A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Jason and I have decided to take advantage of the lovely weather and our prime Northern Virginia location and spend some time in and around our neighborhood today.

First stop….our local farmer’s market. It had been awhile since I’d visited the market (which is open every Saturday throughout the entire year) and I was definitely kicking myself for not making an appearance earlier this spring. The market was teaming with plants, herbs, asparagus, free range meats, fresh cheese, and the first signs of strawberry season! We got a little excited and came home with:

Some huge asparagus

A pretty garden bouquet

And strawberries.

Lots of strawberries.

(Keep your eyes out for some strawberry based recipes to come in the next couple of days.)



Next on our agenda….hiking around Roosevelt Island! And possibly a trip to Eventide's rooftop this evening.

How are you spending your Saturday?

Kicking it Up a Notch

There’s nothing like getting measured for a bridesmaid’s (ahem, matron of honor) dress to make you feel really bad about yourself. Why these traditional dress designers (e.g., not J.Crew or Ann Taylor where you get to order a size that is akin to what you normally wear) have to have sizes that run small, I’ll never know. But it really sucks to be told you need to order a dress that is two or even three sizes bigger than what you wear regularly. I know size is nothing but a number and all that, but it really is demoralizing.

But it also serves as just the motivation I need to get in shape! When I last spoke about my battle with the dreaded Newlywed Nine, I was starting to get on a better workout routine. Doing that was easier said than done given my crazy travel schedule. However, last week (my first back with no travel) I worked out three days and did a long walk (almost 4 miles total) with Jason another day. But this week, I’m kicking it up a notch and have started alternating cardio (either the treadmill at the gym or one of my DVDs—Turbo Jam and 30 Day Shred are my go-tos) and targeted toning. 

To help with this, I recently bought Denise Austin’s Hit the Spot Target Toners DVD. It includes 10 five-minute workouts each targeting a specific muscle group. You can do all 10 for a 50 minute, total body workout or you can create your own shorter combo. Today, I did my own routine of arms, shoulders, hips, and butt.  Denise can be kind of annoying with her super peppy “you can do it” attitude but the workouts are so short that they go by really quickly and it’s hard to get bored. We’ll see what kind of results I get.

Hopefully this goal of doing something every day (even if it is just 20 minutes of toning) and incorporating some weight/strength based exercises will help kick-start my metabolism and keep me on track!

What helps get you motivated to stay healthy?

Some Jerk (Chicken)

As you may remember, we had dinner with Jason’s parents last weekend to celebrate his dad’s birthday. His mother had planned to make some sort of mango and avocado salad to go with the meal only to learn at the last minute that Jason’s dad does not like mangoes.  His loss was our gain and we went home with two very ripe mangoes. When trying to figure out what to make this week, I was determined not to let the mangoes go to waste. The logical choice was some sort of mango salsa. And jerk chicken seemed like the perfect accompaniment.

If you are unfamiliar with the dish, the “jerk” in jerk chicken is a marinade with a wonderful mix of sweet/fruity and spicy flavors.  Be sure to marinate the chicken for a good long while so it can soak up all the flavors (if my chicken had been thawed I would have done so overnight but instead I settled for 8 hours during the day yesterday).  Served with mango salsa and some corn on the cob, you have a fantastic summery meal.

Jerk Chicken with Mango Salsa
Adapted from recipes by Ellie Krieger and Emeril Lagasse

Ingredients:
4 scallions, trimmed and coarsely chopped
½ -1 habenero or scotch bonnet pepper (depends on how spicy you want it)
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
1 teaspoon freshly ground ginger (not the dried stuff you find in the spice aisle)
4 TBL lime juice
2 TBL soy sauce
1 TBL brown sugar
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 chicken breasts
2 mangoes, pitted and diced
½ red onion, finely diced
½ red pepper, diced
½ cucumber, peeled and diced
1 teaspoon lime zest
Salt and pepper

1.Combine scallions, habenero pepper, garlic, ginger, 2 TBL lime juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and thyme in a blender until you have a smooth paste. Pour over chicken breasts and marinate for 8 hours or overnight.
2.To make salsa, combine mango, red onion, red pepper, cucumber, remaining 2 TBL lime juice, and lime zest in a bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3.Remove chicken from marinade and broil or grill (about 5-6 minutes per side or more depending on thickness). Serve with mango salsa.

Facing Your (Cooking) Fears

We all have them. Recipes or cooking techniques that seem too daunting to even attempt. For a long time risotto was one of those dishes for me. I think the recipe seemed daunting for two reasons. One, I am not a huge rice eater. And every time I make plain old rice (which is not often) it almost always gets stuck to the bottom of the pan. I assumed if I couldn’t help but screw up regular rice, any risotto I tried out would just not work. The other reason was the constant attention risotto seemed to require. I thought if I have to stand at a pot and stir for 30 minutes or more, it must be hard.

A month or so ago, I asked Jason if there was anything he specifically wanted for dinner and, what do you know, his answer was risotto. So I sucked it up and decided to give it a shot, warning him that we may be eating cereal for dinner if it didn’t work out.

It turned out well. Really well.

So I decided to try it again last night—this time using a more spring-y mix of flavors (asparagus, peas, leeks, and lemon). And you know what? It was even better the second time I made it. Apparently with risotto, like a lot of things, practice makes perfect.

Me 1, Cooking Fears 0

Spring Vegetable Risotto
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated and Smitten Kitchen (combo of two recipes)

Ingredients:
1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into ½ inch pieces (my grocery store was out of regular asparagus so I ended up using the white variety—tasted great, just didn’t look as pretty when cooked)
½ cup frozen peas
2 leeks, white and light green parts halved and sliced thin
1 large clove garlic, minced
4 TBL butter
1 ½ cups Arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
4 cups of chicken broth (preferably low sodium)
1 cup of water
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
½ lemon, juiced and zested
Salt and pepper

1.In a medium saucepan, combine chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil and then turn to low so it barely simmers.
2.In a larger saucepan or dutch oven, melt 1 TBL butter. Add asparagus and cook (stirring occasionally) until tender about 4-5 minutes. Add peas and cook for another minute. Remove vegetables and place in a bowl for later use.
3.Melt another  3 TBL butter in the same saucepan/dutch oven. Add sliced leeks, garlic, salt and pepper and cook (stirring occasionally) until soften about 4-5 minutes. Add rice. Stir to ensure each grain is coated with butter and cook until edges become translucent about 2-3 minutes.
4.Add white wine and stir until liquid is fully absorbed (and bottom of pan is almost dry), about 2-3 minutes.
5.Ladle 1 cup of the broth into the pan, and stir until absorbed. Continue ladling broth in ½ cup of a time, stirring frequently and letting each addition be absorbed before adding next, until rice is just tender and looks creamy, 18 to 20 minutes.
6.Remove from heat. Add ½ cup parmesan cheese and check for seasonings. Stir in lemon juice and zest. And gently fold in reserved vegetables. If the risotto looks too thick, add some of the remaining broth to thin it out.

Adventures in Meal Planning

One of the things I like so much about reading other people’s blogs is having the ability to get a glimpse into how other people do things and what their life is like. It’s that opportunity to be a fly on the wall and to potentially learn from other people’s experiences (and in some cases, mistakes) that can be so entertaining and rewarding.  So in that spirit, I thought I would share a little bit of how we go about our weekly meal planning in the event that it might be useful to those of you out there.

Generally speaking, we make one trip to the grocery store per week, most often on Sunday morning. I know there are people out there who shop every few days to ensure they have fresh ingredients and/or to allow themselves more spontaneity in deciding what to eat on any given day. That doesn’t really work for us given our busy schedules, my dislike for grocery shopping in general, and my plan-ahead nature. So once a week works best for us.

Breakfast and lunch are super easy to plan for since Jason and I are both creatures of habit. We both eat cereal for breakfast 5 days a week; Jason will eat a banana and usually has some OJ in addition (I hate bananas and try not to drink sugar-y juices very often).  Jason usually brings his lunch to work and it almost always consists of a sandwich (turkey or ham with swiss or cheddar, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and mustard on a kaiser roll), an apple, and either a granola bar or pretzels.  I usually eat yogurt and crackers or fruit. So those things are always on the menu/grocery list.

Not surprisingly, dinner takes the most time to plan out.  Depending on our schedule (which can vary as a result of things like book club, working late, dinner out with friends, etc.), I usually plan on making dinner Sunday-Thursday.  (Fridays and Saturdays we usually eat out.)  Since January, I have tried to adhere to a few rules when planning out the week’s menu—at least one new recipe (to justify my many cookbooks, food blogs, and magazine subscriptions), one vegetarian recipe, and one light recipe per week.  Some weeks are easier than others to plan—sometimes Jason will have specific requests, sometimes I have a recipe that I have seen recently that I really want to try out, etc. Other weeks I have no idea what I want to make and then I turn to my cookbooks, recipe binder, and bookmarked blog recipes for inspiration. I also subscribe to two food magazines which help fuel our weekly menus as well—Everyday Food (which I’ve said before is a great source for simple, weeknight meals) and (more recently) Cook’s Illustrated.

Here is what we’ve got planned for this week:
Sunday: Salmon with Pinot Noir Mustard Sauce (new recipe)
Monday: Spring Vegetable Risotto (vegetarian recipe)
Tuesday: Jerk Chicken with Mango Salsa and Corn (light recipe)
Wednesday: On our own (I am having dinner with a friend so Jason will likely eat leftover or something of his own making
Thursday: On our own


And that is meal planning in a nutshell. Do you plan your meals out ahead of time? Or are you more spontaneous in deciding what to eat for dinner each week?

Sunday Dinner: Jason Edition

Last night something miraculous happened. Something that (these days) only happens once every 8 months or so….Jason made me dinner!

No, it wasn’t my birthday or our anniversary or any sort of milestone he chose to celebrate by cooking for me.  A couple of weeks ago he was flipping through the cookbook I brought home from my trip to Seattle, came across a recipe that sounded good (and relatively easy to make) and declared “I’m going to make this for you some weekend soon.”  I’m no fool—I suggested we schedule a day right then and there before he could forget about it and/or change his mind.

So last night Jason made me a lovely Salmon with Pinot Noir Mustard Sauce (using the Pinot Noir I brought back from my brief stop in Willamette Valley). It was really good (the meal and the wine).  Perfectly cooked salmon (I was so proud!) served over a salad of arugula, red pepper, and tossed with a delightful dressing made of pinot noir, honey, mustard seeds, red wine vinegar, shallots, and tarragon.  It was lovely, light, summery meal perfect for the 90 degree weather we had over the weekend.

A couple of notes should you decide to make this recipe. 1) You are supposed to let the dressing sit for 8 hours or overnight to mix and mingle properly. We let it sit about 6.5 hours and I think it worked out just fine. Just make sure you plan ahead! 2) The recipe called for black/brown mustard seeds. After looking at several grocery stores we could not find them and ended up using yellow mustard seeds. Upon further research I found that black/brown mustard seeds are hotter than their yellow counterparts and used a lot in Indian cooking.  Still not sure where to buy them but that info was at least interesting. 3) Searing salmon can stink up your house/apartment. The fish smell seems to have subsided by this morning but we had to use quite a bit of Lysol and burned a number of candles last night trying to get the smell to go away. But it was worth it for a meal like that!

Salmon with Pinot Noir Mustard Sauce
Adapted from The Pike Place Market Cookbook

Ingredients:
1 cup Pinot Noir
¼ cup honey
¼ cup yellow mustard seeds (or black or brown if you can find them)
½ cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon chopped shallot
2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Pepper
2 (6 oz) fillets of salmon
3 TBL olive oil
Arugula
1 red bell pepper, diced

1.Place wine in a small saucepan over high heat and boil until reduced by half. Remove from heat and add honey, stirring until it dissolves
2.In a small, dry skillet, toast mustard seeds until they begin to pop and release their aroma. Remove from heat and add to wine-honey mixture. Add red wine vinegar, shallot, tarragon, salt, and pepper. Pour into a jar with a lid (we used a mason jar), shake well and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.
3.Heat medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and place salmon, skin side up, on hot skillet. Sear 3 minutes on the first side and then 3 seconds or so on each additional side (ending with the skin side down) and place in 350 degree oven. Cook for 8-10 minutes until just cooked through.
4.Toss arugula, red pepper, and some of the dressing together. Divide among plates. Place salmon on top of salad. Drizzle a little more dressing on top of the salmon and serve.

Ties that Bind

Navigating relationships with the in-laws can be a challenge for any newlywed. Juggling two sets of traditions, expectations, and desires to spend time with you on nationally recognized holidays while trying to build your own traditions (as a family of two) and not hurting anyone’s feelings in the process can be stressful (to say the least). I can’t imagine what it will be like once kids are factored into this little equation!

Jason and I are fortunate that both sets of parents live relatively close by (within easy driving distance). The proximity allows us to spend time with them outside of the usual holiday gatherings on a fairly regular basis.  Still, the newness of our familial ties can be felt; at almost 8 months in we are still trying to figure out how these interactions are supposed to work.  I sometimes worry that my mother-in-law, for example, still feels the need to entertain me and/or treat me like a guest when we are at their home rather than treating me like just another member of the family.  So I was really happy that she asked me to make a key lime pie for Jason’s father’s birthday this weekend.

Back in March, Jason’s dad mentioned that he liked key lime pie but that Jason’s mother never made one. So I told him I’d be happy to make one for him sometime. Fast forward to a month or so ago when Jason’s mother asked him if I’d be interested in making a pie for his birthday. The answer, of course, was yes!

Key lime pie is pretty easy to make and I’ve made them before. But in the weeks since confirming that I would, in fact, make the birthday pie, I started to freak out. What if it didn’t turn out well? What if my recipe (clipped from the local newspaper when I was in high school) wasn’t really that good? WHAT IF MY CRAPPY PIE RUINS HIS WHOLE BIRTHDAY?!?

My initial plan was to make trial run pie sometime before the main event to make sure that my pie still passed muster. That plan crashed and burned when I realized 1) I was going to be gone practically the whole month of April; 2) my book club (where I was originally going to test my pie out) decided to meet at a local restaurant this month given everyone’s busy schedules which nixed the need for my bringing a dessert; and 3) given my efforts to eat better/lose weight, baking a whole pie just for Jason and I was not a very good idea.

Instead, I decided to do a little recipe research, to make sure my original recipe was, in fact, in line with all the other recipes out there for key lime pie (it was).  And then I just reminded myself that I am a pretty good cook and that, even if the pie fails miserably, it is the thought that counts. 

Oh and if all else fails, I can always buy a pie and pass it off as my own.

NOW,  I feel better.

My rustic looking crust

It doesn't quite meet my Type A standards but I guess it will do.

Key Lime Pie
Adapted from a recipe I cut out of The Daily Press sometime in the late 1990s

Ingredients:
1 sleeve of graham crackers
¼ cup sugar
6 TBL of butter, melted
½ cup fresh lime juice (preferably key limes if you can find them)
1 (14 ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks
Whipped cream (optional)

1.Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 350. Place graham crackers into food processor and pulse until you have fine crumbs (Note: I was being lazy last night and did not feel like getting out my food processor so I crushed the crackers by hand-- the results were a very rustic looking crust. I am now kicking myself for not using the food processor!) Mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter and sugar. Pat into pie plate. Bake until golden brown about 8-9 minutes. Allow to cool completely on wire rack.
2. Once pie shell has cooled, mix together the sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, and egg yolks until well-combined. If you want, you can add a little lime zest too. Pour into pie shell and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Cool on counter or wire rack and then chill for 6 hours or overnight.
3.If you want to, you can make some whipped cream to top the pie (or simply to serve with it). Since I was making this to take somewhere, I opted to decorate the top of the pie with the whipped cream which meant that I needed to stabilize it (otherwise it would have deflated and separated before it came time to serve—eww). To make whipped cream that won't separate (I hope), start by placing 1 teaspoon of unflavored gelatin in 1 TBL of water in a small bowl. Microwave for 10 seconds or so until gelatin has melted. Place 1 cup heavy cream in a cold bowl (I like to stick it in the freezer for awhile beforehand). Add in gelatin and whip until combined. Add 2 TBL powdered sugar and ½ teaspoon of vanilla and whip until you have stiff peaks. Top pie as you would like. Refrigerate until ready to serve.


PS On an unrelated note, I added a gadget (on the bottom right of the page) that displays my "followers" (sounds so cult-ish, doesn't it??). I'd love to know who you all are so please consider making it official :)