Culinary Re-cap

So for this week's tasty eatings...

Sunday we had Justin's side of the family over for dinner. He brined/corned his own brisket this year for St. Pat's. A couple days late, but it was delicious. Aparently the part that turns the brisket pink contains sodium nitrite. We have read that it is toxic if consumed by itself - careful people. Justin has been getting pretty creative in preparing large hunks of meat. And this one was delicious. He also made boiled cabbage and potatoes, your general Irish fare. For appetizers he made homemade pork dumplings. We got a dim sum steamer from the asian market just down the street (how convenient!!) and they were great. This recipe has a thick, sweet dough - a perfect compliment to the tangy pork filling. Yum.

Monday was left over beef bourguignon. Early this week everyone kept telling me they read the blog and thought I was crazy for spending so much time in the kitchen. It's fun, I love it. A few friends have said they feel stupid and have no idea what the stuff I make is, I just laugh. Nothing we eat is that crazy or odd.

Tuesday my brother and sister came into town, but not until late. I was starving after teaching lab in the aftenoon, probably because it was 90 degrees in there and we were teaching taping techniques. Not my favorite subject... Anyway, I stopped at Hy Vee to grab some dumpling wrappers to use the rest of the pork Justin made. There were no leftovers of his dough, too delicious. So we had a nice appetizer of steamed pork dumplings with spicy hot ginger soy dipping sauce. For dinner Megan and Derek wanted mexican - not a whole lot of selection for good, late-night Mexican. We went to Hector's, they have yummy margaritas!

Wednesday and Thursday, not a whole lot. The week got busy and both of us were tired. But Friday - Roman Coin pizza. I think it is the best pizza in town. Soooo goooood. This time was combination. Perfect crust, a nice sweet sauce, and perfect ratio of toppings and cheese. It never disappoints. I had a cold piece this morning for breakfast. :)

Today we stopped at Bruegger's for lunch. I LOVE their bagel sandwiches. And I could eat them everyday. Justin had his usual, smoked salmon, and I tried the cheddar, spinach and egg sandwich on sundried tomato. It was a good choice. Now Justin is sitting in the middle of the kitchen with a book making Schweinshaxe. (ShwINEs-hox) It's a German pork shank dish, my dad introduced it to us at Hessen Haus in Des Moines. Justin bought a German cookbook afterward that was supposed to have every German dish that is traditional, and it wasn't in there. Either the book isn't complete, or this dish is fake German. Either way I don't care. It smells soooo good. There is a whole bunch of clove and mustard seed in the meat rub. Can't wait! He's a pic of it simmering in the oven.

So tomorrow it's my turn. I took a venison eye of round of the freezer. My dad told me it should be sliced thin, either for stroganoff or fajita meet. I can't decide what to make yet. I have a recipe from my Aunt Mary for a asian merinade that uses molasses, mustard and ginger. I'm leaning toward that recipe.... we'll see!

Justin's Birthday

Yesterday was Justin's birthday. I had the entire menu planned out from breakfast on through after dinner dessert. Let's start with breakfast. The night before I started making the dough for cinnamon rolls. I've heard tons of great things about the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls, and I coworker and I were just talking about them earlier this week. Pioneer Woman, for those of you who are familiar, was a city girl that fell in love with a rancher and moved out into the country with him. She cooks. And I mean cooks. Her recipes (found in her blog and cookbooks) do not disappoint. After I started reading through the recipe I realized 1) Anything with 2 cups of butter is going to be fabulous 2) This recipe yields 40 cinnamon rolls! I made 3 cake pans full, and still have dough wrapped up in the fridge.

They were pretty easy to make, just took some time and patience. After you heat milk, oil, and sugar and then add yeast,  you slowly combine in the dry ingredients. Let the dough rise, and then add the rest of the ingredients. At this point I had one ginormous ball of dough. I rolled out the dough in sections, pouring melted butter and cinnamon 'n sugar over the rectangular shaped blob. You roll them up, cut into pieces, and place into baking dishes. I found that the most paste-like the inner sugar is, the easier they are to roll up and stay into neat circles, rather than blobs. I decided to show you the nice circles and not the blobs. No one needs to see exactly how bad they were! They took about 16 minutes in the oven, and during that time I made orange marmalade frosting, just for Justin. I thought they were great, but don't look as appealing as they taste. I work on that next time!

Justin said he didn't want anything for his birthday (yeah, yeah, OK!). So what did I get? More kitchen stuff! Ok, so I profit from this too, whatever. We're married now. What's his is mine and what mine is mine. :) I got him a few new knives from W-S, a new garlic peeler, and microplane grater, and some Crane Coffee beans. You can never have too many knives. We have an old knife that I like, but it is getting dull despite the sharpening and Justin keeps yelling at me for using it. I suppose we might have to "misplace it" when we move out of the apartment. As for the garlic peeler - this is the most amazing kitchen invention of all time. We have had one of these, but it has disappeared. We had to peel garlic the old fashioned way for a month, so deprived. Pop in the garlic to the tube, roll it on the counter, BAM. Peeled garlic. Careful, get too carried away and you have mashed garlic, too!

So now for the good stuff. I also booked hour-long massages for Justin and I early afternoon. I did all the prep cutting and arranging of ingredients before we went. After we got back, I started getting the beef bourguignon ready. I have fallen in love with Julia Child. She is fabulous. I've watched several cooking shows of her on YouTube, and my grandmother has her complete set on VHS. Julia Child loves bacon. Don't be alarmed by what I'm going to talk about next. Vegetarians, skip down a paragraph or two.

Lardons. Yes, root word 'lard'. Bacon. I got slab bacon from our butcher. Again when I was buying it he asked me how thick I wanted it cut. Leave it alone - I need it slab! I used a generous 6 oz and cut it into 1 1/2" by 1/4" pieces. You actually simmer that bacon, and then saute it. Yum. After sauteeing the stew meet and onion and carrot, you combine it all into a dutch oven and add your juices.

Of course you have to use wine from Bourgogne if you are making Beef Bourguignon. I found this one at Whole Foods. So this is what it looks like when it is ready to simmer in the over for 3-4 hours.

Meanwhile, Justin is mixing wine from a kit we got for our wedding. They provide different combinations, and then you make a blend of your own. After you pick what you want, you can order it by the case from this company. Dangerous! So while Justin was pipetting wine and swirling and sniffing, I was making Gougeres. The first 'e' in the word has an accent, but I can't add it into Blogger. These are little cheese puff pasteries. This recipe is from our Bride & Groom cookbook from W-S. They described them as little, buttery snacks, great for appetizers or late-night snacks. And they did not disappoint. After nearly developing tendonitis from trying to stir this thick dough and adding one egg at a time, these cheese, butter, egg, flour, gruyere, and cayenne puffs were a great little snack to help the wine go down. I will be making these again, no doubt.

So those were in the oven, the beef is still simmering... time to make dessert. Chocolate pots de creme. (Yes another accent - I'm about to complain into Blogger.) Also from our Bride & Groom cookbook, these are made of 60% or more bittersweet cocoa bars, milk, cream, sugar, and egg yolks. That's it. You gently melt the chopped chocolate into the heated cream and milk, then gently combine it into the egg yolk and sugar paste.

Next, I poured the mix through a sieve into a glass measuring cup. This takes out all the bigger pieces of chocolate that didn't fully mix and any egg yolk that didn't get incorporated. Pour the chocolate mix into ramekins nesting in a water bath and bake lightly covered with fo

il for 1/2 an hour until set. Chill for 2 hours or overnight.

For a side dish I choose pancetta wrapped radicchio. Alright, so the radicchio would have been much healthier without the pancetta, or the olive oil for that matter, but hey - it was Justin's birthday. You have one life, I'd rather spend it eating good food. I wedged the radicchio, lightly drizzled olive oil and salt and pepper over, then wrapped it with the pancetta pieces. Ready for the oven to roast for 15 minutes or so.

So were are about 1 hour from dinner at this point. The next step for the stew is preparing the onion and mushrooms. The pearl onions were peeled and ends cut off, the mushrooms quartered. Sautee each, then the onions are covered and allowed to simmer another 40 minutes with a bay leave, thyme, and parsley. Next you remove the beef's juices through a sieve and discard the onion and carrot bits. Simmer down the juices until you get the consistency you want. After these are all done (and you've made either potatoes, rice, or pasta to serve under the bourguignon) you combine and serve!

It was great. The meat perfectly tender, all the right flavors, and great company. Justin said he was jealous I was making this dish first. I told him he could help, but he declined. It's his birthday, he deserves to just sit back.

After dinner - pots de creme. I made some espresso and then put some of the leftover whipped cream on top. YUM!!! The cold custa

rd and creme with hot coffee. Perfect after dinner combination. The recipe made 6, I'm glad there are 4 more in the fridge for me later!

So, overall a great culinary feat. I might have gained an pound or two, screw it. French cooking at it's finest. Thank you Ree (PW) and Julia for the inspiration, it turned out great. Happy Birthday, Justin!

Spring Cleaning Part 2: The Great Purge

I thought I was productive yesterday, but today put a whole new meaning to the word. Justin and I did a complete 180 on the apartment. I started with the office. I was cleaning off bookshelves and found notes from undergrad. I guess I saved them thinking I would reference them again in the future, or need them at some point in my future career. Riiiight. That would involve me remembering what was in the courses, or the courses themselves, to even think about going back to find something. Not only did I find some of my own old notebooks, but I had one of my freshman roommate Renee's!! I had her economics binder! Yikes - that means that it made 1, 2, 3, 4, 5..... nope - 6 moves! I really need to get better about this.
After accomplishing 4 giant piles of recycling and a huge box of books to take to Goodwill, I decided my desk had spent it's last day. I bought the thing at Walmart my sophmore year, I'm sure it didn't cost me more than $40. The cheap wood was warping from one too many UV Blue and vodka spills, and one of the supporting side panels was barely hanging on. Too much weight on one side could have brought the whole thing down. So I cleaned out the drawers and the cubbys. In the back of the bottom cubby I had a giant bag of highlighters. Not a mix of pens, markers, pencils, but just highlighters. How do I hang onto this crap for so long?!?! And because my aunt works for 3M and provides a generous amount of post-its in our Christmas stockings, I filled a small shoebox with several pads of them. So we took out the desk, and for one moment we had some free space somewhere in our second bedroom. That didn't last long as I transplanted some totes with my Christmas decorations into the corner.
At this point Justin was working on laundry mountain that had erupted in our bedroom. He started dividing old T's into keep and Goodwill piles. Alright! Let's keep this ball rolling! I started going through my closet and drawers. Together we made 8 rather large bags of donations to Goodwill. It took me 4 trips to carry the stuff out to my car - I better drop the stuff off tomorrow or my gas mileage might decrease dramatically. ;)
Justin bought a new computer that hooks up to our TV a couple weeks ago, so the old one that he attempted to fix a couple times was just taking up space in the corner of the living room. I considered it a black hole. Anything that ended up on that desk seemed to vanish forever. So Justin took out his hard drive and decided to donate it to the lab for them to do something with it. Yeah - more space!! We still have his stereo there along with an end table, but still. It looks less cluttered.
I also started a massive project, it may have been too much to take on. Somehow Justin accidentally applied for a subscription to Better Homes and Gardens. It doesn't show up on any bills or statements, and we have been receiving the stupid magazine for probably 3 years now. Along with BH&G I have several old copies of Rachel Ray magazine and other cooking magazines. I've started going through all of them and tearing out the recipes that I want. No one needs to carry 100 lbs of magazines up the Al-can highway. I have a binder and the pocket sheets to organize them. As of now, Rachel Ray is done and about 3/4 of the BH&G is finished. I can't decide if I'm actually going to try to organize them by type of dish yet or not. We'll see how it goes. I just might do the same thing with my Women's Health.... OK, one thing at a time.
I want to find a scanner that I can turn all of my PT school notes into electronic documents, but that may take several weekends on end to accomplish that task.
Despite all this, there are still several things on my list of things to do. Tomorrow night I will be making chocolate cupcakes with chocolate granache and working on some work for the residency. Last week when I was sick a co-worker covered one afternoon for me, so I figured cupcakes would be fair compensation. If they turn out alright, they just might be the next blog!

Spring Cleaning

So the past few weeks (OK, months) my strict cleaning and tidying habits have completely gone out the window. I used to perform a good cleaning about once a week, but who knows where that ambition went. I don't think the kitchen table has been completely cleared since I had some friends over for a holiday party in December. Magazines, stacks of papers, shoes scattered in the entry have caused tripping hazards, meals in the living room because there are no spots at the table, and lost documents for far too long now. This morning I woke up with some gumption, and I went with it.
I started with the coffee table. Somehow this 2x4 ft piece of wood gathered enough clutter to be stacked about 4 inches high in some areas. Avalanche warnings might have been in effect if this had gone on any longer.
Then dusting. I like dusting. Weird, yes, but I don't mind it. I use those swiffer dusters that gather all the yucky stuff and then you throw it out! Genius! So that went quick...
Vacuuming. We have two dogs. We should have been a bit more selective when picking out Izzy and Hondo from the Humane Society, but after seeing them with their sad eyes and instant connection with us, there was no other choosing to be done. Izzy sheds, but Hondo seems to molt. His wirey white hairs seems to get stuck to everything. And if something is white, his black hairs somehow have navigation to cling to it's surface. And I can't stand the dog hair. I have tried tons of mits, lint rollers, yada yada to rid us of the hair. I love that our new couch is leather - I can just brush it off!! So back to vacuuming. Justin got me a nice vacuum after the last one went kaput. It was a nice gift, I wasn't even offended. So it's a pretty nice vacuum, specific for dog hair. Today it just didn't seem to be doing the job. I turned the setting from medium pile to shag. Still nothing. It wasn't even picking up the little pieces of dried leafs that had fallen off my plant that I killed. (No surprise there.) I checked the filter, the collection canister, tubing. Nothing. So I turned it over on it's side for inspection. I was MORTIFIED. I can no longer get mad at the dogs for shedding as that would make me quite the hypocrit. There was enough hair wrapped in the bottom to donate to locks for love to give a little girl with leukemia a cute little bob. So I cut and pulled it all out. Second attempt - success. I could not believe how much it pulled up. Not sure if I should really be sharing this, but I emptied the canister twice after putting the vacuum back into the closet. I'm never letting that happen again! Good news is the carpet looks pretty nice.
So the next hurdle was the kitchen table. Stacks of mail from new health coverage at the hospital, student loan info, my PT magazines, and yes, still Christmas cards. I sorted it all into groups, purged all that wasn't important into the recycling, but then I seemed to loose steam at this point. The kitchen table is still covered, but in neat stacks of papers, magazines, and books that I'm sure will only take a few moments to really finish. Maybe tomorrow... but that was reserved for laundry. Laundry I don't mind - it's the putting it away. Hmm, do we see a pattern here??

Recent Projects

Two of my recent projects were booties and baby hats for two of my girlfriends that had a baby and are expecting. I used Ravelry to find the patterns, then found the yarn at String of Purls. SoP is a yarn shop here in Omaha that has some lovely yarns. Not a huge selection, but pretty and soft. They are also very helpful in recommendations and tips. I think that if I didn't work (ha!) I would sit in their shop all day with a cappucino or latte and just knit. I'd probably get carpal tunnel, and my wardrobe would be knit everything. But we don't have to worry about that.

So the booties. These were pretty quick and easy to make. I used 3-ply yarn for each. The first picture it the set I made for baby Camila, my friend Kendra's first child. The second are for my friend Victoria who is expecting her first. I think I like the little, quick knits. I think I made each bootie in about an hour and a half. You aren't constantly picking up and putting down the project. Get it done in one sitting - very nice. The second set was created 40,000 ft in air on my way to New Orleans. The old lady sitting next to me wouldn't leave me alone and kept asking about my knitting, annoying.

So now onto the next project. I am making a winter combo for my sister. We picked out her yarn the last time I was home. I finished the scarf and headband so now I'm working on the fingerless mittens. You'd think that I would have gotten that project finished while recoving from this cold, but my head is so congested that I can't keep track of my stitches and count rows. Maybe there will be a snow storm in April she could use them for....

What's important is how you got there, not what you accomplished

I started to get a sore throat last night. Yesterday evening I started getting a headached at the top of my neck and straight through to my sinuses. I made it through a work out and then out for sushi and drinks with a couple that Justin and I are friends with. This morning my throat felt like what I imagine would be the Saraha desert - burning, dry, parched. So I decided it would be a relaxing morning on the couch with cup after cup of my Traditional Medicinals Gypsy Cold Care tea, vitamin C and zinc. While web browsing for some recipes to make on Tuesday for Mardi Gras, I started to flip through the Netflix recommendations based on our recent viewings. One documentary that was suggested was 180' South. It is a film about a man's quest to climb Corcadova, a mountain in Patagonia. I thought of it kind of like Into the Wild, but for South America. Half-way through, Justin has come home from a few hours at work with cough drops and medicine and starts to watch with me. This man's travels and perspectives on life got us more excited about potentially moving to Alaska this summer. Chile has always been a country that is towards the top of my list to visit and explore. This documentary just helped it raise to the top of the list. If you get a chance, check it out. Great film!

http://www.180south.com/index.html