Meals and Treats lately…

I actually feel like I’ve been doing some productive cooking and baking lately!  Last week I had three nights in a row of home cooked dinners which is now considered a record!   Bonus points for having leftovers for lunches.

Then I made some awesome cupcakes for Superbowl Sunday…which we ended up just staying at home.  Needless to say we enjoyed cupcakes for days and have leftovers in the freezer for when I get my next cake craving :)

These aren’t my recipes but just wanted to share because they were delicious and pretty easy.

First came out of the January/February Cooking Light!  This is the one that boasts “Chicken 25 Ways!” on the cover.  Well, we had chicken in the freezer so I checked out the options.

I thought the Chicken BLT Salad sounded great, and made sure to get all the ingredients that day at the store.

Everything’s better with bacon…

Crispy chicken

But my favorite part was the dressing!!

Seriously, that buttermilk dressing was awesome and I’d make that to have on hand any day!!  Tasted like a delicious restaurant dressing, but not as heavy as most creamy dressings.

My changes to the recipe:

• I used chopped romaine instead of iceberg
• I let the chicken sit in buttermilk for about 30 min before dredging in panko…I didn’t use the egg white.
• If I did it again I’d use Giada’s method for the chicken as it always comes out crispy.  This version was good, but not great…I found the breading didn’t crisp up as well.

I’m not even a huge blue cheese fan, but a little bit worked great with this salad.

The next day we set up the crock pot to do the work.

My friend had told me she made this spinach lasagna in a crock pot and it was SO good.  Sounded like a great weeknight meal so I added it to my list.

This was soooo simple.  We already had some Italian sausage in the freezer, and all I needed was a good jar of sauce, no-boil lasagna noodles, frozen spinach, ricotta, and mozzarella. 

The only “prep” needed was to make the spinach and cheese mixture and slice up the sausage.

Brian comes home for lunch some days to walk the dog, so we planned it for one of those days as it only takes 5-6 hours to cook.  We assembled it the night before and he just turned it on that day at lunch time.  I came home to this:

My thoughts:

• The lasagna sits kind of in the middle of the crock pot, don’t worry if everything doesn’t go all the way to the edges.
• I cut my sausages into coin slices so I used a lot more than 4 per layer…maybe she sliced hers the long way.
• Don’t worry too much about the order of the layering…it will come out good no matter what.

Delicious and super easy.

Now the sweet!

Oh yes.  Funfetti.  I’ve been craving a good vanilla-y birthday cake type cake for a while now!!  Specifically with a good butter cream…the butter cream I grew up with.

You don’t need the sprinkles but it just makes it so much more fun.  I googled “homemade funfetti cupcakes” and thought this recipe looked pretty simple.

My notes:

• I didn’t want to waste my vanilla beans here, so I just used 2 tsp of vanilla extract in the batter, and 2 tsp of vanilla bean paste in the frosting.
• I made MINI cupcakes and they bake 9-11 min, and I got about 30 from this recipe.
• Whenever I make this simple butter cream (butter, confectioners sugar, milk, vanilla), I always start with the recipe and then add more sugar and milk as needed until I get to my desired consistency…plus it makes more and tastes just as delicious.  Oh and I always use salted butter.

Such a great vanilla cake!!  

So happy we have some of these babies in the freezer!

On a healthier note we broke out the juicer!!

I love getting a small green juice sometimes at Whole Foods but then think how stupid it is when we have a nice juicer at home and used to make these all the time. 

It’s a great way to get lots of nutrients to the baby :)

In other news:

• working on the nursery!  We’ve purchased the crib, dresser, and glider! 
• Brian’s working on a new closet upstairs so I can turn the 2nd bedroom (i.e. my closet) into the nursery.
• The baby registries are all done and my shower is in a few weeks :)
• I’m 30 weeks!!!  Holy crap!!  Sorry no new pictures, but I’ll have to take a new bump shot this week!

So there’s my update!

Made anything good lately??

Learning to Dinner Plan

Menu/Meal planning for the week ahead has never been my strong suit.  I usually prefer to go to the store and see what’s on sale or what looks extra good that week.  This doesn’t always go well for me though, and sometimes can result in wasted food….which I hate.

However, last week was actually pretty good as far as meal planning goes!!

We only really cooked 3 days (out of 5, I don’t count the weekends in this), but I knew what was on the menu from Monday to Thursday.  It really did take a little weight off my shoulders knowing exactly what we were going to cook each night!

Monday: not technically a meal but I asked Brian go cook up some chicken however he wanted (grilled, sautéed, etc...), while I was at Crossfit. I love that he’ll cook if I ask him :) 

We each made our own meal with some of the chicken. I'm actually not sure what he had but he's very resourceful in the kitchen so I don't have to worry about him not having a good meal without me there to help.

I knew I wanted to make a salad that I saw in Cooking light that had arugula, tomatoes, chicken, and some crispy cooked prosciutto. It was a nice quick meal, and the salty crispy pieces of prosciutto were the best part.

(source)

Tuesday night I was going to make some tomato sauce. Brian requested it that weekend, so we bought some grass-fed ground beef and 2 Italian sausages to add to it for some protein and extra flavor. (side note: wasn’t a huge fan of the sausage, next time I’ll leave it at the ground beef, still tasty but not my favorite)

I don't really have a sauce recipe per say, but it almost always involves:

• lots of garlic, minced, added to the pan with the olive oil first.
• Then maybe some diced onion, possible carrot
• I add my meat here if I'm using it...usually ground turkey or lean beef
• A can of tomato paste, stirred in.
• A splash of red wine if I have it around
• Seasonings and herbs (whatever I feel like... dried basil, oregano, parsley, salt and pepper).  I don’t add much herbs though because I don’t want to take away from the tomato flavor.
• 1 or 2 cans of ground tomatoes, preferable San Marzano (I always stock up when they are on sale at Whole Foods)
• Bay leaf

Simmer on low, covered, 20-40 minutes, or longer if you want.
If its tasting too acidic for me, I'll add a teaspoon of sugar.
That's basically it. I'm not Italian, I don't have some secret family recipe, but this always comes out delicious.

I had a big salad at lunch that day so I was less worried about veggies tonight. I had a big bowl of sauce with some whole wheat penne.  I like less pasta and more sauce when I make a sauce like this!

Wednesday is usually dinner on your own as I go to Crossfit, and Brian has basketball.

Thursday we had Shrimp and Soba Noodles with Peanut Sauce!

I saw the peanut sauce/soba noodle recipe when Tina had it a couple weeks ago and it just sounded really good to me.

The recipe was from Runner’s World.  I sent Brian the link to start it, and I’d finish it when I got home.  Somehow he ended up at a different Soba Noodle with Peanut Sauce recipe on Runner’s Word…what are the odds!?  So I just adjusted it slightly when I got home.  The final recipe for the sauce was:

Peanut Sauce:

• 3T Peanut Butter
• 2T Water
• 4T low sodium soy sauce
• 1T honey
• 2T Chinese Rice Wine
• 1T champagne vinegar
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2T sesame oil
• 1/8 tsp crushed red pepper

In a large sauté pan I seared 1lb of shrimp on med/med-high heat for about 2 minutes per side.  Set the shrimp aside, and cooked up 1 bag of broccoli slaw.  Once the slaw was tender I added the sauce, cooked for 1 minute, and added back in the shrimp, and the cooked soba noodles. 

Toss all together, and serve topped with chopped scallions.

BIG FAN of this!!!  SO flavorful!!  Plus pretty easy.  I can definitely see this one added to the rotation.  Plus you could add so many different veggies/proteins!

I need to figure out how to get better at this. 

Sometimes I’ll even sit down, go through cookbooks, magazines, blogs…etc, and nothing strikes me.  Or I can’t remember where I saw something.  It really depends on the week.

How do you keep track of recipes you see online that you want to try??  Everyone says “oh I flagged this”  or “bookmarked” it…what exactly do you do??  Do you just add it to your “favorites”?  Or is there some website that keeps track of these things??  Right now I even have just a Google document where I’ll copy/paste a link of a recipe I want to remember…but there’s GOT to be a better way??

We’re on the downhill side of the week!!  2 more days till the weekend!  Easter Plans??  What are you making for Easter??  Any good ideas?

A Monday Mélange

Happy Monday Friends! 

What better way to start off the week than a nice post chock full of randomness!  But really, these are my favorite types of posts :)

So the weekend:

I had two Birthday’s to celebrate this past weekend…and exactly 29 years apart!

My friend’s daughter turned 1!!

There’s nothing better than watching a 1 year old go at it with her very own birthday cake!

She was particularly fond of the frosting…my kind of girl!

Later that night it was back into Boston to celebrate a friend’s 30th! 

I swear 30th birthday’s are the new “wedding” of 2012 for me…I have 30th birthday parties the next 2 weekends as well!

Saturday the party started with dinner at Marliave in downtown Boston.  I’ve never been before but it had some great reviews and it turned out to be a great spot!

It’s in a very old building downtown and they like to play up the old 1920’s speakeasy vibe.

I ordered the Tres Curieux and it was one of the best drinks I think I’ve EVER had!!  Perfect “Bridget” cocktail…tart, citrusy, not too sweet, refreshing, and best of all can’t taste the alcohol ;)

I had 2.

I’d go back just for this drink!  After dinner we headed over to Ned Devine’s for some drinks, music, and dancing!  I haven’t been there in a while…and still not my favorite place.  I felt slightly old too haha…but man the people watching was top notch!  And why are so many girls wearing like super tight super short black skirts!?  Like SOOO short, I was wondering if they were shorts or skirts?!  Ok, now I just sound old.

Side note:

I hung my super cute new kitchen-theme calendar my bff got me for Christmas

It’s from Anthropologie, and each month has an adorable water color image!  

Speaking of Anthro…I was LOVING my outfit today, unfortunately I had no luck with a photo.  I was too busy this morning, and Brian wasn’t home when I got home, then I had to run off to Crossfit.

So it was this Anthro dress I got 50% off after Christmas

Gold belt, red cardigan (Banana Republic)

(my sad attempt at the photo)

Fun off-white knit tights and navy wedges (Nine West)

New hair do!  Got my 12-week cut and color this weekend too!

Love that “new hair” smell and feel!

Some Food?

How about super fast, super convenient stir fry!!

I know I’ve mentioned it before but keeping a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer is a great staple to have in the house.

Then to make your life even easier, once in a while it’s ok to cheat it and have the lovely folks at Whole Foods chop your veggies.  I admit this is the first time I’ve ever bought their pre-cut “stir fry” veggies, but it was nice for a change. 

Add in 60 second Brown Rice…and dinner is served in NO time!

We did a quick stir fry with the following:

• chop 2-3 cloves garlic and sauté over med/high heat
• Add your veggies 
• start to season:  I used soy sauce, ground ginger, juice from 1/2 of a large orange, plus some zest, siracha sauce.
• Cook for 4-5 minutes, then add in shrimp.
• Add any more seasonings and sauces that you want.
• Cook until shrimp are done, if I don’t have a lot of liquid in my pan I’ll throw on the cover for a few minutes too.
• serve over brown rice

Boom!  Dinner.

As I said in my last post, usually on Sundays I cook a longer, more thought out meal, but that just doesn’t always happen.  Then nights like tonight where I go to Crossfit from 7-8pm, these fast dinners are REALLY helpful. 

Well I think that about does it for 1 post.  Have a great night!!

What’s your favorite seasonings/sauces to use in stir-fry's??  I always go right to the soy sauce, but it would be nice to switch it up!

White Turkey Chili & Favorite Roast Chicken

If I can make 2 or 3 home cooked dinners in a week, I’m happy.  I’ve actually felt pretty good about this lately.  Usually one of these meals takes a while, so I save those for Sundays or another night during the week where I know I’ll be home at a good time and have nothing else planned.

About a month ago I picked up a whole chicken at Whole Foods when they were on sale.  At the time I was in no mood for roast chicken with all the turkey we’d been eating during the holiday season but I knew it would be good to have in the freezer.

Well I was finally in the mood for roast chicken!

I’ve tried a few different recipes, but I have to say the most simple and MOST delicious is Thomas Keller’s method!  I’ve always put butter or olive oil on my chicken’s skin but Keller just adds salt and pepper to a dried off chicken and that’s it!

But seriously the skin gets SO crisp and the meat is so moist and flavorful!  I highly recommend you try this out sometime!  So easy!  Plus it roasts at a higher temp which takes less time…win win!

Note: I tie up the bird to truss the legs, but I don’t remove the wish bone beforehand…if you know how, go for it. 

For our chicken dinner, I also threw 2 sweet potatoes right in the oven with the chicken to bake. 

Meanwhile I sautéed some Brussels sprouts with olive oil, salt, pepper, and stirred in a little Dijon mustard at the end.

Nice rounded meal and tasted delicious too. 

Ok enough about the chicken (I just wanted to tell you guys about that recipe!), what I really wanted to share was the chili recipe!!

My best friend, Jocy, came up with a white turkey chili one day and it became a favorite of her family and friends :)  Since, you know, I got married and moved in with Brian, it’s been a while since I’ve had the chili!

She emailed me the basic recipe, and I tweaked it ever so slightly :)

J’s White Turkey & Bean Chili
4-6 servings

• 1 T olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 jalapeños, diced
• 1 lb lean ground turkey
• 2 cups chicken or turkey broth
• 2 cans cannellini beans
• 1 can garbanzo beans
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp cumin
• 10-12 shakes tobasco sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2T half & half
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar or other Mexican cheese, plus more for toppings
• sour cream
• cilantro
• tortilla chips
• avocado

In a large heavy bottom pot or Dutch oven, heat oil over med heat.  Add onion, garlic, and jalapeños.  Sauté for 4-5 minutes until onions start to soften.  Add turkey and continue cooking until mostly cooked through.  Add broth, beans, and spices.  Stir, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 10 min partially covered. 

Now take a potato masher and mash the chili until the beans are partially mashed.  Don’t worry you’re not making everything mushy, but breaking down the beans a little bit will add creaminess without adding cream!

But I still added a couple Tablespoons of half & half for some extra creaminess, along with the cheese.  Add the cream and cheese and stir until the cheese is all melted. 

Time to dig in!!

Top with sour cream, chopped cilantro, more cheese, and tortilla chips for dipping!

Add more tobasco sauce if you’d like as well. 

This was warm, creamy, and filling!  It was also still chunky enough to scoop up with some blue corn tortilla chips!  At this point I remembered the avocado..delicious on top as well. 

This chili also came together pretty fast!  Brian helped chop the onion, garlic, and jalapeños while I was at Crossfit then I cooked it up when I got home!  Only took about 25 min to get dinner on the table :)

So glad this week is half over!!  What’s been your favorite meal this week??

My Birthday in Wine Country

While my birthday was not the reason for the trip, I was thrilled to be able to celebrate my special day in such a beautiful part of the country!

Nov 7, 2011

Woke up to the smell of bacon and French toast at our B&B in Healdsburg.

Why can’t there be platters of fresh fruit waiting for me every morning??  (Brian I’m talking to you…;)

Coffee, of course, and I really want these mugs!  Best part is that I saw them at Sur La Table a few days later!! 

One thing I really wanted to do on our vacation was go for a hike and see some Redwoods!  So that is just what we did after breakfast.  

We swung by the market to grab sandwiches to pack for lunch and drove out to the Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve.

That old stump makes Brian look like a miniature size person!!!  

Seeing those trees in person is indescribable…they are just so marvelous, and HUGE!

After hiking and a picnic lunch we stopped by a couple wineries on our way back to the B&B.

The properties were all so gorgeous.

Once we returned, changed, rested, and enjoyed cocktail hour at the B&B…we headed to dinner.

Cyrus restaurant.  I debated for a while on where I wanted to have my birthday dinner….there are just SO many amazing restaurants out there!!  Ultimately I chose Cyrus because I’ve never been to a Michelin star restaurant (Cyrus has 2 Michelin stars), and have never had this type of multi-course dinner “experience” before. 

And an experience it was! 

The photo above was taken at the end of the night…we had 7:30 reservations (ideally you would go earlier), and didn’t leave until around 11!   The place was packed when we arrived though.

 

I’ll apologize now for the low-lit craptastic iphone photos, but I HAD to document this meal and it was NOT the time or place to be whipping out my big DSLR…so discrete iphone photos it was!

After sitting down and starting to look over the menus, a cart (the first of many that evening) comes rolling over with a selection of champagne and caviar.  The cart also contained an old fashion scale to weigh out your selections. 

We decided to pass on the caviar this time ;)

Next up was a tower of canapés to stimulate all the different taste buds and flavors: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and Umami

 

Starting from the bottom:

Umami - a mushroom broth (can’t remember the type of mushroom). 

Sweet - Next level on one of the spoons was a grape “bubble”: not quite sure how it’s done but it was a bubble that popped in your mouth containing a sweet grape liquid.  So interesting!

Bitter – Another spoon held a grapefruit gel with candied grapefruit peel

Salty – A small gruyere cheese puff (delicious!)

Sour -  carrot pixi stix!!  (shown below), inside those straws was a sour carrot powder that you ate like a pixi stick!!  So creative!  Granted mine went down wrong and I was coughing for a while after, but I loved the concept.

I enjoyed a refreshing cocktail:

The “Pomiranian”
Hangar One Orange Blossom Vodka, Pomegranate Juice, Lime Juice, Black Pepper-Allspice Syrup,
Pomegranate Seeds, Fresh Mint

 

The Amuse Bouche was a parfait of 4 squashes.  I don’t have this one written down but it was four different squashes in different forms/textures all layered.  We were told to dig down to the bottom to get all 4 layers in a bite.

One of MY favorite parts was a warm bread basket that kept coming around with 5 or 6 different types of bread, rolls, and biscuits all waiting to be tasted. 

I started with a pretzel croissant and a brioche bun…

2 types of butter: cows milk and goats milk
and 2 types of salt: sea salt and pink Hawaiian salt

For our meals I opted for the 8-course tasting menu and Brian went with the 5 course but with wine pairings.  There is no way I’d be able to drink all that wine!! 

They are also very accommodating in that you could switch items from the vegetarian tasting menu if something catches your eye. 

I did just that with my first course: Chestnut and Sherry soup with chestnut confit, fennel cream.

Brian’s was the Shima Aji Sashimi with Oxtail-Umeshu Consommé, Quail Egg and Myoga

Next up for both of us was the Roasted Lobster with Cauliflower Cream, Uni Emulsion.

One of my favorites of the night (lobster…no brainer there), but that cauliflower cream was delightful and paired SO well with the lobster.

Third course for both of us: Halibut with Braised Romaine, Yuzu Kosho Butter.

Such a tender piece of fish.  I’ve never had halibut this rare but it melted in your mouth.

Next was my 4th course while Brian “sat out” this round. 

Steamed Matsutake with Pine Nuts, Junsai and Mitsuba.  For someone who doesn’t exactly “love” mushrooms (texture issue), I was proud of myself this night. 

This was served with the paper thin slices of Matsutake in the bowl and the hot broth was poured over table side, collapsing the mushroom slices like tissue paper.

Course 4 For Brian – Prime Striploin with Potato, Short Rib, and Crimini, Sauce Bordelaise.

I loved everything about this!!  Those little light colored cylinders were the potato, the little cubes were the short rib, and the little circles were crimini sauce. The flavors were incredible.

Course 5 for me: Crispy Chicken thigh with truffled risotto and celery, parmesan foam.

This course for both of us was a huge hit!  The chicken was so tender with a contrast of the crispy skin, and the risotto was divine and creamy.  

My 6th course might have been the best…it involved another cart rolling over to the table but this time it was full of CHEESE!!!

You can kind of see the cheese cart in this pictures behind the table.  The tower in front is all of the accompaniments.

The menu stated a selection of 3 cheeses, but our waitress was awesome and let us taste more.  I chose 4 but she was ready to slice off even more for us.

Again, I do not have the names of these. but I know there was a triple cream in there, a bit of Epoisses which is a very stinky cheese!  (I looove stinky cheese),  a goats milk cheese with ash rind, and the hard cheese was a sheep's milk.

Brian’s 5-course didn’t have a cheese course, but this was plenty for the two of us!

Next up was my most anticipated item of the evening as I had read about it in reviews!

The Birthday surprise!!

That contraption right there has a balloon attached to a valve connecting to this lit up dome covered plate.  Inside the dome are two perfectly warm chocolate chip cookies and cocoa powder scattered throughout.

The birthday person gets to flip the lever on the valve, and all the air inside the balloon is released into the dome causing all the cocoa powder to fly around like a snowball shaker!!

It’s just a fun way to acknowledge the birthday!

Plus those cookies might have been my favorite part of dessert…fresh, warm, gooey…

Along with the cookies, we received mini chocolate egg creams 

Next were the real desserts.  I had a 7th and 8th course dessert.  The first one was

Yuzu Cremeux, Bergamot Meringue and cream
cheese ice cream…

Those “pieces” in there are the meringue but also the ice cream!  The cream cheese ice cream was flash frozen (liquid nitrogen can do that) and broken into pieces…it was like grown up Dippin’ Dots!

For our final dessert choices, I went with:

Warm Bananas with Hazelnut and Milk Chocolate…

Brian had the:
Vanilla Bean Fontainebleau with Apple Ice, Farina Fritters

The fun didn’t stop there though… 

The final cart they roll over to your table is the Sweets Cart!!  At the end of your meal you can choose any of the candies on this cart and as many as you’d like!

There were homemade lollipops, jellies, marshmallows, caramels, chocolates, truffles…anything!

They also give you a little gift box containing a little pastry to take home and luckily there was room in the box for our candies because I was WAY too full to eat them then.

But if that wasn’t the icing on the birthday cake…with the check came two mini hot bourbon glazed donuts..

Yeah.  Don’t worry those were eaten right then and there…I mean they were hot!  

If you add it all up it’s more like 12 or 13 courses…also the most expensive dinner we’ve ever had, but it was definitely worth it!  You’re paying not only for the food but for the amazing experience and top notch service.

 

They also provide you with a nice print out of the menu you selected all night with the date, your name, and what you were celebrating!

I’ll always remember this birthday!!  Good thing too since I plan on having many more 29th birthdays in the future ;)