Recipe Roundup 6/2016

It's been a while since a 'recipe roundup,' and we've had several delicious dinners (and lunches) lately that I want to brag about, oops, I mean share.

Recipes are listed left to right, top to bottom.

Curry Chickpea Salad - We kicked off summer with this versatile recipe during a picnic dinner date at the park. The chickpeas taste just as good in pitas as they do over greens.

Spiced Pork Chops with Mashed Potatoes - This is a repeat Blue Apron recipe that happened to fit well with the contents of our CSA box last week: sweet potatoes, chard and snap peas. As more of a "one-pot wonder" type of cook myself, Blue Apron recipes can sometimes seem a bit fancy. Sometimes the little bit of extra effort and dirtied cooking vessels are worth it, sometimes not. All of the recipes here are definitely worth it.

Turkey Meatballs with Parsley Pesto (similar meatball recipe) - Another recipe featuring a CSA ingredient: parsley (and no small amount of it either!) The pesto recipe was from the newsletter that comes in our box every week and made enough to cover an entire box of pasta. The turkey meatballs were good too, and had some extra veggies thrown as well.

Nepalese Chicken Tarkari - Another Blue Apron repeat recipe featuring spinach from the CSA box.

General Tso's Chicken - Yet another Blue Apron recipe featuring CSA ingredients: snap peas and green onions. One of the best things about making these recipes again, aside from the fact that they are delicious, is that they can easily be doubled and the leftovers taken into work for lunch the next day. While none of my co-workers actually asked me if this was take-out, I like to think I could have easily convinced them that it was.  

In addition to the ingredients above, our CSA has featured a lot of lettuce and other leafy greens. Salads are a no brainer, but does anyone have other ideas? We've made summer rolls, and added lettuce to stir fries, but we get a huge bag of it every week and it's definitely a challenge to keep up.

Thanks for reading!

Recipe Roundup - 1/2016

It's been a while since I've written about food on this blog, which at one time was all about food.

In part, I attribute this to the fact I do less cooking and have assumed more of a management role in the kitchen since Keizo moved in. I plan the menu and make a grocery list while he takes care of the shopping and a lot of the prep work. This doesn't always work out quite as planned as he's much more of a free spirit in the kitchen, using recipes (or a photo) as inspiration, and then making things up as he goes along. While I wasn't particularly thrilled when he substituted black beans for lentils in a curry recipe, at least he's been experimenting in the kitchen long enough to make completely edible, and usually pretty tasty dishes.

Recipes were followed pretty closely for each of the standout meals from January, including taco/margarita night, a flavorful deep dish pizza, a creamy pasta dish and some homestyle Japanese cooking.

Shrimp Tacos - Another winner from Real Simple. Keizo made the filling, and I assembled the avocado creme and made a quick salsa from some odds and ends we had on hand: onions, bell pepper, lime juice and thawed pineapple chunks. The margaritas were basic, but oh so tasty after a busy week at work.

Moroccan Spiced Deep Dish Pizza - I bought Keizo a cast iron skillet for Christmas, and it quickly became a prominent player in our kitchen. This was our first ever attempt at deep dish pizza as well as the first time we used the skillet in the oven. The flavors in this recipe are intense and rather different from what we usually cook, but really my only complaint was how chewy the dough turned out.

Salmon and Lemon Bucatini - Back in December, friends gave us a code for a free Blue Apron delivery, and we ended up using the service for the rest of the month. This was one of the recipes we really liked, and decided to buy our own ingredients to make it again. The dish is tasty, comes together quickly, and hits all of the major food groups - what's not to like? We found this to be true of about half of the recipes from Blue Apron. We also got to try some new foods, cooking techniques and only shopped for breakfast and lunch staples. On the other hand, with the two-person option there were never any leftovers, and the pre-portioned ingredients arrived in a ton of packaging. We paused our deliveries through the end of January, but we're thinking about trying it again, maybe one week a month for new ideas.

Nikujaga - Literally "meat and potatoes" in Japanese, nikujaga is a simple, yet oh so tasty dish that really banishes the winter cold. Keizo mastered this meal, serving the nikujaga, miso soup, salad, and pickled daikon the traditional way on different plates. Maybe I can get used to this new management role after all ;-)

New Recipes: Summer, Part II

The recipes in Part II all fit into either the salad or vegetable category - perfect for summer.

Clockwise from top left:

Chili-Lime Jicama Salad with Shrimp - My photographs of this recipe do not do it justice; it was flavorful and pretty different from what I usually cook. When I was growing up, my mom used jicama in salads fairly regularly, but this might be the only time I have ever bought one on my own. The original recipe suggests spiralizing the jicama, but cutting it into matchsticks worked pretty well. All of the flavor comes from the dressing, and the combination of lime, chili and shrimp helped me feel like I was near a tropical beach.

Ginger Miso Glazed Eggplant - Since having an eggplant dish for dinner one night during my trip to NYC in July, I've wanted to try my hand at one at home. The only downside of this recipe was having to use the oven - something I prefer not to do in the summer. The results were worth it though, good both warm and cold the next day for lunch.

Greek Zucchini Salad - I won't bother trying a recipe that I don't think will taste good, but this recipe really surprised me with how good it was. It was really easy to put together, and held up in the fridge for a few days allowing me to pack the leftovers for lunch, a huge plus! As much as I love pasta (see next recipe) I'm also a fan of "zoodles" as a medium size zuke makes a ton, and I can enjoy them in vast quantities without feeling like I am carbo-loading for a marathon I will never run.

Basil Pesto - A few weeks ago, one of the stands at the farmer's market had huge basil stalks on sale for $2.50, and I brought one home with me. I give this recipe 4 out 5 stars because it turned out a bit oilier than I would have liked. I will definitely try it again though, since nothing compares to fresh, homemade pesto. My own basil plants are doing pretty well after breaking them up into a couple of different planters, which is exciting since the first one I bought in the spring bit the dust within a week or so.

There are still a few summer-y things I'd like to make before the season ends: bruschetta with fresh tomatoes, a peach cobbler and some of the summer cocktail recipes I have pinned, and I hope the farmer's market continues to have the necessary ingredients on hand for a few more weeks.

What's your favorite summer recipe?

New Recipes: April

Keizo and I tried a record breaking number of new recipes in April. While he did most of the cooking, I like to think I pulled my weight with the meal planning and grocery-list making. It seemed to take most of Keizo's nearly three month visit for him to really grasp the concept of planning ahead and buying ingredients for multiple meals at one time. As much as I generally enjoy grocery shopping, it's not something I want to do everyday!

Waiting more than month between trying a recipe and writing it up here has both its pros and cons. In general, it gets harder to remember the details of each one, whether or not the recipe was followed exactly, which substitutions I would make next time etc; but on the other hand, it also gets easier to pick out the winners. 

Spring Pasta with Asparagus and Cherry Tomatoes - Not exactly a winner, but I am sure I will be eating some variation on this theme (pasta + vegetables) several more times over the summer.

"Pizza Chicken" - Given the amount of gooey cheese in the photo, it shouldn't be a surprise that this recipe falls into the "make again" category. Running the oven in the summer is less than ideal though, so it may have to wait until fall.

Cheddar Beer Fondue - Although I was initially concerned we would set off the fire alarm, this ended up being a really fun meal. It was fun to make, fun to eat, and inspired several conversations about future uses for our "new" $8 fondue set. Our dipping items consisted of bread, sausage and roasted vegetables and I had a hard time choosing a favorite. One word of caution, the recipe is labeled as "date night," but contains a whopping 16 servings of cheese. I think next time I will halve it with the hope that we'll be able to get up from our chairs a bit more quickly afterwards.

Eggplant & Chickpea Curry - This is another "make again" recipe with lots of vegetables and chickpeas to give it some more staying power. Not nearly as entertaining as fondue, but definitely worth trying :-)

Bim Bim Bap - Somewhere under all those toppings is some rice and marinated ground turkey(?) I went a bit overboard with the garnishes trying to use up old produce and add on new farmer's market finds (see the pickled yellow beets in the middle? Delicious!) and drowned out the flavors of original recipe. I see more rice bowls in the future though, since the different components can be assembled ahead of time and combined later for a quick meal. Also, they're an excellent base for delectable pickled things from No. 1 Sons.

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms - I had high hopes for this recipe based on the photos and several roasted vegetable sandwiches with portobello mushrooms and goat cheese enjoyed over the years. The results weren't quite what I was hoping for, nor was the dish particularly satisfying as Keizo and I both had double servings.

Creamy Chicken Quinoa Casserole - This was one of Keizo's picks, and while creamy and comforting, it was also rather bland. It improved with some hot sauce, but is not one I am likely to make again.

Miso Broth Bowl with Soba - This meal was inspired by the cherry blossoms and our visit to Hana, a small Japanese grocery store located on U Street. I was impressed by their selection, and will definitely be making a return trip when I run out of my favorite Japanese pantry items like miso and okonomiyaki sauce. Now that the weather is warming up, I don't know if I would make this again anytime soon, but it was really tasty.

Mexican Stuffed Sweet Potato Skins - Wrapping up on a high note, these loaded potato skins were tasty and really filling. The chipotle peppers packed some heat, and we were also able to enjoy some of the leftover filling with tortilla chips.

Nine new recipes in a month was quite a lot; the past few weeks I have been relying on some old standbys and trying to use up some things from the freezer. Today, I made gazpacho for the first time, so there will be at least one new recipe in the May round up. When I write it up, however, is bit less certain.

Thank you 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.

Week of Eats-Jan 12

I've got nothing in terms of a catchy title and introduction today.  I must have left my creativity in the kitchen this week.

I think this is the third time I have made Green Tuna Enchiladas, and they came out even better than the first two times due to the fact that I replaced the half & half called for in the recipe with about 1/2 cup of plain greek yogurt.  I liked this recipe before because it is really easy to put together with ingredients I usually have on hand, and like it even better now that I have made the sauce even creamier and more delicious!

My large salad from lunch last weekend had quite the variety of ingredients including spinach, shredded cabbage, cheddar cheese, avocado, crumbled veggie burger and pickles!  I took salad for lunch most days this week; they had the same base of spinach and cabbage, but were topped with more traditional toppings like carrots, cucumber, feta and balsamic dressing.

This spicy peanut chicken was the new recipe from the week that worked out (the Italian Pizza Bake hardly deserves a mention).  I threw all of the ingredients in the crock pot before I left for work, skipping the step that mentioned pre-searing the chicken, since that goes against my whole crock pot philosophy and "wake up as late as possible and still get to work on time" habit.  The cooking time may have been a little long as the chicken was bit dry, and I think next time I will add more peanut butter, but these are some leftovers I am looking forward to finishing!  I served the chicken with couscous and garlicky sauteed spinach and zucchini and felt like I was eating a dish from a magazine spread.

In addition to the other winners pictured here, I also made some really beautiful eggs for breakfast one morning.  What a great way to start the day, feeling accomplished before even leaving the house!  It's the little things in life...

Kitchen tip: reheat pizza in a fry pan to retain a crispy crust.

...and speaking of little things, the department I work in has a practice of enticing people to meetings by providing lunch.  And while there may be no such thing as a free lunch--the recipients do have spend at least an hour of their time listening to someone drone on about their project/vision--there is such thing as a free dinner if you happen to respond quickly enough to the e-mail announcing there are leftovers behind the front desk.  This week there happened to be a ton of leftovers from two separate catered meetings, so I got to come home with two pieces of pizza and leftover pasta salad.  Check out the neat-o pasta shapes; I have dubbed it mohawk macaroni.

日本Fall 2013--Part II: Eating Out

From the very beginning, our mutual love of food has played an important role in Keizo's and my relationship.  The night we met, he bought me donuts and coffee before I caught my train home and on our first real date, Keizo admitted he was still hungry before we had even finished the dessert that came with our meal.  All this is to say that we eat very well when we are together, and this trip was no exception.

The food pictured above is a sample of some of the things we purchased:

• dog-shaped bread with chocolate cream filling.  Why is everything in Japan so darn cute?  These days when I visit, I can't resist animal shaped bread; over the years I've also eaten pigs, pandas and turtles.

• a Japanese take on Italian pasta with shrimp, avocado and wasabi cream sauce.  This restaurant is in a relatively new complex near Keizo's local train station that also houses two bakeries, an import food shop and a stone fired pizza restaurant.  I like to refer to it as "Little Italy."

On this day our lunches came with a bread buffet and drink bar.  On the drink bar were two pitchers of fruit flavored vinegars.  I mixed mine with olive oil to dip the bread into, but other people were drinking them straight!  I suppose they tasted more like juice, but I was still pretty put off by the idea of downing a glass of something called "vinegar."

• minced chicken between slices of fried renkon (lotus root).  This dish is from our dinner of small plates at a yakiniku place in Tenjin.  We enjoyed a lot of delicious things, but the presentation of this one caught my eye: the ceramic plate with woven basket and tiny twigs, plus the large dollop of mayonnaise and salt for dipping are all so lovely.

• I am ashamed to admit I don't know the real name of the little ice cream place near Keizo's training ground.  I just call it the "Cow Shop" since it has several dozen miniature bovines decorating the interior.  They have a rotating selection of some of the most unusual ice cream flavors I have ever seen including tomato and carrot. 

Ordering is always a chore for me; what flavor do I want to try?  And with a double costing only 50 yen more than a single, which two flavors will go well together?  This time I settled on chai tea and Sweet Potato, which were both quite good.  The chai flavor was pretty strong, but the Sweet Potato was a bit creamier and had small, yummy sweet potato pieces in it.

While we ate out quite a bit (especially compared to my normal routine) we also cooked together a few times.  More to come in Part III...

Short & Sweet

I was getting ready to do my regular weekly wrap-up, but when I started looking for photos to make a collage I only found two.  I have spent the entire week a bit under the weather with a cough that won't quit, but it's more laziness, rather than any illness that accounts for the lack of photos.  It takes way more than a cough for me to skip meals!  

The photos I do have represent the tastiest (and prettiest) things to come from my kitchen this week:

BH&G's Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes and Olives.  I have made this before, and love a) that it combines pasta and squash and b) the salty/sweet combo of the green olives and dried cranberries.  The cheese and garlic-y tomatoes don't hurt either.

Leftover peanut salad dressing with a chicken, bean and cheese burrito.  Sometimes it's hard to improve on something as simple as refried beans and melted cheese in a crispy soft tortilla.

And now I think it's time to go nap away the end of this stupid cough.  G'night!

Weekend Wrap-up

The weather outside was perfect for doing nothing, and the pretty much the only things that got done inside involved food. 

Saturday's lunch with fresh greens and bread from the City Market.

Saturday's dinner: rigatoni with zucchini, tomato and sausage.

Sunday's breakfast: blueberry pancakes topped with greek yogurt, maple syrup and pecans.

Sunday afternoon's project:  Banana Crumb Muffins.

What a mess.

But worth it.  Breakfast for the week!!

Sunday dinner: Swiss chard from City Market.

Nearly a vegetarian version of last night's dinner, using different veggies and with bread instead of pasta.

And I am nearly ready for it to be Monday again; it must have been a good weekend ;-)

Last Supper

Keizo's last night in town we decided to stay in and cook together.  We didn't head to the store until about 5, and then I made him do Insanity with me, so I don't think we started cooking until well after 7. 

The menu was pasta with vodka cream sauce, roasted broccoli and garlic toast.  The cream sauce sounds fancy, but I got the recipe off the back of a bag of store brand frozen tortellini and added a ton of extra vegetables.  

Ready to eat!

The sauce was yummy, although next time I don't think I will add all of the liquid called for in the recipe.  All of the extra vegetables meant that I had leftovers too!

bistro 204

Inspired by our multi-course meal on New Year's Eve, Keizo and I decided it would be fun to make our own multi-course dinner at home.

The menu was as follows: a toasted baguette with olive oil for dipping; spinach and prosciutto salad; roasted corn and bacon soup; "Cheesetastic" pasta; Lemon-Dijon chicken; and chocolate parfait for dessert.








In all, I think it took about an hour and a half to put everything together, not including marinating the chicken or dessert, which was concocted in about 2 minutes from ice cream, mini cookies and chocolate syrup.

For me, the highlights were the salad and chicken skewers.  As far as Japanese bread goes, the baguette was delicious.  The soup was tasty, and of course my dessert cup was practically licked clean.  I was excited about the pasta, but I didn't feel like it lived up to its cheesetastic name.  It might be better with a different cheese than the one we used.

I've never really cooked courses before, and it was fun to work on my presentation skills.  There were a lot of dishes to clean up afterward!

Sophisticated Tastes

Outside of my apartment when I got home yesterday:

Grey and damp. Guess I won't be eating on the patio:

But I will gladly have one of these:

To sip while I work on my tres elegante dinner of convenience with a side of comfort.

There's the convenience, made a bit fancier with tuna and some frozen veggies stirred in.

The comfort started with these guys, spoils from last Saturday's trip to the Graves Mountain Harvest Festival.

First sliced...

...then diced and thrown into a big pot.

With 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 cup of water, 1 tsp cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg.

Then boiled 20-25 minutes, until resembling beef stew! (The result of some apples cooking faster than others.)

Thankfully, my home-made apple sauce didn't smell like beef stew, and tasted wonderful, all spiced and warm.

Two sublime antidotes to the weather outside.