Apple Cider Old Fashioned

We made this drink, inspired by Brad's winter cocktails party.

http://www.completelydelicious.com/2013/10/apple-cider-old-fashioned-cocktail.html

We used freshly juiced cider, Japanese whisky, and brown sugar.  It was delish.

Potato Latkes

We made these for a visit to the Sparks:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/potato-latkes-recipe2.html

J. S. fried them onsite just prior to serving.  They were tasty.

Apple Roses

In my attempt at Apple Roses, I learned that phillo dough and puff pastry sheet are not the same thing.  It was a painful lesson that resulted in a labor intensive baked good of inferior quality.  And, while I still have no idea where to get puff pastry sheets, I now have more insight into how baklava is made.

Recipe inspiration: http://cookingwithmanuela.blogspot.com/2015/03/apple-roses.html

Result:

Quinoa & Hot Dog Quiches

Today, we made a version of this recipe, thinking they'd be healthy & cute: http://iowagirleats.com/2012/02/16/mini-ham-cheese-quinoa-cups/

Well, they were sorta cute, but a bitch to get out of the pan.

And, in the end, no one liked them :(

Deconstructed Stuffed Cabbage

N.'s Russian heritage inspired us to make this lazy man's version of a famous dish.

The recipe comes from page 109 of this cookbook: https://8b862ca0073972f0472b704e2c0c21d0480f50d3.googledrive.com/host/0Bxd6wdCBD_2tdUdtM0d4WTJmclU/good-and-cheap.pdf

The result is not very pretty, but fed us for nearly a week:

We used 1lb of ground beef & 1/2 a package of bacon as the protein component, skipping the lentils.

Overnight oats with chia seeds

Today I took my chia seed pudding to the next level, by working oatmeal into it.  the key to this dish is the right portions of the three key ingredients and their flavorings.  Here's what I put in:

Key Ingredients
- 1.3 cups TJ unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 2 under filled tablespoons chia seeds

Flavoring
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- pinch of salt

Toppings
- sliced apples, b/c it's fall

The dish was inspired by this article: http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/common-mistakes/article/how-to-make-overnight-oats.

Remade on:

Oct 9, 2015

Dec 4, 2015 topped w/persimmons and blood orange slices

TJ Sunday Supper

Appetizers:

Salad of arugula, tomatoes, avocado
- dressed w/flavored EVOO & lemon juice & salt
Goat milk brie
Roasted garlic loaf

Main Course:

TJ pre marinated Maui Shortribs, made on a grill
corn on the cobb
grilled bell peppers

Dessert:

Watermelon

Drinks:

N&J wedding red

Company:

Yan & his gf, who didn't show up

Chia Pudding Parfait

Today, for breakfast, we had a coconut almond milk chia pudding stone fruit parfait.  We mixed  it the night before.  It was inspired by this recipe:

http://kaleandchocolate.com/recipe/mango-chia-pudding-parfait/

Here's our, less glamorous, pic:

It was quite delicious, and we should totally make this again.

Remade on:

2016-Apr-02 w/matcha

Casual Weeknight Salmon

-8 oz of salmon in the middle

-TJ's roasted red peppers on the bottom

-Bacon on top

Arrange the above in a bread pan, add salt & pepper and a bit of lemon juice. Roast at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes. Bacon was a bit undercooked at this point so we took the salmon and peppers out and continued cooking the bacon for ~5 minutes longer.

Serve alongside buttered ears of corn (or some other vegetable).

Remade on:
Sep 30, 2015 - with frozen mango chunks, apple slices, and roasted peppers (started on stovetop in cast iron pan, finished in oven)

Tumeric Almond Latte

This was loosely based on this recipe: http://kaleandchocolate.com/recipe/creamy-turmeric-latte/, and this interpretation: https://instagram.com/p/3aUsnjCMEh/

I just used dry spices - turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, cayenne.  And melted butter instead of ghee.

Beef Chuck Roll Roast

J. made a classic beef roast today from The Science of Good Cooking book.  For the veggies we used purple carrots and orange beets from the farmers' market.  The cut of beef was called chuck roll and was $11/lb at the fancy Bernal Heights butcher shop.  The result was amazing.  Not sure if that was due to the good science, good beef, or the good cook.

Texas Brisket

Last night, inspired by our Passover meal, we made brisket.  We served it with corn on the cob & baked asparagus:

Here's the recipe we used:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/texas-oven-roasted-beef-brisket-recipe.html

It was tasty, and fatty.

Banana Bread

N. came across some mildly overripe bananas in the office kitchen.  We were inspired to save them by way of banana bread baking.

J. found this recipe as a starting point:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/banana-bread-recipe.html

We added a bit of walnuts and chocolate chunks towards the end, to make it more exciting!

Here we are folding the ground cinnamon (gift from M. & C.) into the mushed banana mixture:

And, here's the final product:

It turned out amazingly well and was surprisingly easy.  Now there's no excuse for letting bananas go to waste.

Remade on:

2016-03-13

Bacon Wrapped Dates

N. started wrapping dates in bacon years ago, most likely inspired by a dish in a tapas restaurant.  Now, bacon wrapped dates are a staple of N&J cooking, so it's hard to believe they haven't made it into this blog yet.  They are present at most parties we host and are often made as a festive appetizer to casual home meals.

Here are the basic of how it's done.

Ingredients:

- 3X wooden toothpicks

- 1X bacon strips

- 3X dates, pitted

Fabrication Steps:

1. Soak toothpicks in water.

2. Preheat oven to 410F.

3. Cut bacon strips in even thirds.

4. Wrap dates in bacon, securing with wet toothpick, arranging in a single layer on an ungreased baking dish.

5. Bake for 25 min.

No matter how often we make them, there are never any leftover bacon wrapped dates to tuppie.

Carnitas

J. enjoys roasting large chunks of meat. Today we tried carnitas. We used this recipe from our favorite blogger:

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2011/11/homesick-texan-carnitas/

They turned out a bit dry, but delicious nonetheless:

We assembled them into tacos with TJ salsa and avo, as follows:

Remade on:

2015-02-12 with fancier meet from local butcher and kept moister

Vegetable Juicing

We got a fancy juicer for Christmas this year.  It's exciting.  We're using it to make vegetable juices with just a hint of fruit to have them be nominally healthier.

Today's juice ingredients:

Here's how it looked as the juice & the waste come out of the device:

We've found that the presence of beets totally governs the color of the juice, while a bit of ginger totally dictates the flavor.

Remade on:

2015-01-12 when our 25lb bag of carrots arrived from grubmarket.com

2015-01-17 in honor of 99 cent kale at the corner store

2015-02-28 for N. by N.

Beef/Turkey Chili

Our next adventure in Dutch oven use involved making chili.  We used this recipe from AH^2 as an inspiration:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/simple-turkey-chili/

But, we modified it as follows:

- used 1/2lb of ground beef instead of 1lb ground turkey
- added 3 strips of bacon, chopped
- used mostly Guinness instead of water
- doubled the oregano & added basil
- used smoked paprika instead of regular
- added sliced carrots to the mirepoix
- added kale towards the end of cooking

Here's the result:

The seasoning level was a bit high for N., but J. liked it.  We served it with leftover cornbread.  Overall, it was a success.

Remade on:
2015-01-18 with 1lb ground turkey this time; added extra liquid to make it more soup-like
2015-03-17 with celery in the mirepoix as well

Turkish Spinach Stew

One of our goals for the year is to use our shiny new Dutch oven more.  To that end, we've solicited everyone for their favorite Dutch oven recipes.

This one was from AH^2:

http://seasonalcookinturkey.blogspot.com.tr/2014/01/spinach-with-mince-and-onionkymal.html

Here's how it looked:

We found That it had great texture, but was slightly underseasoned.  Added some strange red spice powder J. picked up in India.  That somewhat helped, but further seasoning tweaking may be in order.

We served this with Greek yogurt.