Reading a beautifully written book is like drinking a fantastic cup of tea

So, dear friends as some of you may know, I have taken my passion for books and moved it from the library that I was working at to a new job at a bookstore!
And since I spend so much time around books I feel it is my privilege, nay, my duty to recommend a truly wonderful novel to you.

Long have I been devouring all of the science fiction, fantasy, mystery, general fiction and yes even the occasional trashy smut filled romance novel. I have read my way from under-hill hobbits, to targaryen princesses, through fifty shades of disturbing, and around love triangle after love triangle filled teen novel. All of these books I have consumed, generally at a break neck pace in joy and in horror wondering what's to come at the turn of the page.

Rarely though, do I savor a book. I say, "just one more chapter before I turn out the light," "one more page before I go back to work". That is, until I picked up Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.

 

Now, I will admit that it took me a couple of chapters to get into. So if you do not immediately fall in love please, don't disrepair! This book ran away with my heart. I found myself stopping at the end of a chapter and putting it down for a day or two. Just to prolong my reading of it. 

What is so great about this novel you ask? Or maybe you don't really wonder or care. Regardless I'll tell you. Jess Walter expertly weaves together the lives of his characters showing the impact they have on each other. He weaves a beautifully worded tapestry showing how interconnected we all are and how powerful love and attraction can be. As well as some of the struggles in life we so often encounter. The book takes place both in our modern day world and in 1962 in a small coastal town in Italy near the oh so popular Cinque Terre coastline. And that is all I will tell you of it. Other than the fact that NPR described it as a "literary miracle" a sentiment that I wholeheartedly agree with. 

If you do not already crave the kind of love that will make you cross oceans, you will after this poetic work of art. So go! Have an adventure, even if it's just between the pages of a book.

Blueberry Scones

I don't know about you but I'm feeling very accomplished this Friday morning. My boyfriend's alarm went off a little before 6am this morning. No not an ideal start to my day. BUT, the great thing about getting up so early is it turns me into a whirlwind of productivity.
So far I have:
Showered
Done a load of laundry
Had three cups of tea (going on four)
and baked blueberry scones!

I'm fairly sure this was my first time baking scones (unless as a child I assisted my mom in the making of some but I can't remember so we'll call this my first time). When I try out a new recipe I like to do a little bit of research first. Now I'm not sure if this is what normal people do or if it's just me because I'm a little intense about food. I read.... several recipes in preparation for this both last night when I was having a hard time falling asleep and then again this morning.

 I generally use foodgawker for recipe inspiration. You can simply browse the newest submissions, or type "blueberry scones" into the search bar and get tons of photos and recipes. How do I choose between all these delicious looking scone recipes you ask? Well, it usually depends on what I have on hand. Most of the recipes I read called for half and half or heavy whipping cream. Yaaa no, all I've got is milk. So I found this lovely recipe for blue berry scones and went from that.
Here it is all nice and laid out for you:

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 10 scones

Ingredients

• 2¼ cups (270g) cake flour (NOT self-rising)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp salt
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 6 tbsp (85g) cold butter
• ¾ cup (180ml) milk
• 1½ cups (225g) blueberries
• Raw sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Instructions

-Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Combine cake flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.

-Cut butter into flour mix until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Mix in blueberries.

-Pour milk into blueberry mixture and blend until a sticky dough forms. 

-Turn onto a lightly floured surface and pat out to ½ inch thickness. Cut dough with 3-inch round cutter.

-Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. 

Note: Scones may be brushed with milk and sprinkled with raw sugar before baking, if desired.

 "Cut butter into flour mix until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs." Yeah ok I can totally handle that.

NOPE DOES NOT LOOK LIKE BREADCRUMBS! This is where I start to get nervous but I shrug it off and keep going.

 Also, I added an egg because what kind of baked good that isn't vegan doesn't have an egg? Weird.

 Now I'm really getting worried. This dough is SO STICKY. Half of it is firmly attached to my mixer. According to Martha Stewart's blueberry scone recipe "Too much mixing, kneading, and baking will produce dry and tough scones." So I'm scared to do too much with it.

 And this seems like an awful lot of blueberries...
Sidenote: my family came over to Seattle for Easter and brought me two big bags of frozen blueberries. So exciting. Trying to think of ways to use them other than in smoothies is what brought me to scones.

 After wrestling the dough out of the mixing bowl onto a "lightly floured surface" I'm still not feeling great about it. I didn't want to turn the dough purple so I just barely folded the blueberries in with a rubber spatula. Uhhh sooo many blueberries. And "lightly floured" was NOT cutting it. I added just as much flour again down after kind of pressing the dough in to a round-ish flatter shape.

 Oh hey what do you know they actually look like scones! -less worried now. I'm not sure if normal scone dough is actually that sticky or if throwing in the one egg was what did it. I also cut these with just a regular sharp knife, nothing fancy.

 They look and smell like real scones! Success! Huzzah!

 Om nom nom

 Matching fiestaware cup and plate? Don't mind if I do. And what goes better with tea than scones? More tea perhaps!

These turned out SHOCKINGLY well. I regret choosing the smallest one for breakfast. So flaky and yummy! You should really make some. What a lovely breakfast. Even if it was a little less relaxing than I originally anticipated.

My fabulous boyfriend bought me this mixer for Christmas. I love love LOVE it (and him!). Also you can sort of see the reflection of the cookie sheet in the sink. That berry juice is REALLY baked on and proving hard to scrub off. I suggest if you make these scones you put down parchment paper or work out your arm muscles scrubbing.

There you have it folks! Happy Friday!
Still with plenty of time to spare to do my reading before heading to class!

Pearl Fu

So in a moment lacking any sort of creativity I named this dish Pearl fu. I'd made it a couple times and my boyfriend loved it and asked what its name was. My response, genius I know, was to simply replace the "to" in "tofu" with my name. Please, hold your applause. Now I probably could have re-named it in the early days of its creation but "Pearl fu" stayed. And now it's stuck.

This is one of my go to dinners. It's relatively simple and pretty darn cheap. I highly recommend you buy your tofu from Trader Joe's. Obviously you don't have to, I'll have no way of knowing whether or not you do but your wallet will know! Organic Trader Joe's tofu is around $1.39 just about anywhere else it's going to be upwards of $3 even more for organic. So the choice is entirely your own. 
Also that super cute orange strainer the mushrooms are in was 25 cents at a garage sale! I can't wait for it to be summer and garage sale season again. Not that I need more stuff AT ALL. But it's just so exciting. Like finding buried treasure.

(At this point I have used paper towels and patted the tofu dry/gently squeezed a lot of the moisture out) I forgot to include the cornstarch in the photo of all the ingredients so it gets to star in this photo alongside the tofu. You want to get extra firm tofu and coat it liberally in corn starch. About half a cups worth? Depending on how much tofu you have to cover, I'm using two packs of tofu so I'll have leftovers. So basically just cover the tofu you have in cornstarch and GENTLY stir to coat. The tofu will break and turn mushy if you're too enthusiastic with your stirring.

I tend to do the tofu first since it fries for quite a while. If you like a bit of a kick to your meal don't be shy with the red pepper flakes. (some heat will also be coming from the sauce but this adds a little extra)

Meanwhile, as your tofu is frying get the sauce a sizzlin so the flavors have time to meld and grow. I bought a little kitchenaid food processor from goodwill about a year ago and now I use it for everything. Those things like ginger that you'd normally spend forever grating or chopping take seconds in the food processor! This is the green chili pepper and about a one inch piece of ginger with the skin sloppily chopped off. Mostly I just chop off the really dry bits and then throw the rest in. Sidenote: I only ended up using a little more than half of this and saved the rest for my next stir fry. The ginger is a very strong flavor that you don't really want to over do.

Here's the sizzlin sauce. Be sure to add water and not just add soy sauce. The first time I made this without realizing that it was incredibly salty.

My boyfriend was helpfully chopping the mushrooms while I cut up the other veggies. He also wants me to do something I think I'm going to call the "Kent stamp of approval" on dishes that he really likes. This is one of them.

After your tofu starts to look pretty crispy you can start adding whatever veggies you've chosen to use. Mushrooms tend to cook the longest so I add them first. I like to wait on the green beans so they stay a little crunchy.

Now I'm not sure if you can tell but I switched pans part way through. After a glass of champagne (leftover from boyfriends birthday brunch) I started to panic that there wasn't enough room in the skillet. Note: This is A LOT  of food. If I was just making this for myself and not myself and my bottomless pit of a boyfriend this much food would last me easily five meals. Just so you don't get over whelmed you might want to just start out with one block of tofu when you first make this.

After the veggies have had a chance to cook dump in your rice (this is one cup worth). Then pour the saucy sauce over and give it a good stir and you're ready to eat!

Pearl Fu Recipe:

Ingredients:

Tofu (extra firm, two blocks if you want to have leftovers)

Mushrooms (1 pack or more if you’re a mushroom enthusiast)

Scallions/Green Onions

Bell pepper (generally only 1 large pepper)

Corn starch (enough to cover the tofu cubes)

Red pepper flakes

Rice (however much you want I generally cook 1 cups worth) 
A few leaves of basil 

Optional Ingredients:

Bamboo Shoots

Water chestnuts (even though they’re gross and shockingly crunchy)

Baby corn

Celery

Carrots

Tomatoes

Sesame seeds

Other exciting vegetables

Sauce Ingredients:

Soy sauce (About ½ cup worth)

Water (as much water as soy sauce if not more otherwise it gets too salty)

Sesame Sauce (optional and just a splash or cook the tofu in it)
Red pepper flakes

Ginger (just a small cube chopped up real small)

Garlic (2 or 3 cloves)

Fish Sauce (totally optional ½ teaspoon if you have it)

Chili garlic paste (also optional 1 tbsp)

The Kent stamp of approval!

3/14 Obligatory Pie Post

I wish I actually had time to bake a pie. This post is a bit of a cheat but I have finals starting on Monday so the pies in this post are actually from thanksgiving two years ago. Before you scoff and move on to better pie pastures let me just say that it was my most intense pie day to date. To be honest my dad and I got a bit carried away. I think we'd originally planned to just make a couple pies but I just kept on going in search of that perfect flaky crust. 

I feel very "meh" about pumpkin pie. I've never been a huge fan and for that reason I'm not going to post a recipe for it. You're overrated pumpkin pie! Also almost all cans of pumpkin puree come with a decent pumpkin pie recipe printed on them.

Cookie cutter maple leaf made out of pie dough and laid over the lattice. (This pie is made which whole wheat which is why it looks so much darker brown) The crust was all right but not ideal.

 We ended up having four pies and two pear tarts. I'm not entirely sure about where the original recipe for this came from since my mom has it written on the back of a receipt. She says it's a recipe from a friend but who knows where that friend found it/if it's been modified at all. It's fantastic though and I highly suggest you make it. Especially if you have a pear tree/an overabundance of pears in your life. Or if you like pears a lot. Really its just a great dessert.

Pear Tart/Custard Recipe:

Crust:
2 eggs
1 stick of butter
1 cup of sliced almonds
1 cup sugar
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Filling:
2 egg yolks (can use whole egg)
1 cup cream (half and half)
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp sugar
3 pears per pie

For the crust, cream together butter, eggs, and sugar. Add vanilla and almond extract followed by almonds. This will form a sort of lumpy paste. Press paste into the bottom of your pie dish (or pie dishes, the recipe says it makes two tarts but you can totally just fill one large pie dish).
Slice or halve pears and arrange on top of the crust. Mix the rest of the filling ingredients together and pour over pears and crust. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour. 

 This was my crowing glory apple pie. The last and BEST pie I made. The crust was the perfect flaky consistency that we pie makers try so hard to achieve and the apples inside were moist and gooey and delicious. (As a side note my family of four did not eat all of these pies, we had Thanksgiving at a friends house with a large group of people)

I did a lot of pie crust research to finally achieve this crust. I read some that called for vodka, which would evaporate in the baking and so leave you with a flakier crust but I dismissed that. My parents don't really keep hard alcohol on hand and I didn't want to run to the store and face all the last minute thanksgiving shopping craziness. I feel I should also mention that at least one (maybe both?) of the pumpkin pies is on a gluten free crust. Which was good but just not the same. I used a recipe very similar to this flaky pie crust recipe. What I found was that you want to use a recipe that calls for A LOT of butter. In this recipes case a whole stick. Yup. That is a lot of butter. (Thanksgiving/pies are not about counting calories though, indulge yourself)

The butter should be as cold as possible and even if you don't really feel like it you should follow the instructions to cut the butter in. The smaller pieces you cut it into the less work you'll have to do in the long run too. I'm also a huge fan of kitchen gadgets and this is when having a pastry blender will really help, one of these. Yes you can use a fork but your wrist is going to be tired enough after blending all that butter in, so if you bake a lot you might as well invest in one (goodwill occasionally has them for only a couple dollars!). Also handle the pie dough as little as possible since your warm hands will melt the butter. If you're having trouble getting the dough to stick together after you've done a lot of mixing you can add a tiny bit of water at a time. DO NOT OVER CORRECT

Shoot now I really want pie. After finals are done I'm making one. I'll add updated photos then. Happy pie day to you all!

The World is My Oyster

So my dinner tonight was inspired by an impulse buy. I was checking out the fish selection at QFC and saw this little jar of oysters. Now I don't know if it's because my name is pearl and perhaps I was destined to love oysters but whatever the reason I do. This is an incredibly quick, easy, and delicious dinner. Just what I need after a day of classes and work.

See only four ingredients! Plus a lemon, five. I forgot about the lemon until later because I was hungry.

Oyster Recipe:

2 cloves garlic finely chopped (sometimes I'm lazy and buy the pre-minced kind)

Oysters (as many or few as you like)

Parmesan Cheese 

White wine 

Juice of one lemon half

Easy peasy lemon squeezy instructions,

(Don't forget the lemon like I did! Though you can squeeze it on at the end it will be more flavorful if you bake the oysters in the juice.)

Dispose of half of the oyster juice then dump the rest including the oysters into an oven safe dish. Add a splash of white wine and lemon juice. You don't want the oysters to think they're back in the ocean, just add enough liquid so they don't get totally dried out but enough that all the flavors are still there. Cover the oysters in garlic and a light sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes (I have a not so great oven where I'm currently living so this can vary based on how effective your oven is). Be sure to keep an eye on them, you'll know they're done when they look a little more dried out and less like big goobers. The Parmesan should also start to brown slightly. 

To be completely honest I was slightly disappointed with the oysters. Normally I go on a grand oyster adventure to the Ballard Farmers Market (I say grand because it's at least a 45 minute bus ride away). Anyways at the Ballard Market you can get the most fabulous and LOCAL Hama Hama Oysters for about the same price if not cheaper than the grocery store. You may be thinking "big whoop no way I'd go all that way for some shell fish". Well, I will go to great lengths for good food. You also get WAY more oysters in about the same size jar instead of these four monstrosities.

This is the real deal Hama Hama from last summer. Just so you have an idea of what I was anticipating when I dumped out the jar of oysters. I even found a pearl!

Ok enough of my detour of better oyster days.

 While my oysters were bubbling away in the oven I made a salad. Annndd I'd already opened the bottle of wine for the oysters so I had a glass, or two to help the artistic cooking process along.

I don't know how you feel about beets but I feel great about them! They will keep basically forever in your crisper too which is fantastic. This particular beet is from my moms garden and I'm pretty sure it's been hanging out in the fridge since well probably before November. Just make sure your beets aren't wet when they go into the refrigerator otherwise they can get moldy.

 I like to eat mine raw and grated on my salads. Best to do this on a plate too since they will stain everything including your hands. 

 Underneath all those great veggies is an organic spring salad mix. The cucumbers alas are not organic. But the tomatoes and beets are!

 This salad dressing is absolutely fantastic. The recipe is actually my parents so thanks mom and dad! The first time my boyfriend tried it I think he ate four bowls of salad. No joke.

Salad Dressing Recipe:

 Pepper to taste
1 tsp Soy sauce
1 tbsp Oregano
1 tsp Basil
2 cloves Garlic
Flax Oil
Balsamic vinegar

So again really sorry that I don't measure things. But you want the base of your salad dressing to be the flax oil (only $7 for a bottle of organic flax oil at Trader Joe's, it's over by all of the vitamins because apparently it's a dietary supplement.) I fill about half of my re-usable salad dressing bottle with the flax oil then add about half as much balsamic. You can't really screw this up it will taste great no matter what. Just be sure not to overdo it on the soy sauce since it's so salty.

 There you have it folks! My Monday night dinner. Only five dirty dishes and a glass and fork. Quick to make quick to clean up. Tasty and nutritious!

 Shameless plug for my moms business Too Hot to Handle (second vender from the right on the bottom of the page). She makes fantastic pot holders and aprons which she sells at the Port Townsend Farmers Market on Saturdays.

High Tea

Though none of this is food that I've cooked I'd love to host some sort of tea party soon for my girlfriends and I. These photos were actually taken last summer when I was studying abroad in London, England for a month. Wracking my brain I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the place we went to. However, your experience will be more or less the same as long as the place go to offers "high tea". Tea tip: you don't have to be in England to have high tea! There's supposed to be a great one here in Seattle that I've been wanting to check out at The Queen Mary.

 

 This particular high tea was a bit spendy but we got so much tea and food that by the end we were all stuffed and jittery from the caffeine.

 These were fantastic little finger sandwiches with lox and cream cheese, ham and mustard and your (at least for me) stereotypical cucumber sandwich. 

  I went with a few of the girls in my program and we got all gussied up for it.

 Scones with jam and clotted cream. Clotted cream is just about THE BEST form of butter I have ever tasted in my life. Apparently we don't sell it here in the states though, you can order it from Amazon but its pricey for a small little jar. According to this  Clotted Cream Recipe it's easy to make at home. Yay! Basically its sweet and creamy and you're going to want to coat your entire scone in it.

By the time desserts arrived we were soooo full but they were all cute and miniature so we of course had to try them. Two little mini parfaits, crème brûlée, and macaroons. YUM! The place we went (sorry still can't remember the name) brought everything out in courses and we were offered unlimited tea. WHAT?! Yes unlimited tea. I was in heaven. Between chatting and eating and sipping on tea we were there for about three hours. You of course do not have to make that sort of time commitment but if you're going with good friends why not enjoy yourselves!