CityMama™

Yogurt-marinated chicken and spiced potatoes

This summer, I've committed to learning more about cooking Indian food, a cuisine I seriously love and could not live without. I am using Madhur Jaffrey's iconic cookbook, An Invitation to Indian Cooking, and have been taking my girls on field trips to explore our local Indian market.

One of the flavor combinations I love the most is chicken marinated in yogurt. The yogurt not only tenderizes the chicken, but it lends a mellow, slighty tangy flavor. For this recipe, I combined some easier-to-find Indian spices along with yogurt to add a little spicy-ness to the chicken.

1 whole (preferably organic) chicken, rinsed and patted dry
2 cups of plain yogurt
2-4 cloves of garlic, smashed
a 2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated or finely minced
1 teaspoon each: ground turmeric, ground cardamom, ground cumin
1/2 tsp each: ground cloves, ground cinnamon
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Combine yogurt with all the ingredients and rub all over the chicken, inside and out and esp under the skin that covers the breast. Let sit covered on the counter for two hours (minimum) so that chicken comes to room temperature before cooking. Or you can leave it overnight in the fridge but do bring it to room temp before roasting.

Preheat oven to 425º. Truss chicken and place in roasting pan breast side up. Roast at 425º for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 325º and continue cooking for about an hour until legs move easily in their joints. Remove from oven and let sit 15 minutes tented with foil before carving.

SPICED POTATOES

Boil 2 pounds of small new potatoes until just tender. Drain and set aside. You can do this earlier in the day. I used fingerlings so I cut them up, but if your new potatoes are small enough, you can leave them whole.

In a large frying pan place:

2 tbsps of vegetable oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 a red onion, sliced
a 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated or finely minced
5 cardamom pods
6 whole mustard seeds
a half-palmful of cumin seeds
1 fresh curry leaf (if you can find them)
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped (optional)

Cook the above over medium heat until fragrant and seeds are popping. Add in potatoes and toss gently. Heat through. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with cilantro leaves (optional) before serving with the roast chicken. Note: do not eat cardamom pods or curry leaf, they are just for flavor.

I also discovered these treasure at the Indian market. They look screaming hot, but surprisingly they weren't. And also surprisingly, I much preferred the mango pickle to the red chili pickle. I love spicy foods, which is why I thought I would go for the chili, but the tart green mango in the mango pickle won me over. My mouth is watering just looking at this photo!

Bunny, you are my everything.

How I love you!

Hope you had a great 6th Birthday party. You smiled that big the entire time.

Love,

Mamma

Teach them well and let them lead the way

As Bunny, Wallie, and I were getting into the car at the grocery store, a man approached me and asked if I had "any spare change for the bus."

These situations make me nervous for two reasons. One: I get mama-bearish when people approach me out of the blue (I literally didn't see him coming) when I have my kids with me. Maybe I lived in a city too long, but strangers don't talk to strangers in parking lots in my world. Two: I know the way I interact with people who ask for money is being watched and evaluated by my children. In being mindful of the inherent worth and dignity of every person, can I find a balance between being empathetic and, to be honest, just wanting to quickly get into the car and drive away?

I had to consider all of the above in about a nano-second which resulted in the usual awkwardness. I managed to shove the girls towards the car while muttering, "I'm so sorry, I don't have any money." I looked straight into his eyes, and he returned my look with a warm, crinkly-eyed smile. He knew what I was going to say.

As we drove away, I told to the girls that sometimes people on the street ask other people on the street for money if they don't have any. And sometimes those people don't really have anywhere to live.

"Where do they sleep?" asked Bunny.

Tutorial: Basic Tomato Sauce

This is my recipe for the most basic tomato sauce in my pasta-making repertoire. Sometimes called marinara, this is a simple sauce of tomatoes, wine,  garlic, and onions, with a hint of basil flavor.  The only thing missing from above is the salt. No pepper goes into this until it's served , but you could add a dried red chili. Once made it can go straight onto pasta or—if you look at the end of the recipe—can be used for any number of things.

Since the recipe is already linked, I'll now bring it to life with photos. My special helper pretty much made the sauce her help with just a little help from me.

Talking up my new job, celebrating with a fun giveaway!

Here's how it all went down.

A little over two months ago,  I received an email from Stacey Boyd, CEO of the popular preschool site The Savvy Source, asking me if I wanted to get together to chat. Our interactions had been previously limited to email mainly having to do with her guest posting about education on MOMocrats. (Something I still hope she will do.)

You know when you meet someone and just know they are someone you want to be around and soak in their knowledge, passion, positivity, and energy? That is Stacey. The woman is a dynamo. And so smart.

Since The Savvy Source is based out of San Francisco we picked a half way point and met for coffee. She told me of her background, her passion for education and entrepreneurship, of how she started The Savvy Source because of her own frustrating search for a preschool for her daughter. (Been there!) Then she told me of her plans for the site and her vision of how she hoped it would grow. I was beyond impressed.

I've been blogging professionally for a while now. I've done work for at least five different parenting sites. I've written for some, helped build some, hired bloggers for some. I watched them come and go with new sites always at the ready to take their place. What Stacey was describing was something different.

Meal Planning Monday—6/23/08

Last week's field trip to the amazing and deliciously fragrant Indian market (India Cash & Carry in Sunnyvale, CA) has inspired me to start cooking more Indian meals at home. This is something I used to do often back before we had kids since Indian food tends to be a little more labor intensive and multi-stepped than stuff I normally cook. I use Madhur Jaffery's iconic cookbook most often since it seems the most geared towards American cooks. Aside from the well-thought out recipes, she has a really approachable writing style. I also like that she starts each section with an easy recipe and builds in difficulty from there. If you have other suggestions, please let me know.

One of the reasons why I do Mexican food on Mondays is because it's such a no-brainer, Monday kinda meal. If you have a beans, tortillas and cheese (plus a giant can of my fave Embasa whole jalapeños en escabeche) you can pretty much make a meal. But it's summer, and I'm feeling like breaking out of the Mexican food routine. Summer heat and spicy Indian food and eating dinners on the patio just sound so appealing to me right now. I suddenly want to decorate the outside in shades of fuschia, pink, and orange. We're kicking off Indian Monday tonight and I'll post recipes soon.

In other food news, this weekend we're celebrating Bunny's 6th birthday with a party at home. Bunny said she wants peanut butter and honey sandwiches and watermelon for her party menu. (Awesome! Easy!) She also wants chocolate cupcakes. I'm going to head to the new Sur La Table that opened near me and see if I can't find some cute papers, little dragées, and sprinkles. I heart cupcakes. Speaking of, have I mentioned that a Sprinkles is opening at our local mall? The part of the mall with the good parking, too. Heaven!

• Indian Monday—Yogurt-marinated roast chicken, spiced potatoes, salad
• Tuesday—Spaghetti and turkey meatballs, broccoli
• Wednesday Sandwich night—Chicken salad (with leftover chicken), some kind of soup (have to see what's in the fridge)
• Thursday—Salmon burgers with herbed aioli, veggies n dip
• Friday Family Movie Night—take out
• Saturday—something easy as we recover from Bunny's 6th Birthday party
• Sunday—Grilling something, not sure what yet

It's finally come to this.

CityMama's™ Stuff People Send Me.

I have resisted creating a review blog for a long time (years) because, frankly, I think they are lame and distracting from the real content and purpose of a blog. Plus, does anyone really care what I think about books or detergent? PR companies seem to think so otherwise I wouldn't get an average of 30-50 PR pitches in my in box a day. This morning, while sipping my hot caffeinated beverage, I deleted 12 pitches right off the bat.

I've come to realize that there are good reasons why it makes sense to put reviews on a separate blog. Sometimes I get opportunities to review products worth more than what my ad contract stipulates I can accept, and I've decided that rather than declining these opportunities—if the products enhance my life, my family's life or have the potential to enhance the lives of CityMama readers—I want to be able to talk about them without turning CityMama into a giant advertisement. I have talked about stuff I like on CityMama since its inception, but it's mostly been stuff I like that I buy with my own hard-earned cheddar. Now I have a place to talk about the stuff I don't buy.  (Like I have the time.)

I have vowed to do my reviews in my own honest, no-nonsense, "CityMama style." My posts will be short and to the point. I am not here to do a company's marketing writing for them, hence the pointed posts, but if something worth talking about (the good, the bad, and the ugly) crosses my path, I will share it. And the reviews will be woven into the fabric of the interwebs forever. Being clear about why I am talking about a particular item is the name of the game, which is why I am making no bones about what I doing starting with the title of the blog.

So will anyone care? I guess we'll find out. Please let me know what you think!

Easy Grilled Stuffed Pasilla Peppers

photo credit of pasilla peppers: What Did You Eat?

I still can't find the cord thingy that allows me to download pictures from my camera and I really, really want to get this recipe posted so you can try it for your summer BBQs so I'm winging it without my own photos because, well, I just can't wait any longer.

I loved stuffed pepper (and cabbage) of all kinds, but I particulary love sweet pasillas filled with melty cheese. I made these for our Father's Day barbecue. It's a variation of a dish my mom used to make when we were growing up and can be many things once you get the basic recipe down.  You can usethe stuffed peppers to make a fancier chile rellenos or top them with a cooked Mexican red tomato salsa (I love the El Pato brand in the small yellow cans) and crumbled cotija cheese—anything goes.

STUFFED PASILLA PEPPERS

This recipe is perfect for a large group. Serve one stuffed pepper per person.

Serves 12

• 12 fresh pasilla peppers
• 1/2 yellow onion, finely diced
• 1/2 tsp fresh oregano leaves, chopped (leaves stripped from one stalk, chopped)
• 1 4-cup package of shredded Mexican cheese blend (not the Light or Lowfat kind, the cheeses aren't the same)
• salt to taste
• cilantro leaves for garnish

Combine onion, oregano, cheese, and salt in a mixing bowl and set aside.

Prepare pasilla peppers for grilling:

Fire up your grill to a medium-hi.  Grill peppers until they are charred and blistered and blackened on all sides, about 5 minutes per side with the grill lid shut but do peek every once in awhile to make sure they aren't burning. Once charred, remove them from the grill and place into a large paper grocery bag. Roll the bag shut and let the peppers steam in the bag for about 10-15 minutes.

Once the peppers are cool enough to handle, remove the skin. I use a paper towel to literally "wipe" the skin right off. Once the peppers are "de-skinned", make one slit down the side lengthwise, and carefully scrape out the seeds leaving the peppers in tact as much as possible. Don't worry, you can man-handle them a little bit. They can take it.

Using your fingers—this is going to get even messier—stuff each pepper full with the cheese mixture, close them up, and put them slit-side down in a lightly oiled baking dish. Continue until all peppers are stuffed and snuggled together in the baking dish. 

Bake in a 350º oven for 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted.  Garnish dish with cilantro leaves before serving.

And until I can post my pics, please enjoy these mouth-watering photos!

I'm Mad and I Eat
Coconut & Lime

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This is the "Why Didn't I Plan For the End of Summer Better?" edition.

So summer. Had descended like nobody's business. And I am woefully ill-equipped to handle the needs of an active and curious almost-six-year-old and her equally active and curious little sister.  Happily for me (and her little sister) Wallie will continue her preschool schedule all the way through the summer.  But Bunny, until her camps kick in (in August) needs stuff to do. Fingers crossed that a trip to Hawaii will happen between now and then, but until then...send help.

I do have some tips and suggestions for keeping kids busy (and parents sane this summer—esp. the last tip so please click through!), but as always, please feel free to share what you are doing. Please. My kids' happiness depends on it.

My girls love playing house, but have never been into playing with babies. Until now.  Tata hooked them up with Abby and Lucy from Pottery Barn Kids and they turned a corner. Diapering, feeding, burping—what could be more fun? They are the two best mamas on the block. The soft, cloth babies are so charming, but I think their favorite baby is Ba- Ba- Baby Elmo. He's active and responsive, and even Bunny loves taking care of him because, shoot, he's one of the most beloved children's characters ever.

Maya Soetoro-Ng (Barack's sister) speaks in SF

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