What is this?

A coral? Magnified dust bunny? An alien? What could it be?






No, in fact, it's called a "romanesco cauliflower" or "romanesco broccoli." It is very much related to cauliflower and pretty much tastes like it too. Except for one important difference: it looks WAY cooler.

Finding this in the Bay Area must be difficult because I have never encountered it. I first tried it when I visited Napa (only 2 hours north), and have not seen it again until yesterday at the French Market in New Orleans. But if you can find this stuff, I have to suggest you try it. You can pretty much prepare it the same way you would broccoli or cauliflower. Steaming is preferred to boiling, or if you want to pluck off a few spears of this stuff and saute them that's alright too. Maybe I'll come up with a recipe to post, but, don't count on it. I am merely attempting to make this wondrous creature known to the general public. Or my handful of faithful readers. Whatever.

Liqueured Lemon Bars

So I was shopping in a market they have in Atlanta with exceptionally fresh, and exceptionally expensive produce, and they had a basket of beautiful lemons - ON SALE! So at 98 cents/lb., I couldn't resist.

A great way to showcase beautiful lemons is with lemon bars. I'm not going to lie and tell you that lemon bars can only be made with really fresh, beautiful lemons such as those pictured left. But if you can, look for thin-skinned lemons that are round and clean looking. A lot of standard grocery store lemons have a really thick skin and pith, and will probably be more sour. It might have something to do with the variety that is available but that extends beyond my lemon knowledge. You should be able to find these types of lemons at a specialty food store, like Whole Foods or something similar. Or maybe your regular grocery store. I don't know.

The following is a recipe I developed to help cut down on the acidic taste a lot of lemon bars have. I thought if I added a bit of orange liqueur, the lemon flavor wouldn't be so potent and acidic. I may or may not have succeeded, but they came out pretty good anyway so whatever. If you really don't have orange liqueur and don't want to buy any, just add more lemon juice. It doesn't really matter (especially if you have good lemons!). But really, though, these lemon bars are rich. Small portions are completely sufficient.


Lemon Bars with Orange Liqueur

For the crust:
1.5 sticks butter (chilled)
2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg yolk

For the filling:
3/4 c. fresh lemon juice (about 4 good lemons)
3 tbsp orange liqueur
2 tbsp lemon zest (from 4 lemons)
1 3/4 c. sugar
4 eggs
1/4 c. flour

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Cut the butter into cubes and mix with dry ingredients to form moist crumbs. Mix in the egg yolk to form dough. (Can use stand mixer, egg beater, or hands. Whatever works for you.)

2. Press the dough into the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 casserole dish, and bake about 25-30 mins, or until the edges begin to brown. Let cool about 30 mins. Leave the oven on.

3. Whisk together the lemon juice, liqueur, zest, sugar, eggs, and flour. Pour onto the cooled crust, and bake about 25 mins or until the filling looks set and a light "crust" has formed.

4. Let cool, then place in refrigerator. Dust with powdered sugar when bars have cooled completely. Store in the refrigerator, sealed, for no more than one week.

Yields: about 15 bars, depending on how big you cut them.

Okay, so it's a little late.

But doesn't every good blogger have to write something pertaining to the new year? I'm only 10 days late. Well, 9, if you count my true time zone. I feel like no matter where I go, no matter where I live, I'll always go by Pacific Time. It's just my standard I guess.

Well. What did I accomplish in 2009? I graduated college with my bachelor of arts in communicative disorders. I moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I got my dream job and quit after a week (seriously, my boss was out of her mind and I refused to put up with it, no matter what kind of opportunity it may have been... a girl has to stand up for herself). I got a work from home job, as a transcriptionist, through a company in Los Angeles. I continued to date my boyfriend from 2008. Together, we moved out of Los Angeles, and drove 2500 miles to spend another Christmas in Atlanta with his family. Approximately 250 miles of that was spent driving through Louisiana and Alabama, in the aggressively and relentlessly pouring rain, for six hours straight, on Christmas Eve. Easily one of the worst experiences of my life, and it turned an otherwise harmless (albeit boring) cross-country trip into a very miserable one. Oh, and, I got my first dog. It's a boy!

What's to come in 2010: Staying in Atlanta through January, and then moving to New Orleans beginning in February (so it seems). Living in New Orleans through the summer, until early August. Expecting to take advantage of the return trip back to California, and turn it into a proper cross-country road trip - complete with destinations, tourism, extended stays, and most importantly? Not driving 500 miles per day, only to wake up the next morning and do it again. And finally, hopefully... moving to Seattle at the very end of 2010, but possibly in the very beginning of 2011.

Now what have we in terms of resolutions, for this upcoming year? I have to say, I'm really not a believer in making stupid resolutions that I have no intention of keeping. I think if it's worth considering as a resolution, it should be something I can, and will, actually do. So, having said so, I think I have come up with a good one. That is good for me, too.

I need to be more adventurous. Moving to New Orleans on something of a whim is a good start, and it was a tough decision. BUT! I cannot let anything get in my way when I get there. I cannot spend most of my week in the house, too lazy to go do anything worthwhile. I cannot make excuses about why it's a better idea to just stay home and watch a movie. I need to go out, spend money, and be a normal 23-year-old. I think spending at least two nights per week out of the house, doing something fun, is reasonable. That is my resolution and we will see how it goes. Only time will tell!