What I Read for Fun :: Fairest, Volume 2: The Hidden Kingdom

Fairest, Volume 2: The Hidden Kingdom

written by Bill Willingham and Lauren Beukes

art by Inaki Miranda

What I Re-Read for Fun :: Extra Yarn

What I Read for Fun :: That is NOT a Good Idea!

What I Read for Fun :: Hilda and the Midnight Giant

What I Read for Fun :: Exploring Diabetes with Owls

What I Read for Fun :: Boxers & Saints

By Gene Luen Yang

What I Read for Fun :: Emma

What I Read for Fun :: Battling Boy

What I Ate for Lunch :: Pho

 

Pho VN One

11000 Baltimore Ave, Beltsville, MD 20705

(301) 931-3302 

What I Baked for Thanksgiving :: Pies + Muffins

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins with Pecan Streusel
 

Pumpkin Mascarpone Pie

 

Bourbon Pecan Pie (minus the Bourbon)

Bonus Baking Part 1: Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites
 

Bonus Baking Part 2: Mini Pumpkin and Pecan Tarlets

What I Made for Lunch :: Chinese-style Tofu with Sichuan Pickles &Preserved Egg

What I Made for Dinner :: Skillet-Roasted Potatoes & Chicken

I love when a meal comes together with things I already have in the kitchen. There are just some days that I don't want to have to go to the market.

Tonight I made Skillet-Roasted Potatoes & Chicken with a side of shredded, sauteed Brussels sprouts.

The only modification I made was that the thighs I had were skinless and boneless so I didn't add them to the skillet until half an hour in. 

Rupert really loved the potatoes. I wonder if I can just make the potatoes without the chicken ... having some schmaltz would probably help with the flavor. Hmm, something to ponder!

What I Ate for Dinner :: Founding Farmers

I joined my former co-workers at Founding Farmers for their last dinner in DC. Rupert and I have been meaning to go to the Potomac branch of the restaurant, and from what I sampled at the DC branch, we definitely need to go. The food is good, the portions are generous, and the prices are reasonable.

[Farm Bread with Brie, Onion Jam, and Sliced Apple]

[Fried Green Tomatoes]

[Southern Pan-Fried Chicken and Waffles]

 

[Chicken Pot Pie]

[Butternut Squash-Mascarpone Ravioli]

[Lemon Meuniere Diver Scallops]

Lemon Meunière Diver Scallops

Lemon Meunière Diver Scallops

Founding Farmers
1924 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20006

What I Ate for Dinner :: 2 Amys

My former co-workers are visiting DC to receive an award for the school. They invited me to join them on their first night in town for some sightseeing and good eats. We ended up at 2 Amys for a late dinner after enjoying some the lit-up monuments.

[front to back: pizza margherita extra (tomato, mozzarella di bufala, cherry tomatoes); pizze etna (eggplant confit, olives, capers, oregano, grana); pizze norcia (tomato, salami, grilled peppers, fresh mozzarella, grana)]

2 Amys
3715 Macomb Street, NW
Washington, DC 20016
(202) 885-5700

What I Made for Dinner :: Pad Thai

I was totally bummed that I couldn't find tamarind paste to make my own Pad Thai sauce, so I had to settle for bottled sauce (and even that took three stores to find). I made the sauce peanutier by adding a bit of (bottled) Bangkok Padang Peanut Sauce. Then I used Chez Pim's technique to cook up individual portions. I also referenced the Phat Thai recipe in the Pok Pok cookbook (by Andy Ricker).

Besides not making my own Pad Thai sauce, I messed up in two areas:

1. I chose two different kinds of tofu: Trader Joe's baked tofu and a smoked tofu from MOM's Organic Market (I forgot the brand). Neither of them was to our liking. It would've been better to pan fry some regular firm tofu; the exterior would crisp up nicely and regular tofu probably absorbs sauce better. 
2. I didn't soak the noodles long enough. The package said I only had to soak it for 10 minutes, but it required at least double the time. I know the noodles shouldn't be soft and soggy, but my first few batches were too hard. 

Now that I know what to fix, I think I can whip up an edible inauthentic version of Pad Thai ... at least until I use up the bottled sauce!

What I Read for Fun :: Mr. Wuffes!

By David Wiesner

Read at the Arlington Public Library for Capitol Choices

What My Parents Made for Dinner :: Gyoza and Beef & Broccoli

What I Read for Fun :: Rutabaga: Adventure Chef (chapters 1-5)

by Eric Feurstein

RutabagaComic.com

Purchased at SPX 2013

What I Made for Dinner :: Flat Iron Steak with Red Wine Sauce

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/28065

The presentation leaves a lot to be desired but we were hungry and it smelled so good we just dug right into the food!

I had one 2-pound piece of meat instead of two 1-pound pieces. It was also thicker on one end so I knew it was going to cook a bit unevenly. It definitely took longer than five minutes per side (I used a grill pan on my stove instead of a barbecue grill). In fact, I put it in a 375-degree oven for an extra 5-10 minutes. The thicker part of the meat was cooked perfectly to medium rare, and the thinner part was cooked to medium but it was still very tender and it wasn't dried out.

The recipe for the red wine sauce says to strain out the solid ingredients (onions, garlic, oregano) but I left it all in; Rupert and I both like cooked onions.

I served the meat with scalloped potatoes. 

What I Made for Dinner :: Mussels in White Wine

When my in-laws were visiting in September, Maya discovered she liked mussels. She and I had ordered an appetizer portion to share (at Mon Ami Gabi) and she ate the whole thing! It's been in the back of my mind since then that I should nurture this love of seafood so her palate stays receptive to different flavors. Mussels were on sale this week at Harris Teeter, so I thought I would change up the protein in my weekly pasta dish and switch to seafood.

I used an Ina Garten recipe with some modifications: I had four pounds of mussels so I made the necessary adjustments; I used a whole can of tomatoes; I used a combination of shallots and onions; I omitted the parsley because I didn't have any; and I served it with thin spaghetti and sour dough bread (we love our carbs!).

I'm actually not a huge fan of mussels, but I love the broth it creates when cooked with white wine and aromatics. The liquid was briny and worked really well with the pasta and bread. In fact, I think we enjoyed dipping the sourdough into the broth more than we enjoyed the mussels themselves! (It didn't help that we kept biting into what appeared to be little pearls, even though I spent half an hour cleaning the mussels before cooking them.)

What I Made for Dinner :: Crockpot Chicken

 

Yes, I realize this is an unappetizing picture of a chicken carcass. I wasn't able to get a photograph of the finished dish because I wasn't home for dinner tonight. It was precisely because I wasn't going to be home for most of the day that I made dinner in the slow cooker for the rest of the family.

This recipe for Whole Chicken in a Slow Cooker is from The Little Kitchen and it's probably one of the better chicken recipes I've made in the slow cooker. I'm glad there are leftovers for me in the fridge!

A few things ... 

• The recipe says to cook it on low for 4~8 hours (6 hours for a 4-pound chicken), but you can also cook it on high. I found this out by accident ... I actually forgot to turn the slow cooker on before leaving the house (had I done so, my 4.5-pound chicken would've been in the slow cooker for 7 hours). So I called Ian after he got home from school and had him plug the slow cooker in and set it to high, which means the chicken cooked for 4 hours, and it was fine.
• The chicken is good even without crisping up the skin in the broiler at the end. I forgot to mention this step to Rupert, and I think he would've enjoyed a crispier exterior. (I seem to have forgotten quite a few things while preparing this dish!)
• After quartering the lemon, there wasn't enough room in the cavity for all four pieces, so I threw the last piece into the slow cooker with the vegetables. That probably wasn't a good idea; I think it left a bitter, odd flavor on some of the carrots.
• You don't add any liquid to the slow cooker but it ends up creating some pretty delicious broth in the end. Rupert wanted to save it to make some kind of soup or sauce but I discarded it this time because I didn't know what to do with it. (It's really gelatinous after cooling to room temp, which just goes to show that the bones & cartilage really exude their essence while the chicken is cooking.)