Back Track Post 1: All around the world at home

I haven't posted in a while, mostly in protest to the process involved in getting the pictures from my phone and to the interweb without having to take my sim card out or having to download another stupid app on my phone.

For some reason I craved food from random countries. Since I didn't want to go broke, here's what I cooked at home (the next post will be eating out):

American I'm still loving Grocery Outlet for occasionally carrying Quaker Oats instant Grits variety packs. Decided to add poached egg:



Hearty breakfast in <5 min. We'll pretend it's healthy. I don't know what goes into instant grits.

Some friends went to Spain and discovered paellas. They learned how to make them at home. The Spanish Table has tons of paella pans, a great recipe, and the all elusive paella rice!



I've since then purchased my own pan, and am stalking a paella cook book on Alibris for cheaper prices.

Dinner club met once again- don't know what country this would classify as. I hosted and made beef and wild mushroom stew:


Also pictured, no knead bread (made with buckwheat flour instead of brown flour), and a new eating buddy made mulled spiced wine.

There was strawberry cheese cake and home-made malasadas with coconut milk! The girl who made malasadas wants to own her own food truck. You know there'll be a post when that opens!!!


Work had a farewell potluck, and I'm pretty sure I've mentioned several times how much my coworkers like food, right?

It was like Salty's brunch without the seafood. Plate 1: Savories

Starting from the left plate - at 12 o'clock: asian pasta salad, veggie sushi, cheese, home made pancit, salmon dip, taco dip, buffalo chicken dip, egg rolls, meatballs, cheddar brocoli/cauliflower stew, pita stuffed with meat and veggies and sloppy joe. To the right: veggie stew.

Plate 2: Dessert + a pickle. The pickle came later, but I had to get it because it's home pickled by my boss! She makes yummy things.


Tiramisu, pumpkin/chocolate chip zuchini bread, muddy buddies, cream cheese stuffed brownies.

Mexican P wanted to try out my new couch, so I threw together a mini-housewarming for that group and made pozole. Wiki says that it was originally a spiritual Aztec stew, and the meat was supposed to be human. There's corn or hominy in it (hominy is made from corn) - because the Aztecs believed that the gods made man out of cornmeal. I'm glad it's now pork instead of people (soylent green flashbacks for anybody?)

Start out with pulled pork (and the recipe even has you remove the fat after you refrigerate it overnight!) Pretending to be healthy. yes.

Don't worry, the greens are green chilis.

I decided there weren't (any) vegetables in this recipe, so I added carrots and celery because... I mean it's a stew. Why the heck not? Time to add chicken broth and hominy!



I also tried to make Arepas (see pork adobo post). I was not good at reading directions for the arepas. I used the wrong kind of cornmeal, and let them brown during the pan-fry step, and forgot to set the timer during the baking step.

I did, however, add green onions to the batter which was great! Since, everything else about it was just..... cornmeal.

If I had wiki'd pozole earlier, these would be in people shapes!!

Serve with sliced limes, cheese, green onions and cliantro. There was also salsa in case people just needed to have it. Oh! There was also Vino Verde which is delicious!

All together now...