Giveaway! …which has nothing to do with food

I suppose it's obvious from this blog that I'm pretty obsessed with food. What you may not know is that I'm also obsessed with making jewelry. I've been creating earrings, necklaces, and bracelets out of sterling silver and semi-precious stones and crystals for several years now, and though I took a break from it for a while, I have finally updated my Etsy store to highlight some of the items I make. So, this is just a little announcement (and plea) for you all to go check it out! Also, because this post really doesn't have anything to do with food and I feel I should make it mean something to you readers, I'm hosting a little giveaway for one (1) of the eight pairs of earrings pictured here.


I have no idea who reads Salty/Savory/Sweet, and I'd love to get to know more of you. So to enter, comment on this post with how you came across this site and what keeps you reading—or what you'd like to see more of. Also, make sure to indicate which one of these eight earrings you'd like: Lipstick, Swirl, Creme de la Creme, Cherry Cocktail, Rock Candy, Perfect, Flamenco, Two Tonight. For more detail about each pair, click on its picture or name to go to the Etsy listing.

(I'm aware that the nature of this giveaway means I'll probably only get responses from female readers, but come on fellas, you all have a gal in your life that would appreciate some jewelry, right?)

One entry per person, please, and the contest will end Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 11 pm mountain time. I'll then choose a winner via a random number generator or some other clever method.

Good luck, and I hope to hear from you all!

baubles.etsy.com

"Chinese Night" in The Fort

Like the previous "Sri Lankan Night," Apartment Life was hosting a "Chinese Night," and I dropped in to see what they had planned. At the food table, I pointed to various goodies, many of which I hadn't tasted in a while: braised pork belly, tea eggs, chicken stewed in soy sauce. I was glad to eat some Chinese home cooking from students, although I did giggle a bit when I got to the "fried rice" that was simply white rice with frozen peas and corn stirred in.

Does anyone have a recipe for the marinated potato dish above (the thin, white shreds located around 7 o'clock)? The tubers are slicked in oil and something vinegary, and are just barely cooked so still have a bit of crunch, sort of like the texture of water chestnut. I remember my mom making this, but it's been a long, long time.

Apple clafouti, or "my oven hates me"

How sad, how burnt you are, apple clafouti. This dessert was meant to be a nice addition to the potluck table at a gathering for poet Linda Bierds and essayist Marybeth Holleman, both of whom were visiting campus as readers in the Changing Climates series, but my oven had a different plan in mind.

I had come up with the idea for clafouti, basically a batter cake with fruit sunk into it, because I had leftover half-and-half from the creamed succotash in the fridge and because my Honeycrisp apples were starting to get a little old. I decided to improvise using a combination of this recipe and pancake mix as a base, since the pan I borrowed from MC was huge and I didn't have enough half-and-half to make a double batch of proper batter.

Using flour, eggs, butter, sugar, and the cream I had left I mixed up the basic recipe for the batter, and also incorporated two cups of prepared pancake mix (with two extra eggs and half a stick of butter added). For the fruit topping, I peeled and diced about five large apples, which I sauteed in half a stick of melted butter and half a cup of sugar until they were mostly cooked through and a syrup had formed in the pan. After pouring the batter into the buttered glass pan, I spooned the cooked apples over the batter and drizzled the remaining syrup on top.

Then I stuck it into my preheated oven, whereupon the oven betrayed me.

See, my oven is old. Okay, my whole apartment is old and also '70s looking—not in the fun way—but that's not the point. My oven has no window in the front and is intent on burning everything I put in it. I've already discussed the difficulties I've been having with baking bread and chalked it up to altitude, but I'm gradually starting to realize that my oven also runs hot, or something, because everything I've been baking at regular times and temperatures has been coming out blackened. I set my oven at 400 degrees for this clafouti and checked it after fifteen minutes (ten to fifteen minutes shy of the specified baking time in the recipe) and found the top beginning to char. When I cut into it at the potluck a few hours later, I found that the bottom of the clafouti had turned to black rubber. Only one corner was relatively unscathed.

If you only ate the top the clafouti was fine, but what kind of dessert is that? Half the folks at the potluck thought it was noodle kugel or something, too; powdered sugar on top probably would have helped, but I didn't have any. People ate it…but not many. Sigh.

Pre-Thanksgiving: Creamed succotash, orange-cranberry sauce

Here are two things I made for a graduate teaching assistant Thanksgiving potluck—which took place two and a half weeks before actual Thanksgiving Day. Now you see how behind I am.

Because I had both corn and lima beans, I took a recipe for creamed corn and a recipe for lima beans in cream and mashed them together to make what I later realized was a creamed succotash. It turned out really well! Here's the recipe:

Take half an onion, minced, and cook it in half a stick of melted butter until it is translucent. Add the kernels from about six or seven ears of corn and a one-pound bag of frozen lima beans. Add half a cup of water, bring to a boil, and then lower heat and allow the vegetable to simmer for about ten or fifteen minutes to cook through. Add a cup of half-and-half (both recipes call for heavy cream, but I decided to lighten things up a little). Simmer over low heat until the lima beans plump up and the corn is tender. Add salt and pepper to taste; I had to add a bit of sugar too as the corn I used was not quite sweet enough on its own, but you may not have to.

This makes quite a large potful, somewhere between 2.5 and 3 quarts, I think.

I also made cranberrry sauce for the first time, following the directions for "Fresh Cranberry Sauce" on the bag of Ocean Spray cranberries I bought. Always one to gild the lily, though, I substituted a cup of orange juice for the cup of water, and cut back the sugar by a third to compensate for the sugar in the orange juice. Unfortunately, while the final result was good it didn't boast much orange flavor. Zest would definitely help next time.

I liked watching the berries pop as they simmered, gradually softening and releasing their juices until the sauce was a deep, rich crimson. Making cranberry sauce is fun.

At SON's house, the table was loaded with food: classics like turkey, stuffing, rolls, and mashed potatoes side by side with greek-style pasta and deviled eggs. Later, there was homemade pecan pie and vanilla ice cream to top it. Altogether a fine preview to the feasting in store later on.

Late-night Revolution Donuts

In Old Town, next to a bar my classmates and I often meet at, is Revolution Donuts, which keeps amusing hours. Monday through Thursday they are open from 7am to 12pm, but on weekends—Friday, Saturday, and Sunday—they are open from 8:30pm to 2:30am. How brilliant to make a point of catering to drunken, late-night donut cravings! On nights out, I always pass by debating whether I should go get one.

On one such occasion I finally dropped in and picked up a coconut-covered chocolate donut before biking home. Back in my apartment, I ate half, savoring its moist, dense cake and sweet shreds of coconut.

The next morning I ate the other half with a cup of steaming black coffee, so you can be sure that you're getting a sober opinion: it was a pretty good donut. Haven't tried the others, but it's probable I will eventually.

Eats from around the globe at the World Unity Fair

Had I arrived six minutes earlier, I would have made it to the computer lab before it closed. But I didn't.

With five or six things things to print out and my work at a standstill without them, I was mighty cranky. So I decided to make my trip onto campus worthwhile by going to the World Unity Fair being held in the student center.

Boy am I glad I did. For four dollars I received five tickets, which I could trade for several of the many entrees, desserts, and beverages prepared by student cultural groups across campus. Two tickets to the Libyan Students Association got me a sizable bowl of couscous, beef and potato curry, and pickled chilis. It was delicious.

One ticket handed over to the Taiwanese Community Association got me a huge rectangle of baked sesame-covered mochi cake with red bean paste tucked in the middle, and another at the Czech Republic Students table got me two wedges of dense, moist yogurt cake, one with apricot and the other with sour cherry. I didn't mean to get two desserts, but I spotted the mochi cake after the yogurt cake and couldn't resist. I love that stuff!

With only one ticket left, I didn't have enough for another entree (which was a shame, because the Saudi Student House was serving up a kickass-looking chicken and rice dish) so I went with a cup of bubble tea from the Taiwanese Student Association. The sweet, milky tea and chewy tapioca balls really hit the spot. I was so full after the couscous and bubble tea that I took the desserts home, but I definitely enjoyed them the next day!

Tuna and avocado, courtesy of dad

When I was a kid my dad would mix avocado into tuna salad and I always thought it was the weirdest thing ever. Probably because my dad was known for other odd concoctions, and I lumped this one in as another one of his creations, but it also didn't help that the avocado would oxidize after a while, giving the stuff an unpleasant dark hue.

Now, though, it makes so much sense: avocado's smooth texture and rich creaminess is actually a nice match with tuna. Paired with sweet corn, a minimal amount of mayonnaise, a bit of pickle relish, and lemon juice for brightness and to prevent the fruit's discoloration, my dad's tuna salad turns out to be a delight.

Stars for Star of India

I get these little packs of coupons in the mail every once in a while, and every single one of them seems to contain a coupon for Star of India. NH had been talking about craving Indian food, and when several classmates and I went to see a university performance of Street Scene: An American Opera, we decided to hit up the restaurant beforehand and take advantage of the discount.

The menu is pretty extensive, with some dishes that I hadn't seen before. I stuck with my ol' standard though, lamb shahi korma: "Curry with coconut flakes and coconut milk, almonds, raisins, and cashews." It was rich and creamy and flavorful, and the lamb was tender.

I had a piece of NH's chicken tikka, which was alright. The breast meat was a little cottony and could have have more flavor, but it wasn't bad. And when I sampled a bunch of other people's dishes I found nearly everything tasty. They weren't light Indian curries, like the ones at Seva, but they were still really good. Everyone seemed happy with their choices.

Afterwards, at Street Scene: An American Opera, there was a whole song praising the joys of ice cream. Guess what I walked out of there craving?