May 3: Taco Night!

As many of you know, I am a huge veggie taco fan. Excessive veggie taco fan. Would eat them three nights a week if I could (and I used to when I lived alone). More often than not, we have the bulk of these ingredients in our house for a quick, easy meal.

We had an avocado left over, so I made a quick guacamole with the ingredients we had in the house. I chopped up two smaller tomatoes and diced a bit of red onion (maybe about a 1/3 of a large red onion).

Only two days ahead of Cinco de Mayo. Oh well.

Into this mixture, I added juice from a freshly squeezed lime and some salt.

Red pepper, it is not your turn yet. Back off the cutting board!

I added a medium sized avocado. I cube the avocado before scooping it out into the bowl. While holding the halved avocado in my hand, I (very) carefully use the knife to cut diagonally across the avocado in both directions (see below), so it comes out cubed. I find it's much easier to mash it this way.

I am not sure how I took this photo, now that I'm looking at it. I do not have a third arm, so maybe the spoon is wedged in the avocado, and is not being held by my right hand. How mysterious.

Here is everything all mixed together...were we to have fresh cilantro, I would have added that as well.

I taste the guacamole periodically to be sure it has enough salt and lime, and balance it out as needed. And because I am usually starving and staring at guacamole without eating it takes tremendous willpower that I do not have.

For the taco filling, I slice about half of a red onion and a pepper (green, red, whatever we have) into strips and pan fry it with a little olive oil.

We also include some rinsed canned black beans. You can pop them in the microwave for about 2 minutes, and they come out completely cooked.

After the veggies are done cooking, I wipe out the pan to get rid of the excess olive oil, and warm the tortillas. They get nice and soft after about 2 minutes on each side. My favorites are the El Milagro corn tortillas.

We pile everything into the taco shell. These tacos included the black beans, the cooked pepper and red onion, a scoop of jarred salsa, grated cheddar cheese, sour cream, the guacamole and some diced radishes on top.  

Yum! I love how colorful these tacos are.

Start to finish, with making a mini guacamole probably takes about 15 minutes. They are super easy and a quick dinner option if you are short on time, especially if you use the canned black beans. If you're looking for meat options, we've made them with seasoned chicken breasts, leftover steak, pan-fried fish, etc. with minor modifications in the ingredients (for example, adding cabbage, taking out cheese and making quick lime zest/sour cream concoction for fish tacos) based on what we have and what will go well with the protein being used. Chicken breasts marinated in taco seasoning or other spices also goes well.

In my opinion, the avocado is good simply diced and put on top of the taco, if you don't have the time/energy/ingredients to create a makeshift guacamole.

April 28: Grilled Chicken, Rosemary Polenta and Salad with Ginger-Shallot Dressing

For a quick Thursday dinner, Paul and I decided to grill some chicken (marinated in an Asian-peanut type dressing), alongside the final pieces of the rosemary polenta (I know, from like 2 weeks ago. I do not like to throw things out -- especially yummy things!). We had ingredients to make a salad, and to pair with the chicken -- we decided to make it "Asian-inspired" as well. How very Top Chef of me...just kidding.

I chopped up some shallots and ginger.

The shallots, ginger and minced garlic all went into the food processor to be blended. I added olive oil and some rice wine vinegar. I also added a tablespoon of water, based on the suggestion from one of our cookbooks. That was a great idea -- I would normally just dump in more olive oil to thin the dressing out, which may end up making it more oily than it needs to be.

About 3/4 of the way there -- I ran it through a few more times to get it smooth.

It took a few minutes to get it to the right consistency -- I had to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl in order to get everything blended together and not lumpy.

Crunchy! Just realizing now that the radishes may have contributed to the bitterness of the salad as well.

We added some thinly sliced radishes and carrots to the lettuce. I did think the shallot flavor came through too strongly in the dressing. You put them in raw, which is what the book suggested, but I think I will pan fried them to soften the flavor up a little bit next time. There was some nice onion breath happening in our apartment. Glad you guys couldn't smell us through the blog.

We had the salad with the grilled chicken and the leftover polenta. The gingery dressing did help compliment the Asian flavors of the chicken, though they were very mild. 

'Til next time... :) 

April 24: Tofu Stir Fry with Ginger-Scallion Sauce

On Easter night, we cooked up a tofu stir fry with some leftover veggies and a ginger-scallion sauce taken from "How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian." We typically cube the tofu, but Paul tried a new technique. Meet "domino-sized" tofu.

The "dominoes" are a lot easier to move around without burning the heck out of yourself.

The cubes can be tough to cook, especially if you're concerned with cooking them on all six sides evenly. The "dominoes" are a welcome change for my slightly anxious (but happily, not burned) self.
 

I'm so relaxed right now only cooking two sides.  

We pan fried the tofu in some olive oil until they were crisped up. We had a bunch of vegetables to use from the produce box. In the bowl below are snap peas, broccoli, carrots and some dandelion.*

I am not so good with the estimating. Need a bigger bowl.

Based on the notes in the cookbook for the sauce, we decided to make the stir fry with some egg noodles rather than rice.

While the egg noodles were cooking, we stirred up all the vegetables in our rarely-used wok.

It's a nice wok, but really heavy. I have tiny chick muscles and have a hard time getting it all the way out of the back of the cabinet, OKAY?

I prepped the ingredients for the sauce -- chopped some scallions and ginger. I have used our peeler in the past to get the skin off the ginger root -- but Naveen from our Indian cooking class just used a knife to scrape it off, so I tried that. It actually works well, especially if you use a small paring knife, because you can get into the little crevices and not waste the smaller pieces of ginger. 

It's chopped scallion and ginger, in case you can't tell by the poor lighting.

We added the sauce to the vegetables and tofu, and mixed everything together -- then added the mixture to bowls of the egg noodles. 

In the wok...



...and in the bowl. Yum.

Overall, I think it turned out pretty good. We thought between the oil used to stir fry the vegetables (not that much) and then the oil used to make the sauce (a LOT), it ended up being a little oily. The ginger-scallion sauce was tasty though - you definitely tasted both ingredients with every bite. Both Paul and I ended up adding a dash of Sriracha sauce, which helped spice it up a little. The Sriracha was thinned out and coated the noodles because of the extra oil.

We also struggled with what constitutes a "heat proof bowl." We ended up putting the other ingredients right into the hot oil, which sort of backfired creating a hot boiling oil mix that we weren't sure how to manage. I was also afraid everything would become deep fried, which thankfully -- it didn't.

*DISCLAIMER: I have determined that I just don't like dandelion. I have tried it three times, and have yet to make it work in a way where I don't think it's bitter. We are getting it again this week. I'll have to figure out something else to do with it. I did read a recipe where you mix it with a bacon vinaigrette. Since bacon makes pretty much everything awesome, I think that may be the only option I have left besides putting it directly in the trash. 

April 18: Epic Fail, aka Sausage, Chard and Lemon Lasagna

Friends: it was bound to happen. A meal gone terribly wrong. This blog would be totally boring with out one, but I promise you -- I didn't throw this one. It was a valiant effort that failed miserably. I should have known by the recipe's comments (if you look at the linked recipe, you'll see what I mean). I almost always read the comments -- they usually have helpful tips and information about the recipe. But alas, I skipped reading them this time. And paid for it.

After getting swiss chard in our produce box, we decided to make a sausage, chard and lemon lasagna recipe I found online.

Some AWESOME looking rainbow chard. Pretty jazzy, huh?

I chopped up the swiss chard, removing the stems. Paul got to work cooking the meat. We used a sweet turkey sausage.

Meat makes everything better, right? Or at least saves a bad dish a little...

I worked on the white sauce -- flour, milk, cheese, salt and pepper. Everything seems to be going okay...and then we get to the lemons. The instructions tell you to take a thinly sliced lemon (note: nothing about taking the peel off), cover with water in a saucepan and boil for about 7 minutes. "Okay, " I'm thinking, "That probably softens them up and makes it easier to eat. I've never eaten the outside of a lemon. Weird, but I'll go with it." 

FATAL MISTAKE. I may have cut the lemons slightly thicker than "thinly sliced," but in no way were they thick slices.

You can see the culprits there in the background. Just sitting innocently waiting their turn. IT'S A RUSE. Et tu, lemons?

Unaware of imminent disaster, we carried on. I added the chard to the white sauce. 

Just hanging out, being tasty. No idea what was about to befall the lasagna.

Everything was ready to go -- the oven was preheated, so we started to assemble the lasagna. We had done regular lasagna noodles instead of the no-boil ones suggested. You layered noodle, meat, sauce, lemons, and so on.

Looking good so far...

We had more meat than sauce, so I was a little stingy with it. We filled the dish and had some leftover, so spilled into a smaller square baking dish. 

Still looking good. Can't complain...

You finish the dish with lemons, noodles, sauce, lemons.

I was like, "Wow! This could be really neat!" Stupid.

Right at this point, Paul received a call from a friend who had an extra ticket to the Bulls playoff game. He (unknowingly, but wisely) jumped ship to go to the game. The hot dog he ate was probably 100 times better than what was about to transpire in our kitchen.

The pasta cooked for the suggested 27 minutes, and I broiled it, topped with cheese for an additional 3 minutes. It doesn't look too bad here...

A little blurry, but you get the cheesy, melty point.

I was pretty hungry, and very excited to give this a try. You could smell the cheese and the cooked sausage, and it looked quite pretty. 

I took a big bite -- and immediately tasted the bitterness of the lemons. Oh man. It was not good. I tried another bite -- maybe I just had a weird part with more of the lemon than the other side. Nope. Still not good. Like REALLY not good. 

Save yourself, Paul!

I pulled off all the lemons as best I could, and was able to eat the rest. Some of the bitterness remained, but with the lemons being removed -- it was a heck of a lot better. Thankfully, the second, smaller batch did not have any lemons -- by some twist of fate, I had used them all on the first round -- and the second lasagna remained unscathed. My taste buds, not so much. 

Lesson learned: I should have trusted my instincts and cut the peel off. It doesn't appear to be a mistake in the recipe (the picture shows the lemons with their peels on), but were we to make this again (doubtful), I would definitely make that change. 

April 20: Holy Mackerel!

Thanks to our lovely friend Chad, Paul and I were given some delicious fresh mackerel. As you can see from below, Chad caught an AWESOME 12 lbs. mackerel and was kind enough to share it with us.

P.S. Paul named this post.

Yay, Chad!!! Looks tasty.

We decided to grill the mackerel and serve it with a mango/avocado mixture on top. I started peeling the mangoes and slicing them up. I'm still trying to master mangoes -- making sure I get as much fruit off the pit as I can.

I think I have figured out how to handle slippery mangoes. Cut off the bottom first, so you can balance it. I feel good knowing all 10 fingers will remain intact.

We cut up two mangoes, two avocados, and added some diced red onion and lime juice. I also added a little salt as well -- I think that tends to bring out some of the flavors.

Pre-mixing.

I was secretly hoping for some cilantro hidden in the fridge, but alas -- no luck. I mixed everything together and let the mango/avocado mixture marinate, while we cooked up the mackerel.

Yum. This combo also goes well with tortilla chips. Just make sure you leave some to serve with your actual meal (something that happens to us a lot when making guacamole).

We had never cooked mackerel before, but figured it would cook much like a tuna steak. Paul seasoned the fish with salt and pepper and put them on the grill.

This is probably the freshest fish I've ever cooked.

He flipped them once, cooking for about 12-15 minutes. Paul cooked them on medium heat (on our gas grill).



Here's the final product, topped with some of the avocado/mango mixture.

The creaminess of the avocado and mango mixture really went well with the fish.

The fish was REALLY fresh and delicious. Paul did a great job cooking them -- the meat was firm, but not dried out. The avocado/mango mixture added brightness and citrus. We ate the fish with a simple green salad. 

We had a little of the avocado mixture left, and decided to use it as a topper for burgers the next day. Paul also added a little Gruyere cheese to his, alongside the sweet potato fries roasted in the oven. We cut the sweet potatoes thinly, more like fries (versus wedges, which is what we did last time), and they turned out crispier.

April 26: Crock Pot Beef Stew

Paul and I both had a late night on Tuesday, so we busted out our faithful crock pot. We had a sirloin beef roast that Paul bought a few weeks ago and tossed in the freezer. I prepped the ingredients in the morning before I left for work in the morning, and it was done by the time I got home. I had pulled out the beef roast the night before and had it defrost in the temperature-controlled drawer of the fridge overnight.

I peeled and chopped three russet potatoes, about five carrots and a yellow onion. These ingredients were tossed in the crock pot, along with 4 cups of beef broth. I cut some rosemary and parsley off our plants, and added in some fresh thyme as well.  The roast was nestled in among the other ingredients. It was still a little frozen when I tossed it in.

So pretty! And raw.

I left the roast cooking on low for about 10 hours (it was a very long day). Paul arrived home before I did, and said he was greeted with the aroma of the herbs and the cooked meat. Even thought the beef roast was a little frozen when I put it in, it cooked completely through in the hours it was in the crock pot.

There is nothing like coming home to an easy, pre-cooked dinner. Crock pot, I have missed you. 

I wasn't sure if we'd need to pull the entire roast out and cut it up, but the meat fell apart into several pieces, so it was easy to serve.

Paul's nice plating. Impressive, buddy.

We served the stew with a little of the beef broth from the crock pot and some crusty bread. I always debate whether or not to peel the potatoes, but I think peeling them for this particular meal was the right choice. I imagine the skins may have separated from the potatoes and turned out chewy. The meat had taken on a litle of the taste of the herbs, and the vegetables were nice and soft.

April 17: Shirred Eggs with Toast and Homemade Hash Brown Potatoes

For a lazy Sunday breakfast, we decided to make an easy egg recipe along with some homemade hash browns. Paul peeled and grated two russet potatoes to start the hash browns.

Paul is a lovely sous-chef.

We had read online that the key to making crispy hash browns is to get as much moisture out of the potatoes as possible before beginning to cook them. We found a great suggestion -- to use a ricer to extra the extra moisture out of the already-grated potatoes.

We have officially used the ricer...twice. Yay!

While Paul started cooking the hash browns, after heating up a little vegetable oil in the frying pan, then added the grated, drained potatoes.

 

I greased the ramekins with a little olive oil, then began adding the ingredients.

I grated Gruyere cheese and chopped some shallots to add to the egg. I just pulled the leaves off the thyme sprigs and added them to the ramekins.

You can just toss everything into the ramekin, and add the cream on top. The ramekins go into the oven preheated to 425 degrees for 7 to 10 minutes, depending on how goopy you want your egg yolks to be. 

All the ingredients, minus the all-important heavy cream.

We like a goopy yolk, so I pulled them out of the oven at about 8 minutes. The eggs do continue to cook/set, so you're going to want to eat them relatively quickly if you don't want them to harden up further. The whites are cooked all the way through, but are nice and soft.


  We ate the eggs with some toast, which is great for sopping up any leftover egg bits, particularly in a metal ramekin.



I definitely burned my mouth trying to eat this before it had cooled a little. The price of deliciousness. And impatience.

I really like this dish. I chose to scoop the egg out and spread it on the toast. It's quite easy to make (the egg part, at least) and cooks super quickly. I love the shallot/Gruyere/thyme combination, but I imagine you could do pretty much any cheese and diced vegetable and be pretty happy. I think the tablespoon of cream makes it a little decadent without totally going crazy.

We did try the recipe again in smaller, ceramic ramekins. We had to adjust the cooking time a little to make sure the yolks weren't too runny. I liked the eggs better in the smaller ramekins because they were a little thicker -- and I didn't give myself the willies scraping a metal fork against a metal ramekin.

We're going to try a scoop of fruit preserves with some goat cheese to see if it works for sweet flavors as well. Stay tuned!