Grain & Kale

Made this with quinoa instead of kasha tonight:

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/kasha-kale-pancetta

Added chopped ginger to the quinoa pot, which made the dish extra exciting.  Here's a pic of the leftovers portion:

Chinese Leftovers Brunch Hack

We ordered chinese from Win Garden the other night.  The dishes were: fried rice, mapo tofu, green beans.  The leftovers seems a bit lackluster and insufficiently healthy, so I did the following with them:
- added raw chopped lacinato kale into the mix before microwaving them
- topped with a poached egg, made with the help of this Jamie Oliver video

The result was delicious:

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.