… No really. While at Voila’s lamb cooking class tonight, I was happily sitting in my chair (a high stool with a back, if you must picture it) trying to peer at the samosas popping in the oil on the stovetop when all of a sudden… time slowed down and a thought flashed through my mind before anything technically happened: “I can not believe I am about to fall on my ass in front of all these strangers in my cooking class!”

Why is it that time slows down when you’re falling? Even the people around me said that it seemed like it happened in slow motion!

So while my sister Amy prefers to fall while walking down stairs, I apparently am apt to fall straight out of a chair in a sitting position! I haven’t fallen out of my chair since 7th grade in Senor Valencia’s Spanish class at Lewis Junior High! And I still remember the agony of that fall so vividly even now!

When I texted my husband Daniel and told him that I fell our of my chair in my cooking class, he texted back, “LOL. Are you OK? It was probably because the lamb is so good!”

To tell you the truth, though, I hadn’t had a bite of lamb yet when The Great Chair Fall of 2006 occurred. And the wine had only recently been poured, so I can’t blame that either.

At the end of the evening, the lamb dishes were so phenomenally, mind-blastingly delicious that I had almost forgotten about my shameful tumble. Here’s what we made, in case you’re curious:

• Lamb and Potato Samosas with Mint Chutney
• Lamb Stew with Artichokes and Baby Carrots
• Lamb Burgers with Yellow Tomato and Herb Salsa on Homemade Rosemary Bread Rolls
• Braised Lamb Chops with Mint Sauce
• Chocolate Amaretto Torte with Amaretto Ice Cream

The stew blew me away and I’m already planning to make it for Daniel this weekend. And I want to live off the lamb burgers every day for the rest of my life! And I wasn’t planning on falling in love with the torte like I did.

I haven’t cooked a lot of meat before (mainly just fish, if you can believe it) so this is a whole new adventure for me! My carnivorous husband (who has begged me to cook meat for over a decade) can’t believe his luck right now.

Good Night! I am full and sated and sleepy! Man, who knew it was so exhausting to fall out of your chair?

♥ Beth

P.S. Remember… it’s important never to laugh at people who fall! There is definitely such a thing as “Tumble Karma!”

… where, each weekend, I tell you about the dope eats I’ve discovered on other people’s food blogs…

Totally Random

Have you heard of the Virtual Recipe Club? Have you participated?

If you’re a food blogger, you will really relate to The Diary of a Mad Food Blogger.

Recipe on the Radar

Holy Moly! Homemade pizza crust made with beer sounds like the perfect way to use the local micro-brew my husband has in his keg-erator!

I’d never heard of Kibbee before, but it sounds like my kind of food. Thanks, Rachael!

To be honest, I don’t really know what Cheese Sables are, but I’m certain I’d like some in my mouth right now! Thanks to Albion Cooks… Oh and her Cheese and Lentil Gratin looks pretty bad-ass, too!

Majorly detailed How-To for authentic gnocchi from Cook Almost Anything At Least Once.

Ultimate Banana and Chocolate Cake from Everybody Likes Sandwiches

The Spice is Right’s Methi Kabuli Channa is being added to my list of Indian recipes that have caught my eye.

Honey-Baked Chevre from Anne’s Food. How intriguing…

I don’t know about y’all, but I cook in phases. Sometimes I’m really into couscous and then I won’t cook it at all for months on end. Other times, I’m obsessed with pasta (whole wheat, of course!) and then I’ll practically shun it from my mind. Not so long ago, it seemed like Daniel and I subsisted on quesadillas with guacamole for 2 meals a day… for weeks on end. And then there was the turkey roll-up phase of Summer 2005.

Well, right now I’m in the middle of a super-charged marinara sauce with broccoli moment. I prefer it on top of Organic Whole Wheat Rotelle from Trader Joe’s or spooned over polenta a la Giada. Tonight I went extra-wacky and enjoyed my special tomato sauce on top of rotelle AND polenta. Whoa!!! It was delish and just might be my new favorite way to eat this little creation of mine! I love the flavors of polenta, but sometimes it’s not quite as filling as I’d like it to be. And while I enjoy pasta at times, a whole bowl of rotelle can become kind of boring. With my innovative new combo of polenta with pasta (Who am I kidding? It’s more weird than creative! LOL!) I add a nutty substantialness to the creamy polenta texture. Perfect!

Beth’s Broccoli Marinara on Polenta or Pasta or Both!
Serves 2-4 or more (leftovers are great!)
Takes about 30 minutes or less

What you need:

1-2 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 chopped onions
2-3 Minced or chopped garlic cloves
Approx. 2 cups bite-sized broccoli florets
1/2 cup chopped carrots (optional)
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh spinach leaves
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce (or homemade) I like Trader Joe’s Basil Marinara
1-2 T toased pine nuts
freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano
salt and pepper to taste

2-4 servings of cooked pasta and/or freshly made polenta with butter

1. Prepare the pasta or polenta according to package directions and set aside.
2. In a large saucepan or skillet, warm the olive oil over medium low heat then add the onions and garlic and a pinch of salt.
3. Add the broccoli florets (and carrots if you use them) and maybe 1/4 cup of water and steam the broccoli by upping the heat a bit, boiling the water, and covering the pan for 3-4 minutes until the broccoli is bright green. Remove the cover and boil off a bit more of the water. Be careful not to overcook the broccoli! Better to err on the side of less cooked.
4. Pour in the marinara sauce. Depending on the proportions that you like, you can use the whole jar or about 3/4 of it. On second thought, you might as well throw in the whole jar, right?
5. Let the sauce and veggies warm all the way through. Throw in the chopped fresh spinach at the end and add salt and pepper to taste. Top your pasta or polenta with some of the sauce, a few toasted pine nuts, and grate some fresh parmesan on top.
6. Plop yourself in front of the TV to watch American Idol and enjoy!

Happy Weeknight!

Life has changed A LOT for Daniel and I in the last couple weeks since he quit his fancy-schmancy corporate job to work at home and start his own business. He’s now designing plastic parts for radio-controlled cars. It’s a niche market, obviously, and the hobby has been his passion since he was 8 years old. He knows it inside and out and the business is looking up already.

After years of rarely seeing each other due to his workaholic ways combined with the extremely demanding hours of the video game industry, we suddenly find ourselves together at home all the time. Often we even have time on our hands! Gasp! This is all very new to us, but of course we love it because we always have fun together.

The only problem is that, thanks to a nice salary at his old job, we both became increasingly accustomed to the finer things in life. To put it another way, I became a total spoiled brat with my Nordstrom indulgences and world-class dinners every weekend. I don’t feel badly about it, though, because we were still saving and paying our bills.

But our time of living the “Good Life” - in the materialistic sense of the word - is over. At least temporarily.

So what do we do with all of these free hours together? I’ve been getting a little stir crazy each weekend because everything I think of to do requires cash and we’re on a Spending Freeze right now, just to be safe as the new business gets off the ground.

The question is: What can two formerly-spoiled food lovers do around town without spending much cash? I’d love your suggestions for local low-budg finds, inexpensive diversions, and such. And even if you don’t live in San Diego, you can still let me know what you do for fun around your town when you don’t want to spend too much money.

Thanks for your help! This “downwardly mobile” - by choice - lifestyle is threatening to get the best of me as I assimilate into our new way of life.

♥ Beth

P.S. But don’t get me wrong - I couldn’t be happier to have my husband by my side every day. Just help get us out of the house!

♥♥♥Happy Birthday, to my precious husband Daniel!♥♥♥

We’ve been obsessed with cheese and wine (as a complete meal) for a month or two now. For his birthday today, Daniel wanted to cuddle up on the couch with a bottle of vino and a platter of gourmet cheeses.

Prior to tonight, We’d only patronized Aniata in Del Mar. Since we’re planning on joining the Aniata Cheese Club soon, we decided to try out the other fine cheese shop in town, Venissimo in Mission Hills, before we’re ultra-committed to Aniata.

Venissimo has a totally different feel from Aniata. The store is more bright and airy and urban with funky music playing over the speakers. In contrast, Aniata is more dank and cavelike and quiet which isn’t a bad thing by any means. In fact, Aniata makes me feel like I am entering a reverent and serious cheese nook that is the perfect cozy environment for the fromage.

The Birthday Boy making his selections

Venissimo and Aniata both have excellent selections of cheeses and outstanding customer service. We love these specialty shops because we get to pick and choose and taste each cheese before our purchase. And the cheese experts at both shops always take our tastes and comments into consideration, guiding us to new cheese flavors that are always a taste exploration for us since we’re fine cheese newbies.

Here’s what ended up in our cheese bag today for Daniel’s birthday:

• Sicilian Olives Hand-Stuffed with Blue Cheese for Martinis - Danny wants to make these himself someday, but hasn’t yet gotten around to it.
• Peppa Goat Bites - Handstuffed South African peppers stuffed wtih chevre, Danny thought these would go great in martinis, too. But he ended up preferring them straight out of the package. They have a unique sweet and spicy flavor
• Cabrales - A Spanish mixed milk raw blue cheese that was creamy and spicy with a great consistency. Our favorite of the night!
• Mimolette - A French cow’s milk cheese that is almost fluorescent orange in color with a very dry consistency. I preferred to eat this cheese plain, without any crackers or bread. It reminded me of a North Hollander, which I actually prefer over the Mimolette.
• Pantaleo - A hard Italian goat cheese from Sardinia. Daniel described it as very “palatable” and I would say that it’s very simple and mellow. To me, this cheese fell a bit short because the
  flavors are not very complex.



• Mostarda Mantovana di Pere - A sweet and spicy pear mixture with a little sugar and mustard. Unique flavors that we’ve never before imagined. We bought these to go with the blue cheese, but it would also be great in a salad or with chicken.
• Rosemary and Salt crackers and a olive baton from Bread on Market

After reading this article from Slate about how it’s perfectly acceptable to eat cheese with white wine (instead of red), I finally felt free to indulge this natural inclination of mine with an inexpensive Chardonnay called Jepson from Trader Joe’s. Daniel had a martini and a bit of wine, we snuggled on the couch, toasted his birthday, and that was that!

2006 is definitely the year for us to explore and indulge our innate passion for fine cheeses. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it…