That’s what we’re doing on Sunday.  My parents, Moe’s mom and sister, and a few other assorted friends and relatives are gathering at our place for cinnamon rolls, coffee and fruit salad before we say goodbye.  So I threw together this little video on how to make cinnamon rolls at home.  It couldn’t be easier — a simple yeast dough slathered in butter and sugar, rolled up, sliced and baked to cinnamon-y deliciousness.

After turkey with all the fixings and pumpkin pie… why not?

PS — Moe did the camera work this time, for the first time. Didn’t he do a mighty fine job?

As promised, here are clips from my most recent appearance in August.  I hope you enjoy them, and please share your feedback!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqynBc90bVU

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM0lHn-kO1U

I have had the exciting privilege of appearing on NBC’s “Arizona Midday” with my friend Chef Chuck of Chef Chuck’s Cucina.  Hosted by Destry Jetton (and, yes, she is as drop-dead gorgeous in person as she is on screen!), Arizona Midday features a cooking segment nearly every week.  In our last appearance, we made Spaghetti a la Carbonara and some really amazing, simple stuffed artichokes.  I’ll be on again on September 16th, so I hope you’ll tune in if you’re local.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyKzc-bc6HA

Hello network execs… would you like to put me on the air?  Feel free to call me any time!  xoxox

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlm78xqhiQs

People ask me all the time what I cook for myself during the week, and I often feel a little embarrassed to tell them the truth.  I make omelettes.  A lot.  Sometimes four or five nights out of seven, depending on what’s on my calendar.  Life’s been busy lately, and omelettes are the perfect one-pot meal.  I have my blog and my TV projects to attend to 24/7, but from 9-5 (actually 7-7, most days) I also have a day job.  I put on heels and go to an office Monday through Friday, where I oversee marketing and communications for an international software company based near San Francisco.  Someday when I have my own TV show I might quit (sorry, Boss), but for now I have to squeeze out a living in corporate America.

Why omelettes?  Because they’re flexible, easy to make, and perfectly balanced in nutrition.  Eggs offer whole protein and essential fatty acids, and you can fill an omelette with all kinds of vitamin-packed veggies and flavor-rich herbs and seasoning.  And despite what you may have heard, most people can have eggs three or four times a week without triggering cholesterol trouble.  To keep it light, use olive oil instead of butter and go easy on the cheese.

And eggs for dinner is just oh-so-very-European, isn’t it?

Here’s my latest video, a little how-to on the perfect omelette.  Good-quality eggs and a rich, creamy cheese are essential, but you can use whatever veggies you have on hand if you don’t have (or don’t like) mushrooms.  Diced bell peppers, zucchini, or broccoli all work just fine.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKcFP0NR2-o

December 28th -- One of the problems with going to sleep at 7 pm, wherever you are in the world and no matter how jet lagged you are, is that you are likely to wake up at the crack of dawn.

Or, as was my case this morning, before the crack of dawn.  Indeed, I woke up to the dark stillness that is Bali before the sun comes out and before the birds and the critters start stirring.  Not wanting to wake my sister, I quietly slipped outside into the silence and settled onto a chaise lounge with a book and a portable reading lamp, thinking I’d just read in quietude until Kate woke.  Balmy and warm at 5 in the morning, I didn’t even need a sweater.

But I soon discovered that here in Bali, a cacophony of sound erupts from *every direction* as soon as the sun breaks… and I mean at the VERY first sign of light.  Birds sing, geckos chirp, animals call.  And many unidentified creatures make many unidentified sounds that fall somewhere between terrifying and exhilarating.  It’s like one of those soundtracks from the Discovery Store, only it’s real.

It was amazing.

I sat in our little courtyard and listened to this symphony of natural sound for a good hour while Kate lay sleeping inside.  It was a rather unforgettable way to start my day.

Kate did wake, eventually, and we headed to the open-air restaurant of Furama for breakfast: muesli, an assortment of juice, and fresh tropical fruits including mangosteens (my favorite), bananas, snakefruit, and papaya.

And once we were fed and showered and ready to tackle the day, we hopped into a shuttle for our first destination: Ubud Monkey Park.

Ubud Monkey Park is as wild as it sounds: Monkeys roaming free in a “park” which is, as far as we could tell, completely unenclosed and only loosely maintained by a few groundskeepers.  Mostly these monkeys just roam around and look for things dangling off of tourists that they can grab and run away with: sunglasses, cameras, even jewelry.  Less-informed visitors often end up sorry then didn’t zip up their backpacks and hide their valuables.

One visitor who was particularly sorry was this young woman who knelt down to photograph a mother monkey carrying her two infants, not realizing that another monkey nearby would interpret her kneeling gesture as an invitation to hop on for a piggy back ride.  Hop right on, he did!  And boy was she surprised.  She actually started to freak out a little bit when he didn’t hop right off again, which is why I stopped filming.  A kind gentleman finally shooed the monkey away.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OU58sCyA6E

And then, one little monkey got fresh with my sister!

After the monkey park, we made our way back toward central Ubud via Monkey Forest Road, which is heavily lined with shops and food stalls.  It rained on and off along the way and we had to seek shelter a few times, huddling with other tourists inside the shops and under the awnings.  Everyone was in good cheer though; the rain doesn’t seem to bother anyone much when you’re all on vacation on a tropical island.  We stopped for lunch in the courtyard of a lovely restaurant, where we ordered a traditional Balinese dish of noodles, rice, and tempeh.

We shopped till we dropped (or, rather, until we were damp from the rain and sufficiently tired) and head back to Furama in the late afternoon to shower and rest (lots of resting required on vacation, did you notice?), and then we went back into town for a performance of traditional Balinese dance at the Ubud Royal Palace.  It was the perfect way to end the day… a little culture to round things out.

Like, I couldn’t get out of bed.

I didn’t eat.

I wanted my mommy.

(I really did.)

I was home from work for four long days days, which I spent alone in my apartment shivering under the heavy covers of my bed while the rest of the Bay Area enjoyed 90+ degree weather and sunshine. It was tough to be home and out of commission for so long, not just because I was missing the most glorious days of our Indian Summer but because I felt really isolated and, after a few days, genuinely depressed. I am sort of a go-go-go kind of girl and home is not a place I generally hang out; most days I’m there for an hour in the morning getting ready for the day and for about thirty minutes in the evening before I go to bed. I’m not really good at idleness; I felt like a slacker and I yearned for company.  But what could I do? I felt it was my civic duty not to spread my sickly germs to my friends and loved ones and, besides, I could hardly muster the energy to walk across the room, let alone leave my solitary confinement and go anywhere.  So I got to know the details of my bedroom ceiling really well. A few times, I moved to the living room and studied the pattern in my wall paper. I spent a lot of time petting my cat (the girl has never felt so loved) and just sitting, quietly, with my eyes closed.

But in the end? It was a good thing for me I think. I’ve been thinking about how seldom it is that we slow down, and how sometimes illness is the body’s way of forcing the topic upon us. It made me think of this lovely video my cousin Jill shared on her blog a couple of weeks ago, which celebrates alone-ness in what I think is a really beautiful sort of way.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7X7sZzSXYs

I was indeed feeling better by Saturday, which was a good thing because I was booked to host an arts performance in Walnut Creek. I had to get myself dressed, out the door, and onto a stage in front of several hundred people, which in itself made me feel better. There’s nothin like putting on a little makeup and a pair of heels to cure what ails you!  And yesterday, I hit the gym and ate a real meal and attended a birthday party for my favorite three-year-old in the whole wide world, my friend Herodia’s daughter, Sophia.

Ah, yes, I’m feeling much better now, thank you. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaopKzmapsg

But, never fear!  I’ve written the recipe out in complete detail for you here. I hope you’ll try it. It turned out pretty darn well, if I do say so myself.

Coconut Curry Tofu Over Rice Vermicelli

2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-inch piece of ginger, sliced into thin medallions
1 can light coconut milk
2 scallions, thinly sliced (white and light green parts only)
1 yellow onion, peeled, halved, and sliced 1/4-inch thick
4 4-inch pieces of lemon grass (white part only)
4 fresh water chestnuts, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch thick rounds (or 1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained)
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon hot chili oil (more or less, depending on your preference for heat)
1 teaspoon salt
10 ounces firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
10 ounces dried rice vermicelli

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and sliced ginger. Cook until fragrant, about 3 minutes.

Add the can of coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Add the scallions, onion slices, lemongrass pieces, water chestnuts, curry powder, salt and hot chili oil. Simmer for ten minutes. Stir in the tofu and cook for another 3-5 minutes. Add more salt to taste, if necessary.

Meanwhile, cook the dried rice vermicelli according to package instructions.

Drain the rice vermicelli and transfer to a shallow dish. Spoon the tofu-curry mixture over the vermicelli and garnish with additional chopped scallions. Serve immediately.



MIRI Teaser.flv