Saturday, December 24, 2005

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Since I've Been Back

Because I was in London, there was only eating out to be had. However, since I've been back (Last Wednesday), I've been cooking up a storm! But still eating out a bit I must say...

Last night: Spicy Chicken Thighs-marinated some boneless skinless chicken thighs with lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, minced ginger, garlic, cumin and coriander seed, and one seeded jalepeno. Serve with red beans and rice (this comes in a handy pouch).

All I have to say about this is 1) Why is defrosting so hard for me? Is it my refrigerator? What is it? How long is it defrosting, and when does it turn into just rotting meat? It's a fine balance, friends.

Sunday: Steak, Sweet potato fries and green beans


Montreal steak seasoning is my best friend. Turn pan on high, put some steak seasoning down, plop down fat-trimmed New York strips, leave em for six minutes. Put steak seasoning on the top of the steaks. Turn. Leave em for six minutes. Take em off the heat, rest em, eat em. Sooo good.

I chose some long sweet potatoes (three), cut them in half, sliced them into fry shapes, put them in a bag with some olive oil, paprika, garlic powder and chili powder and shook it up. I don't peel the sweet potatoes, because the skin tastes delicious. Put them in a 400 degree oven, bake them for about 25 minutes. Serve with sour cream on the side.

Frozen green beans, cooked, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Chris said these were the best green beans he's had! I just used olive oil instead of butter...Lesson learned.

Sunday afternoon: Creamy Mac and Cheese
This is the best mac and cheese recipe I have ever made. I added some chopped slices of ham, and we're still enjoying it. I halved this recipe and it is still feeding us!! The cottage cheese gives it a great snap. This isn't as bland as some baked mac and cheese recipes I've made.

Saturday: Went to a party at Trish's house, courtesy of Angela. We had a lot of amazing delicious food. I went home with a big plate of leftovers and feeling quite content.

Friday: Went out for Chinese food at Hollywood East Cafe. The food there is so insanely good it makes my head implode. For example, Pan Fried Triple Delight- minced shrimp stuffed into shells of eggplant, tofu or green pepper, covered with a sauce that must be liquid crack. Sizzling Chicken in casserole-words can't describe the gingery goodness.

Thursday: I don't remember what we ate that day...it's the missing dinner!

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Bombay Curry Company

Ooooh. We saw Harry Potter last night. OOOOOOH it was goooood.

But Before that we went to one of our favorite Indian restaurants, the Bombay curry company. Chris had the Goan Fish Curry, which I have no idea what is in it, but it is goood. It's big chunks of cod in a mild yellow coconut curry. The keenest thing about it is the fenugreek seeds. They just add a very distinctive but not overwhelming flavor.

I had the Butter Chicken, which is creamy, tomatoey, mildly spicy, and gooood.

We also had a side of the Saag Paneer which was OK. I never know if i like saag paneer. It's like, homemade cheese? That looks like tofu? And tastes like rubber? (but goood rubber, very good!) But I always end up getting it, so that probably means I do like it.

Then the movie. One caveat. Do not take small children to see this. It will put them out of their heads!!

Friday, November 18, 2005

Half Moon BBQ




Half Moon BBQ is this small hole in the wall BBQ place in silver spring, with a very loyal clientele. I've had a pulled pork sandwich here before, which was excellent, but the sides were very disappointing.

Yesterday, we went over to Jeff's house to put his brand new buffet together, and to admire his beautiful new dining room table. Ah, the house envy!!!

On the way we grabbed a full rack of ribs at Half Moon BBQ. It came with four sides; we chose BBQ baked beans, hand cut fries, coleslaw and potato salad.

The sides were tiny, and not very good (they came in small half cup containers, not even enough for two bites!). The potato salad was this garish yellow color and was completely bland, as was the coleslaw. Do they know about that spice for all seasons--salt?

The handcut fries were the biggest disappointment, they were dried out and tasted like they had been sitting on the counter. STRANGE since we waited for them when the rest of our food was getting cold!

And when we got back to Jeff's, guess what? NO BAKED BBQ beans. Tears well up just thinking about it.

However, the sides are not the reason to go to Half Moon BBQ. The BBQ is the reason to go to Half Moon. The ribs were awesome, fall off the bone, moist and flavorful; especially when slathered with the vinegary, spicy, not too sweet sauce they provide you with. Ribs=goood.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Pacifc Grill and Cafe

Is the Vietnamese restaurant down the street. The only vietnamese restaurant on Capitol hill it says. I've been there on numerous occasions. Get the Pho. That's it. Everything else tastes not so good.

Spring rolls? Not good here.
Variations of fried seafood or stir fried chicken/pork/beef?

NOT good here.

A warm bowl of Pho and a lackluster Lost. Good for a rainy Wednesday night.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Korean Spicy Chicken and Potato

This is known in KOREAN as "dak jim." Dak means chicken. Jim means stew. Chicken stew. This recipe is a simplified version of the one my mom made. I would suggest cutting the skin off your "wingettes" with some scissors, and I only used 1 1/2 pounds of wingettes, reducing the hot pepper sauce to 2 tbl, and no carrots. The sauce seems very thin when you first put it in, but it does thicken up, esp. if it's simmering for 45 min. Serve with white rice, and tastes so good. Wish I had taken a picture of this one..damn.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Pizza you say??

On Monday I tried to make a pizza with boboli crust, some pizza sauce, lots of mozzarella, and some pepperoni. easy peasy, right?

this pizza did not taste fresh. It tasted like a FROZEN pizza. Why did I go to all the trouble of getting these fresh ingredients if it just ends up tasting like frozen pizza?

I tried, now never again. Ella's it is!

Weekends= Eating Out.

Usually we do eat out on the weekends, but not on Sundays!

Friday: Maggianno's--rarely do the chain thing but I went with some friends. Got stuffed on bread and zucchini fritte, and only had four bites of linguini with white clam sauce. I think I'm going to try to cook that one day, because I like it. One of the pasta sauces I can tolerate. I think I may be anti-tomato sauce. Though I HATE alfredo.

Saturday: We went to see Pride and Prejudice (with Kiera Knightly--I know, "sacrilege, sacrilege!") I heartily agree. This version was passable, and how strange that so many versions of this story are POPPING UP. It was too late to eat out (my plans to go to Ella's were foiled!), so a lackluster dinner of hot dogs and baked beans was produced by the hubby. (good try, good try)

Sunday: A coma inducing dinner at Austin Grill. Dry rubbed wings: good, if a little too dry and sometimes burnt. Maybe this was due to my overwhelming hunger. Then I ordered the unfortunate "Hangover burger" because the prospect of a fried egg on ground meat always appeals to me. Unfortunately I had to scrape off the jalepeno seeds which made it impossible to eat, and there was no trace of the chili I was promised on it. Chris' mashed potatoes were pretty good though. I finished ONE quarter of the burger and ate the rest for lunch the next day.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Dinners this past week

Monday: Chicken Enchilada (made with the leftovers of the roast chicken from Sunday's dinner.

Tuesday: Chicken with Thai Red Curry Sauce from Trader Joe's. It tastes just like Chicken Panang from your favorite Thai place. I add some thawed chopped spinach to give it some oomph.

Wednesday: Chicken Adobo, featuring sprinkles of browned garlic, and one mean marinade.
The recipe came from the Pike Place Market Cookbook.

Thursday: Pizza Pinwheels and Creamy Tomato Soup from Trader Joe's

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Roast Chicken Sunday Supper

Menu:
Roast Chicken
Mustard Broccoli
Twice Baked Potatoes

So this is not a QUICK supper, but it's very easy and takes very little time to prepare.
The first step is to prep the roast chicken. I got the recipe from Young and Hungry, by Dave Lieberman. His chicken is already cut into parts, then marinated in olive oil, rosemary, thyme, lemon rind, salt and pepper.

Four hours later, start baking some potatoes. I just poke some holes in them and bake them at 350 for an hour.
Halfway through I put the chicken in the oven.

I put water on to boil for the broccoli and I put the ingredient for the sauce together. It's just dijon mustard, lemon juice and butter. You melt it in the microwave, but I wait until the broccoli is done for that.

I start making the sauce for the potatoes, which is available from AllRecipes, the best recipe site on the web. It includes sour cream, milk, butter, cheddar cheese, and green onions. I also popped some bacon into my Makin Bacon (best convenience as seen on tv product ever), to top the potatoes. Unfortunately I used too much milk so my potatoes were mushy. They still tasted good. After the potatoes are done, you cut them in half, mix in the potato filling into the sauce, and mash them. Then refill the potato skins, top them with more cheddar cheese and crumbled bacon bits, and pop them back into the oven.

Now it should be time to take the chicken out of the oven. Check to see if it's done (dave says, if the white meat is done before the dark meat, seperate them and put the dark meat back into the oven. DUH DAVE).

Cover it with tinfoil and let it rest.

Now prep the broccoli and put it into the boiling water.

Dave likes to put lemon parsley olive oil mixture on his chicken. Make this now (very easy!)

Pop the sauce into the microwave (30 seconds), drain the broccoli out when it's ready, toss with the sauce and it's done.



Now the potatoes can come out of the oven.

Everything is ready to serve. Drizzle the chicken with the parsley sauce, put everything on nice platters and a brilliant Sunday dinner is ready!




The chicken tasted kind of bland to me--more salt needed (as usual).
The potatoes were mushy, but tasty.
Chris said the broccoli was too strong, but I liked it. Maybe less lemon next time.