Taco Tuesday

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Taco Tuesday

When I was a senior at Davis, my gaggle of girls (and one boy) embarked on a poorly planned Spring break trip to Baja, Mexico.  I'm pretty sure our goal was to get tan and drink cheap margaritas.  We decided to camp on the beach (smart) and eat from roadside taco trucks.  It was at one such taco truck that I watched a lady prepare fish tacos from scratch.  When we got home, sunburned and broke, the recipe became one of my staples.  I made a spiffed up version this weekend with a mango relish, but the basic technique remains the same...

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Family Style

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Family Style

One week out of the year, our family gets together in Pajaro Dunes, a small coastal resort south of Santa Cruz, CA.  We stay in a multilevel four bedroom compound that houses 5 grandsons, 3 couples and two grandparents. During the day we try to spend as much time at the beach as the fickle weather allows and and night we dine.  We are a family of eaters, and we can spend a lot of time cooking elaborate meals. Other times, like last night, we make special, but simple comfort food.  Grandma C found this paella recipe years ago in Sunset magazine. It's a family favorite and special to me, as we served a similar version of paella at our wedding reception. I made a butter lettuce, avocado and grapefruit salad to compliment the salty and spicy flavors of the dish. Here's an adaptation of the original recipe.

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Oh Joy!

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Oh Joy!

I swear by this book. It's not glamorous. It's tried and true. With instructions on how to do just about anything with food, measurement conversions and temperature guidelines, The Joy of Cooking is my most utilized cookbook and it shows.  My copy lost it's dust jacket and gets muckier every time it's used (the cookie section has bits of cookie dough stuck to the pages). To protect it from the elements, I employed a 5th grade book cover technique using left over oil cloth from recovering my kitchen stool. Now I can wipe it off, and the cookie particles inside it can serve as bookmarks for recipes I've made.

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The Century Mark

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The Century Mark

It just so happened that last night I noticed I had posted 99 times. I started to wonder what I should do for my 100th post.  I thought it would be nice to do something that captured the spirit of the blog, but I'd only planned to share my recipe for a soba noodle salad (not 100th post material). Today when I was prepping ingredients with Wylie, shooting pictures and then sitting down to share lunch with him I realized that Poppy Haus is about moments like these.  It's about creatively living your everyday life. 

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Easter Eats

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Easter Eats

I'll be hosting an Easter brunch this Sunday and I plan to make a small spread featuring homemade cinnamon rolls, plenty of cured pork products and a riff on Eggs Benedict that features my asparagus hash recipe. This simple, but stand out recipe has a complex flavor and is satisfyingly salty. I usually serve it for breakfast, but it would be totally delicious with fresh pasta or incorporated into a lemony risotto. 

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