Food I Made, or Am Making, This Weekend

It's been a weekend of good eats! (with the exception of greasy brewpub popcorn that served as dinner on Friday night):

French Onion Soup. I like this recipe not only because it tastes great, but also because doing the onions in the oven keeps hands-on time to a minimum. I took a cue from one of the commenters on this recipe and caramelized the onions in the crockpot -- about 10 hours on high (!), and they were getting to a nice shade of brown, which I finished off with a little bit of time in more heat in the oven and on the stovetop. The only downside of doing the onions this way was that I woke up multiple times Friday night to the extremely strong smell of cooking onions. It's not a bad smell, just not a "sweet dreams" smell ... cook yer onions in the crockpot during the day :)

Goat Cheese and Caramelized Onion Spread. No link for this -- I made it up. Was trying to think of an appetizer for a Saturday night dinner party and decided to make some extra caramelized onions with the FO soup batch, then I pulled them out, chopped 'em up and mixed them with some fresh goat cheese and a couple of toasted almond slices. We warmed it up slightly (just enough to be easily spreadable) and served it with flatbread. Delicious!

Pioneer Woman/Pamela Anderson's Caesar Salad. This recipe caught my eye a while ago, partly for the aesthetics of serving it with whole romaine leaves (it's pretty dramatic to just put two whole leaves on a salad plate), and also because of the citrus tang. The croutons were good, but I added some garlic salt to them as I didn't think they had enough garlic flavor. I also mixed the olive oil and parmesan cheese into the rest of the dressing since it was really strong on lemon as a stand-alone. I don't know if I'd make this recipe a lot, but it was good, so I'll definitely make it again.

Roasted squash. This was pretty but didn't have quite the flavor that I was hoping for. Last weekend I roasted some zucchini and yellow squash and had drizzled butter over them, with a bit of a red pepper/oregano seasoning mix. Both HH and I preferred the butter version, even though it's obviously not as healthy as an olive oil version.

Roasted Asparagus. This is a great, simple favorite for us. Just arrange asparagus spears on parchment paper, brush them with olive oil, grind some sea salt and dried garlic over them, sprinkle a small amount of parmesan - or other (I used grated Jarlsburg) cheese, and then bake until the cheese is melted and the asparagus is cooked.

Frosted Halibut. I don't know what the real name of this is, but it's one of my mom's favorite halibut recipes and it was the first time I'd done it on my own. Basically, you just mix light mayonnaise with dijon mustard (maybe a tablespoon of mustard per cup of mayo), then spread a thick layer over a halibut steak, sprinkle some parmesan cheese on it and bake until the halibut is done (it should flake easily). Five minutes before it's done, sprinkle slivered almonds over it. Because of the mayo, this recipe is very forgiving -- you could overcook the fish and it would still be moist and delicious. Everybody I know who's tried this has loved it even people (cough, cough, HH) who don't like mayo OR mustard!

Magic Quinoa. Growing as one of our favorites -- I don't even need to look up the recipe anymore!

Moscow Hot Chocolate. Have you tried it yet? Because you should.

Mini Asian Crab Cakes. A recipe I came across earlier this week and happened to have an occasion tonight to try them (Happy Birthday to my mother-in-law! Thanks for letting us celebrate with you!). Except I think I'm going to use our leftover halibut (with the sauce scraped off) instead of crab. So they're not really crab-cakes at all. I think the flavors should be just as good...I hope.

Just one more, no wait, two...

Colorado Cache Shrimp. Actually, I'm not sure where this recipe comes from, but I think it's one of the "Colorado" cookbooks (there's Colorado Cache, Colore, Collage, Creme ... and they're all great). My mom does this a lot so, again, there's no recipe. Combine equal parts olive oil, sherry and soy sauce, along with a generous portion of minced garlic. Marinade raw, peeled shrimp for 30 min-1 hour (it doesn't take long to marinade shrimp). Then grill (I supposed you could also fry them) for just a couple of minutes (don't do it for too long; shrimp get tough quickly). I'm planning to serve them over an Asian spinach salad tonight. (ooh, I just realized I'd already blogged this recipe last summer as "melt in your mouth shrimp." They really do!)

Salted Chocolate Vanilla Bean Cookies. All I'll say is, "these are good." You should try them. And then share them with me.

Happy cooking, and thanks everybody who's given me feedback that my food blogs inspire you. It's so fun to share something that's fun for me!

Split Pea Soup!

We're supposed to get up to 10 inches of snow tonight! What better to have for dinner than a hearty, warming soup! And one that's ridiculously good for you to boot!

I found this Curried Split Pea Soup recipe on the food network website; it's an Alton Brown recipe. What inspired me to try it was that out of 93 ratings, I only saw 3 that weren't 5 stars. People loved this soup, people!

Also, we loved this soup!

And we love exclamation points! But that's an issue for another day. ! Sorry, just had to get another one in.

Right now, I'm going to tell you a little bit about how good split peas are for you. But before I do that, take a few minutes to read about the worst foods in America for you: here's one list, and here's another. Did you catch that? Msnbc.com has named the worst food in America an appetizer at Outback Steakhouse that has 2,900 calories and 182 grams of fat. And we wonder why America has an obesity problem -- it's the Aussies' fault! Just kidding; I regularly drink mochas from Starbucks that have, um, eek, 580 calories in them (for the venti size; but I usually don't go that big).

Now doesn't that just make you crave some healthy (and cheap!) split peas:

• They are an excellent source of soluble fiber, which means they catch nasty cholesterols.
• The fiber also helps make you regular and minimizes irritable bowel syndrome and diverticulosis.
• They are the right kind of fiber to balance blood sugar - great for everybody, and especially for diabetics and hypoglycemics.
• A bunch of the minerals help your heart.
• The potassium helps with high blood pressure.
• A cup of cooked peas has 16 grams of protein! Now that deserves an exclamation point!
• The isoflavones can help prevent breast and prostate cancer.
• They have huge amounts of molybdenum, a trace mineral that helps detoxify sulfites, which are a preservative in just about everything.

In short, split peas are good for you, and this soup recipe has a great, creamy, slightly complex flavor and texture -- it's actually worth a try even if you don't like regular split pea soup. They're quite different in texture and flavor. Oh, and we paired it with a nice spinach/ham/cheddar salad and a loaf of fresh whole wheat bread.

Sunday afternoon treat: hot chocolate recipe, plus a bonus!

I saw a recipe for homemade chocolate syrup a while ago and it's been bouncing around in my mind as something I'd like to try. Today seemed like the perfect day to give it a try -- laid back, cold outside, inside with puppies curled up in front of the fireplace, both HH and I are working at our respective desks. So I gave it a try.

Here's the recipe:

1 c. water (I used about 3/4 c. water and 1/4 c. milk to make it a little richer)
1/2 c. sugar
2/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp vanilla

Mix the water and sugar together in a pan and bring to a boil. Whisk in the cocoa powder and salt and simmer for around 3 minutes (be careful -- the bottom seems like it will burn easily, so turn down the heat and stir constantly). Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Now for the BONUS: HH dipped his finger in the syrup and declared it quite delicious, but I decided to see if I could push it over the top. We stocked up our liquor cabinet over the holidays and then didn't use much of it, so I googled "vanilla vodka and hot chocolate." I came up with this recipe for Moscow Hot Chocolate, and adjusted it as follows:

1 oz vanilla vodka
1/2 oz amaretto
3/4 c milk
chocolate syrup (probably 1/4-1/3 cup, or even more!)

Heat the milk; whisk in the chocolate syrup to taste. I added more than I would have for plain hot cocoa since I knew I'd be "watering down" the chocolate taste a little with the alcohols. Add the liquors. Now to really push it over the edge, I topped it with a little whipped cream that I'd flavored with a generous dash of vanilla and powdered sugar. Delicious!

"Oooh, that is really good!" ~HH

Honestly? I don't think you should have to wait for a cold, lazy Sunday afternoon to give this a try. (oh, and you can also use the chocolate syrup in chocolate milk, on top of icecream, etc, etc)

Gazpacho

We had some great gazpacho for dinner -- got the idea while we were picking about a gallon of the sweetest cherry tomatoes from my parents' garden (probably the last chance, since they are officially moved out tomorrow!). Anyway, it was pretty tasty and got two thumbs up from everybody, including the two people who had never had it before.

This is the recipe, as best as I can remember it. It's from the Williams Sonoma Food Made Fast Soup book.

Ingredients:
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped (reserve 1/4 of it, finely chopped, for garnish)
1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped (with about 1 tablespoon reserved for garnish)
1 red bell pepper, roughly chopped (I only had about 1/8 red bell pepper, so I used that, plus about 1/4 yellow bell, plus 1/2 green bell)
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and roughly chopped (this wasn't very hot, I'd probably add another jalapeno or two; the recipe actually called for seranos)
1 red onion, roughly chopped
1 can V8 (or 1 1/2 cups tomato juice)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic
8 roma tomatoes, seeded and roughly chopped (we used cherry tomatoes, and I didn't count how many, basically just threw them in until the blender was almost full, with just enough space to blend)
handful tortilla chips (a lot of gazpacho recipes call for bread crumbs, but my mom can't have gluten. I think the tortilla chips added a nice flavor and some good texture)
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions: throw everything into the blender. Pulse until you have your desired texture. Garnish with the reserved cucumbers, cilantro and a cherry tomato.

Variations on a Theme

So, I decided to nurture my lazy (and cheap!) inner self when it came to feeding myself and HH this week. Also, I knew it would be a crazy week, so I tried to plan ahead even more than usual when it came to feeding us this week. Here's what I did: on Saturday, I grilled up 5 chicken breasts that I'd been marinating in a Tuscan Italian dressing for a few hours. That fed us dinner Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (Sunday was dinner out). Here's what I did:

• On Saturday, I chopped up 2 of the breasts with some whole wheat pasta, fresh tomato and basil chunks, shredded spinach and some lightly sauteed garlic and bell peppers. We also had gorgonzola/tomato/basil stuffed zucchini and some fresh artisan bread. (this pasta also provided us with 2 lunches this week)


• On Monday, I reheated the chicken, then chopped it up and served it with quinoa, which I'd cooked with some bell peppers, onions and italian seasoning. We also had steamed spinach and leftover stuffed zucchini. [and I froze Tues and Wed's chix :) ] (The quinoa also provided 2 lunches!)


• On Tuesday, I chopped the chicken into chunks and tossed it with a simple spinach salad consisting of bread cubes (more fresh artisan bread), fresh baby tomatoes and basil from my mom's garden, and olive oil and basalmic vinegar.


• On Wednesday, I pulled my last chicken breast out of the freezer (I had sliced it thinly before freezing), heated it in the microwave and then layered it on leftover artisan bread with pesto, mozarella cheese and red bell peppers. Then I slathered the outsides in butter and grilled the sandwiches. We had this with a small side spinach salad and some freshly cooked stuffed zucchini.
  


• FYI, we had something different on Thursday! (but I think -- and HH affirmed -- that those meals were all different enough that he didn't feel like he ate the same thing 4 out of 5 days). Dinner last night was bean and cheese burritos.

And, in case you're wondering about the stuffed zucchini, I highly recommend them! I got the recipe from our small group leader's wife -- it's a really decadent way to use up zucchini and, trust me, you'll use 'em up this way. Slice a zucchini lengthwise, so that both halves will rest nicely on a tray. Scoop out the seeds, and maybe a little bit more, so you have a consistent trough the whole length of the zucchini. Layer in a thin layer of gorgonzola cheese. Top this with layer of fresh basil (you can leave the leaves whole or slice them up). Top this with a layer of tomato slices. Finally, add a layer of cheese -- I've been using shredded mozarella, with a bit of shredded parmesan on top. Bake for around 20 minutes, until the zucchini is cooked and the cheese on top is melted and starting to brown. Because I don't want to heat up the house, I've been doing this on the grill -- I get it to about 350 degrees (which is med-low on mine) and just throw the zucchini half on there while I prep the rest of dinner.

* DISCLAIMER: The picture of Callie here has nothing to do with our meals, except to the extent that she *may* have licked some of our plates. No dogs were harmed (or consumed) in the making of these meals! I don't think she'd taste very good, she'd be awfully tough, and I'd miss her.

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

I got a new book last week. Well, actually, two new books, and they're both great (the other is Desperately Seeking Paradise, of which I'm about 3 chapters in and enjoying it), but I'm going to focus here on book #2: Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

You might recall that I made a no-knead, yeast bread for Mother's Day, and we were pleased with the outcome. That, plus seeing a number of people blog about this book (and, holy cow, check out the positive reviews at Amazon!), AND how much HH looooves homemade bread, made this a no-brainer for my $25 Amazon gift card.

The premise of the book is that you can make great artisan bread -- the chewy inside, the great yeasty/wheaty/slighty-sourdoughy flavor, the super crispy crust -- by mixing together a few simple ingredients to make a bit batch of a very wet dough and letting it sit in a sealed container in your fridge for up to two weeks. When you want fresh bread (um, every night when it's not 90 degrees outside?), you pull off a hunk, let it rise and then bake it ... about 5 minutes of hands-on time per day.

I'm making my first batch right now. It's a long recipe but since I know you're all dying to know how I can be so fantastic (cue hilarious laughter on the part of those who know me well), I'll share my secret with you.

The Master Recipe: Boule (artisan free-form loaf)
makes four 1-pound loaves. This recipe is easily doubled or halved

3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt
6 1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, measured with the scoop-and-sweep method (scoop flour out of the container rather than spooning it in, as you're supposed to with most flour measurements)
cornmeal for pizza peel

Mixing and Storing the Dough
1. Warm the water slightly, to around 100 degrees.

2. Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5-quart bowl or, preferably, in a resealable, lidded (not airtight) plastic food container or food-grade bucket. Don't worry about getting it all to dissolve.

3. Mix in the flour - kneading is unnecessary. Add all of the flour at once, measuring it in with dry-ingredient measuring cups, by gently scooping up flour, then sweeping the top level with a knife or spatula; don't press down into the flour as you scoop or you'll throw off the measurement by compressing. Mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture is uniform. If it becomes too difficult to incorporate all the flour with a spoon, you can reach into your mixing vessel with very wet hands and press the mixture together. Don't knead! It isn't necessayr. You're finished when everything is uniformly moist, without dry patches. This step is done in a matter of minutes, and will yield a dough that is wet and loose enough to conform to the shape of its container.

4. Allow to rise. Cover with a lid (not airtight) that fits well to the container you're using. Do not use screw-topped bottles or mason jars, which could explode from the trapped gases. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flattens on the top), approximately 2 hours, depending on the room's temperature and the initial water temperature. Longer rising times, up to about 5 hours, will not harm the result. You can use a portion of the dought any time after this period. Fully refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and is easier to work with than dough at room temperature. So, the first time you try our method, it's best to refrigerate the dough overnight (or at least 3 hours) before shaping a loaf.

(this is getting long, so I'm going to break it into parts; click here for part 2)

Artisan Bread basic recipe, part 2

Baking the loaf:

5. The gluten cloak: don't knead, just "cloak" and shape a loaf in 30 to 60 seconds. First, prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberaly with cornmeal to prefent your loaf from sticking to it when you slide it into the oven. Sprinkle the surface of your refrigerated dough with flour. Pull up and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-sized) piece of dough, using a serrated knife. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won't stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter turn as you go. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it's not intended to be incorporated into the dough. The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten out and adhere during resting and baking. The correctly shaped final product will be smooth and cohesive. The entire process should take no more than 30 to 60 seconds.

6. Rest the loaf and let it rise on a pizza peel. Place the shaped ball on a cornmeal-covered pizza peel. Allow the loaf to rest for about 40 minutes (it doesn't need to be covered). Depending on the age of the dough, you may not see much rise during this period; more rising will occur during baking.

7. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450 F, with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on any other shelf that won't interfere with the rising bread.

8. Dust and slash. Dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour, which will allow the slashing knife to pass without sticking. Slash a 1/4-inch-deep cross, tic-tac-toe or scallop, using a serrated bread knife.

9. Baking with steam. After a 20-minute preheat, even though your oven thermometer won't yet be up to full temperature. With a quick forward jerking motion of the wrist, slide the loaf off the pizza peel and onto the preheated baking stone. Quickly but carefully pour about 1 cup of hot water from the tap into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch. Because you've used wet dough, there is little risk of drying out the interior, despite the dark crust. When you remove the loaf from the oven, it will audibly crackle, or "sing," when initially exposed to room-temperature air. Allow to cool completely, preferably on a wire cooling rack, for best flavor, texture and slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will firm up again when cooled.

10. Store the remaining dough in the refrigerator in your lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next 14 days. You'll find that even one day's storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. This maturation continues over the 14-day storage period. Refrigerate unused dough in a lidded storage container. If you mixed your dough in this container, you've avoided some cleanup. Cut and shape more loaves as you need them. The dough can also be frozen in an airtight container and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator prior to baking day.

Dinner!

We had an unexpected day given to us -- we'd expected to spend all day mostly on the road and at the last minute, my dad told us that he thought we could probably make better use of our time by staying at home, since we'd be somewhat superfluous for the task at hand.

I, naturally, immediately started thinking about what fun thing to make for dinner! I decided to make the beer-marinated chicken tacos that I'd seen earlier this week. Now, I don't normally have dark Mexican beer lying around the house, so I had to run to the store for some of that, as well as the chicken thighs (and, as you might be able to relate to, I ended up coming away with like 15 items, most of which were completely reasonable purchases, like the gallon of milk, or the ingredients for the appetizer and dessert I also decided to make... but not all of them, shhh...).

Anyway, here's dinner...

We started out with this plate of fabulousness, which, if you can't tell, is bacon-wrapped jalapeno bites.
I've been oggling them ever since I saw them on Pioneer Woman. Super simple: cut a jalapeno in half and scoop all the seeds out. Fill that cavity with cream cheese, then wrap it in bacon (1/3 slice fits nicely around one) and secure with a toothpick. She says to bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes; I threw them on the grill at the same temp, flipping halfway through.

While HH did the assembly on these, I made tortillas (my dinner recipe called for corn tortillas, but I decided to make flour ones. Will definitely try with corn again sometime).

The chicken is definitely the highlight of the dish. The marinade is super-tasty (though I'd prob marinade for a bit longer in the future). Two other notes... First, I'd definitely encourage you to use chicken thighs as the recipe says; it makes for a much richer meat, and the fatty content helps the meat to sort of carmelize and form a crust while cooking. Secondly, I grilled these at around 400, which is higher than you're supposed to cook chicken generally, but I wanted it to char a little bit and form that aforementioned crust. I think it was perfect :)

As HH noted, the greatness of this meal lies in its simplicity -- guacamole and marinated chicken on a tortilla -- you really get to enjoy those flavors.

Of course, I couldn't resist adding a little roughage! Just some spring greens tossed with a dressing made of lime juice, garlic, olive oil, cilantro and some green onion.

This isn't dessert, but it may as well be! I was craving a Starbucks caramel frapp the other day but didn't want to pay $3.95 for one, so I googled the recipe -- super simple! We actually had these for breakfast today with our french toast (I had raspberry syrup made with raspberries I had JUST picked from our yard!). Dessert tonight will be (if I get around to it) a pseudo-ice cream made by blending together frozen strawberries, half-n-half and sugar, then re-freezing till it's more or less solid. In the meantime, I present to you the 98% off caramel frappuccino!

Dessert

Step 1: find some oreos in a cupboard downstairs and throw a couple in a glass.



Step 2: mash the oreos up with a spoon or the back of an ice cream scoop (go ahead and get the scoop out; you'll be using it in a second).
Step 3: add some ice cream to the top of those mashed oreos. Not too much, but just enough to feel indulgent.



Step 4: pull out the irish cream you found while cleaning your fridge. pour a generous shot, then maybe a little extra for good measure.
Step 5: dump that Bailey's over your ice cream. (optional: mash it all up together into your own homemade version of a Dublin Mudslide)


Step 6: kick back and enjoy like a dog in the sun on a hot Saturday
(note: no animals were harmed or fed chocolate or alcohol in the making of this dessert. NO WAY would I share with him -- his tastes aren't refined enough!)

melt-in-your-mouth shrimp

This is a shrimp recipe that I've had in my head ever since my mom and I spilled a HUGE bowl full of it (in raw form) all over her living room stairs, and then Bailey (their Boston Terrier) ate a bunch of the garlic and then puked it all up.

But this is a story for a happier day, a beautiful Friday evening when I threw the shrimp into a marinade while I did some other stuff, and then I cooked up a pot of a funny mix of Israeli couscous, some sort of mini garbanzo bean, some orzo and a miniature quinoa (a mix from TRADER JOE'S that someone gave me -- oh, happy day to have something from TJ's in my kitchen), sauteed some kale in garlic and soy sauce, and cooked on the grill the shrimp along with some zucchini fingers and more kale that I'd doused in the shrimp marinade just for fun.

Are you ready for the secret to the most amazing shrimp? Here it is:

1 part olive oil
1 part soy sauce
1 part sherry
a bunch of chopped garlic

If you're only doing shrimp for two, like I did tonight (plus the zucchini and kale), less than 1/4 cup each is more than enough. Marinade the shrimp for maybe 30 minutes, then throw them on a medium-heat grill (I have one of those grill grates, so small stuff doesn't fall through) for just a couple of minutes. Don't overcook the shrimp because they get tough. But oooh, after cooking them on the grill, these babies seriously melt in your mouth. Seriously! Do you believe me yet? Then you'll just have to try them for yourself!

Since I'd made too much marinade, I thought I'd give the zucchini a try, and it was great, too! I cut it into strips, soaked it for maybe 5 minutes, and threw it on at the same time as the shrimp. In the future, I think the zucchini will need to go on a few minutes earlier.

I also wanted to see if I could replicate kale chips on the grill. Can't remember if I've blogged about them before, but they're kind of fun and pretty healthy (google 'em; you'll find plenty of recipes). Just take bite-sized pieces of kale, brush on a seasoning (I used italian dressing before; this time it was the shrimp marinade) and grill for a couple of minutes. Don't let them burn or they're kind of nasty and bitter; but nicely-crisped, they make a fun garnish or appetizer.

Final step: linger over dinner and a glass of wine in the back yard while the sun is fading with the love of your life (or other company of choice).

Avocado-Grapefruit Pork Burgers

Yeah, sorry, this is another food post. But it's so unique and fun and tasty that I wanted to share. We had it for dinner tonight and 4 out of 5 people agreed that it was very good. (Person #5 doesn't like grapefruit, so he opted to put ketchup on his burger. His loss!)

This comes from a Rachel Ray magazine; I couldn't find the recipe on her website, which means it's either buried under all the other burger recipes or it's so new she hasn't posted it yet. Anyway:

Avocado-Grapefruit Pork Burgers
serves 4

2 grapefruits
3 Tablespoons basalmic vinegar
2 tsp honey
1 bunch scallions
1 avocado, thinly sliced
1 pound ground pork
1/2 tsp onion powder
salt
2 T butter
4 onion rolls, split (we used regular, light wheat hamburger buns)

1. Slice off the ends of each grapefruit and place the cut side down on a cutting board. Slice off the peel and pith. Working over a bowl, make a cut on either side of each segment to release it from the membrane into the bowl. Squeeze the remaining juice into a saucepan; add the vinegar and honey and simmer over medium high heat until syrupy. Add to the grapefruit sections.

2. Meanwhile, preheat a grill pan to medium-high. Add the scallions and cook until slightly charred; cool and thinly slice. Add the scallions and avocado to the grapefruit sections.

3. Preheat a grill pan to medium. In a bowl, combine the pork and onion powder; season with salt. Shape into 4 patties. Grill the patties, turning once, until cooked, about 8 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, spread the butter on the rolls and grill until toasted. Place a patty on each roll and bottom. Top with the grapefruit-avocado salad and the roll tops.

(We grilled both the scallions and the burgers on an outdoor grill.)

UPDATE: My father-in-law pointed out that I had omitted an important "R" in the title and was thus advertising Pork Bugers. Which is German for "booger" if you add a the umlaut over the "u." Just kidding! Bad wannabe-linguist humor. In reality, Buger is either a region in Iran or an island municipality in Spain. Guess it depends on where you want to go, but somehow I suspect that this pork came from somewhere closer to home.

Stupidly Simple but Surprisingly Scrumptious Soup

HH and I just wrapped up dinner -- it was a Chicken Tortilla Soup from my Williams Sonoma Food Made Fast "Soup" book. I kept looking at the recipe to make sure I wasn't missing something! And you know what? We loved it. Granted, we fancied it up with homemade tortilla chips that HH made while I cooked everything else. But still...

Chicken-Tortilla Soup

6 c. chicken stock
2 c shredded, cooked chicken
(lil' secret -- I used the rest of a Costco rotisserie chicken for both of these. We'd eaten off of the breasts for a few days, so I used all the dark meat -- has more flavor anyway -- that I pulled off the bones and shredded, and it was almost exactly 2 cups. Then I made chicken stock out of the carcass -- just put it in the crockpot with veggies, herbs and water and let it simmer for a couple of hours. I love a) how cheap it is, and b) how much flavor it has. But I digress...)

1 T. olive oil
1/2 white onion, finely chopped (I used a whole onion)
2 tsp chili powder (I used 1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder and 1 1/2 tsp regular -- it added more spice and a little bit of a smoky flavor, but it would still be great with only regular)
lime juice (3-4 limes)
salt
corn tortilla chips
1/2 c. queso fresco or shredded monterrey jack cheese
avocado
fresh cilantro

1. In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the oil. When it is hot, add the onion and saute until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the chili powder and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil.

2. Add the shredded chicken, reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the chicken is heated through, about 3 minutes. Add the lime juice and salt to taste. Ladle into bowls, garnish with the tortilla chips, queso fresco, avocado and cilantro.

Seriously? Onion, chili powder, chicken stock and chicken, with lime juice and tortilla chips on the side. Can dinner get any more simple while still being delicious?

Oh, and I didn't have any avocado or cilantro, so instead we garnished it with tomatoes and green onions (and pepper jack cheese). I didn't add the lime juice while it was cooking; we just had lime slices that we could squeeze over our soup.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day (now nearly over) to two great moms! Words cannot describe how blessed I am by my own mom, and now by HH's mom. Come to think of it, I'm too tired to even try out the words.

If a picture's worth a thousand words, how much is a meal (sans pictures) worth?

Yep, you guessed it, I decided to use a meal to say "Happy Mother's Day" to both moms.

Here's what we had:

To start:
- Cream of Avocado Soup (recipe at bottom)
- Homemade artisan bread (this recipe is seriously fantastic, and super easy. I make it with 2 cups whole wheat flour and 1 cup white flour; I also let it sit for about 17 hours this time, and I think it might have been better for it. It has a great crispy crust and chewy, but not too dense texture).

Main Course:
- Lemon-sage chicken (I think this sounds better than "Chicken in Milk"). I wasn't sure how much we'd eat, so I squeezed two small chickens into one roasting pan (we ended up only eating off of one... leftovers!) and I didn't think enough of the liquid evaporated. But otherwise it was great -- tender, moist, intricate-yet-delicate lemon flavor on the sauce. This recipe was flying around a few food blogs I read a few weeks ago, so I was glad to be able to give it a try. yum!
- Asparagus bundles; we wrapped bunches of 5 or 6 pieces of asparagus in prosciutto, secured them with toothpicks, and then grilled them on low for around 15 min. (Season sprinkled with pepper; this was particularly good with the chicken's lemon sauce).
- Roasted potatoes. I used some of the leftover butter mixture from browning the chickens and then added a potato seasoning mix to the chopped spuds, then baked for like 90 minutes.

Dessert:
Apple tartlets. These were quite good! I couldn't find dark honey so just bought a high quality lighter one ... I think in the future I'd maybe just drizzle straight (warmed) honey on top of the tarts. We served a little dollop of whipped cream (drizzled with some caramel sauce) next to the tarts.

On the whole, I think the meal was a success -- all the flavors were light and went well with this beautiful spring day!

Here's the avocado soup recipe, which I highly commend to you! (with a good bread, this could make a rather filling meal on its own... if I were to do it again, I'd make smaller portions for a starter since we were all full by the time the chicken came out)

Cream of Avocado Soup (from a Williams-Sonoma "Food Made Fast" cookbook):
serves 4

3 avocados, cut into chunks
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
2 serano chiles, seeded and chopped
juice of 1 lime
3/4 c water
white pepper and salt
lump crabmeat (I used the stuff out of a can and drained it well)
chives

Put avocados, coconut milk, chiles, lime juice and water in a blender and blend it all together. Add white pepper and salt to taste.

You can chill it in the fridge for 30-60 minutes (any more and I'm thinking the avocado would start to turn brown) or serve it at room temperature.

Serve garnished with crab and chopped chives.

Baking Day

Today is turning out to be baking day... In honor of it, I'm posting the below video, which I think is absolutely hilarious -- I've watched it several times this week and still giggle throughout.



I started out my projects last night by making dough for two different recipes.

First, I threw together the dough to make this no-knead bread. It comes out of the oven in 10 minutes. If it comes out okay, I'm thinking of making it again next week for Mother's Day to serve with this chicken.

Then, just before bed, I made the dough for these cinnamon pull-apart muffins. I finished the muffins off this morning and we had them for breakfast ... they were a big hit!

This afternoon, I'm planning to make chocolate stout cake ... it will be served at a "get-to-know-you" dessert for CCEF next week, but I'm making it today so it can "age" appropriately. Come give money to CCEF and I'll give you a piece of this cake!!!!!!!!!

I'm also going to make the base for this pork posole for us to eat tomorrow. Probably with homemade tortilla chips because HH LOVES them.

AND, if I end up having the time, I'm going to try to clean house -- a few corners are getting to the point where they *must* be cleaned. I guess that means I'll enjoy the lovely weather tomorrow as I get the yard ready for summer.

Happy Saturday!

dinner: Napa Noodles

So, I liked dinner tonight enough to post on it. I got the recipe from Rachel Ray's April magazine (it's not online, so I think she has some sort of delay to benefit people getting the mag). Anyway, it's called Napa Noodles. There are a lot of different ingredients here, but the flavors come together really nicely. Also, I found out that HH LOVES noodles. I didn't know he had such a passion for them, but now I do ... nice to know!

If you were to be into growing your own herbs (we'll see if I can manage that this summer; I'd really like to), this would be a fairly inexpensive meal ... but buying fresh basil and fresh mint sort of drove the price up. Also, I bet you could easily add stir-fried chicken to this for a more substantial meal; the only other change I'd make is perhaps using half the oil (2 Tbsp). I used 3 Tbsp and it still tasted/felt greasy -- if it seemed like things were sticking/burning, I'd add a few dashes of water to steam-cook the veggies; but 1/4 c. oil definitely seems excessive now. And maybe I'd use less noodles, because I like a higher veggie-to-noodle ratio, but that's totally subjective. Oh, and don't plan to do all the chopping while the noodles are cooking -- pre-chop and measure everything so you can just dump it in while you're stir-frying; the cooking goes too fast to do much else while you're actually in the middle of it.

On the whole, this is totally a keeper recipe, in both mine and HH's opinions.

Napa Noodles.

1 (12-ounce) package soba noodles or 1 pound whole wheat linguine pasta

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 head Napa cabbage (about 2 pounds), thinly shredded
1 cup frozen shelled edamame, thawed
1 bunch scallions, cut on an angle into 2-inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 (2-inch) piece fresh ginger, grated or finely chopped
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
Grated peel and juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
1/2 cup mint leaves, shredded
20 basil leaves

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain.

While the pasta is cooking, in a wok or large skillet, heat the oil over high heat until rippling. Add the cabbage and edamame and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the scallions, garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 1 minute. Stir in the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, lime peel, lime juice and black pepper. Add the pasta, mint and basil and toss.

Serves 4.

Chocolate Stout Cake

Oh, people. Oh, oh, oh, people. If you love chocolate, or if you love people who love chocolate and you have ANY excuse to bake a cake for them soon, this is your cake.

Yesterday was HH's birthday and since it was going to be the day before St. Patty's Day, I'd singled out an irish-like dessert for his b-day. As in, a cake that calls for Guinness beer in the batter. And irish cream ice cream to accompany it.

First, you need to know that this cake is HUGE. What you're seeing in the pictures is a half-recipe (with a full recipe of frosting). The recipe comes from a restaurant; the blog I found the recipe on estimated that it would serve 25. I'd probably say even more than that because I can barely eat a super-thin slice of the one I made.


Secondly, you should know that this is not a sweet cake. It's extremely rich and the stout gives it a very deep (though not bitter) flavor. ... but in no sense is it one of those "pucker-your mouth-it's-so-sweet" cakes. I brought my boss a slice and he is a real chocolate cake connisseur, and he gave it a thumbs-up. The cake is very dense and holds its shape and flavor well (note that you're supposed to let it sit for a day or two for the flavors to mature!).


Thirdly, go make this cake!

And since I want to make it super easy for you, here's the recipe (also available at Epicurious.com):

Cake

• 2 cups stout (such as Guinness)
• 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 4 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups sour cream

Icing

• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1 pound bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped

For cake:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Line with parchment paper. Butter paper. Bring 2 cups stout and 2 cups butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cakes to rack; cool 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto rack and cool completely.

For icing:
Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until icing is spreadable, stirring frequently, about 2 hours.

Place 1 cake layer on plate. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with second cake layer. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining icing over top and sides of cake.

Lunch: French Onion Soup and Asian Pasta Salad

We had lunch with my parents today as a farewell for a trip that they're taking (actually, their itinerary almost exactly matches HH's, so it was more me saying goodbye and him saying see ya later!). I'd found a fantastic recipe for French Onion Soup that I was eager to try, so we had that and I made up a salad to go with it. Seriously, if you're making French Onion soup, do consider this recipe -- it's fairly time-consuming but had an incredible amount of flavor -- much lighter than your average French Onion, but it packed a nice punch!

The salad was inspired by one I found somewhere online -- I wanted to do a pre-tossed salad with chicken in it, so we'd have protein in our meal, but still in a very light form. I was intrigued because this one included pasta, and then it had a teriyaki dressing on it. An Asian pasta salad? But it made 22 servings, so I figured I'd do my own thing. First, I cooked up some brown rice shell pasta (b/c my mom can't eat wheat; however, I liked how firm the texture of this pasta remained even after soaking in dressing overnight). After the pasta cooled, I drenched it in a Ginger Mandarin dressing I'd found at the store (I think any Asian-flavored dressing would do). Then I let it sit in the fridge all night. When I was getting lunch ready, I tossed in chopped carrots, green onions, bell peppers, chicken and avocado. Right before serving, I added in spinach and toasted almond slices. Yum! HH said that both items should make it into the permanent rotation, and I'm inclined to agree.

Hmm, this is kind of a boring post without pictures -- if I'm going to regularly blog about food, I guess I should get used to taking pictures of what I make!

pizzzzzzaaaaaaaaaa

So, I made pizza for the first time in my adult life tonight. It was fantastic! So much for my -- apparently unfounded -- fear of cooking with yeast (the funny thing is that I used to bake and sell bread to my parents' friends when I was in Jr. High ... a fear of using yeast crept in sometime since then).

I used this recipe for a whole wheat dough; I made the 1 lb amount and then split it in two. It made two suuuuper thin crust pizzas that were about 14" in diameter. I think next time I'll probably make two 12 oz batches for two pizzas, because while HH loved the thin crust, it was just a little thin for me.

So for the first one (which was what inspired the pizza-making in the first place), I used (in order) Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, chunks of rotisserie chicken, mozzarella cheese, very thin slices of red onion and toasted almonds. I think HH's enthusiasm for my cooking reached a new level of exuberance.

The second one was just a basic tomato sauce (the Costco basil sauce that comes in 3-packs, with some leftover tomato paste mixed in to sweeten it up and tone down the basil flavor), yellow and orange bell peppers, mozzarella, and pepperoni.

For both of them, I rolled the dough out on corn meal on my pizza stones and baked them at 500 on the lowest rack of the oven for 10 minutes on the dot.

It's only because of a choice to eat in moderation that I'll have leftovers for lunch tomorrow :)