner ready. One can imagine that our milk lasts longer than it would in other lactose loving families and so we can afford to spend a pretty penny on the quest for better tasting milk. After a long time of alternating between the Trader Joe’s brand milk and the Horizon farms milk I decided to give a new brand a try. The milk I bought about two months ago at the Valencia Whole Foods had more a pronounced effect on my husband who is now an enthusiastic convert. The milk I chose came in an old school glass bottle from Broguirere's Fresh Farm Dairy in Montebello CA. Yes, it was that quaint. When I found out that Whole Foods refunds the bottle deposit dollary dues every time I return the rinsed bottle to the customer service counter, I was hooked and now don't mind the extra work of planning ahead to purchase milk. Besides, handling the bottles does provide some geeky comic relief if I pay attention to the stamping on the bottles. So far I have rinsed bottles that celebrated the 4th of July in September, ones that displayed Huell Howser toasting with a bottle of milk, and last Saturday I met a facetious bottle that declared this milk is "Made in the USA from American cows". Or maybe it was a proud glass bottle, who knows.

Broguirere's Fresh Farm 2% milk 2.99 per quart at Whole Foods. The bottle deposit fee and subsequent refund is extra.

Chipotle's in Santa Clarita

2008-11-18T09:26:00.000-08:00

I had a veggie bowl-burrito on Monday night at Chipotle’s on Newhall Ranch Road. It was a big step for me because last time I had some Chipotle fare, the digestive aftermath erased any benefits of good food. But because Chipotle is one chain eatery that has been consistently providing food that is grown or raised sustainably and humanely, it certainly deserved a second visit.

It was surprisingly very tasty. I loved the rice and the fresh pico-de-gallo most of all. The rice was herby with fresh cilantro leafs and what tasted slightly of oregano infused seasoning. The black beans could not have been from a can and cheese still retained a sticky quality that freshly grated cheese often has. I skipped the lettuce and ordered guacamole on top. The chips (which at Chipotle live in cold brown bags are dispersed by the cashier readily after ordering) were crusted with coarse salt and some were way too salty. But using them to scoop the fresh and tangy guacamole eased the saltines to acceptable levels. I did not have a good camera so until I get some pictures here's link to Chipotle's menu

Town Grind - Oatmeal cookies with my au lait

2008-10-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

Weekends start late for me as I am not a morning person . How late? I think it's safe to say that if there is nothing else going on, I'm not awake before 10 am, and the biggest accomplishment for such mornings would be readings sections the A and B of the LA Times by 12 pm . Despite the general laziness I do like to do something of value on the weekends so whenever I get a chance I walk over to the Town Grind Coffee Cafe ( I think I'll start calling it TGCC for short) order a cafe au lait, and match it with whatever home made pastry they suggest on their "today's special" dry/erase board.

Their cafe au lait is made with coffee that is consistently robust and steamed milk so smooth it provides the best cure to the coffee's edge. This past Saturday I decided against my usual splurge of banana and nutella toasted panini and introduced my au lait to their crispy yet chewy oatmeal raisin cookies. It made for a simple but very tasty breakfast.

The TGCC is a small but cozy spot in Newhall. It is open till 8:00pm most days and while it does sell some lunch and supper fare I'm mostly interested in their coffee drinks so I have yet to go there for lunch.

I didn't plan to take pictures of my breakfast so I hope that this low light, and low resolution cellphone snapshot will suffice .

Three eggplanst from a peach farm

2008-09-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

One dollar got me three eggplants at the AnandaDham PeachRanch Farm's stand last Thursday at Newhall's Farmer's Market. The people managing the stand did not match my stereotype of "farmer material" and that made me more curious about the farm. I googled the name and there is was: AnandaDhamPeach farm a buddhist colony where people mediate and live off the land. That explained why one guy at the stand looked sort of like a dark haired white lotus or Pai Mei from Kill Bill 2.

I did salt the eggplant for 20 mins and followed the recipe I had recently seen on justhungry, a gem of a website. It was hands down the best eggplant-dish I have made.

Their eggplants were very tasty, had no bitterness and had very little seeds. For the quality and considering that they were also organically raised I thought they were pretty inexpensive .

I bought more of the same eggplant variety at yesterday's market. This time at the stand I was greeted by a guy with a beard not as substantial as the white lotus' from last week, but very willing to share information about the farm. After some small talk about organic farming benefits and few other purchases I left Newhall's farmer's market thinking how even a small and unassuming market can bring people of unlikely of backgrounds together. Is a bazaar no?

I found my thrill/on the blueberry hill/

2008-09-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

September marks the theoretical end of the North America's blueberry season. This means that soon ,*tear*, I won't (unless I slip and purchase South American blueberries, which I am sure I won't) have these blue gems for a while.

This summer Trader Joe's on Cinema Drive had stacked their fridge's berry section with lots of blueberries and for a mere $6.25 you could get a whole lot of them. Stuck inside 16 oz. plastic containers they were bursting with flagrance and sweet tasting flesh while waiting to be liberated. I liberated some, ok I liberated a whole lot, and just fresh out of the colander popped them into my mouth with gusto. Then I decided to do the responsible thing and make a blueberry tart.

This recipe from Chocolate and Zucchini is unusual as it doesn't ask the baker/experimental blueberry fiend, to cook the blueberries first, but it actually works. The small explosions of baked blueberries were welcome bursts of moisture given that I kind of dried out the tart crust a bit too much in my 400 degree oven.

Summertime...it goes so fast.

tomatoes and basil, but mostly tomatoes

2008-07-21T21:31:00.001-07:00

Summertime is truly wonderful for a tomato lover like me. Tomatoes are everywhere, I even saw some on a billboard boasting of "robust" summer taste or something like that. Magazines and seasonal sections of cookbooks are filled with receipes for cooking tomatoes and incorporating them in simple dishes too. But most of my tomatoes don't even make it into dishes. Only after a second or third one can I exercise some self-control pair them with some feta cheese or drizzle them with some extra virgin olive oil.

I had bought so many yellow tomatoes at the Old Town Newhall Farmer's Market on Thursday that two of them got to meet the Cherokee heart variety from Sunday's Ventura County's Certified Farmers market at College of the Canyons Parking Lot 8. They looked very happy tossed with some fresh basil and young onions and eating them I felt what grizzly bears must feel when they eat their first salmon after a long season of hybernation.

Sometimes a quick tomato fix from the supermarkets near my place will suffice, but the heirlooms or the picked-after-they're- ripe tomatoes from a few miles away are really worth it. Judging by how many tomatoes are left by 9:30 am at the organic produce stand across from Beylik farm stand, one can deduce that many Santa Claritians are with me on this one.