New Recipes: February

I am writing this post just before lunch, and it's making me pretty hungry. I hope you can find some delicious inspiration from this month's recipes too.

A 2 for $4 mango special helped inspire these Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa Verde from Cooking Light. I think fish tacos are a great weeknight meal because they come together quickly with minimal effort and are quite satisfying without being heavy. The mango salsa verde was a yummy addition, and I added a bit of sriracha mayo for a little tangy heat.

Making these Peanutty No-Bake Truffles from BH&G was my attempt at making something festive for Valentine's Day. They were not the most beautiful chocolates I have ever seen, but they were rich and tasty. I have some assorted leftover ingredients and have been thinking about making a hybrid peanut butter/chocolate version soon.

Black Bean, Corn & Turkey Soup (link to a similar recipe). This was another meal from the several freezer-crock pot dishes I brought home back in January. In this one, the turkey was pre-cooked, which reduced the cooking time to only 1-2 hours on high instead of all day. The first round was a little bland, but nothing some extra hot sauce couldn't fix. The reheated leftovers the next day were much better. Served with tortilla chips, and gobbled up in its entirety both times without a photo.

I can't take any credit for this last recipe, but it's been a long time since the second betsu bara has been featured on here. Keizo made a batch of Secret Nishiura Family Recipe Pickled Onions this past week, which we enjoyed along with fried rice and as a flavorful addition to my regular lunchtime salads.

I find myself wanting to repeat a lot of old standby recipes lately--maybe it's the cold weather we've been having, or just wanting dinner to come together quickly--but it's going to require a little more effort to find some new things to try in March.

Me + Chocolate = Forever

There really is no time when chocolate is very far from my mind, but Valentine's Day is a wonderful excuse to indulge even more than usual. 

While I would generally refrain from keeping chocolate in my desk at work, I was in a festive mood and decided to pick some up during my usual grocery run last week. I headed to the "seasonal" aisle of my local grocery store, and was very confused when I found a lot of green, yellow and lavender marshmallow animals lined up on the shelves. Seriously, this was almost a week before Valentine's Day and all of the pink and red-wrapped candies had already been consolidated into a smaller section at the front of the store that until recently had been occupied with broken candy canes. 

As if the prominently displayed Easter candy wasn't enough, I also noticed some patio furniture stacked on top of the dairy cases in the back of the store. Considering the temperature has been in the single digits lately, I think the whole store is getting a little too far ahead of the calendar...

Purchasing pre-made chocolate wasn't enough for me this year, so last Friday I decided to try my hand at making some truffles. I went back to the store, where my basket ended up as the picture of health, with Nutter Butters, Oreos, two kinds of chocolate chips, agave syrup, peanut butter and some hazelnut spread (not actually for the truffles, but I had just finished a jar and it fit nicely with the teeth-rotting, flab-inducing theme of my basket).

I followed the "Peanutty" and "Indulgent Chocolate" variations of this No-Bake Truffle recipe with a decent amount of success, if I may say so myself. The crumb setting on my blender did a nice job reducing the cookies to dust, and after that everything else just gets dumped in a bowl and mixed together. 

I didn't have any trouble rolling the mixture into balls, but I did choose to give them a quick rest in the freezer before dipping them in melted chocolate. 

The dipping part was definitely a little messy, and the coatings were far from perfectly smooth. I topped the peanut butter ones with appropriately colored peanut butter M&Ms and stuck them back in the fridge to set.

I packed up a bunch of truffles to take to dinner at a friend's house on Saturday. They made for an indulgent after-dinner treat. At two (or three) bites a piece, these truffles are pretty rich even for this chocoholic. I don't do a very good job of savoring them as I am eating, and then regret it later when I have eaten too many all at once. This is all to say I should be sharing more of the leftovers, but they're so good I just want to hoard them for myself.

Currently - Feb '15

It's time for another Currently link up with Anne and Jenna. 

I've been in a bit of a funk this week, but I am "hearting" that we are one day closer to the weekend! I am also "hearting" the new mattress I finally invested in last month after 3.5 years of sleeping on a futon. The whole experience has been rather similar to when I got glasses in 7th grade -- I had no idea what I'd been missing!

I recently finished the novel, The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides, and started two non-fiction books: How to Win Friends and Influence People and Seabiscuit. The Marriage Plot was a good read, although I did not appreciate the lack of chapter breaks in the prose. Without natural stopping places to guide me, I was able to finish the book much faster overall, but each "session" was much longer than my usual 15-20 minutes before going to sleep.

I picked up my copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People at a used bookstore, and I had no idea how long it has been in circulation! While I am sure the principles still apply today, some of the text is a bit dated. I have set it down at least temporarily after reading a paragraph in which the author explains that he only knows of two people making over $1 million a year, surely a direct result of their incomparable people skills! There might be something to that, but I have moved on to a book that is actually intended to be historical. I've learned a lot about Seabiscuit and the sport of horse racing despite being only about a quarter of the way through the book. I am thankful for the regular breaks in the text and the occasional picture, and in awe of the talent and pure grit exhibited by the main characters.

I only joined Pinterest a few months ago, and will often ignore it during the week. It has been inspirational in helping me get rid of some clutter, and I have recently been pinning images of gallery wall ideas to help add more personality to my otherwise very standard looking apartment.

I rediscovered miso soup this week after picking up some take-out sushi on my way home yesterday. I used to make it pretty regularly as part of my dinner when I lived in Japan, and it's a nice way to warm up on a winter's evening.

On the other end of the temperature spectrum, I have been enjoying Whole Food's house brand gelato as though it were 28*C outside instead of 28*F. I've tried the Salted Caramel and Hazelnut flavors, and I would be hard pressed to choose a favorite between the two.

Keizo will be coming to visit in just two weeks, in what we hope will be his last annual, post-rugby season trip! He's been making these trips since his very first trip to the US in February/March 2010, but I really hope to put an end to the tradition later this year when he gets his visa and can relocate more permanently. I haven't planned much of anything yet, but there are plenty of places in my neighborhood and beyond that I am looking forward to taking him to, as well as spending some quality time hanging out at home in our sweatpants.

Thanks for reading!

New Recipes: January

Even though I am already looking forward to spring, I can't quite believe that February is here already! January was busy in a good way with more outings with friends, some time and effort spent organizing my apartment, and stepping up my running routine for my first 10K in March. So far, signing up for that race has done exactly what I'd hoped - helped focus my workouts and, to a lesser extent, my eating habits (isn't the whole point of exercising more so you can eat more?) Here are the new recipes I tried this month:

Tuscan Tuna Mac Casserole

A fancy twist on mac-n-cheese with crusty panko topping, this was a warm and tasty dish. I substituted the almond milk I had on hand for the dairy milk called for in the recipe, which resulted in a thinner sauce. I think dairy milk would help make this dish a bit more filling. The recipe says it serves eight, but it was closer to 4-5 dinner sized servings for me. I also think a nice, melty cheese like cheddar or mozarella would be a nice substitute for the fontina. Writing about it makes me want to make this again...right now! 

Cilantro Lime Crock-pot Chicken (similar recipe)

A few weeks ago, before the arrival of my cousin's baby, I joined my aunt and cousins to help assemble six different crock-pot freezer meals. I was lucky enough to bring home 1/2 recipes of all of them, and I put this one to use right away! The best parts were the delicious aroma and the convenience, and a 1/2 recipe was plenty for several, single person meals. Despite using what seemed like a ton of cilantro and lime juice during assembly, I think this recipe would be improved by reserving some of the cilantro until the end of the cooking time and by adding more lime juice.

Butternut Squash Soup (similar recipe)

This might be the winning recipe from this month. Like most people, I spent the first ten or so days of January cutting back on sweets and trying to eat more vegetables, but by mid-month I wasn't following any kind of plan anymore. I chose this soup to help me reset.

Butternut squash can be kind of a pain to prepare with all of the peeling and chopping, but in this instance it was part of the reset process. It was nice to be back in the kitchen, preparing something I knew was good for me, and even better to be rewarded with a soup that continued to improve as I ate the leftovers.

Lemon Thyme Chicken

This recipe is another example of where I felt really good about the "making" part of it. After traveling for work Monday - Tuesday, and eating out on Wednesday, I buckled down after work on Thursday. I ran errands on my way home, knocked out two miles on the treadmill, put the chicken in the oven and finished my strength training while it baked (if only everyday were this productive!) This recipe came together really easily, the chicken was not overcooked, and while flavorful, I have plans to use the leftovers in a several different dishes - over pasta, chopped on a salad, in a soup etc.

I also did some baking this month - carrot cake and coffee cake - but neither recipe impressed me enough to be included here. Both came out drier than I prefer, probably from over baking. After having to add baking time to most recipes, I've concluded that my oven runs a little cool. I've started to compensate by adding a few degrees when I preheat, but it will probably take a few more tries to get it just right.