Old: I've been doing the single girl's hot pot (read: boil broth at your stove and cook/eat hot pot items there). Gave me some left over seafood (squid, clams, and fish balls), and I had made congee for a coworker who had dental surgery. So I made myself a little seafood congee and ate the last of my 2010 batch of turnip cakes.
General rule: frozen turnip cakes should probably eaten within a year of making them.
Went back to Bizzaro for my friend's birthday and got the butternut squash soup (not pictured), and the parsnip ravioli. I need to start writing down menu items. I keep forgetting them.
Name that meat! I have no idea, and not because the meat was weird/bad. My memory is just horrible.
Brought back out the cheese rolls recipe for a salmon night. It's like a savory cinnamon roll. Replace cinnamon and sugar with garlic bread butter:
Reasons why marble counter tops are wonderful, and an affirmation that dough and I do not get along.
That's right, I butter that sucker right to the edge.
Rolly rolly rolly. Cut and plop in a muffin pan:
They puff up pretty well, so I'm still trying to figure out how to make them cheesier.
Also included in salmon night was my friend's corn salad recipe (bottom). Dill, carrots, white corn, and secret sauce!
New: With the corn salad was my friend's arugula, mushroom, and cheese curd salad. There was an herb-y flavor to it that I liked. And who doesn't like cheese curds??
It went well with the soy salmon and home made corn bread:
I like this new group of people I've been eating with. I went in expecting American style salmon (steamed with lemons and butter), made my side dishes to go with that, and boom! Fusion meal.
Shame on me I guess for making assumptions like that, but there's always interesting flavors going on.
Zoom out!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch....
Birthday present last year included flavored salts and sugars. They're interesting mixes so I'm still cautiously trying them out.
Smoked salt on your marga-tequila rim? It... is ok. If you like savory/sweet combos.
Wildberry pancakes made with wildberry sugar? Delicioso. Pancake recipe used only has 1 tablespoon of sugar so this gave it a nice subtle flavor.
There's also espresso sugar. My friend said it'd only be good in a chocolate pancake. Seems right. Not sure where clove sugar would come in handy. I'm thinking cookie/cupcake form.
The only thing I can come up with for the lime sugar is some sort of alcoholic beverage - which is a turn off because I am not a fan of sugary drinks. Lemonade? Orange scones? None of it seems like a good fit. Mull a purpose over for a while, guys. I'm interested to see what you churn out.
If you do, you get to try out new restaurants like Uneeda Burger and watch me eat their Crimini mushrooms burger with porcini & black truffle salt, shallots & Gruyere cheese. (No Picture). I almost got upset, because there was a white sauce on my burger that I mistook for mayonnaise.
I don't understand the mayo in burger craze, but I hate it. The heat from the burger makes it slimy and just extra greasy to the point that you can't enjoy it. Or I can't enjoy it. I'll try to hold in my disgusted face if you eat one in front of me.
Luckily, the gruyere cheese and truffle salt made the mystery sauce in my burger wonderful. I still refuse to call it mayonnaise if that's what it actually was.
This is where the food takes a turn from delicious (familiar and new) to okay.
Tried out Grace's Kitchen in the U-district, because they had Linguini Carbonara. Trendy looking little place. Going for the modern/homey feel. Everything about their dishes was something interesting with a spin that I would personally have done differently.
Example: their poutine is done with a white sausage gravy...
Beef stew had a spice that was a little overpowering.
Linguini carbonara with prosciutto and spinach? Way too much bacon for my tastes.
In my opinion it tasted way too meaty and fatty like bacon to be prosciutto.
All still tasty, but had that slight flavor in the background that kind of just brought the experience down a notch.
Back at home I tried to make Ethiopian food since getting a crew together to go to a restaurant seems to become a logistical nightmare for me everytime. (No clue why). I googled my little heart out and settled on this recipe for Doro wot (stewed chicken). Yes, it has fake ingredients, but I just didn't feel like going to World Spice this time.
Very simple, and very flavorful. It's not going to satisfy your Ethiopian food craving, but it'll hit the spot for poultry with a kick!
What about that magical sourdough pancake - injera? I tried to cheat and follow an "injera - quick" recipe. I should have known better.
Failed:
All the interweb warned of making your starter dough for injera 5 days in advance. I kept getting distracted and looked for a quick fix. Do you know what it got me? Water + yeast + Teff flour = your dough looks the same before and after the 1 day rise.
Which looks like this:
With a pool of bubbly water on top. How does it look in the pan? Like the above picture but bubbling in your pan and not sticking at all!
Perhaps the grocery store lied to me, and they did not have teff flour, but just teff grain. After all, the bag looked like this:
Another craving took me down the wrong path for Hawaiian food - not at Kona Kitchen.
Went back to Kauai Family Restaurant - good food, but terrible service. Also, not vegetarian friendly. Considering the distance and the wait, I don't think it's worth the variety in their menu. I'm sorry, Hawaiians. I know I disappoint you.
My friend was disappointed in the cheapy injera experience. Next time, I need to just plan ahead and try the recipe I was planning to use.
Everybody's trying to eat healthier lately. Which is remarkable since it's well past the usual New Year's resolution diet plan life span. To you dieters out there, the Washington Post had an article for 25 recipes under 500 calories.
Disclaimer: this is a "picture article" that requires you to watch a video commercial prior to viewing. Whatever happened to just plain old articles??
Really, it was the picture of Roasted Squash, Ricotta and Fusilli that drew me in. The rest of the recipes just look meh.
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