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Two Dinners

Here are two recipes I made a while back that were well received in this house.

For this first one, the original recipe called for boneless country-style pork ribs, but all I could find that day was tenderloin, which worked out fine. I served it with white rice and broccoli.

Hoisin-Glazed Pork Tenderloin

3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1½ pounds pork tenderloin (See note above; I cut it into a few big chunks.)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Whisk together the soy sauce, hoisin, ketchup, vinegar, garlic, and ginger and set aside.

Pat the pork dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Cook the pork until browned on both sides, about 3 minutes per side.

Add the hoisin mixture and cook, turning the meat a few times, until the sauce is thickened and the meat is done, 3–5 minutes.

*  *  *

This chicken recipe worked out well except that I wished I'd made the bread cubes smaller and let them crisp up more. I don't keep poultry seasoning in the house, so I used a mixture of dried sage, thyme, marjoram, and rosemary.

Stuffing-Topped Chicken

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided use
¾ cup chopped celery
1 tablespoon chopped shallot
5 slices country bread, cut into ¼-inch cubes 
½ teaspoon poultry seasoning (See note above.)
1½ cups reduced-sodium chicken broth, divided use
1½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch piece
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided use
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
2½ cups quartered mushrooms (6 ounces)
⅓ cup dry white wine

Position rack in upper third of oven; preheat broiler.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add celery and shallot; cook, stirring, until the shallot begins to brown, about 2 minutes. Add bread and poultry seasoning; cook, stirring, until the celery has softened and the bread begins to crisp, 2–3 minutes. Transfer the stuffing to a medium bowl and toss with ¼ cup broth; set aside. Wipe out the pan.

Toss chicken with 2 tablespoons flour, pepper, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk the remaining 1¼ cups broth with the remaining 2 tablespoons flour in a small bowl and set aside.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the pan and heat over medium heat. Add the chicken (shaking off any excess flour) and mushrooms; cook, stirring, until the chicken is cooked through, about 8 minutes.

Increase heat to medium-high; add wine and cook, scraping up any browned bits with a wooden spoon, until almost evaporated, about 2 minutes. Stir in the reserved broth-flour mixture and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes more. Spoon the reserved stuffing over the chicken mixture. Transfer the pan to the oven and broil until the stuffing begins to crisp, about 4 minutes.

Tofu Again

This week for Meatless Monday I did a tofu stir-fry. The recipe below could be varied in dozens of different ways, depending on the veggies you choose, and you could even include meat (instead of the tofu, use 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken, beef, or pork, sliced into matchsticks) if it happens to not be Meatless Monday when you make it. I used tofu, broccoli, and bok choy. Just remember that you need to have everything ready before you get started, because it all happens fast.

Tofu Stir-Fry

1 pound extra-firm tofu, pressed and cubed
5 tablespoons soy sauce, divided use
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine or dry sherry, divided use (I used white wine, because I had an open bottle in the fridge.)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ cup vegetable or chicken broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons peanut or canola oil, divided use
1 onion, halved and cut into slivers
4 cups chopped or diced firm vegetables (asparagus, broccoli, carrots, snow peas, etc.)
8 cups slivered greens (cabbage, bok choy, chard, kale, etc.)
1 piece fresh ginger (1 inch long), peeled and minced
3–4 garlic cloves, minced
Hot cooked white rice (I used brown rice.)

Combine the tofu, 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce, the oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon of the wine, and the sugar, sesame oil, and pepper in a medium bowl and set aside to marinate.

To make the sauce, combine the broth, 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce, the remaining 1 tablespoon wine, and the cornstarch. Whisk until thoroughly combined and set aside. 

Heat a large wok or skillet over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the peanut or canola oil and heat until very hot. Add the tofu and marinade and stir-fry, stirring constantly, until well browned, 4–8 minutes. With a heatproof rubber spatula, scrape out the contents of the wok into a medium bowl and keep warm. Return the wok to high heat.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the remaining oil in the wok over high heat until very hot. Add the onion and firm vegetables and stir-fry until slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of the remaining soy sauce, cover, and let the vegetables steam until soft, 3–4 minutes. Remove from the wok and add to the tofu mixture.

Return the wok to high heat and add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Add the slivered green vegetables and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the last 1 tablespoon soy sauce and continue to stir-fry until limp, about 2 minutes longer. Push the vegetables to the sides of the pan and add the ginger and garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 45 seconds. Stir into the vegetables.

Return the tofu mixture with the vegetables to the wok and toss to combine. Whisk the sauce and pour into the wok. Stir-fry until the sauce is thickened and evenly coats the vegetables, 1–2 minutes.

Serve immediately with the hot rice.

A Lifetime Ago

As I've said numerous times on this blog, the friends I made at summer camp, as both a camper and a counselor, are like no other friends from any other part of my life. If I run into someone from camp—even someone I wasn't terribly close with!—we embrace as if we were long-lost siblings. Whenever there's a camp "alumni" party, I don't care who I'm seated next to on someone's couch or patio, because I feel at home with nearly everyone from that place and time in my life. There was, and remains, a magical quality to every relationship that started at camp.

At age 15 I was in the oldest group of campers, and we got to be the Color War captains, spend Trip Day in Ogunquit (while everyone else went to Canobie Lake Park—how juvenile!), go out to the movies at night once or twice, and so on. The next summer (1978), when I was 16, I went on the camp trip to Israel, which was just as amazing as you can imagine. This weekend some friends were posting photos from that trip, and I dug up a few of my own. They're mostly very faded and damaged from poor storage, but I just had to share this one:

Yup, that's me on the far left, with a few of my camp friends and an awful lot of delighted Israeli soldiers. We had just visited the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, where we wrote little notes of prayer and thanks on tiny slips of paper and wedged them between the ancient stones. That's why we were wearing long skirts and long-sleeved blouses in the blistering heat—women are requested to dress respectfully when visiting sacred sites in the Old City. You can just barely see that I'm wearing the typical sandals one buys at the souk (or suq, for you Scrabble lovers!), which is the Arab market in Jerusalem, where you have to haggle over everything just like in "Life of Brian."

Steph goes to that same camp, and many of her friends are the children of my old friends! She was in the oldest group this past summer, which she declared the best summer of her life. She's still thinking about whether she wants to go on the Israel trip next summer, at least some of which depends on who else is going. The decision will be completely up to her—we will be thrilled to send her, and at least a little relieved if she chooses not to go, I have to admit.

Doorbells and Sleighbells and Schnitzel with Noodles

Hmm, it's been a while since I've shared a few of my favorite things, so here goes:

1. I know I'm a basket case, but I loved these photos of grooms seeing their brides for the first time.

2. Watch John Corvino destroy every pathetic argument against marriage equality ever.

3. I can't stop watching this video of the title sequence from "The Simpsons" done with real actors.

4. Stories from The Onion as interpreted by Facebook.

5. Dad of the year, right here.

6. New emoticons—yes, I LOL'd at these!

Whoopie!

Julie turned 11 on Friday! Hardly seems possible, right?

In keeping with family tradition (read: whatever I did for Steph at age 11 I had to do for Pete at age 11 and thus for Julie at age 11), for her gift she got an iPod, which she's been dying for. I can't believe how tiny they are now! It's maybe half the size of a credit card. 

Julie chose carnitas for dinner, which is how you know she was definitely not swapped at birth. In lieu of a cake, she (with a little help from Andy) made Abby Dodge's whoopie pies, which came out great.

Whoopie Pies 

Chocolate Wafers:
2 cups all-purpose flour
⅔ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder, sifted if lumpy
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk 

Vanilla Filling:
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1⅓ cups Marhmallow Fluff (not crème)
¾ cup confectioners’ sugar
2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt 

To make the chocolate wafers:

Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375°F. Line 3 cookie sheets with parchment or Silpats.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Whisk until well blended. In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until well blended. Pour in about two-thirds of the dry ingredients and mix on low speed just until blended. The mixture will look sandy, with small pebbles of dough. Add the buttermilk and continue mixing just until blended. Pour in the remaining flour mixture and mix just until blended.

Using a small ice-cream scoop or 2 tablespoons, drop 2-tablespoon mounds of the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Bake until the mounds are puffed and a toothpick inserted in the center of 1 mound comes out clean, about 10–11 minutes. Transfer the cookie sheets to racks and let cool for 5 minutes. Using a spatula, lift the cookie cakes from the sheets onto the racks and let cool completely.

To make the filling:

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine all of the filling ingredients. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until well blended and smooth.

To assemble the whoopie pies:

Arrange half of the cooled chocolate wafers, flat side up, on a work surface. Mound about 1½ tablespoons filling in the center of each. Top with the remaining wafers, rounded side up, and press gently on top until the filling spreads just to the edges. Refrigerate until the filling is firm, about 1 hour, or up to a week until ready to serve. (And, if you are Julie, you will want to roll the sides of each whoopie pie in sprinkles.)

Good Book, Bad Book

I read two light, fluffy books recently—one I loved and one ... not so much

I had so enjoyed my first Penelope Lively book, Family Album, that I was eager to read her latest, How It All Began, and it didn't disappoint. "How it all begins" is when Charlotte, a retired English teacher, is mugged. She falls and breaks her hip, which sets off a chain of events—she goes to stay with her daughter and son-in-law, which causes her daughter to rearrange her work schedule, which causes her boss's niece to offer to help him out, and so on. Nothing earth-shattering happens to anyone, but I was captivated by each story line. Lively writes in a very gentle, engaging style, and I found all the characters to be believable and fully fleshed out. I really liked this.

I regret that I can't say the same for Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon. This is the story of Alice, who is having a bit of a mid-life crisis. Of course she loves her job, her husband, her kids, her dog, her friends, and so on, but she wonders if that's all there is. She receives an email asking if she'd be willing to participate in a long-term survey on marriage, and she agrees. She is given the identity "Wife 22" and is assigned randomly to "Researcher 101," who will evaluate her responses to the various questionnaires. They end up emailing quite a bit beyond the scope of the survey, revealing much more to one another than required (or even allowed). I liked Alice well enough, and some of the other characters were interesting, but I found most of the dialog to be flat or just not believable. The author repeatedly hits us over the head with the message that we are letting Facebook and texting and email and the rest of our online/smartphone habits take over our lives. But worst of all is that I guessed the "surprise ending" almost immediately (I'll bet you're guessing it right now, just from my description) and was furious that I had to read the whole thing just to get to the most obvious "plot twist" ever. If you're staying at a beach house next summer and this book is the only thing there, by all means read it—parts of it are fun—but please don't run out and buy it.