[End of] Summer Green Bean Salad

Technically it's still summer for me, I don't have classes until Thursday. These past few weeks I've been trying to soak up all the summer I could down here in San Diego. Some foreign friends (Dave, Lavinia, and Felicity) flew over from England and we were able to catch up with them. I can't believe exactly one year ago I was abroad, getting used to English customs like weighing people in stones, drinking so much tea that it began to run through my veins and being confused when people asked where the bin was. [it's the garbage].

My roommate, Kevin, and I also have done a few projects in our new room. About a month ago we moved into a 1920's house about two blocks from Windansea beach. Rough life. We made a tree made out of twine and a light out of an old wicker birdcage.

I spent a good month at home in the Bay area with family and friends. I went to the farmer's market a lot with my dad and when I saw all the heirloom tomatoes, fresh corn, basil and green beans this dish came together in my head. Some friends came over that night and we ate the salad for dinner. Thanks to the amazing Christine Chia for taking these pictures. It's perfect side for a summer barbecue. I know that it's late to be posting about a summer salad but it's summer weather year round in San Diego. Because salads only have a few ingredients, it's important to get fresh, quality ingredients. Use what's in season and treat the ingredients with respect; prepare them simply to let their flavors shine through

The Ingredients
1.5 lbs green beans
2 lbs cherry tomatoes
5 ears of corn
3/4 cup feta
3/4 cup hazelnuts
1/2 cup basil leaves
1/3 cup olive oil
3 lemons
salt and pepper


The Method
Roast the hazelnuts in a small pan over medium heat to bring out the flavors. Cool and then roughly chop them.

Trim the stem ends off the green beans and bring a large pot of water to the boil.

Shuck the corn.

Blanch the beans for 1 min in the salted boiling water.

After 30 seconds have passed, blanch the corn for the remaining 20 seconds. Drain the beans and corn and set in a colander to drain.Hold the corn and then shave the kernels off. Use the back of the knife to scrape the ear to get all the sweetness.

Half the tomatoes with a sharp knife.

Create the dressing by juicing the lemons,

seasoning with salt and pepper and whisking in the olive oil.

Time to assemble. Toss the beans in the dressing, add the corn and tomatoes. Then sprinkle on the feta cheese, hazelnuts and tear the basil leaves before adding to salad.

Toss to coat and serve.

This salad is refreshing, light and so simple to make. It takes my favorite summer flavors and combines them all in one super-dish. Here's to this past summer! Now, bring on the fall flavors of pears, persimmons, and acorn squash. Oh, and it's almost red Starbucks cup season.


Recipe by Spencer Huey

Chocolate Dessert Waffles

What a summer it's been! I spent the first four weeks of my summer working at Hume Lake Christian Camps. I went to Hume Lake as a camper in high school and it was always the highlight of my summer. It was a special place where God taught me so much about his character and love for us. Because it was such a life changing experience for me, I wanted to give back and help to create similar experiences for other students. Hume Lake sits right in the Sequoia National Forest so it's complete with forests, a lake, and the ever present Christmas tree smell. I worked at Hume San Diego which is the camp's off campus site. We set up on Point Loma Nazarene University's campus which has a constant view of the ocean and the sound of waves crashing on the cliffs. Beach or Mountains? Now that's a hard choice to make.

Last year, I worked as activities and recreation staff. We would run organized rec games and take students to the beach to surf, bike, kayak and swim. This year, I'm a lead counselor. Our primary function is to be a resource for the youth pastors and counselors. We want to take care of all the logistics so that they can be there for their students. It's kinda like being an RA on a floor of campers. It's so great to go around and talk with the students about what God has been teaching them. It brings me back to when I was there age and trying to figure out what it means to seek after God and his will in my life. I really enjoy being a lead and developing these friendships with churches and students. Having beach duty isn't so bad either.

Our western-style theme, All In, takes a look at the lives of David and Saul. It examines what it means to be all in for Christ and follow after God's heart, regardless of the circumstances. Saul often made decisions on his own without seeking God's help. He was looking victory, glory and approval from others which resulted in failure, pride, and jealousy. He was rejected as king because he did not follow after God's will. Conversely, David despite his flaws and sins went to God for advice and wisdom; he was a man after God's own heart. Despite the odds, he knew that God had to be trusted no matter the circumstance. Our theme verse is from Psalm 40.8 "I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart." Through this theme, students, counselors and staff alike will learn to seek after Christ, emulate his character and strive to follow after God's own heart.


It was such a life giving and filling experience for me. I enjoyed getting to know students and youth pastors, praying with them and finding out how their ministries are going. I loved our staff which became a family for four short weeks. Most importantly, God taught me so much about Himself and I gained a better relationship with Him over the four weeks.

So how does this relate to chocolate dessert waffles? It doesn't. However, Christ and seeing Him transform lives (including my own) is the most important things to me. How can I not share what God did this summer at Hume SD? Every single person in this world has the shared desire to be filled. Food (like chocolate waffles) satisfies the physical needs of hunger for a time. That's why we keep eating and eating and eating. But Christ and His love over-fills the empty place in our human hearts for an eternity. We can be ever learning about his character and trying to be more like Him in our everyday lives.

The Ingredients
2 cups AP flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups milk
6 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs, separated


The Method
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder.

In another bowl or pyrex, whisk together the wet ingredients: 2 cups milk, melted butter, egg yolks, vanilla extract and sugar.

Am I missing something but isn't sugar dry? Technically yeah it's dry but in baking sugar is mixed with the wet ingredients so that it will dissolve faster.

Mix the wet into the dry. This is the general rule of thumb because the heavier "wet ingredients" will want go to the bottom and the lighter "dry ingredients" will want to go to
the top. Mixing the wet into the dry will help it to combine faster.

In yet another bowl, whisk the egg whites until they reach medium peaks.

To test for medium peaks, dip the whisk into the egg whites and hold it up. There should be a peak in which the top part of the peak curves down. Stiff peaks means the peak will stick straight up.
Using a spatula, fold in one third of the egg whites making the batter lighter. Incorporating the egg whites in two steps will decrease the amount of bubbles popped - lighter, fluffier waffles.

Then once those are incorportated, fold in the remaining two thirds.

Heat up your waffle iron, spray or wipe with oil so that it won't stick and laddle in some batter. When the waffle is done, take it out and dress it up with french vanilla ice cream and strawberries. The hot fluffy waffle contrasts the cold creamy ice cream.

Dessert of champions.

Recipe by Spencer Huey

Lime Bars

The other day our friends, Sholeh and Elena came over to make some dessert and to hang out. Whenever we hang out together, there is usually constant laughter about the most random things. They are amazing people.

Sholeh is not only a great friend but also an amazing photographer. She took all the pictures so I could concentrate on dessert, thanks Sho. Elena said she was "so into citrusy sweets" and the first thing that came to my mind was lemon bars. Since we had one lemon and twenty limes, I decided to make lime bars instead. In my opinion, limes are the zestier cousin of lemons, I think they pack more of a punch.

When I think of lemons, classic American foods like lemonade, lemon meringue pie, and the like come to mind. However limes in my mind become the condiment to savory ethnic foods like carne asada street tacos, and pho. There's nothing wrong with that but besides key lime pie and lime jello, was there any other desserts that put limes at the forefront? I wanted to change that and thus we made lime bars.

The Ingredients
For the crust:
2 cups AP flour
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 sticks of butter, melted
pinch of salt
For the filling:
6 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup AP flour
1 cup lime juice (about 10-12 limes)
zest of two limes
pinch of salt


The Method
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl combine all the crust ingredients: flour, powdered sugar, butter and salt. Mix with your favorite spatula to combine.

Empty the crust dough into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Using your fingers, press the dough down to form an even layer.

Place in the oven and bake for 15-17 minutes until the crust just starts to brown on the edges.

Meanwhile, whisk the custard filling ingredients together in a bowl: eggs, sugar, flour, lime juice, lime zest, and salt.

The lime zest has the essential oils of the lime and this will give your final bars two dimensions of lime flavor. The salt helps to bring out the lime flavor and cuts the strong acid of the juice. This microplane is one of my favorite tools in my kitchen. Besides zesting, it can grate fine ribbons of cheese, grate spices like nutmeg, mince garlic and ginger and a ton of other things that I can't think of right now...invest in one, you'll be happy you did.

One cup of juice? That's a whole lot! I know, I know. Trust me though it will yield a much more flavorful bar than those squares of yellow sugar found elsewhere.

Add the juice to the rest of the ingredients and let's continue. I'm hungry.

By the time the filling mixture is done, the crust should just becoming out of the oven. Carefully pour the custard filling over the hot crust and quickly return to the oven for another 20-22 minutes until the custard is set. No wobbles.

Now is the time to practice the fruit of the Spirit called patience. Let the lime bars cool for about 3o minutes. This allows the custard to set and will make cutting much easier, I promise.

Your patience will be rewarded. Cut into squares with a knife and dust with powdered sugar - its traditional.

The huge problem I have with lemon bars is that that are usually way to sweet with little lemon flavor. This recipe cuts the sugar and ups the lime. This recipe can easily be made into lemon bars. Just replace the lime juice with lemon juice (about 5 lemons or so) and use the zest of one lemon. I hope that you enjoy these lime or lemon bars as much as Elena and Sholeh did. These lime bars require only a few ingredients, I bet you have all of them right now. They super simple to make and are always a crowd pleaser.

Recipe by Spencer Huey

Six Citrus Salad

I'm ready for summer. At UCSD, we're in the middle of week eight with three more to go. Most of my friends are done with school...one of the cons of the quarter system. Summer seems so close yet SO FAR at the same time. It's not that I don't like my classes; I really love learning about wildlife conservation, writing about California condors, and hearing lectures about cathedrals and castles that I've visited while studying abroad. It's just that I'm ready for something new... and a break from studying.

I have to be honest. I didn't make this salad over the weekend, in fact I didn't make this last week. This recipe and these pictures are from a month ago. We were visiting our friends and they wanted us to bring something green. I was at the produce market and saw how great the citrus looked and decided to make this salad.

The Ingredients

your favorite mixed greens

olive oil

salt and pepper

four lemons

one lime

two navel oranges

two cara cara oranges

two blood oranges

one grapefruit

1/2 cup feta

1/2 cup dried cranberries

3/4 cup sliced almonds or pine nuts

handful of blackberries

The Method

Toast the almonds in a pan on medium low heat to bring out their nutty flavor.

Make the dressing by juicing the lemons and lime; you'll get about 1 cup of juice.

Season with salt and freshly ground pepper and drizzle in olive oil to taste. I put into about 3/4 cup of the olive oil but if you prefer a less acidic dressing add more olive oil that's why I didn't specify an exact amoung. Whisk to combine.

The next step is to segment (technically supreme) the rest of the citrus. With a pairing knife, cut off the top and the bottom of the fruit, just the white pith. Place the orange on an end and carefully make vertical slices separating the fruit from the pith.

Be sure to make curved cuts with your blade to minimize fruit loss. Take the fully peeled fruit in your hands and make a cut on each side of the membrane to loosen the orange segment.

Have a bowl underneath as you cut to catch the segments. If you don't get the hang of it right away, don't worry you have six other fruits to practice on.

Having the different citrus fruits give you a variety of colors and flavors. The navel oranges are the classic oranges. The cara cara navels are pinkish in color and have a blackberry undertone. Blood oranges are one of my favorite fruits; they have a deep crimson color with raspberry-like flavors. To balance out the sweetness, the grapefruit gives a pleasant bitterness to match with the bitterness of the greens.

The last step is to assemble the salad as a whole. In a large bowl, loss the greens with just enough dressing to coat. Add three fourth of the feta, almonds, cranberries and citrus segments. Toss to combine and add the blackberries, and remaining feta, almonds, cranberries, and citrus on top of the salad. Crack some black pepper over to finish.

It was so fun to hang out with everyone. We played a version of charades with two teams. Each round, each team picks any word for any player on the opposite team to act out. Sounds really easy but let's just say words like agility, niche, and valor don't have hand motions. My friend, Andrew Ruiz, who is an amazing photographer struggled for a minute and a half on the world "eco-friendly."

This salad is a great connection between the late winter-spring citrus fruits and the start of summer berries. It kinda fits where I am now: its spring and I'm in school but mentally I'm in summer mode.

Recipe by Spencer Huey

Wonton

New and Old. Those words have been the theme of the past few weeks.

Thankfully last quarter ended a few weeks ago. This means no more 20 hours of work a week of biostats! This also means that we had spring break.

Instead of relaxing on the beach which most people do on spring break, I decided to go to Indiana. That's new. Why Indiana? One of my best friends, Bethany, goes to school out there in Indiana Wesleyan University. Chelsea (chocolate girl) flew from Nebraska and we had a great time catching up and hearing about what God was doing in each other's lives. It was such a needed time with old friends.

Spring quarter has officially started; I'm especially excited about two of my new classes that I'm taking this term. BIEB 176: Conservation and the Human predicament is a biology class that focuses on wildlife conservation. VIS 121B: Cities, Castles, and Cathedrals is an art history class that has a lecture on the city Canterbury, England (where I studied in the Fall).


Also, I started to volunteer in the Nieh Lab where they are studying honeybee and bumble bee behavior. The topic of bees is becoming increasingly popular in the media due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). CCD is a new phenomenon where bee workers across the globes are disappearing. Bees play a crucial role as pollinators for our fruits. So unless we want to eat rice, wheat, and corn for the rest of humanity's time on earth, we should help our six legged friends.


To balance out this new quarter, I decided to pull out an old recipe.

This recipe for wonton (Chinese dumplings) was created by my dad and me. When I was 3 years old, I was at a babysitter's house who made amazing Chinese food - my love of food comes partly from them. My dad would make huge batches of wonton and give them to my babysitter to cook for me for lunch. Apparently, my babysitter would ask me if they were too salty, needed more mushrooms, etc and my dad changed the recipe accordingly. What a great dad! So this recipe was created before I could even write. Every time I eat them, it brings me back to my childhood and reminds me of my dad. I've updated the recipe since and its still my favorite wonton recipe.


The Ingredients
Filling:
1lb ground pork
1/2 pound shrimp
10-12 dried shiitake mushrooms
1/4 cup water chesnuts
5 stalks green onions
3 tablespoons soy sauce
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon sesame oil
The Makings of:
wonton wrappers
1 egg
chicken broth
green onions for garnish


The Method
Soak the mushrooms in warm water until soft and then dice. Peel and devein the shrimp. That black intestinal track is about as tasty as it sounds. Then chop the shrimp up. Mince the water chestnuts which can be found in cans in an Asian grocery store. Thinly slice the green onions.

In a large bowl, combine the ground pork, the shrimp, the mushrooms, the water chestnuts, and the green onions.

Then add the soy, salt, cornstarch, and sesame oil.

Mix to combine. Don't tell anyone but its easiest to use your hands. Let the mixture chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes. This lets all the flavors combine and makes it easier to work with. Ground meat doesn't make a great picture I know.

When the mixture is chilled, it's folding time! There are many ways to fold them, this is the way I learned. Crack the egg into a bowl and add some water to make an egg wash for folding. First, take a wrapper out and lay it with one of the corners pointing towards you.

Then put a teaspoon of filling in the middle and moisten the top two edges with the egg wash.

Then fold the bottom triangle up. Press out the air going from the center outwards and press the edges to seal tightly.

Then moisten one corn with the egg wash and tuck the other corner on top. Press firmly.

All Done! One down, many more to go.

Folding the wonton is easier than you think. It may take some practice but after a dozen or so, you'll be a wonton making machine. Another great idea is to invite friends over and have them help out or have your kids help out. I helped my dad when I was little. Lay the wonton on cookie trays and freeze them. Once frozen, place them in plastic bags for storage.

Now what did I do with all of these wonton? My favorite way to cook them is to boil them. Place them in boiling water and reduce the heat to medium low and cook for 5-6 min for fresh and 7-8min for frozen. Ladle some hot chicken broth over them and sprinkle some more green onions on top.

One of my favorite things about food is when it can bring back old memories. I hope you can make these wonton with your friends and family to create even more fun times. What are some of your favorite childhood eats?