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 :)

Best Thursday Ever!

That is what Jason said when I told him this morning that we were having fish tacos for dinner. You know that game where people ask you if you were stuck on a desert island and you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be? For Jason, I am pretty sure the answer would be fish tacos. Last year he went to San Diego for about 48 hours for a work trip and had fish tacos for dinner both nights. Fried, grilled, blackened…it doesn’t matter. If they are on the menu, he’s ordering them.

So I was not surprised when he came in from work last week with the latest edition of Everyday Food in his hand (90% of the time he gets the mail on his way in), pointed to the cover photo of…wait for it….fish tacos, and asked (very nicely) if I could please make those for dinner SOON.

How could I say no?

While I don’t know how authentic these fish tacos are (not being the connoisseur that he is), they were pretty easy to make. The ingredients are simple--broiled tilapia, red cabbage, chopped onion, and cilantro in a corn tortilla topped with a sauce made from sour cream, lime, and hot sauce (and I threw in a little cilantro—it just seemed like the right thing to do).  The verdict? According to Jason they were “excellent." He particularly enjoyed the sour cream sauce (as did I...the added cilantro was a good call). The only mistake-- not making much of a side dish to with it. I forgot that at restaurants we usually eat a basket of chips and salsa in addition to the tacos. Good thing we have some Ben and Jerry's Jamaican Me Crazy sorbet in the freezer!

Why do they call it red cabbage when it's really purple?

 

Fish Tacos with Cabbage and Lime
Adapted (a smidge) from Everyday Food
Ingredients:
2 fillets of boneless, skinless tilapia fillets, cut into thin strips
1 TBL olive oil
Salt and pepper
¼ cup sour cream (I used the light variety)
1 lime, one half finely zested and juiced with the other half cut into wedges
Hot sauce
6 corn tortillas
½ small head red cabbage, thinly sliced
½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
½ small white onion, finely chopped

1.Heat broiler with rack in highest position. Pat fish dry and place on rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Broil until fish is brown on top and cooked through (about 5 minutes or less if you have really thin fillets like I did)
2.Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine sour cream, lime zest and juice (from half of the lime), about half of the chopped cilantro, and a few dashes of hot sauce. Season with salt and pepper.
3.Warm corn tortillas over gas burner (if you have it) or heat in the oven for 5 minutes until pliable.
4.Build your tacos—add fish and top with cabbage, cilantro, onion, and sour cream sauce. Serve with lime wedges.

Postcard from Seattle, Part 2

When we last left off I was ogling the bountiful produce at Pike Place Market and taking pictures of the original Starbucks. My original plan had been to grab some lunch at one of the stalls at Pike Place but I wasn’t super hungry yet so I decided to take a walk to where Seattle began—Pioneer Square.

Pioneer Square is where one of the first founders of Seattle—Henry Yesler—built his sawmill back in the day. It is also home to the city’s first skyscraper and lots of cool galleries, interesting parks, and coffee shops. The area definitely has a different feel than other parts of the downtown area—brick buildings, ivy, and unexpected sanctuaries from city life.

At this point the rain started coming down and I was feeling a bit weary from all the walking so I headed to Zeitgeist Coffee to take a load off and grab a pick me up.  My latte did not disappoint:

After checking my email and consulting my newly acquired guide book I decided to head back out into the rain, back to Pike Place Market to grab a bite to eat. I ended up eating a grilled salmon sandwich at Lowell’s (very fresh and very tasty).  Refueled, I headed back into the misty weather and decided to take a break from the rain at the Seattle Art Museum.

SAM is home to a pretty eclectic collection of Native American, African, old-school European, and modern American art with some ancient Greek and Roman artifacts thrown in as well. I’ll be honest, it was a bit schizophrenic for my taste, but I did enjoy the Pacific Northwest Native American exhibits and there was a pretty cool photography exhibit in the modern art section as well.

At that point it was approaching late afternoon and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do the rest of the day. I knew I wanted to be in kind of early since I had a 6:00am flight home the next morning (getting up at 3:30am for that was painful, let me tell you).  I was trying to decide whether it would be worth it to visit the Seattle Space Needle or whether it was just too touristy when I walked outside. Lo and behold—the sun was out! The skies were blue! It was beautiful weather. I thought I might finally get a peek at those Olympic Mountains so I headed back to the waterfront. Just as I got there, they were boarding a boat to do a harbor cruise so I decided to take that as a sign and hopped on board.

Although incredibly touristy (they made me have my picture take before boarding the ship which was somewhat awkward since I was sailing solo), it was definitely an hour well spent on such a beautiful afternoon. I got a little history, some gorgeous views, and some time on the blue waters of Elliot Bay. It was the perfect way to end the day.

The Space Needle and the Olympic Sculpture Park from the water

I spent a lot of time trying to get a shot of the Olympic Mtn range...here you can see one of Seattle's ferry boats and if you squint your eyes just right you might see the snow topped mountains in the background. Near the clouds.

All in all my day in Seattle was great. Next time I go I would like to spend more time off the beaten path. But for my first solo sightseeing trip it was definitely a good one. And I look forward to going back and sharing the sites, sounds, and tastes of Seattle with Jason sometime in the not too distant future.

Postcard from Seattle, Part 1

As you may remember, I spent a week in the Pacific Northwest a few weeks ago as part of my whirlwind seven week tour of the country for work.  Originally the trip was supposed to be two travel days (to get there and back) and one day each in Portland/Salem, Oregon, and Olympia, Washington, in various meetings. Since I was going all the way out there (after 6 weeks of travel for work) I decided I deserved the opportunity to see some of what the area had to offer. So I took a day off and spent it exploring Seattle.

Given the crazy schedule I had been leading up to my trip I did not have time to do my usual planning. All I did was print out Frommer’s suggested one day itinerary for seeing Seattle and hoped it would guide me well.  Armed with that and my Droid, I figured I’d be able to “wing it.”

That lasted all of 2 or so hours.

I ended up buying a Seattle guide in the Seattle Aquarium giftshop---one of my first stops of the day (more on that in a second). Oh well. You know what they say about old dogs and new tricks, right?! But I’m getting ahead of myself…

Still on something closer to East Coast time despite three days of being on the West Coast, I woke up early and was out the door of my hotel by 7:45am. The weather forecast also indicated that rain was going to move in around noon so I thought I should try and take advantage of not having to use an umbrella while I could. My first stop was going to be Pike Place Market—unfortunately I was a little early even for them. So I grabbed a coffee and a bagel and walked down to the Olympic Sculpture Park instead.

View of the city from the park

The park is part of the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and consists of 9 acres of exhibits and walking trails all along the waterfront. On a clear day you can see the beautiful Olympic Mountains too. Unfortunately, the day was not that clear.

After a nice walk checking out the art and the view, I decided to walk back towards downtown along the waterfront. I like water and boats and pretty much anything that goes along with those things (I used to be obsessed with Deadliest Catch for goodness sakes) so I really enjoyed the walk, seeing commercial cargo ships, the big fishing boats, the cruise ships, the ferry boats….Seattle really is the place to be if you are in to all things maritime.  After my waterfront walk, I went to the Seattle Aquarium. Given my predilection for life aquatic, I also really like aquariums and can’t resist visiting them whenever I come across them.

The Aquarium

The Seattle Aquarium was nice...small but the real deal. It was very locally-focused which I enjoyed. And does not have any animal shows which I also appreciate. Besides, who needs trained animals when you have really adorable sea otters like these:

My marine life (in all its forms) desire satisfied, I decided to see if Pike Place Market was bustling yet. It was. It was also a foodie’s dream, albeit a bit touristy. Beautiful , fresh seafood and produce everywhere you looked. Gorgeous fresh flowers that were SUPER CHEAP….I walked around there for a good 45 minutes taking everything in and wondering if I could get any of it home with me. I settled for The Pike Place Market Cookbook instead.

Pike Place Market is also home to the very first Starbucks. I decided not to stop there because I wasn’t sure it would be all that different from any of the other Starbucks around the world. And besides, I was on the hunt for latte art! And I wasn’t sure Starbucks…even the Mothership…was going to get me there.

This is where it all began.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where we check out some more art, waterfront views, cool little parks, and yes…latte art!