My box at Kitsu

A little bit of everything - just what I want in a box.

Wine 'n' Diner

I was out in the South End last week, exploring that little section of Delaware Ave that seems to be growing an interesting business district.  It all started with Cissy's Shoe Fetish...a story for another day.

So as it got to be lunch time the Wine 'n' Diner caught my eye.  I am so glad that someone paid attention to that interesting space after Avenue A left earlier this year.  They funkified it, and I like the feel.  The early brunch crowd was leaving just as I came in.

I took a pass on the sweet potato hash special and decided to order the Tijuana burger.  I enjoyed finding this sauce on the table:

The burger comes with a black bean guacamole and bacon.  I set the bacon aside because I just couldn't wrap my head around it and I spread some of this banana sauce on the bottom of the potato bun.

Complete burger yum:

The chips are very heavy, so I could only get through about a fourth of them.  The potato bun added a very interesting light touch and was grilled to a perfect amount of crispiness.  It was definitely the most interesting and tasty burger I have had in a restaurant in a very long time.

The staff was very friendly and efficient.

I must say that along with just about every mid-range restaurant in the Capital Region, Wine 'n' Diner commits the sin of spraying nasty smelling cleaner onto the tables to clean them.  When you enter a restaurant just after many tables have emptied this spells disaster.

Do the owners just hate us or what?  I have yet to figure out how they think getting gassed with cleaner fumes makes us feel.

Oh, yeah...they don't think about it.

Figs and nuts salad

Last night I wanted to use my fabulous fresh figs from Cardona's and I didn't have any goat cheese.  I've never tried to just throw figs into a salad all by themselves.  But there's a first time for everything.  I had green leaf lettuce, which is mild.  So with two rather mild ingredients I knew I had to do something fairly strong for the dressing.

I started with walnut oil and added salt and pepper.  I went to my cabinet for something fruit flavored and pulled out a nice bottle of Turkish blackberry syrup.  I finished with apple cider vinegar to bring in a layer of tartness and whisked everything together.

I dizzled the vinaigrette over the lettuce leaves, tossed in the sliced fresh figs and chopped some mixed nuts for a nice salty flavor and nut texture.  I sprinkled them over the top of everything.

I only thought of taking a photo afterwards   8^(

BLT salad

I went to the movies and it was a wonderful excuse to visit the New World Bistro Bar recently.  Since it was a beautiful summer night I thought their BLT salad sounded divine.  It was a lovely salad and so I have created my own version, which is a lot more muscular.

NWBB made a much more beautiful presentation of the salad I must say.  It was a lighter affair altogether, with a whisper of the mayonnaise lightly coating the lettuce leaves, a few hints of tomato and about four dime-sized pieces of bacon.  That last element was just plain stinginess if you want to know my bare knuckled opinion.  The salad was surrounded by a slice of bread that had been cut into points and had been licked by a flame just enough to make a fine black lacy char on the surface.  This was so perfectly done that it was captivating. The aroma hinted at roasted marshmallows and it added an accurate taste image of toast, even though the bread was not toasted. I loved it.

I highly recommend that you start with their version and then try your own.

My version is much heavier, but also delicious and it served as a full meal.  The salad is just summer in a bowl, and I think there is all the room for personal preference that a BLT sandwich provides.  My first attempt  started with the tomatoes, which I dressed with the mayonnaise, tossed and set aside while I quickly prepared the other ingredients.  I toasted Italian bread, the equivalent of about one and a half slices,  and cut it into bite size pieces.  Then I browned Canadian bacon to bring out more bacony flavor and avoid the fattiness of bacon strips and finally tore the lettuce.  

I gently tossed the lettuce with the tomatos and spotted my new jar of horseradish so I put a little scoop in at that point. I added salt and pepper.  It will probably be a good idea to put the horseradish in with the mayo next time to let it spread more evenly through the salad. I dropped in the toasty croutons and gently turned everything to mix them in  and chopped the Canadian bacon before piling it on top.  What it lacks in beauty it more than makes up for in flavor and heartiness. Putting all those traditional sandwich flavors into a mound of lettuce is simply a wonderful idea no matter how you portion out the various other ingredients.

I plan to explore many many more versions.

Peaches

Just a note:  it's the season for perfect peaches.  I have to admit that I swiped this photo because I ate all the peaches before I thought of taking a photo!!  The weekend before last I found BEAUTIFUL peaches at both The Berry Farm, where they were white peaches, and Golden Harvest Farms, where they were beautiful regular peaches - you can always count on Golden Harvest to have several varieties, however.

Do not miss this harvest - they are some of the most perfectly sweet, delicious and beautiful peaches I have seen in several years, with perfect flesh that is not too dry nor too mealy.

I managed to absorb three quarts just out of hand, peeling and slicing them and then enjoying every fresh peachy bite.  I limited myself to no more than two each day, and I just finished the last two for supper.

This coming weekend I will be out again and will try making peach butter with my bounty.

Go and get some yourself and tell me what  you do with them.

Lamb meatballs - another try...nom nom nom

I know you may be weary of looking at my iron skillet, but I'm not - especially since these meatballs seem to be a better-than-average version.

I began with a pound and a half of ground lamb from Guido's, which is becoming  one of my favorite grocery shops in the area.  In the past I've tried ground urud dal and ground rice as binders,  both of which I think made the meatballs especially heavy.  I'm trying to avoid breadcrumbs, because I may be reacting negatively to wheat these days.  Today as I was getting the lamb into the mixing bowl I noticed my new bag of whole oats and into the grinder they went, about a quarter cup of them.  I added salt and pepper and three medium eggs, then about three tablespoons of chopped fresh mint, two tablespoons of dried oregano, the juice of one lemon and four finely chopped sun dried tomato halves.

I was listening to a podcast about the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico or otherwise I would have remembered to add the garlic and chopped onion.

I heated the skillet and added some olive oil and browned them gently, then put in chopped olives, chopped garlic and sprigs of rosemary.  Since I like to put the whole lemon in with chickens, I put the rest of the lemon into the skillet before putting on the lid to simmer everything and let the flavors mingle and cook the oats.

I've now tasted four of them and they're awfully good.  I think the oats added nice things to the texture and did not make them as heavy as the ground dal or the ground rice. The lemon, tomato and olive add tartness and the mint adds a nice savory note.  I wish I had parsley, and must remember to add that next time.  I'm contemplating making a sort of onion marmelade.

Trip report: the foodie itinerary version 2

Well heck yeah we tried it again...we could hardly wait.  Karen and I were back on the road this afternoon, scouring the countryside to bring you reports on the best in Capital Region foodie finds.

We began at Dnipro on Central Avenue in Albany, just to the west of Wolf Rd and the Northway underpass.  They have recently moved to this location from Cohoes - so visit and try their wonderful offerings!

There are a few places for parking out front, but plenty of parking out back that lets you get around to a stoplight and back on Central Ave easily. The space is very open and there are neatly stocked shelves ready for browsing.  There were dense black breads and plenty of cookies and other European treats.  Then we found the wonderful jars of spreads, relishes, pickles, fruits, horseradishes, mustards... you get the picture.  I found some red cabbage salad with apple that will be a quick and tasty  side dish.

We worked our way to the back refrigerator cases and found a freezer full of little fat dumplings that look like plump tortellini  and have a variety of stuffings.  There wasn't an English translation on the case, but dumplings are the general idea - pelmeni perhaps? They sell them loose so you can fill as many bags as you like, or they sell pre-weighed packages.  We noticed there were veal and chicken, and there could be other stuffings as well.  Definitely something that you can stash in the freezer and pull out on those nights when you're weary and yet you still want to have a good hearty supper.

I drifted up to the deli case and found dozens of meats, fish and cheeses.  It was so hard to choose!  The shopkeeper offered samples and I wanted to try the veal roll with spices - a lovely savory cold cut that brought back a rush of childhood memories. While I was waiting for Karen to get her double smoked bacon I was offered a "walnut" cookie.  It was shaped like a walnut and held a lovely paste of walnut cream in the center. I swooned and groaned while her bacon was sliced and neatly wrapped.

I'm looking forward to going back to sample more and discover some new favorites.

After we stopped by Karen's to stash the dumplings in her freezer we headed up towards Route 2, east of Latham Circle to Nora's.  I only have this link but I hope it's at least enough to show you where on Rt. 2 Nora's is located.  It's in a string of about 8 or 9 storefronts on the north side of Rt. 2 across from a big cemetary.

This little space is crammed with spices, grains, confections and even costumes.

I was drawn to the back when I heard Karen exclaiming that something was better than her grandmother's - I mean, should you even ever SAY that????  But when I tasted the stuffed grape leaves I also had a sort of deep emotional experience of my own. We each got a dozen.

I cruised the spices and scored a large box of oregano, one of the more common items among the vast and (to me) exotic array of those mostly used in Armenian and other cuisines of that region.  I asked Nora for some lehmajoun and got beef this time.  Nora makes them as well as many other foods in her kitchen in the back of the store.  It's definitely worth striking up a conversation so that you don't have to scrounge through the refrigerators  to see what is in store - plus Nora and her husband are just wonderful friendly people.

Karen had a hard time choosing but got the keftedes this time, and some of Nora's cheese with black caraway seed.

 I spied some frozen basterma and decided to give it a try. There were a variety of packages, and I got the slices to see how it holds up to freezing.  The many many packages of dates all were a bit too large for me to handle this time, so I settled on a package of figs. It was hard not to grab at least one of the varieties of Turkish delight - it was too close to lunch time - but the figs promised sweet stickiness of the right kind. (hmmm....they must be around here somewhere...a perfect writing snack...)

And next up was lunch at The Jonesville Store.  We were both pretty psyched after all that looking at and procurement of food. The store was bustling with weekenders and hookey players.

One orders at the deli counter and they bring it to the table.

Karen got the perfectly prepared pannini  special with a beer and

I got the pear and walnuts salad and strawberry vinaigrette with a local boutique root beer.  Yes that's a crab cake in the upper part of the photo.  It was very good with a yogurt/dill sauce.  The staff was friendly and quick, which I think was the foundation of the cheery comfortable atmosphere.

We were ready to go home after lunch since our budgets for the day were spent.

All in all it was a great trip, so now we're planning an "Italian" itinerary for our next adventure.

The Epicurean Cafe - take two

I thought I had visited the Epicurean, but I had visited the restaurant next door, and could never quite figure out what was going on, until this visit.

I got to see the real thing on a very nice hot spring day.

Unfortunately the pleasant young lady who seated me did not alert any wait staff, so after 20 minutes or so I walked up to one of the bustling staff members and asked if I could have some service at my table.

By that time I was not only warm and thirsty, I was a bit exasperated.

 So of course I was very pleased to try the birch beer with ice.  Yum.  I love that distinct taste.



Since it was a hot spring day, I thought the salad with grilled chicken sounded wonderful.  It sounded like they had put a special effort into the make up of the dish, with nuts and a special fruit dressing and cheese.

Dear Chefs everywhere:

When you grill meats, the blackened edges can add a certain piquant flavor when all the meat is at peak strength and there are plenty of other sensations to complement it.

When that meat is left to sit for an evening and a morning, the charcoal flavor is going to dominate over any meat flavor which is going to recede due to refrigeration.  Re-cooking only spreads the char through the meat.

Charcoal is not a nice flavor, it's very very bitter, and no amount of greens or fruit dressing is going to make up for it or make it nice.

Please take this into consideration when you're planning on making up salads with yesterday's grilled meats and trim the char off the meats before storage.

Fondly,

L

I'm wiling to believe that the Epicurean can be a wonderful dining experience, as many people have acclaimed over the years, so I'll try them again since I do pass by there irregularly.

This time, it wasn't so good.

Trip report: the foodie itinerary version 1

My foodie friend Karen and I have been  trading food and cooking tips and ideas for years as well as going out to restaurants together for good foodie moments.

We decided to take a few afternoons to just drive around and show each other our interesting store finds in the Capital Region. My itinerary was first up and I decided to take a trip south and east from Albany.

We started at Rolf's Pork Store on Lexington Ave. in Albany. She liked the grilled bratwurst idea for the holiday weekend and I got some thickly sliced ham to order and a jar of quince preserves.  The people behind the counter have always been friendly and I got exactly the thickness I like in ham slices. Rolf's has not only sausages of all kinds, especially European styles, but lots of fresh meats that are "local" (I think of local as within 250 miles).  They have rabbit and smoked chickens as well as other uncommon fare and they cater.  They have a few plain old groceries but specialize in German imports. We put the meats in the cooler after poking into all the little corners of the store and took off for Valatie.

Next up was Golden Harvest Farms, also home to Harvest Spirits on Rt. 9, south of Albany.  There were still plenty of fresh apples, taken from their cold storage facility, as well as locally produced jams, jellies, honey, dressings and sauces and some fresh produce.  The aromas of the pies and the outstanding cider donuts were wafting through the open air market.  Around back is the distillery, complete with a copper still, barrels, barrel art and a charming host to pour tasting cups of their spirits.  Woah.  We tasted the grappa, a new line of theirs, and "spirits" is an apt term for the entrancing aura drifting up from the cup. I made little snorting gestures and my companions giggled, but I was quite happy with the extra little buzz.

I tried a bit of the pear schnapps and took away a bottle for further investigation.

With smiles on our faces  and some more foods in the cooler we headed further down Rt. 9 to 203 and turned into the village.  On the right side of the road there is a little Mexican grocery, Picante Uno, that neither of us had tried before and I added it to our itinerary to make sure we both got a chance to see it. Rumor has it that the proprietor Jackye is a very very good cook and she makes up a meal every day that she serves until it's gone.  We didn't taste during our visit, but  browsed the small shop eagerly.  There are many Goya brand products, several things that were complete mysteries to both of us and a few good finds.  I got this quite interesting canister of mole from the fridge:

I've proceded to schmeer it on several things and will soon make up some chicken smothered in it. We also got HUGE bags of tortillas for $1.25 and I got a bag of masa harina for experimentation.  Jackye caters and gave us the Picante Uno phone number because her business cards were all gone for the moment:  518 758-6631.

Karen concluded that the Mexican grocery in South Albany is more interesting, so I'll have to go and check it out.

Since I go through the village regularly I'll probably be stopping in for more tortillas if I ever run low again...

Our final stop was The Berry Farm, just a few miles shy of Chatham on Rt. 203

We browsed the greenhouses because I also wanted to pick up some plants for my little outdoor container, then we browsed the market.   There are many local cheeses, local meats and fresh organic produce as well as gourmet items of all kinds. I picked up some baby arugula and fingerling potatoes, then my outdoor plants.

It was a great trip and we came home weary but excited about our finds, anticipating eating like royalty over the holiday weekend. Next time Karen will put together the itinerary, and I'll report every little detail to you, gentle readers.

Sushi, Viva, hash with wine and cherries: oh my!

I've been cooking and eating at good restaurants since February, for heaven's sake, but the blogging impulse got assimilated by facebook. Microblogging is certainly a wonderful means of whiling away the hours and keeping up with one's friends and family. But I'm BAAAAAAACK, with a few miscellaneous stories for your foodie amusement.



I photographed this in the terribly dim light without a flash because the flash makes everything look so garish, but I'm not sure the tradeoff was worth it. At any rate, I wanted to show the presentation of this lovely una don at Kotsu, the new sushi restaurant on Central Ave that took over from Saso's. I'm often overwhelmed by the size of an unadon bowl, and this was a great portion size for me. So it was another lovely dinner at Kotsu.



On my way to a mail art talk at Berkshire Arts Kitchen in Great Barrington I was riding down 183 from Lenox and passed Viva for the zillionth time, only it was open because it wasn't 9:30 on Sunday morning, which is when I'm usually passing by. So I did a u turn and decided to see what the buzz has been about. Oh yeah - tappas. I love tappas. So I ordered this "roasted beet" salad, which is supposed to come with sugared walnuts and I believe blue cheese. Only the beets were diced and from a can, the walnuts were naked and there was no blue cheese. After I sorted out a few rotted greens, I ate the salad because time was running short - I ddn't plan to do the normal slowly paced dinner that this establishment is obviously set to present. How can one feel positive about this sort of misrepresentation of the food? I don't know whether the glowing reviews of this restaurant are written by people who know nothing about food, or if there is a really good cook and a really bad cook on staff and I got the bad cook.

But my overall sense of things is that if you can't put together what is described on the menu, tell the wait staff to say it's not available. I could've gotten that salad for $3.50 from a diner, but paid Viva $8.50



The lamb patties were very good with the creamy garlic sauce. The squiggly lines looked like Marmite but tasted of all the right flavors. So I wasn't hungry when I left, but wasn't pleased either.



My latest cooking adventure is the one I'm eating while writing this - hash with cherry sauce, eggs and pears. I'm in breakfast heaven today. I can't even recall where it started -- oh yes. I had to cook those pork chops or lose them. I brined them last night without having a clear idea of how I might eat them.

This morning I picked up the cleaver and iron skillet and cut the chops into bite sized pieces and decided to put a couple strips of bacon in the pan. I don't know why. After the pork was browned I added thyme, terragon, garlic and pepper. I didn't salt while cooking because of brining the pork (which did render it very tender and moist). I diced a large onion and tossed it into the melee, then put the lid on so that the onion could steam and get tender and flavors could co-mingle.

Then I started thinking about a hash and a sauce at the same time. So I pulled out the pork, onions and bacon and deglazed the pan with white wine, added a bay leaf and some butter and hand made cherry jelly from a friend. After the sauce was done I poured it out of the pan and put in the potatoes and gently fried them in all those layers of flavoring.

The final touch of plating was to drizzle the sauce over the hash - Oh! Yum!





And for the final tidbit, my favorite way to prepare turnips: cut them like big french fries and saute until golden, adding salt and pepper. You do have to watch them because there's quite a lot of sugar and it will blacken quickly if you're not attentive and moving things around. The time spent is worth it. I drizzled walnut oil over these at the end and it is a nice finishing touch.

Five Guys

I was in the Stuyvesant Plaza area recently and had heard that Five Guys burgers and fries opened a new shop in the old Denny's building across Western Ave. Thinking that perhaps I missed something when I went to the stop over in Schenectady, I stopped in, expecting a nice experience. Boy was I ever disappointed.

Ick, yuk, pui.

Not only is the ambiance sort of like the skating hut on Ann Lee pond only worse, the fries were completely bitter and the cheeseburger was about the ugliest I've ever seen, the pasty whitebread bun was a shrunken mess and the beef had next to no flavor at all.

Whoever called this horror "heaven on a bun" must have been delusional.

LorreBob sez: don't bother.

Fish

I was shopping at the Berkshire food coop and they had pollock caught off Cape Cod, so that sounds local enough for me. I got enough for a few servings across this week. I started out thinking I was going to bake it with salsa. As I was choosing it a fellow shopper was musing about what a great frying fish it is for my benefit. So I changed my narrow thinking and decided to give frying a try, even though I had convinced my fellow customer that baking with salsa was a fine idea.

Since I haven't had a greens salad in awhile I picked up a box of organic spring greens. I was dreaming of using my spiced pears from The Berry Farm out in Chatham.



















I sprinkled the greens with a little walnut oil and then seasoned them with salt and pepper. I took a little apple cider vinegar, garlic and some of my jaggery syrup - just enough to keep the vinegar from puckering my lips. The spices in the syrup resonated with the delicately spiced pears and it was all good.





Setting all that aside, my real labors began. I chopped a large onion and some sun dried tomato, then pitted my herbed green olives and dropped in a few nicoise olives for the dramatic blackness of it all. I thought rosemary and oregano would add umph but not be overly heavy. Once the onions were tender I took all that out of the pan and dusted the pollock with cornmeal and dropped it in until the meal was crispy on both sides. Then I put the veg/olive mix over the fish and added freshly squeezed lemon juice.























I made a rice pilaf that complemented all the strong flavors. I'm not sure why the photos look so wonky but it could have been the combination of using a different camera than I have been for a few months and the gin and tonic that started this cooking adventure. More study is needed.

To top it off I had lemon curd with raspberries and blueberries from the WinterSun Farms winter CSA share. It was spoon-licking delicious.

Aperitivo Bistro

I was on State Street in Schectady Friday night and looking for a nice dinner. I found one at Aperitivo Bistro.

I ordered the cocktail special Artini -- the color matched my clogs! It was citrus-y and a wonderful antidote for a long week and pounding the pavement looking at art on Jay Street. The staff was attentive without being overbearing, and I felt that all my questions and requests were given very good responses.



The mussels with broth - yes, there's a beautiful broth under that pile- were a superb starter. I asked for a spoon to scoop up as much as I could of the wine lemon tomato and herbs deliciousness.


I had the lobster special and also enjoyed it. The creamy sauce in front is a chipotle concoction, wisely added to the side. Otherwise it would have smothered the delicate lobster flavor. I used it sparingly. Supporting the lobster tail underneath was a creamy bed of polenta. Its texture was very smooth and it was a lovely foil for both the lobter and the chipotle sauce. I kept mixing forksful of the three main elements with different proportions of each and had a grand time. It was satisfying without being totally overwhelming, so I had the creme brulee after consulting with the very good staff person about dessert sizes. The creme brulee seems to be the smallest. I struggled with resisting the coconut cream pie, but the staffperson assured me that it's huge.

The creme brulee was so good that I forgot to take a photo. It looked like the standard little white ramekin, but was served on a small tray with carmel sauce and raspberries to the side. It was a perfect finish.

Jaggery syrup

In the last post I wrote about trying jaggery syrup.

Yum. I keep sneaking little drips of it, just to try to get used to the taste.

I tried it in coffee that was a dark Italian roast and didn't like it. I think the meyer lemon did not complement the coffee in a way that I like. Then yesterday I tried it in a Columbian regular roast coffee with milk and it was delicious.

I also tried it with asam tea and milk and it was wonderful.

Jaggery is available at both India Bazaar on Central Ave. in Albany and at India Spice on Fuller Road. The "rock" I mentioned was two pounds. I'm not sure if it's available in smaller amounts.

My weird and wonderful evening in the kitchen

I'm not sure if I can really call it cooking.

I decided to cook the little pork roast before I was pushing it's shelf life limits. So this is a beautiful fresh little local pork roast from the little local butcher shop - Rolf's on Lexington Ave.. Nothing to let go to waste or anything like that.

But what to do? I didn't want it to be just plain roast. I just got finished with a plain pork roast and I wanted something a little jazzed up. I decided I would let it cook slowly because I had all night. So I also wanted to use some of my really great frozen local organic yellow tomatoes from Winter-Sun Farms CSA. I thought on my mother's "barbeque" from the 1960s when she used to start with ketchup and add orange juice or pineapple juice, a little apple cider vinegar and onions.

So I thawed the tomatoes which ended up like a puree. They were picked at peak ripeness and are beautiful. Then I went to my huge spice shelf and began picking things: five spice powder, garlic, bay leaf, dried red chilies, Busha Browne's Authentic Jerk Seasoning, my friend Irina's homemade apricot and current jam. I could tell it was going to be sweet and hot. I also spied the key limes my brother sent me from Florida. Sweet hot and tangy. I thought of the jaggery I had in my big cannister. That finished the job that the jam began.

I had it in a 280-degree oven and basted the roast about every twenty minutes for three hours. I don't really care if it's barbeque or something else - it's magnificent.

The jaggery is a different story altogether. The last time I was in the Indian grocery I bought a huge "rock" of it. The shop keeper said that her mother always made a syrup with it. I had been treating it much like brown sugar and just using pinches of it here and there, including in my spiced coffee, which I spice with cardamom, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg.

I put the whole rock in a pan with a couple cups of water to see what would happen. When there was an adequate sort of syrup and put a little into the roast pan to sweeten the sauce a little more.

But I still had this huge amount of syrup. And there were a bunch of intriguing spices on the counter. So I added the cardamom, cinnamon, clove and got out a vanilla bean. There were a couple Meyer lemons on the counter too, so I cut one in half and squeezed in all the juice and plopped the whole thing in. This is one heavenly syrup. I'm going to be having coffee at home or toting a bottle of this stuff to the cafe.

Decadent vacation omelette

This is an omelette that will make a hearty vacation breakfast for one person.

I diced one small red potato and chopped half a red onion very fine and browned them slowly over a medium-low flame.

I added salt, freshly ground pepper, paprika and thyme and put the potatos aside. I whisked two eggs - I like brown eggs because buying them increases diversity in the eggs market.


I cooked the eggs rather like I'd cook a crepe. I let them run across the bottom of the pan to create a thin coating. The oil that I used to cook the potato seasoned the skillet perfectly so that the eggs didn't stick at all. I still used a low flame but the accumulated heat in this large iron skillet created enough heat so that within two minutes the eggs were almost done cooking. So I added the potatoes and onions along with a minced sun dried tomato half and a little cream cheese, spreading them out evenly across the potato filling. I turned off the flame so that the heat of the pan could melt the cream cheese and finish the eggs, and folded the omelette over the filling.



I couldn't add all of the potato because it would have torn the eggs when I folded it. It was delicious!

I like the tangy sun dried tomato, which I got late this past summer from The Berry Farm in Chatham. I got a bag of yellow and a bag of red, hoping that I could enjoy some of that summery flavor later in the year. It worked! I've been adding them to all kinds of dishes to very good effect. They have enlivened many soups and the first round of meatballs were made especially good by adding the extra strong and tangy tomato flavor to the onion, lemon, garlic, olive and rosemary sauce.

Meatballs - part deux

If you think of the skillet full of meatballs in yesterday's entry and in your imagination cover them with Larry's chipotle sauce, you've got the right idea about what I tried today.

Since I ate yesterday's meatballs while I was preparing these I'm not going to eat them today (New Year's Day).

Tomorrow I'm going to the Coop to get some lovely organic corn tortillas and I'm gonna have me some tacos albondigas, and if there are good avacados I'm going to try including some slices.

The experiment as a whole has been delicious. I would decrease the amount of rice and dal, because I think they did tend to soak up too much juices and made the meatballs a good deal sturdier than I prefer them.