Johanna Writes Madrid

Cherry

As I write this, Alex is attempting to remove several matchbox cars from our stereo speakers with a set of fondue skewers. Naturally I was the one who put them in there cause I like to do stuff like that.

This weekend we were supposed to have our first couchsurfer guests. We were expecting a couple from France who were traveling with their three year old daughter. Unfortunately they couldn't make and had to cancel their trip at the last minute. Too bad because we had also received (and turned down) couchsurfing requests for the same nights from several others including a Dutch clown who specializes in juggling fire.

I was also disappointed because I had cooked a huge meal in preparation for our stranger guests. Since cherries are in season I decided to make pork tenderloin stuffed with goat cheese and topped with a cherry balsamic sauce. And for dessert, homemade cherry ice-cream in my Rocket Chef ice cream maker!

I found the Rocket Chef in a thrift store in Lausanne. It had never been used and only cost about $2. Best of all, if James Bond had ever made ice-cream, this is definitely the machine he would have used- how could I resist?

The entire meal was delicious and luckily our friends Virginia and Steve came over at the last minute to help us devour it!

Pockypine

As I was going back through my photos from last month, I came across something that I can't believe I forgot about. The reason I can't believe I forgot about it is because it is definitely the most fabulous dessert that I have ever prepared in all my years of dessert making. Behold, the “Pockypine” cake!

While in Utah I made a Japanese dinner for my friends Heather and Jon. The main course was Chanko Nabe (sumo wrestler's stew) and since it's the recipe that Nico's babysitter taught me while we were living in Japan, I'll write it down below. While I was planning the meal, I was trying to think of what sort of dessert I could serve with it. I wanted it to be something Japanese but since I can't stand anything made with sweet bean paste, I was in a bit of a pickle. I finally resigned myself to just throwing a box of Pocky on the table after we finished eating but then the vision started to form in my head and within minutes of it's conception, I was speeding over to Michael's to find the perfect cake mold for my masterpiece. The perfect cake mold turned out to be a football cake mold and as I was driving back home, I thought to myself that this was one of those times in life where if I were to die in a fiery crash, my friends and family would be truly mystified for the rest of their days as to why I had a football shaped cake mold in my backseat.

The cake (spice with caramel frosting, and the Pocky quills (I used a combination of “Men's Pocky” and regular chocolate dipped) was the perfect finale to my Japanese meal!

Chanko Nabe (slurped down in huge quantities by Sumo wrestlers). Delicious when slurped down in normal sized amounts by people who are merely normal sized.

Put in a pot-

-10 cups of water

-dashi granules- follow what it says on the package but for the kind I used it was 1 tablespoon for 10 cups of water.

-1/2 cup soy sauce

-1/2 cup mirin

-1/2 cup sake

-3 T white miso (optional)

-a few chopped potatoes

-half a chopped onion or some chopped leeks

-12 shitake mushrooms (you can buy them in a big bag at the Asian market on 900 South)

-udon noodles (don't buy the kind that come with the seasoning)

-some chopped carrots

-one daikon radish (you can get at Asian food store or maybe at regular grocery store too)

-one small cabbage chopped

-some meat- chicken or beef

-some cakes of aburage (fried tofu)

-salt to taste

Just simmer it all together until everything tastes cooked and yummy!