Blackberry Financiers: Could you please clarify?

By the time I finally went into labor with Son, Husband was sort of fatigued with the whole "crying wolf" of "I'm going into labor today."  When my water broke early that morning, even then I think he was doubtful that the baby was actually going to happen.  So much so that he decided that he would work a regular day, remotely, using his Blackberry.

Now, as a wife, who is about to give birth to the third child, potentially the next line in Husband's gene pool (we didn't know the gender) - that BLACKBERRY was annoying.  During my exam with my OB to confirm that yes my water had broken, to my time in the labor and delivery room, the Blackberry was attached to husband's hands and his eyes were glued to the screen for work reasons.  This wife was NOT happy.

At some point, I had the idea that cellular technology should not be allowed in the labor and delivery room so I thought I'd confirm with Sister-in-law as to that point.  I called her and asked, "Do you they allow Blackberrys in labor and delivery rooms?"  She heard, "Do they allow blackberries in labor and delivery rooms?"  

Her response was, "Of course.  Why not."

My response, "You mean they can sit and type on those things THE WHOLE TIME I'm TRYING TO GIVE BIRTH?"

Her response, "HUH?"

So let me assure you that these blackberry financiers is not THAT Blackberry, because I'm pretty sure it would taste bad baked.  Nor is this financier the term to mean someone who has a lot of money who wants to fund something at their expense.  I'm pretty sure that would also not be that tasty baked.  Financier (the one who handles the large sums of money for investment) is even pronounced differently that these lovely almondy, egg white, fruity sweet cake, which is pronounced (with a lovely French lilt)

FI-NAWN-SEE-AY.

FI-NAWN-SEE-AY.

FI-NAWN-SEE-AY.

Say it with me one more time.

FI-NAWN-SEE-AY.

Now that we've correctly established pronunciation, let me just say that despite its fancy name, these are remarkably easy to make.  The quick story behind this pastry is that they were originally made in the shape of gold bars, and those bankers in Paris who worked near the bakery loved the shape.  As I don't have any special tins in the shape of gold bars, I went with making them in a mini muffin pan, with equally lovely results. They DO NOT require a mixer, and the most difficult part is really making brown butter, which is simply melting butter and allowing the milk solids to brown and toast, lending to a nuttier more rich tasting batter.  If you're shy or worried about the browning of butter (learn how to here), you can simply melt the butter,  but your financier will be missing the last note of nuttiness.

Blackberry Financiers (adapted from Bon Appetit May 2012)
Makes 24 small cakes

Ingredients
1/2 cup plus 5 tablespoons unsalted butter (learn how to brown butter here)
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar; additional for dusting
5 large egg whites
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
2 cups fresh (or frozen, thawed) blackberries, halved

Method
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Simmer until browned bits begin to form. Continue to simmer, frequently scraping up browned bits at bottom of pan, until fragrant and dark brown but not burnt, 6–7 minutes. Scrape butter and all browned bits into a medium bowl. Let cool for 3–4 minutes.

Meanwhile, process almonds and flour in a food processor until nuts are finely ground. Transfer to a medium bowl; whisk in 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar. Add egg whites; mix until smooth. Fold browned butter (but not the brown solids) into batter. DO AHEAD: Batter can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and chill.

Arrange a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 375°. Coat muffin cups with nonstick spray. Pour 1 generous Tbsp. batter into each prepared muffin cup. Top with 3–4 blackberry halves. Bake until cakes are golden brown and just cooked through, 15–16 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pan. Serve warm or at room temperature. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving.

Printable recipe

Mango Bundt Cake with Mango Soaking Syrup: Star Wars in full effect

For NDR and AL, for really bringing the force into my home.

Growing up I have distinct memories of Brother #1 and his complete Star Wars MANIA.  We had an AT-AT at home, and I think at one point several action figures that we would play with.  Brother #2 would actively watch all the movies and just loved all the action.  He talked like Yoda, used Star Wars philosophies to help him through the day, and when he couldn't win at something fairly, resorted to Jedi mind tricks to get his way.   Even with all that Star Wars love under the same roof as I, Star Wars passed me by.

Even when the prequel (Is that what we call them?) came out when I was newly married, I watched it because I thought I was supposed to watch it, but I didn't find the story all that compelling and all that crazy shooting with the weird looking outer space creatures just didn't appeal to my fancy.  I watched the first of that new trilogy and didn't bother with the second or the third.  And interestingly enough, Husband is also not into Star Wars either.  Star Wars it seemed wouldn't be in our gene code for Children.

It didn't shock us much when Daughters were not into Star Wars.  After all, how many young girls do you see wielding light sabers?  I know a few but none are Daughters' friends.  But Son is a whole new ball game because Husband and I own NOTHING of Star Wars in the home and yet suddenly Son became obsessed.  He talked about light sabers and the characters and all the cool flying things and suddenly Star Wars was on his mind.  At the school book fair, Son chose a one of those "Star Wars Lego Dictionary" books and had Grandpa read it for him cover to cover.  His current favorite game is to open any page of that book and ask us to name all the people on it.  (very tedious game mind you.)

But it is the two most RECENT additions to the home that has just taken Star Wars to another level.  One mother/friend upon seeing Son's obsession with Star Wars casually commented that her family was going to be getting rid of ALL the Star Wars legos that they had collected.(2 boys - guess how big THAT collection was.)  She asked if I wanted them.  I said I only wanted them if they were all intact and I wasn't going to be building anything without any guide books.  The following week two HUGE boxes of Star Wars vehicles arrived.  The look on Son's face when he opened the box of lego nonsense is not one I'll soon forget.  The second Star Wars installation came in the form of two light sabers that another young gentleman was no longer playing with and wanted to give to Son.  The mother reassured me saying that they were "not the type that lit up or made crazy sounds" and so I agreed.  Those arrived and Son has been having light saber battles with anyone who is willing to stand still and hold up the light saber.  He makes his own sound effects.  Between the Legos exploding Star Wars characters and ships in almost every room of the house and light sabers that have a habit of appearing everywhere but where Son wants it, Star Wars is in this home.

But the final infiltration of Star Wars into our household is in my own maneuver this evening.  Daughter shrieked as she came running down the hall about some bug that was chasing her.  I watched this bug as it flew into the bathroom.  Looking around for something with which to kill it, I happened upon Son's new/used light saber, grabbed it, extended it to its fullest and began swiping at the bug.  Son began screaming, "Don't KILL THE BUG WITH MY LIGHT SABER" as I twirled the light saber around madly.  I took aim, and swung the light saber, hit the bug mid flight and the bug landed in the toilet.

I think I just became a Jedi.

But if my fancy bug maneuver isn't enough to make me a Jedi (what does one have to do anyways?) this bundt cake should.  Because it is, by far, my favorite one.  Mango in flavor, tropical in tone, and delicious in texture - it's like the perfect slice of flavor.  Vanilla bean specks in both the cake and the syrup subtly perfume the cake and the result is nothing short of a Jedi mind trick.  

The Force is with you if you bake and serve this cake.

Mango Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake with Mango Soaking Syrup
Makes 10-inch bundt cake, serving 12 to 14

Cake
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped out; SAVE empty pod for syrup
½ cup sour cream
½ cup buttermilk
1 ½ cups diced fresh mango

Syrup
Ingredients
⅔ cup fresh mango puree, strained (Simply blend mango and then strain it through a mesh strainer)
⅔ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
empty vanilla bean pod

Method
Place rack in center of oven, and preheat oven to 350. Grease and lightly flour inside of 10 inch bundt pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Set aside. Mix together buttermilk and sour cream.

Using either a stand mixer (paddle attachment) or a hand mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add sugar and beat at medium-high speed until the mixture is light in texture and color, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating for 30 to 40 seconds after each addition. Scrape down sides of bowl as necessary. Beat in vanilla bean. At low speed, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with sour cream. (Add a bit of flour, a bit of sour cream mixture, a bit of flour, a bit of sour cream mixture, a bit of flour.)

Using a spatula, carefully fold in diced mango, incorporating it into the batter. Carefully spoon batter into bundt pan.

Bake cake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then invert it onto another rack. Place the cake, on the rack, over a baking sheet.

While cake is baking, make syrup. Combine mango puree, sugar, water, and empty vanilla bean pod in a small non reactive saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Using a pastry brush, dab syrup generously all over surface of the warm cake, allowing it to soak into the cake before reapplying. Let the cake cool completely.

Printable recipe

Fish Tacos: Admiring the older generation

There is an older woman in my yoga class, someone I've gotten to know in the past year or so of doing yoga.  I look at this woman, and she blows my mind.  She's 70 years old, can get into a handstand and still swims half a mile or so every day.  She's energetic, funny, vibrant and has wisdom from having lived a long life.  I really respect and admire her, for the way she's kept herself supremely fit, her active lifestyle and her dedication to and adoration of her husband of many many years.

But I'm also kind of jealous of her.  Let me be really frank.  There are times when I'm MADLY jealous of her, for this woman has great-grandchildren, and she's basically done living her life for others, and now just lives it for what she enjoys.  I love watching her sense of freedom and the lack of "I have to go pick up my kids right now" and "Oh shoot, I have to help my children with their homework or they'll fail."  Of course she is a dedicated mother, as I missed her in yoga when she went to help her daughter while her son in law recovered from a heart attack.  But she truly doesn't live on the whim of others.  She goes where she wants to go and does what she wants to do.

I think that is missing in most young mothers.  We sort of come up with this idea of martyrdom when we take on the role of mother.  It's not good if we have too much fun, or think of ourselves first, or ever think that something else is more important than our children.  We don't want to be judged by others for "not-doing-everything-humanly-possible-for-our-children-like-making-sure-their-sandwich-crusts-are-cut-off."  Most psychologist and marriage counselors will tell you that mothers should absolutely NOT do that, where they put their children as the most important aspect of their relationship, but we still do it.  Often.  Other child specialists tell us that we HAVE to let our children fail on their own, that we shouldn't protect them from life, and that our children need to learn lessons, the hard ones on their own.  However, our worlds have become child-centered and positively driven and run by the needs of the littlest ones in the family.  I can't even sit down for 1 minute straight at any given meal because I will be getting up and down multiple times for multiple things while I try to shovel food into my mouth and take care of my family.

When I starting craving fish tacos a week ago, I kept thinking to myself that Son wouldn't like it, Daughter #2 would probably pick out all the green, and Daughter #1 might complain about the messiness of eating it.  (Daughter #1 is a meticulously neat eater.)  The level and noise from the complaints pretty much made me decide that making the fish tacos really wouldn't be worth it at all, so I sort of put it on the back burner.  But the craving never quite disappeared.  In fact, the craving continued, intensified, and gradually became something I could no longer ignore.  I decided that TODAY I would ignore all potential detractors and instead just MAKE MY FISH TACOS and the rest of the detractors could just be hungry.  I did what I wanted to do and no one could stop me.

I invited Friend SH to share in my taco fest and what a fest it was.  I bought really delicious Pacific cod, all organic vegetables, and created this dish in about 30 minutes.  One really marvelous thing about fish is its quick cooking speed.    Once I had the fish marinated, it was only minutes until I had it in a taco that was rapidly making its way towards being completely consumed.  It's super light; light enough that I reasoned, "Hey - I can eat three of these."  And I did.  Because I wanted to.  For the moment, how ever temporary and brief, I only thought of me.

I created this dish to have the most flexibility as possible so that people could add what they liked as necessary. The slaw is very basic, I used sliced avocados instead of guacamole, the jalapenos are there as a "choose your own adventure in spiciness" factor, and extra cilantro is offered on the side.  As a side note, I also made fish sticks as well, which Daughter #2 and her friend decided tasted AWESOME in a tortilla with a nice big dollop of salsa on top.  Go figure.

Fish Tacos
Serves 4 to 6

Fish
Ingredients
1 lb firm white fish which flakes well like tilapia, cod, halibut. Mahi mahi would work as well
¼ cup olive oil
juice of one lime
¼ cup chopped cilantro
½ of a jalapeno, finely chopped, seeds and all
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper

Salsa
Ingredients
4 roma tomatoes, finely chopped
¼ white onion, finely chopped
¼ cup cilantro, finely chopped
juice of 1 lime
½ teaspoon salt
pinch of pepper

Coleslaw
Ingredients
¼ head of cabbage, shredded
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper

Sandwich Assembly
Ingredients
8 to 12 corn tortillas (I like this corn flour combination the best. But you want nice small tortillas, not huge ones)
2 cups cilantro sprigs
2 perfectly ripe avocados, sliced
1 jalapeno sliced

Method
Marinate fish. In a shallow dish, place fish. In a small bowl mix together olive oil, lime juice, cilantro, jalapeno, salt and pepper. Pour over fish and coat fish with marinade well. Set aside for thirty minutes.

Make salsa. In a medium bowl, add chopped tomatoes, chopped onions, chopped cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper. Mix well. Set aside.

Make coleslaw. In a large bowl whisk together mayo, lime juice, salt and pepper. Once dressing is made, add cabbage directly to the bowl and begin tossing until all cabbage is coated. Set aside to allow cabbage to wilt a little.

Cook fish. Cook a heavy pan over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and add fish. Cook fish until opaque and then flip over. Fish will cook anywhere between 2 to 4 minutes per side, depending on thickness of the fish. The thicker the fish the longer it takes. Once fish is fully cooked, remove from heat, and using a fork, flake the fish.

Assembly
In a fry pan over medium heat, begin warming tortillas. Take warm tortilla, add a bed of slaw. Add avocado, cilantro, salsa, jalapeno, and some fish. Sometimes a pinch of sea salt is also a nice finish. Eat and enjoy.

All ready to be eaten.

Printable recipe

Coconut Lime Bundt Cake: Outfit changes

Son's current obsession - multiple outfit changes.  He starts with his morning outfit which invariably starts with his whining, "Can I PLEASE wear SHORT SLEEVES?"  Since Bay Area weather has FINALLY warmed up, I allow him to wear short sleeves, with the caveat that he MUST wear a jacket when outdoors and he has to wear long pants.

But invariably he'll spill.  Then he'll have to change again.  And after spilling on his shirt, he'll change his pants for good measure, in order to "match."  At some point later in the day, he'll look at the beautiful California sunshine and say, "Mom!  I need to wear shorts!!  It's hot outside."

Today - Son went through FOUR outfit changes.  That's as many for how old he is.  That is three more than I did.  If I had my way, I'd literally roll out of bed in the clothes that I am going to wear for the day and only change in the night after my shower.  But Son - he sees something else in his clothes -a chance for independence, a chance to change things up, a chance at a different perspective.

It drives me crazy, it does, because his laundry pile is far bigger than mine.  But I grin and bear it because he likes these choices and it makes him happy.  Definitely doesn't hurt anyone (except my insides as I calculate additional loads of laundry and their cost on the family) and it brings a smile to his face.  Things could be worse.

For as many outfit changes Son has, I have many bundt cake flavor changes.  I've been mulling over many different recipe ideas and plotting how to get them into a bundt pan.  Coconut lime was one that I toyed with but I was very very unsure about the mixing of coconut and lime together in the pan.  The result? Tangy coconut goodness.  It's delicate in its flavor, not overpowering with the cloying sweetness of coconut, but much rather the subtle perfume of coconut and lime.  It's tropical and a winning outfit change for me.

Coconut Lime Bundt Cake with Lime Soaking Syrup
Makes 10-inch bundt cake, serving 12 to 14

Cake
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 ⅓ cups granulated sugar
Zest of two limes (reserve limes for syrup)
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup canned coconut milk (you will have some leftover)
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut

Toasted coconut, optional garnish

Syrup
Ingredients
⅔ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup freshly squeezed lime juice

Method
Place rack in center of oven, and preheat oven to 350. Grease and lightly flour inside of 10 inch bundt pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

Using either a stand mixer (paddle attachment) or a hand mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add sugar and beat at medium-high speed until the mixture is light in texture and color, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating for 30 to 40 seconds after each addition. Scrape down sides of bowl as necessary. Beat in lime zest. At low speed, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with coconut milk. (Add a bit of flour, a bit of coconut milk, a bit of flour, a bit of coconut milk, a bit of flour.)

By hand, carefully stir in shredded coconut milk. Pour batter into greased and flour bundt pan.

Bake cake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then invert it onto another rack. Place the cake, on the rack, over a baking sheet.

While cake is baking, make syrup. Combine lime juice and sugar, n a small non reactive saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Using a pastry brush, dab syrup generously all over surface of the warm cake, allowing it to soak into the cake before reapplying. Let the cake cool completely.  Sprinkle toasted coconut if desired.

Printable recipe

my favorite bundt pan


the coconut milk I use

Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake: Trying to create another winner

Someone asked me the other day, "How do you keep yourself motivated to keep coming up with new recipes?" The easy answer to that is competition.  I compete with myself.  I keep trying to come up with ways to find the one blog post that will rake in thousands of hits onto my blog through the likes of Tastespotting, Foodgawker, and Pinterest.  (each of those hyperlinks will take you to my page of submissions.)

According to the hits and the level of interest on these various sites, I'm really known for being a baker.  (which sort of bothers me as I'd much prefer be known for easy recipes.)  In fact, here are the list of my top recipes of ALL time, with the number of hits each post has garnered; note the  number of baked goods that make this list.

5.  Garlic Scallion Noodles - 24,300 hits (and to put it in dollars, this recipe has earned me almost $50.)
4.  Honey Soy Stir Fried Chicken - 30, 415 hits ($60.)
3.  Peach Vanilla Bundt Cake - 31, 492 hits ($62)
2. Peach Cupcakes with Peach Cream Cheese Frosting  - 32,365 ($64)
And the number one money maker on the blog, and one that I'm hoping will keep on bringing in some of bacon (well not really)
1.  Blueberry Cupcakes with Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting - 51,807 hits ($102)

The number of hits on the other posts that follow drop rapidly after the Meal Muffin (which was sixth at 21,000) to around 9,000 and further dropping down to even less.

Now, clearly older posts have a greater shot at getting a higher number of hits, simply because they've been around longer.  But I have to say that the Peach Bundt Cake is making this huge surge on Pinterest, which got me thinking - could I create another WINNING bundt cake that would get people all excited and dying to pin it to their walls and show it off on their boards?  The strawberry buttermilk bundt did all right for a while, and then it sort of dropped off.  (I'm not sure why -the photo is so pretty to me!)   To various people and my blog readers, I asked for suggestions.  I have a few more bundt cake ideas brewing and coming down the line, but I had some overly ripe bananas and cocoa powder and so I thought I'd try to make a chocolate banana bundt, in hopes of creating another winner.

There is something so wonderful about the texture of a chocolate banana cake.  I can't explain what it is - but it almost yields a velvety fudgey texture, which is fantastic to eat and the flavor is pure chocolate and banana.

So tell me, is this a winner?  Only time will tell.

Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake
Makes 10-inch bundt cake, serving 12 to 14

Ingredients
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1⅓ cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
4 ripe bananas mashed (about 1 ⅓ cups mashed)
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Confectioner’s sugar to dust on top

Method
Place rack in center of oven, and preheat oven to 350. Grease and lightly flour inside of 10 inch bundt pan.

Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Set aside. Mix together buttermilk and vanilla extract. Set aside.

Using either a stand mixer (paddle attachment) or a hand mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add sugar and beat at medium-high speed until the mixture is light in texture and color, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating for 30 to 40 seconds after each addition. Scrape down sides of bowl as necessary. Beat in bananas until incorporated. At low speed, add cocoa flour mixture in three additions, alternating with buttermilk vanilla mixture. (Add a bit of flour, a bit of buttermilk, a bit of flour, a bit of buttermilk, a bit of flour.)

Scoop batter into pan and smooth out. Bake cake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place the cake, on the rack, over a baking sheet. Allow to cool for 15 minutes, and then invert over. Allow cake to fully cool. Before serving, dust with confectioner’s sugar. Garnish with strawberries or finish with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Printable recipe

Currently my cocoa powder obsession.  I got mine at Whole Foods for less than this.  Don't buy from this link, but just see it.  The cocoa rouge!  Fantastico!

Vietnamese Chicken and Vegetable Curry: Owner or customer?

Thanks to SH, who kept on making me this curry when I needed it most.  

I ask the following question - would you rather be the owner or a customer?

I like eating at restaurants, being the customer, going to stores, being greeted as the customer, and receiving service, as a customer.  I like being a customer.

However, at many points in the day, I am the owner.  I'm the owner of my home, the owner of my car, the owner of a community membership, an owner/partner in the communities to which I  belong.  But more and more these days, I see that many people have the attitude of customer in my communities and not that of an owner/partner.

At the community center where I belong, pay membership dues to, and partake of exercise classes and community events, I definitely am an owner/partner.  This means I respect the equipment, the facilities, and I try my best to keep them clean and in good condition.   After all, it's my space, one that I'm paying for, and one I'd like to keep nice and presentable.  I'm an owner after all.  But many many people I watch treat this space as a customer.  They show up, leave their towels on the gym locker room, leave their trash in the showers and in the hallways, and don't bother picking up after themselves.  That is the mentality, attitude, and actions of a customer, not that of an owner.  I've been instructing daughters very carefully, about their role in their community, and what is their important function as an owner of that space.  (I emphasize making sure that their towels are always picked up.)

At Daughters' school, I've gotten in more than a few altercations in the school drop off area.  First of all - it is a DROP OFF zone, and in the morning, when traffic is congested, as it always is as our school is over crowded and lacking in space, no one should even think of parking.  However, there is one gentleman who did park his car, and essentially blocked all the traffic behind him, which led out into the street and proceeded to block traffic around the block.  When he realized the traffic jam he was causing, he did come back to his car, and then attempted to move it, only then to almost back into me to park in an illegal red zone.  I rolled down my window and said, very politely, "Excuse me sir.  This is a community.  You can't just park and stop where ever you want.  Your actions affect the entire row of cars behind you."  His response was not a "sorry", but a "Write me up!  It's not my problem.  I'm going to do what I want."  His attitude is one of a customer, not an owner of the school community.  As a funny side note, it turned out that he was the father of a classmate of Daughter #2, so I run into him occasionally. I look him straight in the eye.  He averts his.

I'm also an owner at my church.  I never walk into my church building or church ministry with the idea that I'm here as a customer - I'm always an owner /partner.  I'm ready to do whatever it takes to make sure that the space is as wonderful as I want it to be for God.  But even here, in this space, the community where I think EVERYONE should want to be an owner, I see so many customers.  I watched someone spill an entire dish of food during and leave the food on the floor, expecting someone else clean it up.  That person was a customer.   In that person's stead, another person, who was not at all at fault in the spill in the first place, procured paper towels and cleaning materials and cleaned up another person's mess.  That person acted as an owner.  In this space especially, I don't want to judge others or say that I am better than the next person, because in God's eyes, no one is.  However, the customer attitude in this community breaks my heart and frustrates me.

Therefore, I want to encourage everyone; having an owner attitude is far easier than one thinks.  More than anything, being an owner is really about your heart.  And sometimes, we don't feel like being owners, and I feel that way more than I want to acknowledge. However, sometimes you have to ACT the way you want to feel - if you want to feel like an owner, sometimes you just have to act like one.   It isn't about creating the fanciest community, or the one that is better than the one down the block, but it is really about BEING in a community and taking ownership of that community and acting on it.

I look at this curry dish - which is essentially a pretty humble dish of vegetables and chicken that are brought together by a variety of non-fancy, ordinary ingredients.  But brought together, each ingredient taking an active role in the end result?  Fantastic.  Humble but wonderful.  Simple but cohesive.  Warm and comforting. The best use of individuals coming together in a community dish.

This curry comes together easily, once you get all the ingredients measured out and planned.  That is actually the hardest part of the dish, so I've rewritten the recipe to reflect the importance of just that planning.  This version has a lot more vegetables and a bit more kick than the original, but is still mild compared with a Thai curry or a Malaysian one.  This is a milder, more subtle curry and easy on the palate.

Vietnamese Chicken and Vegetable Curry
Adapted from Mai Pham's, Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table
Makes 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients
3 tablespoons curry powder (I used Trader Joes)
¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 ½ to 3 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into large chunks (each thigh into 4 or 6 pieces)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons chopped shallot
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon ground chili paste (use less if you’re concerned about too much

3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
3 lemongrass stalks, cut into 3-inch pieces and bruised with the flat side of a knife
1 (2-inch) piece ginger, peeled, cut into 5 slices and bruised with the flat side of a knife
1 1/2 cups fresh chicken stock or store-bought low-sodium chicken broth

3 carrots, peeled, cut on the diagonal into 2/3-inch pieces
1 yellow onion, cut into wedges
1 lb small potatoes, cut into large pieces (I used gold potatoes, and sliced them in half)
2 to 3 red, yellow or orange bell peppers, cut into large pieces
8 oz haricot vert (green beans) cut into 2 inch pieces

13.5 or 14 oz can of coconut milk)

¼ cup cilantro chopped
¼ cup basil chopped

Method
Combine 2 tablespoons of the curry powder and the salt in a bowl. Add the chicken and turn to coat the meat evenly. Set aside for 30 minutes.

Measure and prepare all ingredients. In small bowl, add chopped shallots, garlic, chili paste, and remaining 1 tablespoon of curry powder. Set aside. In another bowl combine fish sauce, sugar, lemon grass stalks, ginger, and chicken stock. Set aside. In a large bowl have carrots and onion and potatoes ready. In the final bowl, have bell peppers and green beans ready.

Heat the oil in a medium pot over moderate heat. Add the shallot, garlic, chili paste and the remaining 1 tablespoon curry powder, and stir until fragrant, about 10 seconds. Add the chicken and cook until the edges of the pieces are golden, 3 to 4 minutes.

Add the fish sauce, sugar, lemongrass, ginger and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat. Add the carrots, potatoes and onions and cook for 15 minutes.

Add the bell peppers, green beans and coconut milk; cook until the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with chopped cilantro and basil. Serve with white rice, or with a loaf of crusty french bread.

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