Super Suppers

Super suppers was actually a lot of fun. Chris and I got there at 11:45. He was a bit skeptical (about the quality of the ingredients, how much he would be participating, who else would be there potentially staring at him and his lack of knife skills). It's only 15 minutes away from our house, so if this works out, we might go there monthly.

The ingredients were pretty good--definitely what you would get a standard supermarket. We used chicken cutlets (frozen), fish fillets (frozen), pre-cooked sausage, pre-cooked canadian bacon, shrimp (frozen), and flank steak (refrigerated, so we could put a rub on there).
There wasn't a lot of produce, beyond fresh herbs. One dish required some broccoli florets, which you kept separately from the rest of the dish, and they looked pretty fresh. Otherwise it was wonderful to have everything just laid out in front of you with the appropriate measuring spoons already in there. I was just thinking the other day how when I first started cooking I thought it would be like, witchcraft or something. A little bit of this, a little of that, and poof! Magically delicious. Now I realize that it's actually the gathering of ingredients and prep that is all the work, and the "poof" part is the shortest part. Afterwards you get to clean up your disaster zone of a kitchen (or in my case, make your husband do it). At Super Suppers, someone else does that. Chris loved that part.

The recipes were really broken down and easy to follow-down to what materials you needed, which were all stacked next to the "stations." Chris even made one recipe on his own! I did one on my own, and the others we worked at together. Most of them were about putting ingredients into a bag or a pan, sealing it up and putting it away. The most fun recipe was the pork empanada, because you get to roll out dough, stuff it, and crimp it. I'm most skeptical about this recipe, though, because it came with the pre-cooked sausage, and I don't know what that will taste like.

The stations were like salad bars positioned against walls, and usually there were two recipes per station. This made it a bit crowded, but we never had to share a station with anyone. One person was there when we came in, and others came in after us, but everybody finished at their own pace. That solved Chris' other problem about interacting with strangers. The Super Suppers people were very friendly, and when we got to the empanada station, she was really helpful in showing us how to work with the dough. We definitely would have ended up with blobs if she hadn't stepped in.

I'll discuss how the recipes turn out (we split a lot of them in half to stretch out the portions, which are meant for six people). One recipe I'm doing on my own this week is a Creamy Spinach pasta from the Family Fun Month of Meals. I had never seen this website before! I'm kind of excited to try some of the recipes out. They all seem fairly easy and kid friendliness is on their mind. There do seem to be an overload of chicken breast rolled in cracker crumb type recipes though, and I generally don't like that.

Menu, revised and reworked

So what did we have for dinner this week? We didn't go grocery shopping until TUESDAY so actually it's been quite erratic.

Sunday-Got some jang-jo-reem which is like beef boiled in soy sauce (and eggs also marinated and boiled in soy sauce) from mom, tore it into small pieces (just the beef) and mixed into rice with some of the soy sauce. Korean comfort food is the BEST!

Monday-Tuna melts-tuna salad on bagel with tomato and cheese on top, then broiled. So simple!

Tuesday-Spam fried rice--Chris claims this is his favorite dinner. It does have a very comfortable feel to it, but favorite? That seems extreme...

Wednesday-felt frustrated with life and fat with artichoke and spinach dip (and Bruschetta). The above was served at Elaine's Office Marathon party, which I was not frustrated with, but I think the hormones are trying to consume me or something. I felt tired? Hence, I did not cook dinner and forced Chris to eat doritos for his meal.

Thursday-Slow cooker pot roast. Successfully plugged in the pot roast this time, so it did cook. I'll let you know how it turned out.

Friday-The plan is curried shrimp (another Bittman recipe). Seems very simple.

I am highly contemplating registering for Super Suppers (just to try it out..)

This weekend we are going to a Birthday BBQ but I'm on vacation for the next two weeks..perhaps I should try to make something fancy?

Menu and More

Before we get started, I just have to say that Violet Affleck (Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck's offspring) is the most beautiful child I have ever seen. She has these amazing dimples and eyes, just like Jennifer Garner. No idea what she got from Affleck. I look at pictures of that baby and I'm thinking how does that work?? Knowing that our baby could look adorable like me and Chris as babies or have a head the size of a basketball, like my brother.

Menu:

Tues-Meatballs, potatoes, and salad
Wed-Spaghetti and meatballs with vodka cream sauce (trader joe's of course)
Thurs-Korean Chicken Stew
Fri-Out for dinner with friends!
Sat-Baby Shower BBQ (not ours)

What should we have for dinner next week?

La Mer

Yesterday Chris and I went to the shores of Delaware for a lovely beach outing that included:

The ocean attempting to drown me by constantly pushing waves towards me and making water go over my head.

A delicious corn dog and not so delicious chili cheese dog (chili shouldn't taste like Chef Boyardee, right?) and delicious fries.

Maternity bathing suit. Nuff said.

Pina colada water ice. Funland--and a ride on the not recommended for pregnancy "Paratrooper" on which Chris claims he almost threw up. It's just a tilted carousel that goes somewhat fast and somewhat backwards sometimes. My biggest fear on the ride was that our cart would disengage from the main arm and fling us into the realm of Funland never to be seen again.

25 cent skeeball. Do you know how affordable that is? I could have stayed there all day. I won a small orca!!

Finishing my first Agatha Christie novel. Do you know how many times I've attempted to finish one of these books? I have millions laying around. I've seen so many of her mystery mini-series on Masterpiece Theatre. Yet, Murder on the Orient Express truly held my attention, and the ending was GASP worthy.

Our first Cold Stone ice cream. It just tasted like ice cream with a lot of stuff in it. My white chocolate ice cream didn't seem to have any flavor. Odd.. But calorific.

All in all a fantastic day with NO traffic and other bumps of life that ruin fantastic days. That is why I have no menu for this week. We'll probably be eating pasta every night.

Picture Test of the Excellent Vacation We Went On... LAST YEAR

Tomato Sauces Used to Not Be My Thing

But now they are.

Note this week's menu is full of tomato-y goodness.

Sun: Angel hair pasta with tomato sauce
Mon: Chili with Rice
Tues: Baked Orzo with Feta and Shrimp < does include enormous can of crushed tomatoes!
Wed: Steak and Baked potato fries
Thurs: Omelet

Ok, the last two days have no tomato sauce on the menu, but did I mention I had Ledo's pizza on Saturday, which has tomato sauce??

Weekly Menu

Sunday: Korean Chicken Stew-I have not eaten white meat chicken in months, I think. This recipe calls for chicken wings, but it's much easier to just use chicken thighs.
Monday: Beefaroni and Salad. Good old comforting casserole.
Tuesday: Spicy Shrimp with Mango Salsa-This recipe is out of control spicy and delicious! Make the marinade in the morning, and plenty of rice to go with it.
Wednesday: Brats, Corn and Twice Baked Potatoes. Chris is going to fire up the grill and I'm going to make what are truly the ultimate twice baked potatoes. I love these things. They're really a meal unto themselves.
Thursday: Potstickers-a Mark Bittman recipe. I used my How to Cook Everything book so much that it fell apart. I had to buy a new copy this weekend so I could make one of my favorite recipes!


Also have to mention a foray into Baltimore's Korean dining scene (which though limited is apparently doing quite well thanks to): Joung Kak, a BBQ Korean Restaurant which we visited with Angela and Mike and many friends and it was fantastic! Chris has particularly been craving this Korean restaurant outside Atlanta which grilled on hot coals rather than gas. They always offered a hot pot stew and fresh garlic and jalepenos. Until Joung Ka, we had not seen BBQ served this way. Plus all the meat was tender and really flavorful. Add to this walking the Race for the Cure in the morning, taking an awesome nap with my favorite napping companion (our new tripod Esme), and swimming at the pool of the most expensive house on the market in B-more, it was a FANTASTIC day.

Barbeque with the In-Laws

My in-laws came into town to see the new house on Sunday so we decided to have a BBQ to celebrate. We haven't grilled on our own before and a new grill was purchased at Lowe's for the occasion. We stick to regular old charcoal, and made a Memorial Day BBQ of fantastic proportions.

The menu:

1. Potato Salad
2. "Middle Eastern" salad-cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, parsley + paul newman light balsamic vinaigrette
3. Premio Brats
4. Hot dogs
5. Awesome BBQ steak-marinade was awesome and only for three hours--7 minutes per side and we are golden.
6. Corn on the cob
7. Watermelon

I was quite pleased. One thing I'm quite proud of is that I made three of the things from scratch, and that everything turned out quite yummy. I foresee more BBQ's in the future.

Menu for the Week

Sunday: Sausages and Rice with Salad and Fried eggs over easy. This is a simple supper that is satisfying. We had to add the salad to move away from the unhealthy white rice and fatty protein combo. Salad makes everything more nutritious and less guilt inducing.

Monday: Honey dijon salmon, risotto and asparagus. Trader Joe's premarinated salmon. Chris accidentally put it in the freezer. Hope it's ok.

Tuesday: Mystics game at the Verizon Center. These are free tickets. Much consumption of overpriced food articles anticipated.

Wednesday: Spam Fried Rice

Thursday: Perhaps we will eat out as there is a big show at the school that night. If not, leftovers and I will make quesedillas and tomato soup.

Eating Out

Of course in addition to cooking I like to eat out quite a bit. Where have we been eating? I know you're dying to know.

For Mother's Day Chris took me to get a dozen crabs at Bethesda Crab House. We ate outdoors, we had corn, a dozen mediums (all that were left by the time we called, and thank goodness we did as they are ALWAYS running out--they even ran out of CORN). It was delicious and oh so filling. I think the mediums are good for us, because it was the first time we actually finished the entire dozen. It was a wonderful date.

I also had a jonesing for Vietnamese food. Since the move we are incredibly far away from the mecca of Vietnamese food in the DC area, Eden Center. So we drove in from work one night since I had to work late anyway. We went to Huong Que (or Four Sisters) Vietnamese Restaurant where I ordered the standard Pork Ribs in Clay Pot and Chris got the vermicelli rice noodles with grilled pork and crispy spring roll. We started with the Crispy Spring Roll and it's always so flavorful and good. It's like the best egg roll you've ever had. It's all pork and just the right amount of filler with this awesome dipping sauce. The sauce is lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and water but it may as well replace crack on the black market because it is completely addictive. I bought a bottle for my house for when I have the Trader joe's Coconut Curry Stix.

Just a note about Trader Joe's...Where are my Pork Gyoza???? Apparently the factory that manufactured them in Thailand shut down suddenly.

After we get the Vietnamese food we always stop over at Song Que for some bubble tea and banh mi. I get the ham and pate banh mi for lunch the next day and hence two cravings are quenched in one trip. Why are there no places in Maryland that make these damned sandwiches? This trip I got the pineapple bubble tea and it was very sweet but also tart and had some pineapple pulp in there. MMmm, citrusy.

Finally, last night we went for Dosai at Woodlands Indian Restaurant. This was our first time at Woodlands, and the first time I have had dosai in the three years since leaving Atlanta, when we would go to Udipi Cafe all the time for this flavorful potatoey treat. Now just like there are a dearth of good Vietnamese restaurants in MD, there was a huuge hole of great Southern Indian restaurants in Northern VA. Now we're in MD and we can go to Woodlands and get the Butter Masala Dosai all the time. We also tried the Madhu Vada, which are donuts made from lentils and flour. They taste like savory donuts. They come with the two standard dipping sauces, sambar and coconut chutney. The sambar is like a thin flavorful curry sauce which is warm, and the coconut chutney is grated coconut and spices served cool. The dosai itself was really flavorful and exactly how I remembered it. I don't know if there's a formal way of eating the dosai, but I just tear pieces of the crepe off the edge, stuff it with potato, dip it in one of the sauces and pick my way through it. Even though the mound of potato looks so small, appropriate crepe to potato rationing will get you through the meal. Gorgeous!

Jambalaya!

How do you make something that usually takes hours of flavors skillfully combining together easily in 30 minutes?

Use a crockpot.

DUH.

I have used this recipe with great success in the last few years. Whenever I want jambalaya i just use this. It's spicy, it's meaty, it's delicious. I always use a polish kielbasa (sorry purists) rather than andouille. What is andouille. Where can I find it. Why does it scare me? Perhaps it will stand up to the slowcooker, as the kielbasa always turns out a little mealy.

The spices are perfectly spicy for me, but that is a bit spicy. Not knock your socks off, but 1 tsp of cayenne goes a long way. I add a cup of minute rice at the end. This is not the perfect solution, but my goodness, Jambalaya needs RICE. I also put in raw shrimp at the end, not cooked (what is the point of that? The shrimps cooks in about 15 minutes in the slow cooker and it's a lot more tender than chewy pre-cooked shrimp).

The friends all liked it, and most importantly I liked it and there were no leftovers. This makes a lot so that was a good thing.

Butter Chicken and Imitation Imitation Crab Bisque

I did not use imitation crab for the imitation Imitation Crab Bisque. This bisque combines two canned soup and some imitation crab to make some imitation bisque. It's not bisque. It's just two cans of soup and some milk with a can of crab meat in it. Do NOT use imitation crab. That's just pointless. It's probably easier to find the damn can of crab. You've already got the can opener out.
You can add various spices (the recipe recommends a pinch of curry powder). I also added a bit of cayenne. It tastes like a passable bisque at a crappy sandwich place. It's incredibly easy to make and hence I may make it again.

The butter chicken recipe is pretty ingenious. A few simple ingredients and a rotisserie chicken and you have some delicious Indian fake-out take-out. I love this stuff. It's got a kick, it tastes pretty close to real butter chicken, and the flavor of the rotisserie chicken is so good in this sauce. I do not do the step where they take the chicken out before adding the peas and cream. That would be lame.

STOP THE PRESSES

The reason that I haven't blogged in so many months is because I've been involved in some secret underground counter-revolutionary stuff that I can't go into right now because they're watching my EVERY MOVE.

Now that you know why I've been missing, perhaps you'd also like to know what I'm having for dinner this week.

This past week was a humdinger. We've moved in (relatively) to a new house with a glamorous kitchen, so there's been plenty of cooking and lots of leftovers.

One night I made Spaghetti Carbonara, which is just spaghetti, bacon, parmesan and flavored olive oil. Oh it's so delicious and easy to make, and oh the leftovers just taste so scrumdiddly-umptious!! I modified it from this Rachael Ray recipe, and instead of the pancetta I use half a package of thick cut bacon. Obviously I'm not using the Rigatoni and instead of two egg yolks I just used one egg. It still turns out like the most wonderful comfort food ever. Bacony.

I made this Spicy Chicken Stew without the spicy pepper paste, because that makes it "Dak Jim," or "Chicken Stew," and that is my most favorite thing in the world to eat. My mom makes this so much better than I do, but this tastes so close to my childhood memories, it's very good eats. I love using Yukon Gold potatoes because they soak in the stew juices. When you first put everything in the pot you think, Wow, that is so little liquid, but then it magically fills up with chicken juices and becomes pretty full. So don't worry so much, you'll get wrinkles. Also instead of the chicken wings I've just become lazy and use boneless skinless chicken thighs with the fat trimmed. It's probably not as flavorful but I hate that damned chicken skin.

Lastly we made what I call Cowboy Lasagna, mostly because of this woman's blog title, but it seems very hearty and cow-boy-y and who cares what's it's called because it's DAMNED good. I followed the recipe to a T and made enough to feed seven people with seconds. When you dream of lasagna, this is what you're thinking of--gooey cheesy mushy meaty goodness. And it's so simple!

On the menu for the upcoming week (if i get my sh*t together...):
Bulgogi-bought at the korean market pre-marinated. Serve with rice, conjure up nostalgic childhood memories. maybe add onion and impress your friends. or at least yourself.

Pork chops-marinade with crappy marinade stuff you always think is a good idea but generally isn't. serve with boxed risotto, and salad.

One night we're going to Hollywood East, which is this amazing Chinese restaurant in Wheaton. I love their pan fried triple delight and their Mongolian beef.

One night I'm going to try to garner the energy to eat in the city at Bistrot du Coin, my favorite french bistro that is unpretentious, down to earth and damned tasty. Though I can no longer swill their carafe of house red, the Mouclade de Charentes are calling to me.

The quickest supper of all

Sometimes the quickest supper of all is just dialing in that pizza order.

The quickest supper of all

Sometimes the quickest supper of all is just dialing in that pizza order.

Fisherman's Chowder

After rolling through all of tarnation to get the ingredients for this deceptively simple chowder, I was very pleased with the results. A thick flavorful stew with big chunks of firm white fish, yummy veggies, and a creamy tomato base. The cream base was a faux-roux of butter, flour and cream! When added to the initial stock base, the whole stew became a chowdah.

Served with Asiago cheese focaccia made by Safeway, which I've bought and served again with roasted chicken salad this weekend. I just threw together some leftover rotisserie chicken, which I warmed up in the microwave to get that nice chewy texture (just barely heated it), celery, onions, grapes, and mayo. YUM as RR would say.

Honey Garlic Rib Emergency!

These did not go well... First, they were burned. I just kept trusting the recipe and not my own senses that were telling me: burning burning burning! If you can SEE smoke an SMELL smoke, usually that indicates FIRE. I should definitely get my smoke detector batteries changed.

The bottom of the pan (which was POORLY covered in aluminum foil, all my fault), was totally burned, and had to be discarded.

The ribs were actually OK, except for the smaller ribs and of course the parts that were BURNT.

I also made mashed potatoes, but before I could salvage the leftovers, Chris left them out overnight. I was going to make this.

Alas, it was not to be. However, the crab delights were wonderful.

WHAT?

I haven't posted in the entire month of September! Well, I ate out a lot that month as school was starting up again and I immediately caugth the DEATH FLU, the vestiges of which still linger within me. However, I have been 30 minutes or less cooking up a storm. For example, on Tuesday I made Spam Fried Rice, modifying a Mark Bittman fried rice recipe I've been using for years. It was the homeiest comfort food I ever had. I even surprised myself.

Monday, we had Rachel Ray's double stacked quesedillas and tomato soup. Those quesedillas are ridiculously easy to make, yet they taste special. Like moonbeams and unicorns sprinkles were added, but actually, those are just scallions. The recipe for the quesedillas are wedged in this recipe for "Salsa Stoup," which I've also made and I believe is NOT GOOD.

Last week, I made a crock pot Navy Bean Soup, shrimp with Risotto, chicken with asparagus, and these pork chops in a crock pot. That was NOT good, either, but it did use up those frozen pork chops I had. The navy bean soup was very good, and we ALMOST made it through the entire pot, even without Jeff's help. Did you ever try this recipe for sauteed snap peas and asparagus from Ina Garten? I think that's how I'm going to sautee all my vegetables now. It's very fast and makes all vegetables taste better.

Next week I'm going to ambitiously make Fish Chowder, Garlic Honey Ribs, and some spicy coconut shrimp. Hopefully.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

I have always loved cream of mushroom soup. I remember cold winter mornings and my mom heating up one of the dozens of cans of this condensed soup for my dad's breakfast. Tonight, however, I tried my hand at homemade cream of mushroom soup, which was incredibly easy and definitely delicious! Served with rotisserie chicken on spinach greens. Chris loved this meal! And it was healthy and had a lot less sodium. The mushroom soup is a Mark Bittman recipe. Lovely.

Antipasto Salad

This turned out really delicious! All the yummy parts of antipasto and very very easy. I had the deli at the Safeway slice everything quite thick and then I got the red peppers and the olives at the olive bar, so I didn't waste anything. I am sending half of the salad to Chris' work though as we would never be able to finish it!