Cooking Around

Surprised?

I hope not.

I've been wanting to do this amount of cooking since my last break from school...which according to my calculations was...hold on (times 3, carry the 1, divide by the mean...square root)....

December.

So let's see...



Espresso chocolate chip cookies. Who knew butter, chocolate and coffee could be so delicious? The recipe only called for 1/2 a cup of chocolate chips! 1/2 a cup?!! That's a small snack. I added more. Considerably more. How much? That's between me and my cookies.



You can call it a nectarine cake. I like to call it my little masterpiece. Not to toot my own horn...but look at that pretty brown color! It's a sort of coffee cake with cinnamon and orange zest and basically any stone fruit you have. And it was soooo yummy, too...if I do say so myself.



And yet that lovely cake caused me to bail on the OC Fair with my roomie. But that's ok. All I wanted was a corn dog...or pronto pup as we say in Hawaii. I luv luv these...and inexplainably so. Something about the texture and sweetness of the cornmeal with the hot dog. And maybe something about it being deep fried. My only regret was that I didn't have any ketchup at work. But, I did manage to find a packet of Chik-Fil-A Honey BBQ sauce. Pure fried happiness.



I was genuinely sad at this very moment after lunch. Sigh. All gone.

But any sadness left from my empty corn dog plate was washed away at about 4:00 PM when I received an email from my co-worker that went something like this:

"Boyfriend went on a 5-day fishing trip in Mexico. Caught 360 lbs of yellow fin tuna. Come and get it!"

(Squeal!!!)

Yellow. Fin. Tuna!!! Are you kidding??? Heck yeah I wanted some. And it was vaccuum-sealed too. But what to make with it..hmm...

Ok please, like I needed time to think about it.

Poke, of course!

What kind of Japanese-Hawaiian would I be if I did anything else with it.



A quarter cup of Aloha Shoyu...a drizzle of sesame oil, a sprinkle of sea salt, some grated ginger, mashed garlic, diced sweet onion, chopped green onion, a generous pinch of red chili flakes and a few squirts of hot sauce. I tossed the ahi in the freezer while I assembled the dressing to make it easier to cut.

Oh? The avocado...and cilantro. You noticed. Ok, not traditional I know. But I luv avocado and very much appreciated its creaminess in my poke. And the cilantro...well, doesn't it give it good color?

Realizing that there is a world outside of cookbooks and ESPN magazine, I've decided to do some legit reading and picked up The Kite Runner last weekend. I'm on page 7. Sigh. Maybe more reading, less cooking this weekend. Or maybe just more reading.