Belly of the Beast - my adventures in cooking

blogging indecision

2009-05-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

i have so many drafts of blog posts saved - the drafts have the pictures of the food, but no text. i'm wavering back and forth, unable to decide whether to continue this blog or not, so i save these drafts... i'm not ready to delete them, but i just can't bring myself to keep posting.

today, i'm making a much-needed decision. no more blogging for me. in case you care, let me tell you the reasons why i've decided to quit my blog.

i'm not a writer by nature, and my posts usually read like a medical journal. after i started this blog, i began reading many, many, many other food blogs. the best ones are the ones that make me lose track of everything around me except what i'm reading - they make me laugh, or they encourage me to try something new in the kitchen, or they're educational without being dry. i suck at writing anything witty or captivating about life and food. really. i do. my posts often bore ME when i read them. the honest truth is that i don't care that i suck at writing, so i haven't spent any amount of time trying to improve my writing. i'd rather do other things in my free time.

which brings me to my next thought... is blogging really the best way to spend my free time? do i want to spend my spare time writing about cooking, or actually COOKING? the reality is that there aren't enough hours in the day to do all the things i want / need to anyway, so i pick and choose. and i choose not to write.

and anyway, i'm sure not adding anything special or unique or funny or interesting to the culinary world through this blog. all i've done in this blog is select a recipe, cook or bake it, and present my opinion of the final result. repeat. there are thousands, literally thousands, of blogs that do this same analysis of recipes. i'm not doing anything different from these other thousands of bloggers.

and this, my friends, brings me to my final issue with this blog - my camera is a piece of sh*t. nothing makes a crappier food blog than crappy pictures. if my writing is crappy, as it is, i could at least have beautiful pictures. that's what i really like looking at when i scroll through my blog anyway - the pictures, not the text. for those of you that weren't aware, it's called food porn in the foodie world. yes, i'm being serious.

so someday when i replace my sh*tty camera, maybe i'll start a flicker or picassa or something album of food porn. when i'm feeling depressed or uninspired, i'll look through my collection of food porn that i created and cheer myself right up. but i just can't do this writing thing. it's not fun like i expected it to be.

on that note, i'll leave you with this picture of tarragon chicken breasts with buttery leeks. yum!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie - 4 stars

2009-05-12T19:57:00.000-07:00

i realized this spring that i don't think i've ever had rhubarb. i have definitely not cooked it myself, and i have no memories of it from when i was a kid. when rhubarb harvest came around this year, i decided it was time to finally test it out.

i found a pie recipe that called for rhubarb and strawberry. it was really easy to make - i chopped the rhubarb and strawberries and mixed them together in a large bowl with cornstarch, cinnamon, and white and brown sugars. i made the crust from scratch (finally an easy task, now that i've baked enough pies in the last few years). i followed the crust recipe that came with this pie recipe rather than one i've used in the past. this one called for a combo of butter (i used vegan butter sticks) & shortening, rather than just butter. i'm always trying to find a pie crust recipe that isn't all butter because i have to hide the occasionally overpowering margarine flavor. :-)

this crust was AWESOME. i loved the addition of the shortening. it was incredibly fatty, which is a prerequisite for a rich, flaky, delicious crust. i even managed to do a lattice top. it's fairly pretty, especially considering i had NO idea what i was doing! :-)

for those of you who don't know, rhubarb looks like hot pink celery stalks. it's not quite as crunchy as celery, but instead has a denser, more rubbery texture. i sliced the rhubarb into 1/2" thick pieces. however.... when i ate the pie, those little half circle bits of rhubarb looked like kielbasa sausage. it completely grossed me out! the pie tasted wonderful, but i simply could not look at it when i ate it. i know - it's strange, but it just looked nasty to me.

i had the same excess liquid issue as the person who posted the bon appetit recipe for this pie in her blog. however.... i've never NOT had too much liquid in my fruit pies, and someday, when i figure out how to prevent this, i'll write a long post about it. :-)

all in all? five star for crust, five star for flavor, one star for the kielbasa visual. four stars overall. :-) i think i'll make a rhubarb simple syrup or a sorbet next year. anything without whole hunks of rhubarb.

Lattice-Topped Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Bon Appetit, April 1997

Oddly enough, despite having a quarter-cup of cornstarch in it, my filling was on the wet side. However, when I came home I read all 134 comments about this recipe on Epicurious.com and found not a single mention of wetness, thus I’ve decided that it was just a freak fruit occurrence or bad measuring on my part, and not worth warning you about. Especially because this was gone in about 4.2 minutes, and I didn’t hear anyone complain.

Serves 8

For crust
3 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into pieces
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
10 tablespoons (about) ice water

For filling
3 1/2 cups 1/2-inch-thick slices trimmed rhubarb (1 1/2 pounds untrimmed)
1 16-ounce container strawberries, hulled, halved (about 3 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg yolk beaten to blend with 1 teaspoon water (for glaze)

Make crust: Combine flour, sugar and salt in processor. [Alternately, you can use a pastry cutter to make your dough, as I did.] Using on/off turns, cut in shortening and butter until coarse meal forms. Blend in enough ice water 2 tablespoons at a time to form moist clumps. Gather dough into ball; cut in half. Flatten each half into disk. Wrap separately in plastic; refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled. Let dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling.)

Make filling: Preheat oven to 400Â°F. Combine first 7 ingredients in large bowl. Toss gently to blend.

Assemble Pie: Roll out 1 dough disk on floured work surface to 13-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish [er, I used a metal one and it was just fine]. Trim excess dough, leaving 3/4-inch overhang.

Roll out second dough disk on lightly floured surface to 13-inch round. Cut into fourteen 1/2-inch-wide strips. Spoon filling into crust. Arrange 7 dough strips atop filling, spacing evenly. Form lattice by placing remaining dough strips in opposite direction atop filling. Trim ends of dough strips even with overhang of bottom crust. Fold strip ends and overhang under, pressing to seal. Crimp edges decoratively.

Brush glaze over crust. transfer pie to baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350Â°F. Bake pie until golden and filling thickens, about another 25 minutes. [The original recipe suggested a total baking time of 1 hour and 55 minutes. No joke. Mine was done in just shy of an hour.] Transfer pie to rack and cool completely.

Beef Satay with Peanut Sauce - 5 stars

2009-05-12T19:56:00.000-07:00

this wonderful recipe came from a blog i've recently mentioned in this post - the blog is www.food-fire.com. i loved everything about it except for the peanut sauce. it didn't pack nearly enough flavor - i modified the heck out of it in order to get to a thicker, more flavorful thai-style peanut sauce.

but the beef was really something to talk about. tender, moist, and more flavorful than any satay style meat-on-a-stick that i've had before. the marinade was simple to make, and mr. katz used an excellent shortcut to give it its special satay flavor - just use red curry paste in the marinade instead of toasting spices and grinding them with kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass and other stuff.

i let the beef (i used flank steak) marinate overnight for 24 hours, then threaded it onto skewers and grilled it. i also grilled pineapple slices to have on the side.

since i live so close to uwajimaya, next time, i'll just buy a premade peanut sauce from there to save time.

i can't wait to make this again! five big fat stars.

(note: i did not soak the skewers or double skewer the meat.)

Ingredients

3 pounds boneless sirloin or flank steaks
1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
2 tablespoons lime juice (1 medium lime)
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 cup peanut butter
1 can (13.5 ounces) unsweetened coconut milk

Directions

Combine the soy sauce, honey, red curry paste, lime juice, peanut oil, rice vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, and coriander in a large bowl and whisk well to combine.

Trim excess fat and gristle from the beef. Cover the roast with a layer of plastic wrap or wax paper. Use the the flat side of a meat tenderizer or a heavy sauce pan to pound the meat until it it’s about 1/2 inch thick. Slice the meat against the grain into 1/4 x 3 inch strips.

Put the beef in a big Ziploc bag and add the marinade. Seal the bag and turn to coat. Marinate for at least 2 hours in the fridge, overnight is much better.

Soak skewers for at least an hour. Set your grill up for a direct cook over very high heat (about 500°F).

Pour the marinade off the beef and into a medium saucepan. Add the peanut butter and coconut milk. Stiring regularly, bring the peanut mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the sauce has reduced by about a third. Remove peanut sauce from heat and keep warm.

Place steak on the skewers. Double skewer the meat so that it will be easier to flip. Grill for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until just cooked through. You want to crispy on the outside and medium on the inside. Serve hot with the peanut sauce.

Big Ass Mushroom Burger - 5 stars

2009-05-12T19:47:00.001-07:00

this looks amazing. and i remember it well - it WAS amazing. i didn't really do anything to the beef - just mixed some seasoning salt and pepper into it and formed it into big patties. buy high quality ground beef or ground sirloin, and that is all you will ever need to do. i put a thumb indentation in the center of the patties and tossed them on the grill, preheated to medium high.

note: when grilling burgers, never, ever press down on them with the spatula. the precious meaty juices run out, leaving a dried out patty behind. yuck. instead, indent the center of the raw patties with your thumb when you form them. this will prevent them from turning into the shape of a baseball when they're on the grill.

while the patties were grilling, i sauteed a bunch of sliced crimini mushrooms in some olive oil with garlic and pepper. i sliced up some fresh tomato and onion, tossed the buns on the grill, and flipped the burgers.

when the burgers were close to done, i threw some soy pepperjack cheese on mine, and some ... gouda? regular jack? i can't remember! some sort of non-soy cheese went on tony's. :-)

i assembled them on their toasted buns, and somehow, we managed to eat them in spite of their height. yum!

Cornish Game Hens + Mashed Baby Reds - 5 stars

2009-05-12T19:45:00.001-07:00

it has been many, many years since i've eaten baby chickies, and these tasty little guys were on sale at some point. my mom thought we'd enjoy them, so she purchased a package for us. a couple months after i got them, i pulled them out of the freezer and thawed them in the fridge for a few days.

when i took these little guys out of their bags, there was SO MUCH raw chickie juice - much more so than a regular uncooked chicken. ugh! fortunately, i had opened the bags in the sink, so i didn't make too much of a mess.

i found some fancy baby chickie recipes that i tried to decide among, but in the end i was too lazy on the day i cooked my chickies to buy all the ingredients and put the work into it. instead, after rinsing and drying them thoroughly with papertowels, i made a rub out of lemon zest, minced garlic & shallots, salt and pepper and a bit of olive oil. i stuffed it underneath the skin and in the cavity of the little chickie. this part was easy, but the trussing part? not so easy. i don't normally truss my chickens when i roast them whole, so i've never really done it. i think i ended up figuring it out, but you can be the judge:

so... i roasted them for approximately fifty minutes or so at 425f til they were done. i made a big bowl of mashed baby red potatoes and dug in. YUMMY! i believe baby chickies are fattier than regular chickens, so the flavor was great! the zesty rub was perfect, the skin was crisp, the meat juicy. five stars.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake - 5 stars

2009-05-12T19:34:00.001-07:00

this was the first upside-down cake i've ever made, and it was SO good! wow. it had a really unique (but good!) flavor to it, which was primarily from the ground cardamom that went into the batter. mmmmm.

i made my cake in a cast iron pan, starting on the stove top, finishing in the oven. the first step was to melt butter with brown sugar in the cast iron pan, but.... i didn't have any brown sugar! i did some very quick internet research while the butter was melting, and found out that i could mix some molasses with regular sugar to create brown sugar. there are different ratios depending on whether you are trying to get to light or dark brown sugar or somewhere in the middle. i, of course, did the wrong ratio and was terrified that it'd ruin my cake.

after i melted the butter and caramelized the screwed up brown sugar, i removed the pan from the heat and arranged the pineapple slices in the bottom of the pan. i didn't read the recipe correctly here either, because i was supposed to layer them so that the bottom of one slice overlapped the top of another. oops. the only thing this affected was how the finished cake looked.

i let the pan cool while i prepared the batter. it was easy to assemble, recipe is below. it's from gourmet magazine - i found the recipe on their website. it did not include the baking temperature for the cake though! uh, that's an important piece of information! i left a comment for gourmet though, and it looks like they've since updated the recipe to include the temp - 350f. :-)

i used just shy of 3 teaspoons of cardamom in the batter, and i thought it was perfect. and as far as i could tell, the parts of the recipe that i screwed up didn't affect the finished product at all. it appears that this is quite a forgiving recipe. :-)

Serves 8

Active time:30 min
Start to finish:1 1/2 hr

ADAPTED FROM RICK ELLIS

February 2000

For topping

1/2 medium pineapple, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and cored
3/4 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

For batter

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 to 3 teaspoons ground cardamom (see cooks' notes)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon dark rum
1/2 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
2 tablespoons dark rum for sprinkling over cake

Special equipment:

a well-seasoned 10-inch cast-iron skillet

Make topping:

Cut pineapple crosswise into 3/8-inch-thick pieces. Melt butter in skillet. Add brown sugar and simmer over moderate heat, stirring, 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Arrange pineapple on top of sugar mixture in concentric circles, overlapping pieces slightly.

Make batter:

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Sift together flour, cardamom, baking powder, and salt. Beat butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, then gradually beat in granulated sugar. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and rum. Add half of flour mixture and beat on low speed just until blended. Beat in pineapple juice, then add remaining flour mixture, beating just until blended. (Batter may appear slightly curdled.)
Spoon batter over pineapple topping and spread evenly. Bake cake in middle of oven until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cake stand in skillet 5 minutes. Invert a plate over skillet and invert cake onto plate (keeping plate and skillet firmly pressed together). Replace any pineapple stuck to bottom of skillet. Sprinkle rum over cake and cool on plate on a rack.
Serve cake just warm or at room temperature.

Cooks’ notes:

Some of the food editors found 3 teaspoons of cardamom to be too much, but others loved the intense flavor.
Cake may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Courtesy of gourmet.com

Hoisin Lamb Stirfry - 5 stars

2009-04-10T12:53:00.001-07:00

this fantastic stirfry was also out of The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper. seriously, that cookbook is amazing. the recipes are perfectly written, listing accurate prep & cook times, serving sizes, and whether you must serve the dish right away, or if it will make good leftovers, or both. the ingredients for the dishes are listed in the order that they're added to the dish, and the step-by-step instructions are clear without being excessively wordy. there are notes in the margins that give you hints about the most important part(s) of the recipes, or areas that you can cheat in, or info about the ingredients.

however, i'll stop touting the book now, and write about this phenomenal lamb stirfry. i've never been a big lamb fan - it's always been a bit too... gamey? for my tastes. gamey isn't the right word, but it's the best way that i can come up with to describe the aspect of lamb that i've never cared for. so i researched this today, and i discovered that the sharp "gamey" flavor is caused by lanolin, which is a substance that sheep naturally secrete. the lanolin acts as a waterproofing agent and also has anti-fungal and antibacterial properties to protect the sheep. some breeds of sheep (there is one called Katahdin) have such a delicate coat that requires little shearing, and they produce very, very little of this substance called lanolin. if the sheep is raised well, slaughtered before the age of 1 and the fell is properly removed, or if it is a breed with this special low-lanolin coat, it will have a delicate taste and none of this gamey-ness that i've experienced.

after doing this research, my question is - did i finally happen to buy a cut of lamb better than any i've had before when i made this dish, or have i just never had lamb prepared very well? was this the recipe that i needed to find in order to fall in love with lamb? i plan to make lamb again this week, so i'll find out then!

one note about this recipe - i used fresh water chestnuts, and they were nasty! i've never been a fan of water chestnuts, and using fresh ones didn't change that. next time i make this, i'm skipping the water chestnuts altogether.

Stir-Fry of Hoisin Lamb with Cashews and Snow Peas
Serves 3 to 4
20 minutes prep time, 6 minutes stove time
Serve and eat immediately

The Lamb:
1 to 1 1/4 lb tender lamb (lamb steaks are ideal), trimmed of fat and connective tissue, and cut into 1/2-inch by 1-inch chucks.
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon dry red or white wine

Vegetables:
One 1-inch piece fresh peeled ginger, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 medium red onion, cut into 1-inch dice
1/2 cup water chestnuts, quartered or sliced
1 handful snow pea pods, trimmed

Sauce:
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoons rice wine or dry white wine

Stir-fry:
3 tablespoons cold-pressed vegetable oil
1/2 cup salted cashews, roughly broken

1. Measure out, cut and group together each section's ingredients: In a bowl, toss the lamb with its seasonings, including the cornstarch and wine, so it is thoroughly coated. Have the ginger and garlic ready to go into the wok, and have the onion, water chestnuts and snow peas piled on a piece of paper towel, ready to go. In a small bowl, blend the sauce ingredients together. With this lineup, the stir-fry will easily come together in a few minutes.
2. Set a 14- to 16-inch wok or a straight-sided 12-inch saute pan over high heat. When it is hot, swirl in 1 1/2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil. Add the lamb and stir-fry for 90 seconds. Spread the lamb out as you cook it, so all its sides sear. Immediately remove the lamb to a clean bowl. Wipe out the wok with paper towels.
3. Heat the wok again over high heat. Swirl in the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons oil. Stir in the ginger and garlic, and stir until fragrant (maybe 5 seconds), sprinkling with the salt. Immediately add the vegetables. Stir-fry for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Add the sauce mixture, and continue stir-frying for another 90 seconds.
4. Turn the lamb into the wok, and stir-fry for about 10 seconds to heat it through. Stir in the cashews, and turn the mixture into a serving bowl. Serve immediately.

Tamarind Pork Chops - 5 stars

2009-04-10T12:45:00.000-07:00

after eating these pork chops, i literally licked the plate. i NEVER do that. never ever. fortunately, i was home alone, with no one to witness my bad manners except the kittens. :-) these pork chops were, without a doubt, the best i'd ever had at this point. wow! the recipe is pulled from one of my new favorite cookbooks (The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper). recipe is below, reprinted without permission.

it was an easy dish - i created a glaze for the pork chops out of tamarind concentrate, garlic, and other things which i can't recall at the moment. :-) i preheated my grill pan over medium high, seasoned the pork chops with salt and pepper, and grilled them for a few minutes on each side, until they were almost done. i then brushed the tamarind glaze on both sides, grilled for a couple more minutes, and... that was it!

i made mashed baby red potatoes and a green salad to serve with it. perfect!

Tamarind-Glazed Pork Chops
serves 2-4
10 minutes prep time; 5-10 minutes grill time
Best eaten hot off the grill

Glaze:
3 generous tablespoons tamarind concentrate
2 tablespoons ground Aleppo pepper (or other sweet dried chile like ancho)
6 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons Asian fish sauce (nam pla or nuoc nam)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons dry white wine
3 tablespoons water, or more as needed

Pork Chops:
4 thin-cut, bone-in pork chops
Good-tasting extra-virgin olive oil

1. If you are grilling, prepare the grill.
2. In a food processor, puree the tamarind, Aleppo pepper, garlic, fish sauce, sugar and wine. Thin the paste with water as needed to get to the consistency of thick maple syrup. Set it aside.
3. Grill the chops over a medium fire until nicely browned, or alternatively film a large saute pan with olive oil and sear the pork over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes.
4. In the last few minutes of grilling (or searing), baste the chops with the marinade, turning them once to coat on both sides. You want it to bubble and caramelize. Serve the chops with the extra marinade along side.

Shrimp Scampi - 5 stars

2009-04-10T12:37:00.000-07:00

i've had quite the run of 5 star meals lately! lucky, lucky me. :) i did have a cataclysmic culinary failure last weekend that involved nearly burning the porch down, so that stopped my parade of fantastic meals. but, we'll not talk about that right now though.

this was the best shrimp scampi i've made to date. i stopped buying frozen shrimp (a.k.a flavorless, tough, shriveled shrimp) awhile ago, and i now buy large, fresh, peeled prawns from the fish counter at uwajimaya. they run around $11/lb, so they're an indulgence, but well worth the price. i bought ~ 1 lb for this dish, rinsed them, patted them dry and tossed them with 1 1/2 tsp Emeril's Essence, which can be found at the bottom of this post.

i put the prawns in the fridge while i prepared the rest of the meal: chopped a couple cloves of garlic, set out four tbsp of cubed unsalted butter, measured out a half cup of dry white wine and a quarter cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice. i also chopped up one tbsp fresh parsley, made a green salad and boiled the linguine.

to assemble the dish, i first preheated one tbsp olive oil + one tbsp of the unsalted butter in a large (12"), heavy duty flat skillet over medium high heat. i added the shrimp and sauteed for a couple minutes. then the garlic went into the pan, which i sauteed for 30 seconds, and then i added the white wine and lemon juice and let it simmer and reduce, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes. i added the remaining 3 tbsp of butter, stirred until it was melted, tossed in the fresh parsley and seasoned with salt and pepper.

i used 8 oz of dried barilla linguine to serve with this - boiled to al dente, which takes around 6 minutes, i believe. it was the perfect amount of linguine for this particular scampi recipe. yummy!

Cedar Planked Filet Mignon & Scallops with Smoky Compound Butter - 5 stars

2009-04-09T13:26:00.001-07:00

i stole this recipe from one of my newer favorite blogs, www.food-fire.com. every recipe i have made so far from that blog has been a full mind-blowing five star meal. this one was no different! the only issue i had was with the smoky compound butter - i ate too much of it, and it made me feel really sick. so... yea - nothing wrong with the recipe at all, just me, over-consuming. :-)

i put the cedar plank on a large jelly roll pan, poured water over the top, and placed a heavy bowl on top of the plank to keep it fully submerged in the water. i then marinated the scallops and popped them in the fridge. the smoky compound butter came next. this was the first time i've ever used spanish paprika - i *almost* cheated and used regular paprika, because the spanish version was pricey. but i didn't - and i'm so glad that i didn't! it's a completely different spice than regular paprika. it is earthy and smoky in flavor - mild, not spicy at all, whereas regular paprika just doesn't really have much flavor at all, in my opinion.

(i actually made two separate smoky compound butters - one with real butter for tony, and one with saffola unsalted margarine, for myself.)

while the scallops were marinating and the butter was chilling, i prepared the steaks and asparagus. i had some filet mignon tenderloin leftover from christmas, so i cut it into thick steaks, wrapped a piece of bacon around the outside of the steaks & secured with a toothpick. i topped them off with a generous dose of freshly ground sea salt & black pepper. i let them sit at room temp while i prepared the asparagus (chop off the ends, toss them in a baking dish with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper) and turned on the BBQ.

i won't regurgitate the cook portion of the preparation of this meal, because i think dave does a great job of it in the recipe below. however, my steaks must have been a bit thicker than his, or my bbq not as hot as his, because they required a few minutes longer to get to medium rare than dave's recipe suggests. tony likes his steak to be a true rare - bloody, almost raw in the center, so his was fine, but mine did need a few more minutes to get to medium rare.

definitely five stars, just don't eat too much butter!

For the Steaks:

2 beef tenderloin steaks, 1 1/2 inches thick or better
2 slices bacon
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper

Tightly wrap one slice of bacon around each steak, securing with with a toothpick. Season both sides with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

For the Compound Butter:

1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup) at room temperature, divided in half
1 tablespoon Smoked Spanish paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder or cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Melt half of the butter and pour into a mixing bowl. Add the spices and mix until until well-combined. Let cool until mostly solid. Add the remaining butter and whisk to combine. Spoon mixture onto a large ramekin, cover with a sheet of waxed paper, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Chili Lime Scallops

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon chipotle chili powder or cayenne pepper
1 lb sea scallops

Whisk lime juice, oil, garlic, chili powder, salt, and cayenne together in small bowl. Add scallops and toss to cover with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate, basting once with marinade, for about 30 minutes.

Asparagus

1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed
olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Please the spears on a plate and drizzle with a little oil and vinegar. Turn to coat then sprinkle with salt.

The Cook

The goal is to put everything on the grill at the right time so that it’s all done at once. It’s important to work quickly, so have your mis en place, some warmed plates stacked nearby, and an oven set on low as a backup in case you need to stash a dish that finishes early.

Use a food grade plank that’s been soaked in water for at least an hour. Set your grill up for direct cooking at high heat (about 500°F).

When the grill is up to temperature, put the plank on by itself for about 5 minutes, or until you see the first wisps of smoke coming from the board. Flip the plank over and set it beside the grill with the warm side up.

Sear the steaks for 2-3 minutes on each side. Put the plank back on the grill with the warm side up and move the steaks and the scallops to the plank. Close the lid and cook until the steaks and scallops are right around 120°F internal, about 10-15 minutes.

Add the asparagus to the grill. Leave the lid open and grill for about 5 minutes, turning frequently, until the spears begin to brown and caramelize.

Ideally, the asparagus should be done at the same time the steaks have reached 135°F internal (medium-rare) and the scallops are opaque and have just started to flake a bit. Remove everything to warm plates, top the steaks with a pat of the compound butter, and serve.

Fat Tuesday: Shrimp, Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya - 5 stars

2009-04-09T12:49:00.001-07:00

yes, you read the subject of this post correctly: i used shrimp AND chicken AND andouille sausage in my jambalaya! :) hey, it was fat tuesday that week, what can i say!? i spent longer than i care to admit researching jambalaya recipes in order to find one that seemed authentic, used seafood, poultry and pig. and boy, did that research pay off! it was my first time making jambalaya, and this was AMAZING.

the most obnoxious part of the recipe was peeling the shrimp. poor tony has had to listen to many, many rants about my dislike of peeling shrimp. i absolutely hate it! pre-peeled prawns are a bit more expensive, but i've decided my time is much more valuable than the few dollars i save when purchasing unpeeled prawns. additionally, shells are between 5-15% of the total weight when you purchase unpeeled prawns, so i'm not even saving as much money as thought. :-)

i needed shrimp stock for this recipe though, which requires shrimp shells to make. the recipe called for one lb of shrimp, but you really only need the shells from five or six shrimps to make the stock. in the future, i'd buy the 5 or 6 shrimps unpeeled, and the rest pre-peeled. :-)

the recipe was easy, and took maybe an hour and a half (post prawn peeling). i made it in my big dutch oven - starting on the stovetop, finishing in the oven. it was PERFECT. i am sure i've had jambalaya before, but it's never been memorable. this jambalaya had the perfect level of smoky spiciness; it was rich and moist and, well, intense! the flavors of it made my eyes roll back in my head when i took my first bite. in a good way. :-) i found the recipe in this blog.

i didn't make my own worcestershire sauce, and i did double the recipe so that we'd have lots of leftovers.

New Orleans Cuisine Recipe - Shrimp and Chicken Jambalaya

Seasoning Mix (1/4 tsp Cayenne, 3/4 tsp White Pepper, 1 tsp Kosher Salt, 1/4 tsp Thyme, 1/2 tsp Rubbed Sage, 1/4 tsp Dried Basil, 1/2 tsp Black Pepper)

1 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
1/2 Cup Diced Andoullie
1/2 Cup Diced Onion
1/2 Cup Diced Bell Pepper
1/2 Cup Diced Celery
1/2 Cup Diced Fresh Tomatoes
1/2 Cup Tomato Sauce
3/4 Cup Enriched Long Grain Rice
1 1/4 Cup Chicken Stock with a Shrimp shell infusion (see above)
1 Tbsp Homemade Worcestershire Sauce
2 Tbsp Minced Fresh Garlic
1/2 Cup Diced Chicken (Cooked or raw)
1 1/2 Cup Medium Shrimp (I use Louisiana)
1 Tbsp Finely Chopped Italian Parsley
3 Tbsp Finely Sliced Green Onions

Since I'm using Chicken and Shrimp I want my stock to have those flavors, real simple. I heat up the right amount of Chicken Stock and add some raw Shrimp shells to it and simmer for about 15-20 minutes! It gives it a quick little infusion.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix together the Holy Trinity (Onion, Celery, Bell Pepper).

In a Cast Iron Dutch Oven, melt the butter over medium heat, add the Andouille and cook until it just starts to brown. Add 1/2 of the Holy Trinity, cook until the vegetables are tender (nothing smells better than rendering Andouille with the Holy Trinity). Add the diced Tomatoes and cook for 1 minute. Add the Tomato Sauce and cook for another minute. Add the Rice and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the Stock, the remaining Holy Trinity, Seasoning Mix, Worcestershire, and the Garlic. Taste the broth for seasoning, particularly salt. Add the Chicken, stir well and put the pot in the preheated oven. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes. After the twenty-five minutes stir in the raw Shrimp, Parsley, and Green Onions, place back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes, or until the Shrimp are cooked through. Serve with French Bread and your favorite Beer.

Sourdough Tomato & Basil Bruschetta - 5 stars

2009-04-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

this is actually from valentine's day as well! this was my contribution as an afternoon snack to the food for the day. :-)

normally, i take a loaf of french bread and slice it crosswise into 1/2-3/4" thick slices for bruschetta. i saw a picture of a bruschetta that took a loaf of sourdough and cut it lengthwise (as i did in the picture above). it looked so tasty that i decided to try it out. and it was very good! the huge hunks of bread did make it much more difficult to eat, so if you're making bruschetta for a crowd, it's better to slice it crosswise into 1/2" thick slices.

however, if i made this for tony and myself again, i'd still slice it lengthwise as i did for the picture here. just brush a bit of olive oil on it, rub it with a garlic clove, and sprinkle sea salt on the cut side of the bread. i toasted it in the oven this time, but next time, i'd throw it on the grill face down for a few minutes instead. yum!

for the topping, i used approximately 8 roma tomatoes. i sliced the tops off the tomatoes and cut them in half lengthwise. i scooped out the flesh, and then chopped them into 3/8" hunks. i then diced half of a sweet white onion and who knows how many garlic cloves. probably 5 or 6. :-) for the basil, i picked all the leaves off the stems and stacked them in a couple piles. i had ~15 basil leaves. once they were stacked in piles, i rolled them up like a sleeping bag, and thin sliced the rolls, cutting parallel to the center stem of the basil leaf. that's how to get the pretty slivers of basil throughout the bruschetta topping.

i combined the tomatoes, diced onion, garlic and basil in a large bowl. i drizzled a healthy amount (healthy being a good few tablespoons, not healthy as in a very small amount) of olive oil over the mixture, and then added fresh ground sea salt and black pepper. i piled the mixture on top of the toasted bread, and voila! a fantastic afternoon snack.

Moroccan Tomato Soup with Couscous - 4 stars

2009-04-08T12:53:00.000-07:00

first, let me say that i can't believe i didn't publish a single post in all of march. wow! i cooked & ate plenty in march, and now have a month's worth of catching up to do.

this soup is from my new year's resolution cookbook, Made in Morocco. it was a simple, quick recipe, with few ingredients. i used high quality canned tomatoes in it because fresh tomatoes are so flavorless right now. it tasted great, but i let it simmer too long after adding the couscous - the couscous swelled and lost its crunch. the flavor was still great though.

i had grilled cheese & onion sandwiches AND a salad with the soup - yummy, but way too much food. :)

(i'll add the recipe later - it's in a cookbook at home)

Valentine's Day - 5 stars! :-)

2009-02-27T18:00:00.000-08:00

for valentine's day this year, tony made ME dinner. what a treat! :-) panko-crusted pork chops, loaded baked potato, and framboise lambic. it was SO good, and quite filling! thank you, my valentine!

Portobello Mushroom Burger - 4 stars

2009-02-10T20:57:00.001-08:00

this was QUITE a yummy treat. i'd rate it five stars, except that i was still starving after eating it. i'm totally a carnivore, i'll be honest. :-) i believe i had potato chips and a small salad with it. if i made this again, i'd make a bigger salad with extra protein ingredients, like garbanzo beans and avocado and some bacon, to go with the burger. or i could make sweet potato fries... mmmmm....

anyway - it was a really easy meal, and the jumbo kaiser rolls were perfect with it. there wasn't quite enough marinade for my mushroom caps, so i'd increase it by 1/2 next time. doubling it would be too much.

enjoy!

Ingredients

Marinade:

2 tablespoons brown spicy mustard
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon hot sauce
4 portobello mushroom caps
4 slices Gouda cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
4 hamburger rolls
1 red onion, sliced
4 leaves butter lettuce
1 tomato, sliced

Directions

Combine marinade ingredients. Place caps into a baking dish and pour marinade over top. Use a brush to make sure all caps are covered with the marinade. Set aside and let marinate up to 2 hours.

Remove the portobellos from marinade (do not discard marinade) and place gill side down on a preheated gas, electric or charcoal grill over medium-high heat. Grill 3 to 4 minutes per side. Top each cap with cheese 2 minutes to melt before they are finished grilling.

In a medium bowl combine 1/2 cup mayonnaise and 2 tablespoons of the marinade.

Spread the flavored mayonnaise onto each bun and top with portobellos. Serve with sliced onion, lettuce and tomato.

Courtesy of foodnetwork.com

Chicken with Snake Beans and Thai Basil - 5 stars

2009-02-10T20:56:00.000-08:00

this is one of my most favorite thai dishes to make. it always tastes incredibly fresh and healthy, and it's really quite simple to make.

i may have talked about this before, but i'm going to say it again anyway. :-) one of the most important things to do that will make your stir-fry a tasty success is to prep all your ingredients before you even begin cooking. if you look at the recipe below, there's only a minute or two between each addition of ingredients, which means you wouldn't have time to chop them up as you go. i normally read through the recipe as i prep all the ingredients, and combine the ones that are added at the same time into a bowl. i line up all my ingredient bowls by the stove in the order that they're going to be added to the dish. then when i'm actually stir-frying, i just dump the right bowl of stuff into the wok at the right time and toss the empty bowls into the sink.

here is a picture from a couple years ago when my friend suraj and i made an incredible thai feast. as you can see, our prep bowls are all lined up and ready to be stir-fried together. :)

i doubled this chicken recipe so that we'd have lots of leftovers. to make it, i chopped up a couple pounds of chicken breast, stir-fried it in batches until lightly browned, and removed it from the wok. i then stir-fried together crushed garlic, sliced green onion, sliced snake beans and red chili pepper for a minute. then came some fresh basil and mint, and a mixture of fish sauce, oyster sauce, lime juice, palm sugar and water, cooked for another minute or two, and voila! all done. i served it with steamed rice. here it is in the wok. mmmmmmm. so fresh and tasty!

Chicken with Thai Basil
(Gai paht bai graproa)

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Total cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves 4

(I doubled these quantities below to make what you see in the above picture.)

1/4 c peanut oil
1 lb chicken breast fillets, cut into thin strips
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 spring onions, thinly sliced
5 oz snake beans, trimmed and cut into 5 cm lengths
2 small fresh red chillies, thinly sliced
3/4 c tightly packed fresh thai basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 teaspoons lime juice
1 tablespoon grated palm sugar
fresh thai basil, extra, to garnish

1. heat a wok over high heat, add 1 tbsp of the oil and swirl to coat. cook the chicken in batches for 3-5 minutes each batch, or until lightly browned and almost cooked - add more oil if needed. remove from the wok.

2. heat the remaining oil. add the garlic, onion, snake beans and chilli, and stir-fry for 1 minute, or until onion is tender. return the chicken to the work.

3. toss in the basil and mint, then add the combined fish sauce, oyster sauce, lime juice, palm sugar and 2 tablespoons of water and cook for 1 minute. garnish with the extra basil and serve with jasmine rice.

Deep Dish Pizza - 5 stars

2009-02-08T21:04:00.000-08:00

this was the most exciting meal i've made in a while. i came up with the idea to make deep dish pizza on a monday, planned it for that saturday, and then waited anxiously all week long for saturday to arrive. :-) i was just as excited for this as i was for making my thanksgiving and christmas meals!

i didn't own any deep dish pizza pans, so i decided to take the plunge and buy some cast iron pans. i bought a 12" skillet and a 10 1/2" skillet. (amazon had a special going on, so i also ended up with 5 qt cast iron pot and lid, and a bamboo steamer :) ) the brand of the cast iron is lodge logic - they're really affordable, so honestly, i was worried about the quality of them. they are awesome though! i don't cook with cast iron every day, so i'm hoping they'll last for a long time too. they also come pre-seasoned, which is fantastic.

i built these pizzas from scratch. i had to make two - one for tony with his regular cheese, and one for me and my soy cheese. the first step was to make the dough. this was fairly easy, once i figured out that kneading this dough does not require me to mash it into the countertop, but rather to gently knead it until it was elastic and smooth. i think i've kneaded dough a total of three times in my entire life. this time it ended up being a success, and it was quite satisfying to create this ball of pizza dough from some flour, yeast, water and salt.

i let it rise in the oven for a couple hours - it more than doubled in size!

while the dough was rising, i made the sauce. i sauteed one diced red onion, a few minced cloves of garlic, fennel seed, red pepper flakes, fresh oregano, dried basil, salt, and black pepper together for a few minutes, then dumped a 28 oz can of diced tomato into the pan. i let this simmer uncovered for about a half hour, stirring occasionally. i also mushed up the diced tomato chunks so that the sauce would be a bit smoother.

i split the dough in half, brushed my cast iron skillets with a bit of vegetable oil, and pressed each dough half into them.

then came the toppings, in the following order:

mozzarella cheese
red onion slivers
pepperoni
crisp hunks of italian sausage
a bit of crumbly bacon
sliced button mushrooms
roasted red bell pepper
the pizza sauce
parmesan

yes... you read that correctly - the sauce goes on TOP of all of the other toppings in a deep dish pizza. mmmmm. tony also added capers to his.

i didn't feel like we had enough sauce though. i like a really saucy pizza, and the amount i made just didn't allow for that. i'd double the sauce recipe next time.

i baked these for ~ 30 minutes at 450f. WOW! they were absolutely amazing! i've only had deep dish once, when i was in chicago for work, and this tasted so similar. the crust was soft and flaky, and the whole pizza slice actually stayed together, which i didn't expect! making this was such a pleasant way to spend my saturday afternoon / evening!

Chicago-style Deep Dish Pizza Dough:

11/2 cups warm water (about 110 degrees F)
1 (1/4-ounce) packages active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup semolina flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil, plus 2 teaspoons to grease bowl
1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, and sugar and stir to combine. Let sit until the mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes.

Add 1 1/2 cups of the flour, the semolina, 1/2 cup of the oil, and the salt, mixing by hand until it is all incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Continue adding the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, working the dough after each addition, until all the flour is incorporated but the dough is still slightly sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth but still slightly tacky, 3 to 5 minutes. Oil a large mixing bowl with the remaining 2 teaspoons oil.

Place the dough in the bowl and turn to oil all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free place until nearly doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Divide into 2 equal portions and use as directed.

Chicago-style Deep Dish Pizza Sauce & Pizza Baking Instructions:

· 2 tablespoons olive oil

· 1 tablespoon chopped fresh garlic

· 2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil

· 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano

· 1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds

· 1/2 teaspoon salt

· 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

· 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

· 1 (28-ounce) can plum tomatoes, coarsely crushed

· 1 tablespoon dry red wine

· 1 teaspoon sugar

· Pizza toppings of your choice: mozzarella, parmesan, pepperoni, mushroom, bell pepper, red onion, sun-dried tomato, olives, etc.

Directions

While the dough is rising, make the tomato sauce. In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the herbs, seeds, salt, and black and red peppers, and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, wine and sugar, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool completely before using.

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.

Oil 2 seasoned 12-inch round deep-dish pizza pans with the extra-virgin olive oil. Press 1 piece of dough into each pan, pressing to the edge and stretching about 1 1/2 inches up the sides. Let rest for 5 minutes.

Layer the mozzarella cheese all over the bottom of the pies. Top each with half of the pepperoni, mushrooms, bell pepper rings, onions, black olives and sausage. Ladle the sauce evenly over each pizza and top with Parmesan.

Bake until the top is golden and the cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, slice and serve hot.

New Year's Resolution + Honeycomb Pancakes - 4 stars

2009-02-08T21:03:00.001-08:00

i'm trying a different new year's resolution this year. last year, i vowed to go to the optometrist and the dentist. i did both, though we won't talk about how many of the previous years i didn't do either! :)

this year, i decided i would pick out a type of cuisine, buy a cookbook, and cook my way through it. outside of excessively cheesy recipes, i MUST cook every recipe from the book by the end of this year. i vacillated between lebanese cuisine and moroccan cuisine, and settled on moroccan. i then had to decide between two different moroccan cookbooks:

Made in Morocco
by Julie LeClerc and John Bougeno

Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco
by Paula Wolfert

the reviews for Made in Morocco said it was a good cookbook, but not as authentic as Paula Wolfert's. i decided to try out Paula's. um... not the best idea. it's TOO authentic. i am not ready for that kind of authenticity. the "meat salad" recipes call for animal brains. the tangine recipes called for at least three whole chickens, or ten pounds of lamb. all of the recipes from Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco make massive amounts of food, look quite complicated and often require ingredients that would be extremely difficult for me to obtain.

i want to actually be successful with my new year's resolution, so i took another look at Made in Morocco. it seemed more appropriate for me, so i ordered it. it's fantastic! it has a ton of history and cultural information, and the recipes are much more practical. i'm really excited about working my way through it.

so... i made my first meal on saturday morning from this cookbook. the name of the recipe is honeycomb pancakes. to make them, i dissolved a packet of yeast in warm water, added a teaspoon of sugar, and then combined it with semolina flour, regular flour, one egg, salt, a bit of vanilla extract, and some tepid water. i was supposed to let the batter sit for at least an hour, but i was hungry. i only waited a half hour. bad idea - i'll explain why later.

to cook these pancakes, i warmed a nonstick pan over medium heat, brushed some vegetable oil on the bottom, and put a scoop of the batter in the pan. i did not flip the pancakes; instead, i let them cook until the bottom was golden brown and the top was solid and fluffy and full of holes. well - i got small holes in them, but they didn't end up nearly as fluffy as they should have because i didn't wait the full hour before cooking. i hate when i'm impatient! :)

they were really good though. they had a grittier texture than regular pancakes because of the semolina flour, and they were not sweet either. i served them with honey and butter, and they were just fantastic. i also had some amazing uli's fresh andouille sausage on the side. how un-moroccan of me! :-)

please email me if you would like the recipe - it's at home in my cookbook, so i can't add it right now.

.

Linguini with Spicy Red Clam Sauce - 3 stars

2009-02-08T21:00:00.001-08:00

this was a really easy 20 minute weeknight meal. it was decent, but it could have been better if i invested more time & money. if you have more time, say 40-45 minutes, make this dish instead.

nonetheless, this dish worked well for the needs-to-be-cheap-and-easy circumstances that i was in the day i made it. i used fresh linguine, which was quite yummy, and for the sauce, i used some canned clams, canned diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and a few teaspoons of fresh herbs (parsley, oregano, and basil). i had my normal spinach salad on the side.

i don't think i'll make this again though. i'd make either the spaghetti vongole that i linked to above, or i'd sub in ground beef or sausage for the clams in this recipe.

however, if you'd like to try it........ the recipe is:

1 (9-ounce) package fresh linguine
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon bottled minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
2 (6.5-ounce) cans minced clams, undrained
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain.

Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, and crushed red pepper to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until onion is lightly browned. Stir in tomato paste and tomatoes; cook 4 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly. Stir in clams; cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat; stir in parsley, basil, and oregano. Serve with pasta.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 cup pasta and about 1 cup sauce)

CALORIES 292 (17% from fat); FAT 5.4g (sat 0.5g,mono 2.5g,poly 0.8g); IRON 3.9mg; CHOLESTEROL 17mg; CALCIUM 47mg; CARBOHYDRATE 45.1g; SODIUM 806mg; PROTEIN 15.5g; FIBER 3.6g

Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 2007

Cobb Salad - 5 stars

2009-02-04T15:20:00.001-08:00

before i met tony, i had no idea there was such a thing as "cobb salad dressing." every restaurant i'd ever ordered it at served it with either vinaigrette, bleu cheese, or ranch. a few months after we started dating, tony suggested i make cobb salad with "REAL cobb dressing." i did some research, and i found a fantastic recipe for cobb salad dressing. mmmmm.

this is a simple dish to assemble - for the salad, i used green leaf this time. i normally use romaine, but i had just used it for caesar, and i wanted to have a good lettuce variety in the week. :-) i topped it with sections of crisp bacon, chunks of avocado, halved cherry tomatos, slices of hardboiled eggs, red onion slivers, and grilled chicken breast. tony's is on the left - i put a pile of gorgonzola crumbles in the center of his.

the dressing is super easy! i minced one shallot and whisked it together with 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard, three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and one tablespoon of sherry vinegar. in a separate measuring cup, i combined 1/3c walnut oil & 1/2c vegetable oil. i slowly whisked the oil mixture into the shallot/mustard/vinegar mixture, and seasoned it with some sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper. it has a dark tone from all the balsamic vinegar - see below. the dressing is thick and has a fantastic tang, and it tastes really decadent to me - it's the walnut oil that gives it that extra rich flavor. yum!

Spicy Honey Brushed Chicken Thighs - 4 stars

2009-02-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

hahaha. the picture of this meal makes me laugh. :-) i was SO hungry; i ate half my plate before i remembered to take a picture. fortunately.... the half that i ate was just steamed asparagus with balsamic vinegar and a splash of olive oil. nothing too special or difficult to prepare.

the chicken thighs weren't difficult to prepare either, but they sure were something special!! :) the recipe was super easy - mix a bunch of dry spices in a big bowl, dump the package of chicken thighs in the bowl, toss it around to coat all the thighs evenly with the spices, and put it under the broiler in your oven - five minutes on each side. while they're broiling, you mix together a bit of honey and some apple cider vinegar. after the five minutes on each side, brush the honey mixture on one side of the thighs, broil for one minute, turn over, brush the mixture on the other side, broil for one minute. done! :)

the thighs were really, really tasty. i've gotten in the habit lately of just doing a dry spice rub and pan frying thighs in a bit of olive oil. easy, always good, but i feel lazy not trying anything new. :) happily, this new thigh dish was quite a success.

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 2 chicken thighs)

Ingredients

2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
Cooking spray
6 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Preparation

Preheat broiler.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken to bowl; toss to coat. Place chicken on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil chicken 5 minutes on each side.

Combine honey and vinegar in a small bowl, stirring well. Remove chicken from oven; brush 1/4 cup honey mixture on chicken. Broil 1 minute. Remove chicken from oven and turn over. Brush chicken with remaining honey mixture. Broil 1 additional minute or until chicken is done.

Courtesy of Cooking Light

Stuffed Baked Potato + Caesar Salad - 4 stars

2009-02-04T15:14:00.000-08:00

happiness! :-) that's what this meal was. i made my classic caesar salad, with just bacon this time - no shrimp or steak. :) tony did have parmesan cheese on his. we also baked potatoes in the oven - approximately an hour and a half at 350f for these. that's mine in the picture, topped with soy cheddar and sour cream, green onions, more bacon, and some fresh cracked black pepper. clearly not a lot of fancy cooking involved for this meal! it was totally satisfying - i was quite full after eating it all. you may look at this picture and think that the meal is missing something - the big steak that is normally had with baked potato & caesar salad! but really... can you imagine eating a steak in addition to this huge stuffed potato and caesar salad? i think not. (though i have done it before... i'll be honest!)

yum yum yum. i left it at four stars because although it was sooo good, and sooo satisfying, and sooo easy and absolutely something i'll eat again and again and again, it wasn't mind-blowing or extraordinary to me.

Beef Stirfry with(out) Gai Larn (Chinese Broccoli) - 2 stars

2009-02-04T15:12:00.000-08:00

and here is meal #3 from the week of hellishly time consuming meals. this was supposed to take less than a half hour, and ended up being over an hour!

the dish is supposed to be made with fresh rice noodles and gai larn (chinese broccoli). there were many problems with making this dish:

1. i had purchased the fresh rice noodles a couple days before i made this, thinking they'd be just fine... oh no. i soaked them in hot water to try to separate them - they just dissolved into mush. they weren't close to the expiration date on the package, but they were far from fresh anyway. gross! so i cooked up some dry rice noodles that i had in the cupboard.

2. i had broccoli rabe and regular broccoli crowns - no gai larn. here's a little broccoli education for you:

on the top left is regular broccoli, top right is broccoli rabe, and on the bottom is gai larn. when i was buying the ingredients for this, my friend amy accidentally grabbed regular broccoli for me. i didn't realize it til i was home - and the store that i went to later in the week only had broccoli rabe. i purchased it, thinking it'd be close enough to chinese broccoli... only while i was chopping it up to add it to the dish did i remember that i've cooked broccoli rabe before, and i do not like it. in my opinion, it's really, really bitter and tough, and the amount of work that's required to make it palatable is not worth it.

in the end, i tossed the broccoli rabe, just used the regular broccoli, and it was fine. however... the last problem...

3. the dish called for a substantial amount (1/2 cup) of kecap manis, which is a thick, dark, sweet soy sauce. i had some in the refrigerator, but apparently never bothered to look at the label. in EACH SERVING of the kecap manis, there were 200 calories and 85% of my daily sodium intake (2 tsp or 1 tbsp is the serving size - i can't remember which). that is disgusting, and so unhealthy. no one needs to eat that much salt. the calorie part... well, that's not as surprising because it's a sweet soy sauce, so the sugar content adds most of those calories to it. i look at labels on everything i buy because of the whole lactose intolerance thing, so i'm not sure how i missed this one. i tossed the kecap manis bottle (i think - if not, i'll throw it away tonight :) ). i've only found one brand (ABC is the name) that makes it, so unless i find another lower sodium, healthier version, i'll not be cooking with it again.

so... to assemble the dish, i sauteed everything together according to the recipe. i cut the salt with a lot of lime juice, which the recipe did not call for. in the end, it didn't taste too bad - but only because of the lime juice. without it, it was just a pile of sickly salty noodles with some beef and broccoli.

i strongly considered throwing the whole thing out half way through the process, but i just couldn't bring myself to waste that much. instead, i tried to keep my portion small and avoid the leftovers. i didn't want tony to have to eat anything that unhealthy either, but he seemed to like it just fine.

i'd like to try cooking with gai larn sometime, so i'll have to find a different recipe in my Wok Cookbook that uses it. and that doesn't use kecap manis. :)

Chicken Enchiladas - 5 stars

2009-02-04T13:48:00.000-08:00

these were by far the best enchiladas i have ever made! and there is no dairy in the dish above! :) (i made a separate dish for tony with real dairy though.)

the only thing that was bad was that it took longer than i expected to assemble and bake the enchiladas. this was meal # 2 from the stressful week of time consuming meals.

i used the leftover shredded chicken from the taco soup meal to make these. i sauteed some red onion and garlic, then added a can of stewed tomatoes, a cup of frozen corn kernels (thawed), a can of chopped green chiles, a couple chopped chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, and some cumin and sea salt. once that was all simmered together, i added the chicken to the pan.

i tried something new when assembling these enchiladas. i like to use corn tortillas in my enchiladas, if possible, because flour have so many more calories and grams o' fat - and they're so much more processed than corn. in the past, however, the corn tortillas always cracked, and they tasted dry. when i made these enchiladas, i warmed the tortillas up first, dipped them in the enchilada sauce, put the shredded chicken filling in them, and rolled them up. warming the tortillas up and dipping them in the sauce completely changed the dish for the better! and only one or two of the tortillas cracked out of the 20 or so that i rolled.

to finish it off, i dumped a can of green enchilada sauce over the top, covered that with shredded cheese and popped them in the oven until they were gooey and bubbling.

instead of making guacamole or pico de gallo to serve with them, i made a combo of the two - hunks of avocado, red onion, fresh tomato and fresh cilantro tossed with some sea salt and fresh lime juice. i shredded some iceberg lettuce and had that on the side as well. soooo good!

the recipe that i based this off of is below, just in case you would like to make something similar. :)

Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds skinless boneless chicken breast
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons cumin powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon Mexican Spice Blend
1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
5 canned whole green chiles, seeded and coarsely chopped
4 canned chipotle chiles, seeded and minced
1 (28-ounce) can stewed tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon all-purpose flour
16 corn tortillas
1 1/2 cups enchilada sauce, canned
1 cup shredded Cheddar and Jack cheeses
Garnish: chopped cilantro leaves, chopped scallions, sour cream, chopped tomatoes

Directions

Coat large saute pan with oil. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Brown chicken over medium heat, allow 7 minutes each side or until no longer pink. Sprinkle chicken with cumin, garlic powder and Mexican spices before turning. Remove chicken to a platter, allow to cool.

Saute onion and garlic in chicken drippings until tender. Add corn and chiles. Stir well to combine. Add canned tomatoes, saute 1 minute.

Pull chicken breasts apart by hand into shredded strips. Add shredded chicken to saute pan, combine with vegetables. Dust the mixture with flour to help set.

Microwave tortillas on high for 30 seconds. This softens them and makes them more pliable. Coat the bottom of 2 (13 by 9-inch) pans with a ladle of enchilada sauce. Using a large shallow bowl, dip each tortilla in enchilada sauce to lightly coat. Spoon 1/4 cup chicken mixture in each tortilla. Fold over filling, place 8 enchiladas in each pan with seam side down. Top with remaining enchilada sauce and cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated 350 degree F oven until cheese melts. Garnish with cilantro, scallion, sour cream and chopped tomatoes before serving. Serve with Spanish rice and beans.

(Courtesy of Tyler Florence)

Roast Pork & Butternut Squash - 4 stars

2009-02-04T13:26:00.000-08:00

this tasted much better than it looks in the picture, i promise. :)

this was a frustrating meal, but it was almost worth it. it was also part of a week of EXTREMELY frustrating meals - by wednesday, i said that i hate cooking and food and didn't want anything else to do with it for awhile. :) every meal i made last week took at least a half hour longer than i expected, which meant i wasn't eating until well after 8 o'clock. on week nights, that's just too late for me.

the preparation of this meal wasn't difficult at all though. i had a big pork butt roast that had been on sale at uwajimaya, so i just rubbed a dry bengal masala spice rub all over the outside of it. that rub is made with garam masala (which is a mixture of cinnamon, cumin, coriander, black pepper, cloves, cardamom) brown sugar, kosher salt, granulated garlic, dried chives, smoked paprika, chipotle. it's by tom douglas, part of a group of rubs called Rub with Love. i would highly recommend trying any of them if you find them at the grocery store. they are worth the cost.

i seared the roast on all sides in a heavy skillet, and then popped it in the oven. i'm not sure why i thought it would only need to roast for 30 minutes (i think it was a four or five pound roast!), but it took well over an hour. during this time, i made my spinach salad, ate it, and also roasted some wedges of peeled butternut squash with a bit of olive oil, fresh cracked black pepper and sea salt.

the pork roast came out really well. it was moist and rich in flavor, and the rub had carmelized on the outside of it. i LOVE butternut squash, and the simplicity of the way that i cooked it really allowed it to shine.

all in all - great, simple meal to have, but definitely takes over an hour for cooking time. i will remember this next time i'm dumb enough to think i can cook a 4-5 lb roast in 30 minutes. :)

Mexican Tortilla Soup - 3 stars

2009-02-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

i made this soup for the first time on a sunday, about a week and a half ago. i've been craving this for awhile - i haven't ordered it from a restaurant, because i'm wary of what dairy might be lurking in the soup base, so i finally took the time to make it from scratch.

i started by making the chicken broth myself. it looked so good! i put the chicken in the stock pot, added carrot, celery, onion, turnip, garlic, fresh thyme, and bay leaves. i filled the water just to the top of the chicken and let it simmer for a couple hours. but... it was really bland and watery when it was done! every article i've ever read has raved about the flavors of homemade chicken broth, and they've claimed that once you make it, you'll never want to go back to store-bought. i didn't find this to be the case AT ALL. i'll have to research this more before i make chicken broth again.

the good thing about making the chicken broth is that there was tons of cooked, shredded chicken at my disposal. i used some in this meal, and the rest to make enchiladas (i'll write about those later).

anyway - to make the tortilla soup base, i sauteed onion, garlic, jalapeno and fresh tomato together for 15 minutes, added the chicken broth and simmered for another 20 minutes. when i sampled the chicken broth and realized it was flavorless, i decided that this soup was going to be flavorless as well if i didn't add something extra, beyond what's listed above, to the pot. at this point, i couldn't tell you what i dumped in there. cumin, chile powder, cayenne pepper, oregano, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder? who knows. i kept adding different spices until it was close to something palatable.

so while my soup base simmered, i fried up the corn tortilla strips to go on top of the soup. these were the best part of the whole meal, in my opinion. :-) i cut corn tortillas into strips, fried them in oil, and drained them on papertowels. while they were still hot, i sprinkled some emeril's essence that i had mixed up a couple weeks ago over them. mmmmmmm. yummmy. i snacked on them quite a bit. :-)

once everything was ready, i ladled the soup base into my bowl, added the shredded chicken to the bowl, and topped it with fresh avocado, cilantro, sour cream (soy for me!), and the fried tortilla strips.

it was a solid meal! it was filling, fairly tasty, had a nice kick to it without being too spicy... but i just wasn't a fan of the soup base part of it. i think i put too many dried herbs in it (resulting in an almost gritty texture from all the herbs), and ended up overcompensating for the initial lack of flavor. i'd try the whole thing all over again, but using a different chicken stock and soup base recipe. :)

oh, and we had spinach salad with sliced strawberries, pineapple, pomegranate and white onion on the side. the salad was fantastic.

Garlic Beef with Capsicum (Red Bell Pepper) - 3 stars

2009-01-21T21:20:00.000-08:00

i made this for dinner last night out of my wok cookbook. (it's actually called The Essential Wok Cookbook - it's a fantastically authentic southeast asian and chinese cookbook.)

it was a really easy stirfry - i marinated the beef in some chinese rice wine, garlic, and soy sauce for ~ 15 minutes. meanwhile, i prepared the rest of the stirfry. the key to making a good stirfry is to have all your stirfry ingredients prepped before starting the stirfry. if you don't do this, your stirfry will end up an abysmal soggy failure.

i sauteed the red bell pepper first, removed it from the wok, and then sauteed the beef in batches and removed from the wok. i made the garlic sauce in the bottom using a fantastic amount of fresh chopped garlic, some chicken broth, chili pepper oil, chili garlic sauce and oyster sauce. oh, and some cornflour to thicken it. i returned the beef and pepper to the wok and tossed until heated through and mixed well.

this stirfry was saucier than some i've made lately, which was great. if there's not enough sauce in the stirfry, the rice it's served over tastes too dry. when i first tasted the sauce out of the pan, it seemed really good... but when i actually sat down to eat a few minutes later, it just wasn't all that flavorful. it had a good spice from the chili oil & chili garlic sauce, but other than that, it was bland. i had to add soy sauce to it to make it more palatable. a good stirfry should not require the addition of soy sauce in your bowl - the stirfry itself should be full of fresh, potent flavors all by itself.

next time, i'd modify the garlic sauce to improve the flavor. :)

Redefining Breakfast: Beef Taco Omelette & Chicken Quesadilla - 4 stars

2009-01-21T08:12:00.000-08:00

yes, you read that correctly - beef taco omelette! it's on the right - i made it for tony. he said it was really, really good, but the meat was from the overly spicy batch of beef taco meat, so he wasn't able to finish it. :-( always a sad occasion. and, the pepper grinder sort of fell apart when he was using it, and a bunch of whole peppercorns dumped out onto his sour cream! sad. i've since learned how to tighten the grinder so that it has a finer grind and doesn't fall apart. :-)

i had some leftover grilled chicken in the fridge, and my tummy wasn't up for the spice of the beef taco meat, so i thought hey, why not have a quesadilla for breakfast? it was really good! just grilled chicken and mozzarella - i cooked in the oven wrapped in foil for awhile. i topped it with fresh cilantro, sour cream, and some pico de gallo. perfect.

French Onion Soup - 4 stars

2009-01-21T08:03:00.000-08:00

i was so happy to eat this dish. soooooo happy. i haven't had french onion soup in ten years or so - i've never made it, and i've never come across any non-dairy french onion soup topped with soy cheese in a restaurant. :-) it took me a bit to find a recipe that didn't call for an incredible amount of butter in the soup base, but i did... of all chefs, it was paula deen's (the queen of fatty buttery foods) recipe! she uses olive oil in place of butter.

(i could use a recipe that called for butter and substitute margarine instead, but tony is sensitive to "fake tasting" butter, so i try to avoid recipes that call for huge quantities of butter. i'm always afraid he'll taste the margarine and not like it. then there'd be too much food left for me to eat. :) )

the only issue i had with the recipe is that it didn't state what the total weight (or even what the size) of the onions should be. the soup base was too onion-y for me - not in flavor, but the proportion of onion to broth was off. i used medium sized (~3" in diameter) onions - if you use those, use only 5 or 6, not 8. next time, i'll use less onion, which might make the recipe a five star.

this was easy to make - i sauteed the sliced onions for awhile, added a bit of flour, sauteed more, added broth, wine, thyme and bay leaf, and simmered for awhile. when it was ready, i scooped the broth into a bowl, topped it with thick toasted slices of french bread, and the cheese slices. i broiled it on high for a couple minutes to melt the cheese. YUM!

the picture above is tony's dish - it was topped with gruyere, which i believe propelled it to five stars for him. i'm not sure what's on top of the cheese in the picture - maybe cracked black pepper? he grated his cheese - i sliced mine in thin slices so it could overlap the edges of the baking dish.

i have a feeling that there are some richer, more decadent recipes for french onion soup out there... now that i've made it once, i'll research more before i make it again.

French Onion Soup

Prep Time:: 30 min
Cook Time:: 45 min

Level:: Easy

Serves:: 4 to 6 bowls of soup

8 onions, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
8 cups beef stock
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper
1 loaf French bread
2 cups grated Gruyere

Saute onions and garlic in oil over low heat until tender and golden yellow. Sprinkle flour over onions, cook a few minutes more, browning the flour well. Add stock and wine and bring to a boil, add thyme and bay leaf. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer gently for 20 minutes or so. Add salt and pepper, to taste. Meanwhile, slice French bread into 3/4-inch slices and butter both sides. Toast slices on griddle until golden brown. Ladle soup into an ovenproof bowl, add toasted bread and cover with cheese. Place ovenproof bowl on a baking sheet lined with tin foil. Bake at 350 degrees F or 5 minutes under a hot broiler.

Roasted Chicken Legs with Potatoes and Kale - 5 stars

2009-01-21T07:59:00.000-08:00

i was so excited about this dish that i forgot to take a picture of the finished product. hahaha. oops. the picture above is from before it went in the oven.

i do wish i had a higher rating than 5 stars though. this is the BEST dish i've made recently, and there have been a lot of good ones. when i compare the effort involved to the flavor produced, it makes it even better!

the recipe also made a HUGE meal. i told tony that someday when we have game day again, i'll have to make this. it can feed a lot of people. i *could* double the recipe for game day since we do tend to eat a lot, but i don't think i'd have anything to cook it in if i did. the skillet in the left of the picture is a 14" wide 4" high skillet - originally, i thought everything would fit fine in there. it did, until i added the kale. 1 1/2 lbs (3 large bunches) of kale is a LOT.

i tossed the kale together with 1 1/2 lbs sliced yukon gold potatoes, 1 sliced yellow onion and a bit of olive oil. i didn't have whole chicken legs, just a mixture of thighs and drumsticks. i put them on top of the kale mixture, sprinkled paprika, salt and fresh ground pepper on top, covered the pans with foil and put them in the oven for 20 minutes. i removed the foil and cooked for another 35 to 40 minutes.

about the cooking temp and time... the recipe called for roasting in the top third of the oven at 450 degrees for the entire time (20 min covered, 30 min uncovered). about 10 minutes into the uncovered cooking time, the kale started burning. no one likes burnt kale! i moved the pans to the center of the oven and reduced the temp to 425. it took ~ 7 minutes longer this way, but it came out perfectly.

the kale had this crispy, but melt-in-your-mouth texture. the closest thing i can think of that it reminded me of is phyllo dough, the way it's so light and flaky and a bit crispy, but still melts in your mouth? ooooh. oh yum. the juices from the chicken dripped down over vegetables and gave them such a rich, decadent flavor. i was in heaven. i ate two servings. i couldn't stop. it was so good! i'll be enjoying a nice long run after work today to make up for it. :-)

please, try this dish sometime. even the crappiest cook is guaranteed to be successful with it. :-)

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds tender, young kale, stems and inner ribs removed
1 1/2 pounds medium Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
8 whole chicken legs (about 10 ounces each)
1 teaspoon paprika
Lemon wedges, for serving

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450°. In a very large roasting pan, toss the kale, potatoes and onion with the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and spread in an even layer.
Set the chicken on a cutting board, skin side down. Slice halfway through the joint between the drumsticks and thighs. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with the paprika and set on top of the vegetables.
Cover the pan with foil. Roast the chicken in the upper third of the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and roast for 30 minutes longer, until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender. Transfer the chicken to plates and spoon the vegetables alongside. Serve with lemon wedges.

Indonesian Beef Curry with Coconut Rice - 5 stars

2009-01-21T07:57:00.000-08:00

before i start talking about this fabulous dish, i'd like to mention that i'm making progress with improving my pictures. :-) perhaps not the layout of the pictures, because, well, i'm just not talented at photography. at all. i've really struggled with the quality of the pictures though, and i believe i've discovered why. going forward, *hopefully* the pictures will be of higher quality. :)

this is a lovely bowl of indonesian beef curry over coconut rice, with a salad to the right. my salads this week contain lots of kiwi - yum!

i was a little intimidated by this recipe because the curry is made from scratch, and when i've done that in the past, it's turned into a project on occasion. i'm not a fan of big projects on weekday evenings. but... it was really easy! i also don't like that some curries are really heavy because of all the coconut milk - this is a broth based one.

despite the fact that i missed a couple steps and forgot to buy an ingredient, this dish came out to be quite fantastic. to make it, i thin sliced and browned the beef in batches (london broil top round steak) in a large heavy duty skillet. i removed the beef from the skillet, and sauteed together fresh sliced shallots, garlic, and serrano chilies with some jarred ginger. i was supposed to use fresh, but ... i forgot to buy it! oops. after cooking for a bit, i added the indonesian spice mixture, which was a combo of cumin, cloves, cardamom pods, and a couple other things. i put the beef back into the pan, added some chicken broth, and let it simmer, covered, for about a half hour, then uncovered for another 10 minutes til it thickened. i was supposed to put a cinnamon stick in while it simmered, but i forgot. i found it sitting on the counter when i was done with the meal. :) ooops! i was also supposed to stir in fresh lime juice before serving... forgot that as well! i squeezed fresh lime juice over the top instead.

i had this over basmati rice steamed in coconut milk & water. the dish had a decent spice to it - not overpowering in the slightest, and the coconut milk in the rice tamed it well. i'm not very familiar with indonesian cuisine, so i'm not sure how authentic the recipe is. i'd like to experiment with indonesian food a bit, because if other dishes are as good as this one... it could become a favorite type of cuisine for me.

Indonesian Beef Curry with Coconut Rice

Coconut milk in the rice helps tame the heat from the serrano chiles. For milder curry, seed the serranos.

Curry:
Cooking spray
1 1/2 pounds lean top round, thinly sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots
2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 serrano chiles, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons ground coriander
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 cardamom pods, crushed
1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick
1 cup organic vegetable broth (such as Swanson Certified Organic)
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Rice:
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup uncooked basmati rice
1 cup light coconut milk
1/4 teaspoon salt

To prepare curry, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Coat the pan with cooking spray. Place half of the beef in skillet; cook 1 minute on each side or until browned. Remove the beef from pan. Keep warm. Repeat process with the remaining beef.

Lower heat to medium; add oil to pan. Add shallots, ginger, garlic, and chiles; cook 4 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in coriander and next 6 ingredients (through cinnamon); cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Return beef to pan. Add broth; bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 35 minutes or until beef is tender. Uncover and cook 10 minutes or until sauce thickens. Discard cinnamon stick; stir in juice.

To prepare rice, bring 1 1/4 cups water and remaining ingredients to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 18 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat. Let stand, covered, 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Place 2/3 cup rice onto each of 6 plates; top each serving with 1/2 cup curry.

Yield: 6 servings

CALORIES 280 (30% from fat); FAT 9.4g (sat 3.4g,mono 3.4g,poly 1.2g); IRON 3.1mg; CHOLESTEROL 64mg; CALCIUM 26mg; CARBOHYDRATE 18.6g; SODIUM 536mg; PROTEIN 27.9g; FIBER 1g

Cooking Light, MAY 2007

Korean-Style Short Rib Soup - 1 star :-(

2009-01-19T18:16:00.001-08:00

my parents gave me a new slow cooker for christmas. i've wanted one for awhile - when i used to watch food network shows, i saw all these fabulous meals that were cooked in slow cookers! they looked so good, and i was dying to try them. also, if i find easy, good slow cooker recipes, that means tony can assemble them when he gets up in the morning, and i don't have to worry about making the dinner at night! :-)

this was the first dish i made in the slow cooker. it was awful. awful awful awful awful. to make it, i put ~ 6 lbs of short ribs in with some chicken broth, sugar, soy sauce, fresh ginger, sambal oelek (chili paste), sesame oil, fresh garlic and green onions. sounds really good, right?

perhaps i used the wrong meat. this is totally possible! the meat did become extremely tender, but there was so much fat in the ribs that i used that there ended up being more congealed fat than tender meat in my "soup."

also, the bones turned into this soft, pliable rubber-like texture. they looked so disgusting - the memory of them turns my stomach.

and, if i ignore both the congealed fat and the gushy bones, there was no flavor in the broth! i had to dump a bunch of soy sauce in to make it barely palatable.

suffice it to say, this was a total failure. tony has since made two more slow cooker dishes - beef tacos and guiness beef stew. the tacos were ok - they were a bit too spicy though, so tony and i both ended up with upset stomachs. the beef stew was awesome. it had an authentic irish taste to it, and it was definitely the best beef stew i've ever had. :-) i definitely will keep experimenting with the slow cooker. i know there are some more good dishes out there.

Bagels with Smoked Steelhead + Dill + Cream Cheese - 5 stars

2009-01-19T18:14:00.000-08:00

this is one of my all time favorite breakfasts! SO easy to make, but it always feels really indulgent and satisfying.

for this batch, i bought some fresh smoked steelhead from the town & country grocery store on bainbridge island by my work. i have to be honest - i just researched on wikipedia to figure out exactly what steelhead is! when i bought it, i thought it might be some type of salmon. it was pink, you know, like salmon. :)

anyway, come to found out, it's the ocean-dwelling version of rainbow trout! i had no idea. i ate lots of trout when i was a kid, but i haven't really had much as an adult. steelhead is pinker than trout - like salmon - and tends to be more flavorful (according to wikipedia, at least - i can't personally attest to this, since it's been too long since i've had rainbow trout). compared to salmon, i thought it had a sweeter taste - though that could be attributed to the way it was smoked. whatever it was that made it so good, however, made this the best "smoked salmon" bagel breakfast i've made.

i used thomas' NY style everything bagels - toasted them, smothered cream cheese on each half (soy "it's better than cream cheese!" for me, regular plain cream cheese for tony), put a bunch of fresh dill on them, and topped them with the smoked steelhead. YUMMY! we had awesome bloody mary's with them as well - if you can ever get your hands on Stirrings Bloody Mary Mix, buy it. spend the money on it. it's super, super expensive, but was better than any mix i've ever had or made. YUM!

Shrimp (and Steak!) Caesar Salad - 5 stars!

2009-01-16T08:24:00.000-08:00

note to reader: beware. this is a very long post. it also exposes my OCD compulsions that i occasionally have with cooking. :-)

i absolutely love caesar salad. i consider it to be an indulgence, because there's nothing overly nutritional about it. specially since i normally like to put a lot of bacon and croutons in my caesar salad.

it took me a long time to figure out the right way to make caesar dressing. i have never found a store bought caesar dressing that doesn't have dairy in it. this surprises me because a truly authentic caesar dressing doesn't require parmesan cheese to thicken it; it's thickened by egg yolk, primarily. many recipes will call for mayonnaise instead of egg yolk for health safety reasons, but it just doesn't taste the same if you use mayo. i have finally mastered a caesar dressing recipe that rivals high end restaurant caesar salads. sounds a bit egotistical, but it's been years, like eight years, in the making to perfect my caesar dressing. :-)

my first visit to el gaucho in belltown enlightened me on how to make a real caesar dressing. they offer table-side caesar salad there, meaning they make the dressing from scratch at your table. there's a particular set of ingredients that you add in a very particular way, grinding the ingredients into a paste as you add each one. after you make the dressing, you toss it with the romaine lettuce and parmesan in a large bowl. this meant that i was able to have our server pull my portion of the salad out of his mixing bowl after he tossed it with the dressing, but before adding the parmesan cheese for the person i was dining with.

after this visit, i knew what ingredients to look for in a recipe, and i found the recipe below. connoisseurs claim that you must use a wooden salad bowl to grind the dressing ingredients in. i love my wooden salad bowl, and i have no desire to mutilate the bottom of it by grinding a dressing into it. it's also an awkward shape to use, so i just use a medium glass bowl. metal would be a no no, because it will react with the lemon juice in the recipe.

the best caesar dressing requires serious attention to minute details. if you pay attention to these details, you will have fancy steakhouse worthy caesar salad, rather than ok homemade caesar dressing.

the trickiest part of the dressing is creating the garlic paste, which is the base of your dressing. i have found the best way to do this is to chop up the garlic cloves (use four large cloves per batch), and then grind a healthy amount of sea salt and pepper over the chopped pile of garlic on your cutting board. i let the garlic sit for a couple minutes after grinding the sea salt over it, because the salt will cause the garlic to begin to release its garlicky juices, making it easier to create a paste out of it. using the side of my large chopping knife, i mush the garlic across the cutting board, gather it up on the other side of the cutting board, and mush it back across the cutting board. kind of hard to describe, so the next time i make caesar, i'll take a video if i remember to. once you have the technique down, it's fairly easy. do this over and over and over until the garlic is more of a paste consistency, less of a chunky consistency.

scoop your garlic paste up and put it in your medium glass bowl. add the following ingredients, one at a time, making sure to grind them thoroughly into the previous ingredients.

2 anchovies (or 1 teaspoon anchovy paste - i ALWAYS just use the paste. whole anchovies make me gag; i just can't help it)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (the real stuff, not the dried stuff)
1 egg yolk, coddled
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

whisk approximately a quarter cup of high quality olive oil into the paste. i taste it at this point to see if it needs more lemon juice, or more olive oil. adjust accordingly.

this amount of dressing works well for one head of romaine. for caesar salad, i always chop my romaine leaves into 1/2" strips, rather than tearing them. the dressing clings to the evenly sized lettuce pieces much better.

toss the dressing with the lettuce in a large bowl, then add fresh grated parmesan or parmigiano-reggiano or whatever kind of cheese you think would be best. i can't help you there. :-)

the best croutons to add are marcy's slightly spiced calabrese croutons. they're hard to find, and can be a bit more expensive than regular croutons, but they're worth every penny. here's what the bag looks like:

i had steak left from the ranch bruschetta salad, so i grilled it and added to this caesar. i also had some jumbo cooked prawns. next time, i'd leave the steak out and just have the shrimp, or vice versa. using both steak and shrimp was a bit too much and overpowered the salad.

Special notes:

- my parents gave me a high end extra virgin olive oil for christmas, which i used to make this particular caesar batch. it made a HUGE difference to use a very high quality olive oil. there are a lot of dishes that a basic extra virgin olive oil works just as well in, but i would recommend splurging on a small, expensive olive oil if you are going to make this dressing.

- if you're not having the caesar as your main course but are instead having it as a starter salad, add bacon. high quality, thick sliced pepper bacon compliments this dressing the best. i also find that it is best to fry the bacon in whole strips, and to cut it into small pieces after it is cooked and cooled (rather than cutting into small pieces and then frying it). it seems to have a better crisp, crumbly texture to it this way.

Sesame Pork Stirfry - 4 stars

2009-01-16T08:23:00.001-08:00

i had some pork tenderloin left over from the pork chops + granny smith apples meal, so i searched through my wok cookbook to see what i could use it in. lo and behold, there was a sesame pork stirfry calling for the exact amount of tenderloin that i had.

it was really easy, and extremely delectable. i made a sauce out of hoisin and teriyaki sauces, added some sesame oil and cornstarch. i stirfried the sliced pork tenderloin in batches first and removed it from the pan. i then stirfried sliced green onion, chopped garlic and fresh ginger for a minute. i added some shredded carrots and sliced snake beans to the wok, and stirfried for a few minutes. i added the sauce and the pork back to the wok, and then stirred in a couple tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds. i had it over steamed jasmine rice with baby romaine salad on the side (instead of spinach, for once! :) ). fantastic and completely satisfying!

Sesame Pork

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Total cooking time: 20 minutes

2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp teriyaki sauce
2 tsp cornflour or cornstarch
1/4 c peanut oil
1 1/4 lb pork loin fillet, thinly sliced across the grain
2 tsp sesame oil
8 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
2 carrots, julienned
6 1/2 oz snake beans, sliced
2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

1. to make the stir-fry sauce, combine the hoisin and teriyaki sauces, cornflour and 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl. set aside until needed.

2. heat a wok to hot, add 1 tablespoon peanut oil and swirl. add half the pork and stir-fry for 3 minutes, or until browned. Remove. Repeat.

3. heat the remaining peanut oil and the sesame oil in the work. add the spring onion, garlic and ginger, and stir-fry for 1 minute.

4. add the carrot and beans, and stir-fry for 3 minutes, or until almost cooked. return the pork to the wok, add the stir-fry sauce and stir until the sauce thickens and everything is combined, the meat is tender and the vegetables are just cooked. toss in the sesame seeds, then serve with steamed rice.

Ranch Steak Bruschetta Salad - 5 stars

2009-01-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

i LOVED this meal. i was really excited when i came across the recipe, because i love bruschetta, i love salad, i love steak, and i love when i get to indulge in my non-dairy ranch dressing (it's kind of fatty - 80 of the 90 calories per serving are from fat! i try not to buy it too much because if i have it in the house, i can't resist it).

the only issue i had with this recipe is that i was still starving afterward. i was surprised by that because it's a heavier salad, and it includes carbs. i think it just needed more fiber - either in the form of different vegetables or some garbanzo beans or something.

it was really easy to make, and as i ate it, the flavors of it continually surprised me.

i used some of the leftover beef tenderloin from christmas in this dish. i cut it into thick steaks, and rubbed the steaks with a mixture of ground cumin, ground coffee, ancho chili powder and ground black pepper. i grilled them in a grill pan on the stove (the bbq has been acting up, and i didn't want to take the time to see if it was working, or if i could fix it :) ).

while they were grilling, i made a mixture of sliced cherry tomatoes, chopped shallots, fresh basil, roasted bell peppers and fresh lemon juice. i also mixed the ranch dressing (in separate bowls, soy in one, regular ranch in the other :) ) with some horseradish.

after the steaks were done, i grilled slices of baguette in the grill pan. to assemble the salads, i made a bed of baby romaine, put the baguette slices on top of the lettuce, added the steak (sliced across the grain after resting for five minutes or so), and put the tomato basil mixture on top of that. i poured the ranch over it, and added some freshly ground black pepper.

YUM!

Note: the recipe did call for arugula, but the grocery store i was at didn't carry it. i hope it's available next time i make this - it would hold up in the salad better than baby romaine.

Ranch Steak Bruschetta Salad

Salad dressing:
6 tablespoons ranch dressing
1 1/2 tablespoons prepared horseradish

Steaks:
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons ground coffee
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons ancho chile powder
4 (4-ounce) beef tenderloin steaks, trimmed (1 inch thick)
Cooking spray

Remaining ingredients:
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup chopped bottled roasted red bell peppers
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
6 cups loosely packed arugula
12 (1-ounce) slices French bread, toasted

1. To prepare salad dressing, combine ranch dressing and horseradish in a small bowl; cover and chill.

2. To prepare steaks, combine black pepper, ground coffee, ground cumin, and ancho chile powder. Rub both sides of steaks with pepper mixture, and let stand 10 minutes.

3. Heat a nonstick grill pan over medium heat. Coat steaks with cooking spray. Add steaks to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Remove steaks from pan; let stand 7 minutes.

4. Combine shallots, fresh basil, bell peppers, juice, and tomatoes in a small bowl; toss well.

5. Arrange 1 cup arugula on each of 6 serving plates, and top each serving with 2 toast slices. Cut each steak diagonally across grain into thin slices. Divide steak slices evenly among the toast slices; top each serving with about 2 tablespoons tomato mixture. Drizzle each serving with about 1 tablespoon of the salad dressing. Serve immediately.

Yield: 6 servings

(Courtesy of Cooking Light)

Fresh Cranberry Cosmo - 4 stars

2009-01-16T08:13:00.000-08:00

i work in the frozen fruit industry (we handle frozen berries, primarily), and we often get samples of frozen berries. i currently have a ton of frozen cranberries & blueberries in the freezer, and i'm trying to come up with good ideas for them. the first thing that always comes to my mind when i think of how to use frozen fruit is.... drinks! :-)

so i found a recipe for making a fresh cranberry granita, and then using it to make cosmopolitan martinis. the fresh cranberry granita takes the place of ice, cranberry juice and triple sec in the cosmo recipe. the granita was much easier to make than i thought it would be.

first, i simmered cranberries with water and sugar until the cranberries began to pop.

then i dumped everything from the pot into the blender and blended it for one minute. be sure to leave the plastic piece out of the top of the blender, and just cover it with a kitchen towel or pot holder instead (it will explode otherwise - fun to watch, not fun to clean up). :-)

i poured the blended mixture through a metal sieve into a glass baking dish (i was supposed to use a metal baking dish, but i don't own any), added some lime zest, stirred it around, and put it in the freezer until frozen (it's supposed to take around 6 hours).

after it seemed frozen, i scraped it with a fork to get the granita texture of shaved ice, and then made my cosmopolitan with it.

i couldn't get it to make that shaved ice texture very well though. i don't know if that had to do with using a glass dish instead of metal... or it might have been that i was too excited to wait, and it wasn't totally frozen when i scraped it with the fork. :-) i think it was only about three or four hours at that point. since it was going into a drink rather than being served as a dessert, i decided i didn't care how pretty it looked.

what a wonderful cosmo it made! it was a bit frothy, which is a first for any cosmo that i've ever made, with a perfect combo of sweet and tart. i could really taste the fresh cranberry (rather than processed cranberry juice). i didn't take a picture of the finished beverage, but i have some of the granita left, so i'll take a picture next time i make a cosmo. :-)

Ingredients

1-ounce vodka
2 1/2 ounces Cranberry Granita, recipe follows
1/2-ounce freshly squeezed lime juice

Directions

Place all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shake until the granita melts completely. Pour into a martini glass and serve immediately.

Cranberry Granita:

2 cups water
5 1/2 ounces cranberries, approximately 1 1/2 cups, washed and sorted
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon lime zest

Place the water, cranberries and sugar into a small saucepan, set over medium-high heat and simmer until the berries begin to pop, approximately 7 minutes. Remove from the heat. Puree with a stick blender, blender or food processor, for 1 minute. Pass the mixture through a fine mesh strainer directly into a metal 13 by 9-inch pan. Do not press on the skins. Simply allow the juice to drip through the strainer. Add the zest and stir to combine. Place in the freezer until set, at least 6 hours and up to overnight. Once frozen, scrape the mixture with a fork to create a shaved ice texture. Serve immediately.

(i apologize - i cannot remember where i found this recipe - cocktailtimes.com, maybe?)

Grilled Chicken Sandwich + Spinach Salad - 4 stars

2009-01-16T08:09:00.000-08:00

grilled sandwiches are such a great weeknight meal for me to make. there are so many different ways i can make them, and they are ALWAYS good. :-)

for these, i made a dry spice rub called emeril's creole seasoning (aka emeril's essence). it's a spice mixture that's used in a lot of emeril lagasse's recipes. although it's not overly spicy, it does have a bit of a kick to it. it's also a really good way to use up spices that might be getting old.... which i seem to have a lot of. :-)

i rubbed the spice mixture on chicken breasts and cooked them in a pan over medium high heat until they were done. i sliced them into thinner cuts, and layered them on some onion buns with mayo, dijon, onion, tomato, cheese (soy for me!), and pepperoncinis. to "grill" them, i melted a bit of butter in the frying pan, put the sandwich in there, and put a heavy lid on top of it to press the sandwich together and get it good and browned on the outside. mmmmmm.....

had a spinach salad on the side with blueberries, green onion and cucumber. easy and very yum!

Emeril's Creole Seasoning (courtesy of Food Network):

Ingredients

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme

Directions

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.

Pork Chops with Granny Smith Apples - 4 stars

2009-01-16T08:07:00.000-08:00

this recipe was one of many that i ripped out a of magazine years ago, stuffed in a file to organize (someday! :) ), and never actually tried. pork chops are one of tony's favorite foods, and i never make them for some reason. they're so good too!

to make these, i sliced a pork tenderloin into ~ 1" thick slices. i dipped each in a bit of flour that was mixed with some cumin, salt & pepper. i let those sit for a few minutes while i pan seared granny smith apple halves in olive oil with salt and pepper. once those were done, i removed them from the pan and seared the pork chops in a bit more olive oil. i then removed those from the pan when they were done, and i deglazed the pan with a bit of chicken broth and champagne vinegar to make a sauce. it was so simple. the pork chops were tender and yummy, and the sweet crispness of the granny smith apples complimented them well. i made a spinach salad with fresh herbs, green onions, tomato and dried cranberry to go with the meal.

Pork Chops with Granny Smith Apples

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 6-ounce boneless pork loin chops, or one 1 ½-to 2-pound pork tenderloin
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 small Granny Smith apples, halved
1/4 cup fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons champagne or white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons coarse grain mustard

Mix together the flour, cumin, salt, and pepper on a large plate. Lightly coat each piece of pork with the flour mixture; set aside.

Heat the vegetable oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the apple halves with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook the apples cut-side down about 5 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the skillet, cover, and set aside.

Place the pork in the skillet, sprinkle with the parsley, and cook until the meat is golden brown and crispy, 4 to 5 minutes per side. While the pork is cooking, whisk together the broth and vinegar. Remove the pork from the skillet and set aside.

Pour the broth mixture into the skillet, stirring and scraping up any browned bits. Bring to a boil and cook until slightly thickened. Divide the pork among 4 plates and pour some pan sauce over each. Before serving, place an apple half and a dab of mustard on each plate.

Yield: Makes 4 servings

Christmas Day - 5 stars

2009-01-12T13:50:00.000-08:00

i'd like to start this post out by saying that i can't believe i didn't take pictures of our christmas dinner! what on earth?? i think the lemon drops that tony made must have been too strong. :-)

tony and i stayed home for christmas, and my parents came over to spend christmas day with us. we opened presents, and then proceeded to eat and drink. a lot. it was a blast. we also played a game called ticket to ride, the card game. it's fairly easy to pick up, but requires you to grasp a decent amount of strategy in order to win. my dad, who had never played before and grumbled about how poorly he was doing throughout the game, won. of course. he always wins. :)

my parents gave tony & i a new dish set for christmas. you may have noticed that the foul pastel-toned striped plates are no longer in the photographs, and we're using more rustic, ceramic square plates instead. we LOVE them. anyway, i did take pictures of the table setting, below. this was the first christmas dinner that i've hosted.

i made an antipasto platter for the appetizer. tony and i went to delaurenti's (at the pike place market) on christmas eve and basically ordered one of everything from their deli. it was FANTASTIC (and easy). tony made us lemon drop martinis to have with our antipasto platter. YUM!

for dinner, i made a large caesar salad (with bacon!) to start. for the main course, i made pancetta and gruyere stuffed potatoes (soy cheese in mine) and lobster stuffed beef tenderloin. i purchased this gigantic 8 lb tenderloin from costco for it - i have never purchased that much meat (or spent that amount of money on one cut of meat!) before. we only used 3 lbs of it - the other five went in the freezer. i did have intentions to serve roasted asparagus with it, but we decided that there would be more than enough food without it. i also was supposed to make a bearnaise sauce to go with the tenderloin, but in the interest of time (it was close to nine o'clock, i believe, before we ate christmas dinner!), i ended up skipping it.

everything was wonderful. the food, the company, the drinks... thank goodness my mom was there when i butterflied (for the first time) the tenderloin, stuffed it and tied it with twine. she did the majority of it for me, so now when i attempt it again, i'll know how to do it. i would have just sliced the tenderloin in half lengthwise (not cutting all the way through to other side though), but to butterfly it, she cut it into thirds (sort of) lengthwise. i won't bore you with too many details of this - mostly because i can't regurgitate them well yet. :-)

for dessert, my mom brought a chocolate torte with a blackberry coulis. mmmmmm, it was wonderful, rich, decadent, everything a chocolate torte is supposed to be.

what a wonderful, special christmas. :-)

(p.s. - if you would like the stuffed tenderloin recipe, please email me. it's really long, so i decided to leave it out. i'm posting the caesar dressing recipe in a later post, and i didn't have a recipe for the stuffed potatoes.)

Christmas Gingerbread Cookies

2009-01-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

my friend blu is a professional cake decorator. she creates these beautiful, fancy cakes - and it's far beyond my comprehension how she does it. granted, baking isn't something i get very excited about, so i'd rather just admire her work than try to emulate it. :)

anyway, i bake christmas cookies with my mom every year, which we did this year, but blu suggested we have another cookie decorating evening. i was excited about this because mom and i tend to make the same recipes every year - they're really good, and they're our traditional christmas cookies, so it's hard to give any of them up in order to try new ones. so, this was my opportunity to try something new! i've seen (and enjoyed!) blu's christmas cookies from past years, and they are something special. they look super fancy, and taste fantastic.

this year, blu and her friend rebel made gingerbread cookies in a variety of shapes, and brought them down to decorate. she brought royal icing (which i've never worked with) and food coloring. she also brought glitter, which was my favorite part of it all. that sounds odd, i know - but it's food glitter! you use little paint brushes to apply it to the gingerbread - it's easy to apply whatever design you like, and it's totally edible. it doesn't actually have any taste.

i was quite challenged by the application of the royal icing. to ice the cookies, blu made two separate batches of royal icing base - one thick, and one thin. she then separated the batches and created a couple different colors out of each. to apply the icing, you create a thin border around the outside edge of the cookie using the thick icing. you then fill inside the border with the thin icing. after you do that, you can create designs in the icing (which was WAY beyond my capability!).

we started the project by applying the icing, and then blu brought out the glitter. i found myself feeling rather stressed out by the icing application. a steady hand and a lot of patience is required - neither of which i had much of. i think i could enjoy it more outside of the chaos of the holiday season.

i loved the glitter application though. it was really easy to create fun designs, and, well, i love glitter. i'm not ashamed. :-)

these pictures are blurry! in the one below, blu and rebel are mixing the icing, and i'm just watching from the sidelines. with my shot o' vodka.

here blu is showing us how to apply the icing.

below, on the right, are some completed gingerbread cookies. (on the left are date pinwheels, which i made with my mom.)

the gingerbread cookies in this photograph don't have icing, just glitter. the one underneath is a purple present box with polka dots. the one on top is my gingerbread version of tony. :-) yup, that's correct, gingerbread tony is wearing a gold tank top and striped shorts with a green belt. how stylish.

all in all, i had a good time visiting with rebel & blu, and using glitter to decorate the cookies. the icing application, however, was just a bit too ... what's the right word? meticulous or nitpicky are close enough, i guess ... i'd have to be in a very particular mood to try it again. :)

Spiced Chicken Thighs + Asparagus - 4 stars!

2009-01-12T13:39:00.000-08:00

boneless, skinless chicken thigh is my favorite part of the chicken. the meat is far juicier and much more flavorful than the breast, and so long as you buy skinless, the fat content isn't much higher than the breast either!

for this meal, i pan-seared the chicken thighs instead of grilling them (i think the grill ran out of propane?). i prepared a dry rub out of cumin, coriander, turmeric, ginger, red pepper and a little salt and rubbed it all over the meat. i cooked them over medium high for ~ 5 minutes on each side in a non stick pan with a bit of cooking spray. SO easy, and far tastier than you'd expect.

i steamed the asparagus, and tossed it with this fantastic balsamic vinegar that my parents gave me for christmas - it's fig and meyer lemon balsamic vinegar. ooooh, yummy.

i also assembled a spinach salad, as i do for the nearly every meal. this picture is crappy, so i can't tell what i topped the salad with. i'm guessing avocado, tomato, dried cranberry and onion of some sort.

it was such a healthy, flavorful, and light but still satisfying meal!

the recipe that i pulled the spice rub from suggested serving this with a yogurt sauce (to tame the spice) over couscous. since i can't eat dairy, i skipped the yogurt sauce - i don't think the rub is very spicy anyway, so i gave up trying to create a soy version.

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 2 chicken thighs, about 1/4 cup yogurt mixture, and 1/2 cup couscous)

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked couscous
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 pounds)
Cooking spray
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
1 (6-ounce) carton plain fat-free yogurt
Cilantro sprigs (optional)

Preparation

Cook couscous according to package directions, omitting salt and fat.

Combine cumin and next 4 ingredients (through pepper) in a bowl; stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt. Sprinkle spice mixture over chicken. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; cook 6 minutes on each side or until done.

Combine remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, chopped cilantro, garlic, and yogurt in a bowl, stirring well. Serve with chicken and couscous. Garnish with cilantro sprigs, if desired.

Courtesy of cookinglight.com

Beef Leaf (Thai Beef Salad - Yam Neau) - 5 stars!

2009-01-12T13:23:00.000-08:00

tony claims that i've made this dish for him more than any other of my favorite recipes since we started dating a couple years ago. i'm sure it's because it's my favorite meal! :-)

the correct name for this recipe is Yam Neau, or thai beef salad. there are so many different ways you can make thai beef salad - i make mine using grilled top sirloin, sliced cucumber, shallots, jalapeno or thai chile, and garlic, fresh lime juice, fish sauce, fresh mint & cilantro, and a dash of palm sugar. i serve it with steamed jasmine rice and romaine or butter lettuce leaves. i put a bit of the jasmine rice in the center of the lettuce leaf, top it with the beef mixture, and i thoroughly enjoy every last bite of it!

one note about the recipe (i've included it below) - i always have a hard time putting the correct amount of sliced jalapeno or thai pepper in - and i tend to err on the side of too spicy, which is never good! the recipe calls for TEN THAI PEPPERS! i can tolerate an extremely high amount of spice - at the most, i think i used three whole jalapenos (or maybe it was serranos that time) for one batch of this, and it made me cry tears of pain. never, ever use that many peppers. i now resist the urge to put a lot of pepper in, and just start with a single jalapeno. it's normally plenty. :) if i'm feeling wimpy on a certain day, or sharing the dish with people outside of our household, i'll scrape the pith and seeds out of the inside of a pepper, since the pith contains the majority of the capsaicin (what gives peppers their heat).

Ingredients

1-lb decent quality steak, sirloin or other
10 (or more) 'prik kee noo' (fresh hot Thai chili peppers), slice crosswise very thin (or substitute jalapenos or serrano chilies, minced)
2 large cloves garlic, sliced crosswise very thin
1 tbsp sugar
5 tbsp fish sauce
5 tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice
1 head Bibb or Boston; or 1 heart of Romaine lettuce.
12 sprigs fresh mint (optional), remove the leaves and discard the stems
1/2 hot house cucumber or 1 small cucumber (seeds removed), peeled and sliced thin
2 to 3 shallots, sliced crosswise very thin or 1 small red onion, sliced very thin
3 or 4 sprigs cilantro, stems removed

Preparation

Grill or broil the steak until medium-rare. Trim off any fat. Cool and slice thin, into pieces approx. 2 inches across and 1/8 inch thick.

Mix garlic, chiles, fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar in a small bowl. Add the sliced meat and toss with the cucumbers and shallots. Taste and add more fish sauce if desired.

Make a bed of the lettuce on a serving plate. Place the beef on top. Garnish with cilantro. Serves 2 to 3 as an appetizer or as part of a meal.

(Courtesy of templeofthai.com)

there's a silly story about the name of this dish - tony began calling it "beef leaf," because you wrap beef up in a leaf and eat it. we have a little kitty (below) named belili (pronounced beh-lee-lee). when tony said "beef leaf" loudly, belili came running over because "veef leaf" sounded similar enough to her real name, belili. poor little belili is now called beef leaf, or the lazy version - beefy - more often than not. :-)

Chipotle Pork Tacos - 4 stars

2009-01-12T12:38:00.000-08:00

oh, pork soft tacos, how i adore thee. four stars!

i was afraid that my long break from blogging would cause problems, and... it has! it's been too long since i made these, and i don't remember them very well. i'm reviewing the recipe now to jog my memory. :-)

ok. i used pork tenderloin, my favorite cut of pork, to make these. the pork was so tender and flavorful! i sauteed sliced onion, chopped garlic and the sliced tenderloin together for a few minutes. i then simmered that in chicken broth with cider vinegar, dried oregano, cumin, a couple chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce - first covered for ~ 10 minutes, then uncovered for 10 minutes. the flavor was fantastic, the meat tender, but the chicken broth / spice mixture never thickened - it was a bit too watery. if i make it again, i'd thicken that up - though i'm not quite sure how! i'd probably try reducing the quantity of chicken broth and increasing the uncovered portion of the simmer time. other than that, i'd leave it alone!

oh - the recipe did call for a fresh pineapple salsa, which i'd like to try as well (if only there were more hours in the day!). we just had it with cheese (soy for me!), cilantro & salsa, and flour tortillas.

Chipotle Pork Soft Tacos with Pineapple Salsa

Pork, a common taco filling throughout Latin America, takes well to spices. A slightly sweet fruit salsa helps balance the heat. Serve with lime wedges.

Yield

6 servings (serving size: 2 tortillas, 2/3 cup pork mixture, and 1/2 cup salsa)

Ingredients

Salsa:
2 cups minced pineapple
1 cup minced apple
1/4 cup minced shallots
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
Tacos:
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 cup thinly sliced yellow onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin, cut lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
2 chipotle chiles, canned in adobo sauce, chopped (about 2 tablespoons)
12 (6-inch) corn tortillas, warmed

Preparation

To prepare salsa, combine the first 7 ingredients in a medium bowl; stir until well blended. Cover and chill.

To prepare tacos, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion to pan; cook 2 minutes or until tender. Add garlic; cook 30 seconds. Add pork to pan; cook 4 minutes or until pork loses its pink color, stirring occasionally. Stir in broth and next 7 ingredients (through chipotles). Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Uncover and simmer 10 minutes or until liquid is nearly evaporated. Warm tortillas according to package directions. Serve pork mixture with tortillas and salsa.

Nutritional Information

Calories:: 391 (19% from fat)
Fat:: 8.3g (sat 1.8g,mono 3.6g,poly 2g)
Protein:: 29.3g
Carbohydrate:: 50.8g
Fiber:: 6.9g
Cholesterol:: 74mg
Iron:: 3.6mg
Sodium:: 420mg
Calcium:: 161mg

Mark Scarbrough, Cooking Light, MAY 2007

Chicken Biryani - 4 stars

2009-01-12T12:23:00.000-08:00

Four Stars!

mmmmmm.... chicken biryani. this dish was so easy to make! a friend of mine introduced me to the recipe a few years ago, and she always made it in a 9x13 glass dish in the oven. the recipe that i found suggested making it in a large saucepan on the stovetop, which is what i ended up doing.

it was a great dish, with rich flavor. i used a pre-made biryani paste to simplify - basically sauteed everything together, stirred in the rice, and let the whole thing simmer for ~ 20 minutes until the liquids were absorbed. YUMMY!

i didn't have basmati rice though! oops. only arborio (for risotto) and jasmine were in the cupboard. i used the arborio because i was afraid the flavor of the jasmine would hurt the dish... the arborio melted into a creamy texture like it does in a risotto (disappointing, but not surprising! :) ), but the flavor was still phenomenal.

outside of the rice issue, the only other disappointing thing in this dish was the fat & calorie content. i'm not sure what led me to believe that the biryani paste would be low in fat and calories, but it was not in the slightest! :-S i ate a small bowl of it, and had a big salad to round the meal out. :)

perhaps using the sturdier basmati rice, plus a homemade biryani paste (to control the fat & calorie content) would propel this to five stars.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin & Potatoes - 2 stars

2009-01-08T12:03:00.000-08:00

this meal just didn't do a whole lot for me. my goal had been to roast the pork over the vegetables so that the meat juices would drip down onto them and give them a flavor boost. i think the problem was that the pork tenderloin really wasn't fatty enough to give off the juices that i wanted.

to make this, i rubbed a dry chinese 12-spice rub all over the outside of the tenderloin. i tossed together baby red potatoes, whole garlic cloves and hunks of white onion in a little olive oil. i spread that in the bottom of the pan and put the tenderloins over it. here's what it looked like in the oven.

see? it looks good! i was excited for it, and then so disappointed! :)

one of my challenges with cooking larger cuts of meats is figuring out when they're done. i often use a thermometer to help me with this - however, i must not have inserted it properly into the tenderloin here, so the pork registered as being done MUCH too early, and was way undercooked. the onions came out totally soggy, not crisp roasted as i expected (i roasted at 425 degrees F). the potatoes were hard as a rock, and took an additional half hour to finish roasting.

i ended up pan searing my portion of the tenderloin to finish the cooking process, while the potatoes finished cooking. i left the nasty onions in the pan and ate only the potatoes and pork. :) i rounded it out with a salad and steamed green beans - both of which were good.

the best part of the meal was the green apple lambic!!! :-)

1/12 follow up - i read a favorite cookbook of mine over the weekend, and there was a recipe that was similar to what i was attempting with this one. that recipe suggested boiling the baby red potatoes for 15 minutes, then thin slicing them and layering them on the bottom of the baking dish. you can then put your meat (the recipe actually called for salmon steaks - YUM!) over that, and both the potatoes & the meat will be done properly, and the potatoes will absorb the meat juices.

thanksgiving!

2009-01-07T12:25:00.000-08:00

the holiday season made me quite absent from blogging! but, i'm ready to do some catch up now. i am hoping that the time lag won't dull my memories of the meals.

i find the normal thanksgiving fare to be dull. perhaps it's the repetition of it, year after year after year after year of small variations on the same menu, perhaps it's the unappetizing way the hodge podge of food looks on my plate, or perhaps it's something else entirely. to avoid this, i planned a latino-themed menu for 2008. it seemed so far from a traditional thanksgiving that i thought i would actually enjoy the meal. ultimately, i had a fantastic time preparing it, but did not enjoy the actual consumption of it very much. ah well. i'll try again another year! the menu was very good though.

appetizers:
5 star - chipotle meatballs
5 star - mango pomegranate guacamole

main course:
3 star - coconut sweet potato puree
4 star - roasted chayotes with garlic
2 star - chorizo cornbread stuffing
3 star - cranberry salsa with roasted pineapple
2 star - aromatic spiced ham with red currant glaze

dessert:
1 star - pomegranate pear pie
3 star - chocolate hazelnut tart

Chipotle Meatballs (5 star):

these were amazing! a bit greasy, and the combo of meats (ground veal, ground pork & bacon) and spices used made them out of this world. there were four of us eating a quantity that was supposed to be enough for eight, and we gobbled them up extremely fast! Yum!! i hope to find an opportunity to make them again soon.

Mango Pomegranate Guacamole (5 star):

this was also phenomenal. i served them with plain old tortilla chips (the recipe suggested making fried plantain chips - too much work for this particular occasion). when i first found the recipe, i was not sure that the mango + the pomegranate would both go well with the avocado. but they did! the crunch of the pomegranate, with the creaminess of the avocado, combined with the sweet smooth mango, the onions, garlic, etc., was superb. the next time i make guacamole, i want to make this recipe again!

Coconut Sweet Potato Puree (3 star):

(Roasted Chayotes are on the left, Sweet Potato is on the right)

the flavor of this surprised me - it was really, really good. i accidentally used yams instead of sweet potatoes, and i'm not sure what difference that made with it. i haven't differentiated yet between the tastes of sweet potatoes and yams - i've only used yams in my cooking lately. guess it's time for an experiment! :)

i really enjoyed how this tasted, but not how it looked. yams have a strong flavor, which i love, and i also love coconut. the two went together extremely well. i pureed the dish in a food processor though, so of course, it reminded me of baby poo. the texture of it is what gave this dish 3 stars. i'd like to think of a way to capture the flavors of it, without having to puree it. perhaps i will get some real sweet potatoes and make mashed, instead of pureed, potatoes.

Roasted Chayotes with Garlic (4 star):

chayotes are a small, mild green gourd with a sweet taste to them. i realized a couple weeks ago that i actually didn't purchase chayotes when i made this, i purchased some other small, yellowish gourd. oooops! it still tasted phenomenal though. to prepare it, i peeled the skin off the outside of the gourds, sliced them in half lengthwise, scooped the seeds out of the middle and cut them into wedges. there was very little flesh left after peeling and scooping, which made me nervous that they would just disintegrate and burn up in the oven. perhaps if i had used real chayotes, there would have been more flesh left. :)

i spread them out on two baking sheets, tossed them with thin sliced garlic cloves, sea salt and vegetable oil, and roasted them for just under an hour, turning them once. they were crispy and small, but very, very tasty.

Chorizo Cornbread Stuffing (2 star):

i had such high hopes for this dish. it was supposed to be greasy, salty and decadent, as most chorizo dishes are. what a disappointment it was to me! to make it, you bake cornbread, break it into small chunks after it's baked, bake those small chunks some more to dry them out, toss them in a baking dish with the cooked chorizo & other vegetables, and pour chicken broth and whisked egg over it all. it was dry, and didn't have nearly the spicy chorizo flavor i wanted it to have. the cornbread was too crumbly as well. i doubled the amount of chorizo the recipe called for, and it still was not enough. also, i can't use buttermilk in my cornbread, because i don't eat dairy. the non-dairy cornbread recipe that i have really needs to be made a day or two in advance in order to stick together (which i did not do). oops!

this recipe was part of menu that included an adobo turkey with red chile gravy, and i imagine if i had made the gravy, this stuffing would have been much better. i'll make some major modifications to the recipe and try it again!

Cranberry Salsa with Roasted Pineapple (3 star):

(Cranberry on left, Ham on right)

this had good flavor, but it was mushy, hence the three stars. the roasted pineapple sweetened the cranberry enough to make it not tart, and the fresh fruit flavors went together very well. i also roasted chopped onion with the pineapple, and added fresh cilantro to the salsa. it was good, but just didn't do a lot for me.

Aromatic Spiced Ham with Red Currant Glaze (2 star):

i definitely picked the wrong cut of ham for the recipe, or the wrong recipe for the cut of ham. the recipe called for simmering the ham in water and spices and wine with fresh fennel and onion for a few hours. i had a smoked ham, which i really should have just roasted in the oven for an hour or so to heat it up and carmelize the outside. simmering it caused it to get quite dried out. it was not good. after i simmered it, i spread my red currant glaze on it and roasted it at 425f for ~ 10 minutes. this did not help to bring moisture back into the meat. i think the recipe has potential, if i purchased the right cut of ham. and i think the cut of ham had potential, if i had used a different recipe. i'll make a ham again soon - i was really craving it, and that craving did not get satisfied with this meal.

Canned Cranberry (1 star, served at Brian's request)

one of our guests on Thanksgiving requested cranberry from a can. the idea repulsed me, but we all have different tastes, so i kindly obliged. it looks just as disgusting as it tasted to me.

Pomegranate Pear Pie (1 star):

i didn't take any pictures of my pies! how sad, because they both looked beautiful, even though they weren't the best pies in the world.

this pie was such a disappointment! it was utterly flavorless. the pie crust was SO good, but the rest was not. i made my pie dough from scratch this year, and it came out really, really well. very flaky and flavorful. to make the inside of this pie, i made a pomegranate glaze using simmered down brown sugar and pomegranate juice, and tossed it with thin sliced d'anjou pears. sounds great, right? nope - no flavor! i will not make this one again.

Chocolate Hazelnut Tart (3 stars):

this was good. solid! it was a bit too hard though - hard as in, once the chocolate cooled, it became hard to bite through. the flavor was good though - rich dark chocolate combined with hazelnuts. i think it could have used some liqueur to take it to a 4 or 5 star tart though.

all in all, it was a tasty thanksgiving. this is what the final plate looked like:

i'm sure i would have enjoyed it much more if i didn't get a horrific cold that blocked my taste buds. i had a blast cooking for many, many hours though - i'd happily repeat that experience.

Chinese Chicken Salad - 5 stars!

2008-12-03T19:50:00.000-08:00

i am cheating, and bypassing thanksgiving. it'll be a long post, and i'm not in the mood for it now. :)

this is my meal tonight! again, i definitely need to find a more attractive way to photograph my salads. photography is not something i'm good at. any suggestions?

this salad was AMAZING. it was better than i expected. i marinated the chicken breast in some asian sesame 30 minute marinade (yes, i cheated), then grilled it. i did make the dressing from scratch (including fresh minced ginger and garlic), so i figure that makes up for my bottled marinade. i got some chinese cabbage for tony, but i just used plain old romaine in mine. not a cabbage fan.

i topped it with fresh sliced green onion, red bell pepper, shredded carrots, mandarin oranges, and of course, chow mein noodles (out of can - greasy but good!). i also tossed in some fresh cilantro and mint. i believe that's what put this salad far above any other chinese chicken salad i've ever made / eaten. YUM! oh, and i squeezed fresh lime juice over the top. what a difference those three things made! (fresh cilantro, mint and lime juice)

Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing:

¼ c vegetable oil
2 tbls apple cider vinegar
1 ½ tbls soy sauce
2 generous tsp dark sesame oil
1 generous tsp honey
½ garlic clove, minced
¼ tspn minced fresh ginger
1 generous tsp sesame seeds
2 tbls smooth peanut butter
1 tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp black pepper

Whisk together and pour over salad. Toss well to combine.

Pork Salad - 2 stars

2008-12-03T19:43:00.001-08:00

i think i need to find a way to better photograph my salads. this looks gross - and it was actually very tasty, only a couple complaints. i also probably need to come up with some tastier-sounding names. pork salad? uh..... doesn't sound too tasty to me.

this was a day when my dinner was simply a salad. it was a combo of baby romaine & spinach, topped with sliced pork (leftover peri peri rubbed pork from previous post), avocado, red onion slivers, garbanzo beans, mandarin orange, sliced tomato, croutons and a mandarin sesame dressing, i believe. oh, and i see some pomegranate seeds in there. everything but the pork was very good. seared pork butt is great when it's hot, not so great when it's cold. it's too fatty, and when it's cold, the fat congeals. and congealed fat does not make for a good salad. use only lean cuts of meat if you're using leftover cooked protein in your salad.

two stars.

Seared Pork (4 stars) + Gnocchi (3 stars) with Spinach Salad

2008-12-03T19:35:00.001-08:00

this was a great meal! a little heavy for me, well - the serving you see here wasn't, but i kept picking more gnocchi out of the serving dish. too much gnocchi IS a bad thing.

the salad was more gourmet than my normal ones - it contained avocado and pomegranate seeds. mmmmm. fantastic. plus some other fruits and veggies.

the pork was rubbed in an african peri peri rub and pan seared. the cut of the pork is what made it so special - it's a pork butt roast that i cut into pork chop-type slabs. it's a fatty cut of pork - there are some hunks of fat, which i don't like, but the fat is also ribboned through the meat. it's like the chicken thigh of pork - a nice, rich, moist dark cut.

the gnocchi was good - i used jarred garlic (ew, so lazy!) and fresh parsley, oh, and olive oil to season it. the taste and texture of the parsley didn't go well. it was too rough and tasted bitter. next time, i would use chopped fresh garlic, and saute the garlic and the parsley in olive oil for a minute before tossing w/ the gnocchi.

(fortunately, this used up the last of my jarred garlic, so i will not succumb to laziness again!)

over all - salad + pork = four stars, gnocchi = 3

Spaghetti Vongole - 5 stars!

2008-12-03T19:30:00.000-08:00

heaven! i believe this is the first recipe i've cooked out of a cookbook my mom gave me last christmas - the food of italy. it's a very authentic italian cookbook, and this dish was simple, and amazing! full of fresh clams, lots of garlic, tomato, fresh parsley, lemon zest... some other things i can't remember (it was a couple weeks ago). we had bread smothered with butter and chopped garlic. i tasted garlic for a full day afterward, despite multiple teeth brushings.

five stars!

introduction to my blog o' food

2008-12-03T19:04:00.000-08:00

there are not many things in this world that get me more excited than food. i love to eat food, of course, but more than that, i love to read about it, make plans for it, talk about it, create different meals with it, analyze those meals, obsess about it some more - generally just immerse myself thoroughly, as often as possible, in the world o' food.

i will document my creations here - my victories and utter failures, and the mediocrity in between.

YUMMY!

Belly of the Beast - my adventures in cooking

blogging indecision

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie - 4 stars

Beef Satay with Peanut Sauce - 5 stars

Big Ass Mushroom Burger - 5 stars

Cornish Game Hens + Mashed Baby Reds - 5 stars

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake - 5 stars

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

For topping

For batter

Special equipment:

Make topping:

Make batter:

Hoisin Lamb Stirfry - 5 stars

Tamarind Pork Chops - 5 stars

Shrimp Scampi - 5 stars

Cedar Planked Filet Mignon & Scallops with Smoky Compound Butter - 5 stars

Fat Tuesday: Shrimp, Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya - 5 stars

Sourdough Tomato & Basil Bruschetta - 5 stars

Moroccan Tomato Soup with Couscous - 4 stars

Valentine's Day - 5 stars! :-)

Portobello Mushroom Burger - 4 stars

Ingredients

Marinade:

Directions

Chicken with Snake Beans and Thai Basil - 5 stars

Deep Dish Pizza - 5 stars

New Year's Resolution + Honeycomb Pancakes - 4 stars

Linguini with Spicy Red Clam Sauce - 3 stars

Cobb Salad - 5 stars

Spicy Honey Brushed Chicken Thighs - 4 stars

Yield

Ingredients

Preparation

Stuffed Baked Potato + Caesar Salad - 4 stars

Beef Stirfry with(out) Gai Larn (Chinese Broccoli) - 2 stars

Chicken Enchiladas - 5 stars

Roast Pork & Butternut Squash - 4 stars

Mexican Tortilla Soup - 3 stars

Garlic Beef with Capsicum (Red Bell Pepper) - 3 stars

Redefining Breakfast: Beef Taco Omelette & Chicken Quesadilla - 4 stars

French Onion Soup - 4 stars

French Onion Soup

Roasted Chicken Legs with Potatoes and Kale - 5 stars

Ingredients

Directions

Indonesian Beef Curry with Coconut Rice - 5 stars

Korean-Style Short Rib Soup - 1 star :-(

Bagels with Smoked Steelhead + Dill + Cream Cheese - 5 stars

Shrimp (and Steak!) Caesar Salad - 5 stars!

Sesame Pork Stirfry - 4 stars

Ranch Steak Bruschetta Salad - 5 stars

Ranch Steak Bruschetta Salad

Fresh Cranberry Cosmo - 4 stars

Ingredients

Directions

Cranberry Granita:

Grilled Chicken Sandwich + Spinach Salad - 4 stars

Ingredients

Directions

Pork Chops with Granny Smith Apples - 4 stars

Christmas Day - 5 stars

Christmas Gingerbread Cookies

Spiced Chicken Thighs + Asparagus - 4 stars!

Yield

Ingredients

Preparation

Beef Leaf (Thai Beef Salad - Yam Neau) - 5 stars!

Chipotle Pork Tacos - 4 stars

Chipotle Pork Soft Tacos with Pineapple Salsa

Yield

Ingredients

Preparation

Nutritional Information

Chicken Biryani - 4 stars

Roasted Pork Tenderloin & Potatoes - 2 stars

thanksgiving!

Chinese Chicken Salad - 5 stars!

Pork Salad - 2 stars

Seared Pork (4 stars) + Gnocchi (3 stars) with Spinach Salad