Fallen Souffle

Evan has been in New York since Monday for a conference. He flew in earlier than he needed to because he wanted to do a bit of exploring. By exploring I mean eating at one of the places we have both been dreaming of, Pomme Frites. There are a few things Evan and I truly love (besides each other :))pizza, beer, ribs, and french fries. We are really picky about these things and we always try to find the best we can. Pomme Frites is almost the mecca of the french fry for those of us living in the US. I still think you can’t beat a fritz special in a market in Holland, fries smothered in their mayonnaise, curry sauce and chopped onion- delish- but I digress.

So while Evan was sending me text message with pictures of his cone of warm fries I was craving the salty crunchy fries myself, so I did the next best thing…got some Wendy’s fries and smothered them in fritessaus. Ok it probably was not the next best thing but it was as good as it got at that point. I managed to find the fry sauce that I fell in love with in Holland here at A Southern Season and am waiting for the curry sauce to come back in stock. The fritessaus is kinda like mayo but has a bit more flavor and it not as obnoxious. Give it a try if you ever see it in a store. Nonetheless I guarantee that I will be stopping by Pomme Frites to try their fries and one of their many sauces when I make it back up to NYC.

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Every Friday my fellow co-workers and I get together for lunch. One of our most frequently visited lunch spots is The Loop which is conveniently located in the shopping center next to us. The Loop has burgers, sammiches, pizzas, and milk shakes. They have great food and I always have a hard time deciding what I want. Some of my standards include the Greek salad, the Spicy BBQ Chicken Sammich with homemade chips and ranch dressing, and the Veggie Foccacia Melt. True I am not a vegetarian, but sometimes I channel my veg sister and go for the non-carnivorous lunch. Their veggie melt includes green peppers, mushrooms, kalamata olives and cheddar cheese blanketed in a warm flatbread and grilled. It is delish and very filling!

So I was looking for something different for lunch one weekend and decided to recreate the veggie melt at home. I cut up a red and green pepper into strips then sauteed them in a bit of olive oil. I threw in a carton of sliced mushrooms (I used baby bellas since they were on sale but use whatever), when they were soft I added a handful of kalamata olives and a shot of balsamic vinegar. At this point warm up a flatbread or pocket-less pita and load up the veggies and top with the cheese of your choice, fold over and eat as is or slap on a hot grill for a minute or two to get a crispy crunch.

For the price of one of these melts at The Loop, I made enough for about 4 of them! You can certainly add some sliced grilled chicken for a bit of protein but sometimes I like bulking up on the veg.

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I borrowed this from Shannon and since I haven’t posted anything like this before on here…thought I would give it a whirl.

Are you…
1. a cuddler? yes, for a short period of time only, then I get hot
2. a morning person? only after I have coffee
3. are you a perfectionist? YES, it’s detrimental
4. talented? in more ways than you know
5. religious? I call myself spiritual
6. in your pajamas? not yet
7. left handed? no

Last:
1. friend you saw: Katie, Anne, Sarah and Danielle from the bakery
2. phoned: a client
3. sent text: Evan
4. received text: Scottie
5. message over myspace: Vivek I think
6. instant message: Evan or Steph

LAST NIGHT:
1. wore: to bed? PJ’s
2. last night was: awesome…girl’s night
3. got any plans: plans?

Favorite:
1. number: 2 i guess, what is really the point of a favorite number?
2. color: right now? pink and black
3. season: spring

Currently:
1. missing: the fam
2. needing: thicker socks…why are my toes always cold?
3. wanting: a chocolate chip cookie

q’s and a’s
q: first thing you did this morning: made coffee
q: Last thing you ate: a slice of lemon yogurt poundcake
q: Do you have anything bothering you? work stress…but it’s a good kind of stress
q: What’s the last movie you saw?: DVD: The Break Up (terrible), Theater: The Departed (awesome)
q: Where is the last place you went? work and the thrift store at lunch
q: Do you wish upon stars? shooting stars, yes
q: Are you a friendly person?: ofcourse
q: Where did you sleep last night?: my bed
q: What color shirt are you wearing? rose
q: When was the last time you really cried? I had a little cry yesterday about work, an ugly cry at last week’s Grey’s Anatomy
q: What was your last thought before you went to sleep last night? some affiliates really suck
q: What are you about to do? get ready for bed
q: If you could drink anything right this second, what would it be? red wine
q: What’s your job position called? Merchant Account Representative and Kick Ass Wife
q: What’s your favorite month(s)? December because of Christmas!
q: What was your elementary schools mascot? I’m a College Park Cougar!
q: what’s your favorite bottled water? whatever…I’m not picky
q: What were you doing at 9pm last night? having another martini
q: Did you attend your high school prom? yes
q: Did you go to someone else’s prom? yeah, a did a favor for a friend and went with one of her friends…it was interesting to say the least
q: Do you prefer coffee or tea? coffee in the morning, tea the rest of the day
q: Something red within 5 feet? NC State blanket on me
q: How much french do you know? Je parle le puits français.
q: Ever crash a car, been in an accident? I was crashed into once
q: Do you look good in yellow? in the summer when I have a bit of color
q: Do you sing? my Sister and I sing together all the time, especially in the car to rap songs
q: Ever sing in public? uh no…that would be bad
q: Least favorite color? hunter green
q: Ever had dippin dots? I have had a sample when they used to give them out at the mall
q: How many driving tickets have you had? 2 speeding tickets withing 4 months when I was a freshman in college
q: Do you own your own house? yes
q: At what age do you want to get married? I was 23
q: Have you ever been married? well I am still married to Evan…that’s pretty good
q: How many kids do you have/want? none yet, maybe 2 or 3
q: Do you like anyone right now? I like Evan

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Last week I was a bit of a slacker and therefore did not cook alot, I ate alot of leftovers and Evan was stuck making burgers and steaks (aw shucks). Therefore I was going to be more prepared this week and make the week’s meals in advance. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy but it worked really well. I always make a menu for the week but this week I took it a step further and actually prepared some of the meals. Not only will this be easier during the week but I bought exactly when i needed for the week and used it, so things wouldn’t go bad.

Here is this week’s menu:
Monday- Lasagna with Turkey Sausage (Ina recipe)
Tuesday- On your own-Pizza Dough Available (Jen’s going out with the girls!)
Wednesday- Beef and Guinness Pies with Roasted Carrots
Thursday- Sweet and Tangy Flank Steak

But that’s not all!

I also made a marinate for fajitas and threw in a pound of skirt steak which was put in a ziploc and frozen. I know- I’m thinking ahead! I also deboned some skin on chicken breasts for some tequila lime chicken.

In addition to that I made a lemon yogurt poundcake (See pic-Ina recipe)as well as some chicken stock. No I was actually not in the kitchen all day, It took about 3 hours all together but considering I will have dinner ready and one dish to clean every night I am stoked.

The lasagna is completely prepared, I made some pizza dough for Evan so he can make a pizza or calzone, I made the base of the beef pie and the flank steak is marinating. Plus, we have dessert for the week!

Here are a few recipes I used:

Beef and Guinness Pies

2 lbs. stew meat
2 T. flour
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
2 T. vegetable oil
1 large onion chopped
2 garlic cloves chopped
3 T. water
1 1/2 T. tomato paste
1 cup beef broth
1 cup Guinness beer
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 t. fresh rosemary chopped
1 sheet puff pastry
1 large egg beaten
1 T. water

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees.

2. Pat beef dry and roll the beef in the flour, salt and pepper mixture. Heat oil over medium-high heat and add beef in 2-3 batches and allow to brown for about 5 minutes. Let beef rest on a plate.

3. Add onion, garlic, and water to the pot and cook until onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook one minute, stirring and scraping the bits off the bottom of the pot. Stir in beef and juices, broth, beer, Worcestershire sauce, and rosemary bringing to a simmer.

4. Cover pot and transfer to the over. Braise until beef is very tender and sauce is thickened, about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Discard rosemary and cool stew completely.

(At this point you may refrigerate until ready to serve)

5. Preheat/increase oven temperature to 425 degrees.

6. Divide the stew between 4- 14 oz ramekins. Cut puff pastry into 4 squares. Combine egg and water to create a wash. Brush tops of ramekins with wash. Invert one square over each ramekin. Brush remaining wash over pastry and freeze 15 minutes to chill dough.

7. bake pies in preheated shallow baking pan until pastry is puffed and golden, about 20 minutes.

8. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees and bake 5 more minutes to fully cook dough.

Fajitas Marinade
Enough for 2 pounds of meat

1/4 cup lime juice
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1. In a large resealable plastic bag, mix together the lime juice, water, olive oil, garlic, soy sauce, salt, and liquid smoke flavoring. Stir in cayenne and black pepper.

2. Place desired meat in the marinade, and refrigerate at least 2 hours, or overnight. Cook as desired.

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I am embarrassed that I have not posted this earlier. Our family and friends really showed their love to Evan and I this Christmas by getting us gifts that were edible. Evan and I are definitely foodies and we take it very seriously. So we dedicated one night to celebrating our Christmas gifts…oh it was delish!

We started with a nice beer selection from our friend Cory and his wife who also included a set of lovely Guinness glasses. For an appetizer, we baked up some rice balls from Brooklyn Pork Store which were absolutely heavenly. Rice and cheese and as assortment of Italian meats all rolled into a nice ball and fried…what could be better! For the main event, Evan expertly grilled some Omaha Steaks and I added a side salad with dressing from my Uncle’s Italian restaurant in Greenville.

This was quite a spread, so much so that I don’t even think we had dessert that night! Nonetheless, we thoroughly enjoyed our food gifts and are thankful to have friends and family that know us so well!

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I received 3 new cookbooks for Christmas, all of which I love and each cover a different aspect of cooking. One that I was really happy to unwrap was the new Ina Garten cookbook, Barefoot Contessa at Home. I have read this book cover to cover a few times already because I love her take on creating a warm and inviting home environment. I am in a bit of re-decorating mode right now and I think it is because of this book. Ina provides once again simple and elegant recipes that are so classic but so good! One of my new years resolutions is to make one new recipe a week and I am trying to make each of the recipes in her new book.

So the first recipe tested is the classic Chicken Picatta. I have made this before so I was familiar with the process and the flavors. I cut her recipe in half so that we wouldn’t have too many leftovers (or overeat- which is probably more likely!). I think because I halfed it the recipe didn’t create as much sauce as I would have liked. Yet Evan was ok with that because the chicken itself was like a schnitzel so he was happy. This chicken was so moist, I was really surprised. Ina instructs that the chicken should be pan fried quickly to get some color and finish it in the oven. I love this method because it provides a nice crust yet it doesn’t burn and the chicken doesn’t dry out.

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If you made a New Year’s resolution to eat better and lose weight well you just need to stop reading now. Ok, just kidding, but this recipe is by no means healthy or “figure friendly” but it sure is good!

Evan and I had friends over last night to watch what ended up being a Gator whooping on the Buckeyes and we had planned on making chicken wings. Well the wings were still in their bag at the end of the night so I decided we would have them for dinner tonight. I was browsing Allrecipes and found quite a few recipes for wings but decided to try something different from the traditional hot wings.

I found a recipe with a really good rating so I decided to use that as my base. I baked these to make myself feel a little better about having wings and fries on a weeknight and I promise you won’t miss the frying. The meat literally falls off the bone. These wings are super sticky but truly finger licking good. They are a sweet wing, but add a little cayenne sauce to balance out the sweetness if you like.

After these babies we decided we would have a wing bar at our Super Bowl party just so we can have more! I paired these with the Garlic Fries from Trader Joe’s, a recommendation from my Mom. Wow these were awesome very garlicky but addicting! It has inspired me to try spicing up our regular fries!

Sticky Chicken Wings

3 pounds of chicken wings
salt and pepper
1 cup flour

3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons water
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Rinse wings and pat dry. Salt and pepper to taste. Dredge wings in flour, shake off excess and place in a greased glass baking dish. (Use glass it is much easier to clean up!) Bake for 20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, add the sauce ingredients in a medium bowl and mix, don’t worry about dissolving the sugar. After the first 20 minute bake, pour sauce over wings and increase temperature to 425 degrees. Cook an additional 25 minutes, turning wings halfway through.

4. After this baking, turn once more and broil at 500 degrees for about 5 minutes until they get a bit crispy.

5. Serve immediately with lots of napkins!

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This is one of my favorite new dishes that Jen has tried. It’s a Parmesan Crusted Chicken baked in a little bit of butter. How could you not like that!?

I’ll let Jen post the recipe b/c its a must share, but I’ll give you a little story. Jen and I met in Italy (thats making a long story real short), and on one of trips outside of Milan we went to Parma, Italy. Thats right, the town where Parmesan Reggiano is produced and where Parmigiano-Reggiano (parmesan cheese) also got its name from.

Parmigiano is simply the Italian adjective for Parma; the French version, parmesan, is used in English. The term ‘parmesan’ is also loosely used as a common term for cheeses imitating true Parmesan cheese; it is a protected name in Europe. Maybe its the geek in me but the whole process is fascinating, from transforming raw cow’s milk into a delectable cheese. The QA process is especially interesting. After 12 months of the cheese sitting on the factory shelves (see picture), the cheese maestro (I can’t remember his formal name), pulls the huge wheels off the shelves and taps them with his hand and a small mallet. From this little tapping, he can tell if the cheese is cracked, broken or not up to standards. The interesting part is that when they mark the cheese with the logo they brand onto the wheel, if you see X’s on the cheese then the consumer knows it is not top quality. While it still tastes 100 times better then the mass produced stuff in the US, you may or may not notice a textural difference.

Just thought I’d share and prove to my parents that I did learn something in school that wasn’t female related.

Hi! Jen here with the recipe. I actually got this from Elise at Simply Recipes who is just amazing. I have used many of her recipes which all prove to be simple but absolutely classic. Her recipe for Thanksgiving Turkey saved a last minute Thanksgiving dinner at our house. I love her recipes and I urge you to check it out.

Here is the link to her recipe, I won’t post it to make you go there and check her out
Parmesan Chicken Recipe

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#98- Make cinnamon rolls with icing on a Sunday morning-COMPLETED

I don’t know what came over me but I decided I need to try and make some really disgustingly, ooey-gooey cinnamon rolls this weekend for Evan and I.

This is on my 1001 list because I have never been able to make a really good cinnamon roll. I distinctly remember my first try. I was at home on summer while I was in high school and I was watching “The View” (when it first came out- before it became uber annoying). They had this recipe for cinnamon rolls that were just like the Cinnabon rolls from the mall. I have not eaten many Cinnabons in my time but I felt I needed to try to make these, right there, that day. I remember the dough being really sticky but when I baked them up they were dry. I didn’t even bother making icing for them. I think 2 were eaten out of pity and the rest were thrown in the garbage.

I have tried numerous times since that day but the rolls have never been what I wanted. Recently I made some rolls that were simple and sweet with no icing. Evan still gobbled them up but I felt they were good enough to cross them off my to-do list.

Until now. I started these rolls last night, which I am a big fan of because who wants to bake for 3 hours on a Sunday morning (especially after going out the night before). I threw all the dough ingredients in the KitchenAid and let it do its thing. I usually prefer to mix doughs by hand but I was feeling a bit lazy last night so I just let the machine do it’s magic. I did end up adding a bit more flour (maybe 1/2 cup) because I wanted the dough to be a little less sticky and easier to handle. After letting it mix with the dough hook, I kneaded it for a bit on the counter to make it smooth. The dough was a dream to work with. After letting it rise for an hour while Evan and I ate dinner, I spread on the cinnamon-sugar-butter mixture and rolled them up. I placed 6 in a deep pie dish for the next day, and 6 in a aluminum pie plate for the freezer (as much as Evan thinks he needs a whole dozen cinnamon rolls- he doesn’t. I instantly knew these rolls were the ticket, they were plump and perfectly spiraled with a sweet filling. Top these babies off with some cream cheese icing and we were golden!

This morning, I took the rolls out of the fridge to come to room temperature while the cream cheese and butter softened. After about 30 minutes, I preheated the oven, baked the rolls off and whipped up the icing. Evan agreed they were much like the Cinnabon rolls though even if they weren’t they were still damn good!

Cinnabon-like Cinnamon Rolls

1 cup warm milk (I microwaved it for 1 minute)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons active yeast

1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Place yeast in the warm milk, stir and allow to get frothy for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile add the rest of the dough ingredients in the bowl of the mixer. Once frothy add the yeast mixture to the mixer bowl and mix with a dough hook for about 5 minutes. If it’s really sticky add a bit more flour (I added almost 1/2 cup extra). When smooth, knead on a floured counter for a few minutes to get it really soft and smooth. Place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for about 1 hours.

2. In a small bowl, combine butter,brown sugar and cinnamon.

3. Roll dough into a 16×21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with butter/cinnamon/sugar mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. ( or cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge overnight, allow to come to room temperature before baking in the morning). Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

4. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

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Look at all the goodies! Totally worth the wait!

I have had an extended Blogging by Mail experience with my package coming from Singapore! How cool! Nani was such a sweetie and first contacted me back in September I want to say, asking if I wanted anything in particular. I told her I was open to anything but I especially loved baking. She kept me up to date on the package’s whereabouts; as I would not be receiving it within the normal time constraints due to our distance, but lo and behold the first package was lost! Though she quickly let me know and sent out ANOTHER package for me, this time by air. Wow, was I excited when Evan told me Friday that a package from Singapore has arrived! It was all he could do to wait until I got home!

Evan grabbed this instantly out of the box…they won’t last the weekend!

Nani was so gracious to include quite an assortment of goodies including tea, chocolates, flavored gelatin (with molds!, flavorings for rice and noodles, even mackeral steaks! I really can’t wait to try everything and I am so thankful to Nani for sharing her cuisine with Evan and I!

Thanks also to Stephanie for hosting another great Blogging by Mail!

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