Chilaquiles

Happy Memorial Day! Since we have a day off and we're being lazy today, I decided to make a special breakfast. Chilaquiles are one of my favorite dishes for breakfast. I'm not a huge breakfast person, yet I love to put eggs on just about anything. I think I love this so much because it doesn't feel like it has to be for breakfast. My only regret is that I didn't have any beans defrosted, so I couldn't put that on that side.

I had some leftover dried chiles from another red sauce I made for a nacho night with friends. We also had some chips leftover from our Vinyl Party a couple weekends ago, so it wasn't a hard decision to make. I normally either fry my own chips up or, if I'm feeling somewhat healthy, will coat the cut-up tortillas lightly in oil and bake them until nice and crisp. This just made it that much easier.

While the recipe calls for feta or queso fresco, I tend to prefer the simple flavor of grated parmesan on this dish. Ok, actually I used parmesan since I had to buy it for the pizza I'm making tonight anyway, so it was a better choice for our budget. Works out both ways.

No better way to start a lazy holiday than a good breakfast and some Twin Peaks.

Chilaquiles*
Adapted from Bon Appetit


Red chile sauce:
7 dried guajillo or New Mexico chiles, stems and seeds discarded
1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, drained
1 medium white onion, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
5 garlic cloves, chopped
1 jalapeño, seeds and ribs removed, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons honey
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Assembly:
Vegetable oil 9 6" corn tortillas, cut into 1.5" pieces, or 36 large tortilla chips 
8 large eggs
Grated parmesan cheese or crumbled queso fresco
Finely chopped white onion
Thinly sliced radishes
Chopped fresh cilantro
Lime wedges

For red chile sauce: Place chiles in a medium bowl; cover with 2 cups boiling water and cover. Let chiles soak until softened, about 15 minutes. Drain, reserving soaking liquid. Place chiles in a blender. Add tomatoes, onion, garlic, jalapeño, and 1 cup reserved soaking liquid; purée until smooth.

For chips: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place tortilla pieces into a bowl and pour about 1-2 Tbsp of oil and toss until all pieces are coated. Spread tortilla into even layer on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until crisp, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven until ready to use.

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add purée (it will splatter) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered and stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes (add more reserved soaking liquid if too thick). Stir in honey and season to taste with salt and pepper. Once sauce has reduced, coat chips in just enough sauce so they start to absorb and get soft.


Meanwhile, pour oil into a nonstick skillet to lightly coat. Heat over medium-high heat. Add eggs and fry for about 30 seconds until whites are starting to set, cover with lid and allow to fry for an additional 2 minutes until whites are set, but yolks are still runny.

Top chilaquiles with chopped onion, radishes, cilantro, and lime wedges. Top with fried eggs and serve with remaining sauce alongside.

*This recipe says it serves 4, but I don't put a ton of sauce on the chips (just enough to coat), so save half for another time. It freezes beautifully. 

Easter Rising

It only seems fitting that I start this blog back up again at Easter.

My family came down this weekend for Easter. I love my family. I love holidays. However, I do not love trying to figure out what to make for holidays. My sister doesn't like things that rhyme with "am" (ham, lamb, salmon...). My husband doesn't really like turkey much, but he'll tolerate it once a year. When my brother was still around, we usually were able to swing at least one ham holiday and make our sister pick up a chicken breast. Not that I don't get it anymore, but it's really hard to justify a ham more than once a year. Chicken is usually a little boring for a holiday, so that leaves us with pork (which I'm beginning to like now that I can cook it properly) or beef. Oddly enough, we rarely end up with beef and instead at least one of us suffers through a main dish for a holiday.

Christmas Dinner & a Farewell (for now)

This past Christmas was a strange one. We got to see lots of family, including my sweet little grandma, who I adore. We had some great food and reintroduced an old family tradition of doing cold cuts and deli salads for Christmas Eve. It was all very hard without my brother around, though.

Christmas day, my sister and her husband came over between their family gatherings with his family, who also lives in Seattle. The rest of the day, Shawn, mom, and I sat around in our pajamas watching TV and eating. We had delicious leftover sandwiches and munched on See's Candy. We planned a fancy dinner and ate it at 7:30pm. Basically, we did whatever the hell we wanted to. It was as good as it was going to get. I managed to take a few pictures of our feast before we devoured it.

Thanksgiving Recap

Just a few shots of some of my Thanksgiving day treats! I didn't take any pictures, I was too busy cooking for 14(!). Luckily my mom took a few. Thanks mom!

Appetizer: Spanish tortilla with aioli

Parsley & Walnut Pesto

Pasta with egg and bacon on top...not for the weak of heart (or those on cholesterol medication)

Pancetta and Asparagus Fritatta

I was in charge of the majority of Easter brunch this year since I was off the hook for making much of our Easter dinner the night before. As was the request last year as well, I made my grandma's ricotta cheese pancakes. Someday I might feel generous and give you all that recipe. And remember to take pictures...that day has not come. I did, however, manage to remember to take a couple of shots of our frittata. I started off thinking to make this lovely quiche, care of the talented Sacha over at Eating In or Out. But I thought better of it after the pancake request and the fact that we already had a lot of carb and fat deliciousness happening with the pancakes. 

Ganache-Filled Cupcakes

Last week was not only St. Patrick's Day, but also one of my best friend's birthdays. Since my husband and I officially became a couple more-or-less on St. Patty's Day (7 years ago!), we didn't always get to celebrate with her. The festivities would also almost always fall on the night before the Shamrock Run, an annual run in downtown Portland that I had done for 7 years. This year, I decided to skip the race since it was the day after St. Patty's Day and I wanted to be there for the party. My friends have an ideal house for a party and there was plenty of Jameson to go around. I wanted to make something fun and delicious to go along with the party's obvious theme. I found this recipe for a so-called "Irish Carbomb" cupcake recipe on Pinterest (follow me!) and thought they would be perfect for the party. I ended up going back to the original Smitten Kitchen recipe and ended up following that one as I couldn't tell what the "adaptation" from the original recipe was and I trust the Smitten Kitchen recipes a little more, having some experience with her recipes.

Holiday Cookies

I love the holidays if only for the food. We get the best of the best--ginger, pumpkin, chocolate, molasses--everything that says warmth. Oh yeah, and that's just the dessert side of things. While I don't have the sweet tooth I once had, I still greatly enjoy spending a whole day baking cookies. I took last Friday off to get started on my long list of cookies to be made. Shawn gave me a look when I showed him the eight varieties I planned to make in one day, and I reassured him that I had a plan. A cookie plan. Needless to say, given the great number of refrigerator cookies I had planned, they all didn't get made. Not even close. I still had a great time.

Thanksgiving Wrap Up

Thanksgiving this year differed greatly from last year's Spanish extravaganza in that we went "normal" and had turkey and all the fixings. I also did not get to have my family down to visit or get to go home to be with them, which was a bummer, but luckily our friends took us in and we prepared quite the feast.

Easy Roast Beef

It was a busy Sunday in our little house while I prepped all that I could for our Turkey Day potluck at Chris and Stacey's. I managed to fit in a warm Sunday dinner for us and testing out a recipe (not pictured) for Cook's Illustrated (yes, I'm that cool...ok, it's open to anyone, but I still feel cool). I used a bottom round

NYE Baking Extravaganza!

Happy 2011!

For New Year's Eve this year, we decided to have our friends over rather than going out spending tons of money trying to figure out the place to be at midnight. Too much stress...So, we had a party. Not at all stressful. Ha ha. For some reason, I wanted to add to that and start a couple of projects for the next day. Shawn requested that our first meal of 2011 be beef stew, as he's been craving it for a few weeks now and it seemed like a good do-nothing kind of day meal. Clearly I needed to make a loaf of no-knead bread.

And since we're trying to be conservative with our budget, but I still wanted a good breakfast on Saturday, I made my first attempt at English muffins. This was all on top of the other snacks I was making for that evening. Surprisingly, I had about an hour free before anyone arrived. I must be getting better at this planning thing.

America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book English muffins

1 recipe for American sandwich bread
Cornmeal

First you have to make the bread and let it do its rising thing (boring pics I've posted a bajillion times). Then you roll the bread into a 12-inch log and cut into 12 equal pieces. Working with one piece at a time, work each one carefully into small rolls. Spray with vegetable oil, cover with plastic on cornmeal-dusted pan and do some more waiting.

Here we are....waiting. After they have doubled in size again, flatten each into about 3/4" disk, and sprinkle liberally with more cornmeal. Cover with plastic and heat up your skillet.

Woo hoo! We're finally grilling. Takes 3-6 minutes for the first side. They should be deep brown (not burnt) before flipping.

You have to keep pressing them down so they don't become little domes. I think I messed this part up and pressed down too much, because there was a serious lack of nooks and crannies.

Right after they come off the grill (each batch, not the whole lot), put them in a 350 degree oven. Now, I know I messed this part up. I waited too long and I think that was part of their demise.

So, they weren't what I expected. I know a couple of things I did wrong now and will try again sometime soon. They tasted good, but just had more of a bread feel than English muffin feel. Oh well, live and learn.

Christmas Recap

The holiday of eating is officially over. I'm finally writing about my Christmas dinner, and actually have a New Year post...I'm probably the busiest unemployed person I know. Anyway, without further ado, our Cook's Illustrated Christmas Feast.

Cornbread and sausage stuffing

Definitely the most popular dish of the night: cauliflower gratin

Simple roasted green beans (something healthy!)

That's me attempting to cut the ham the way Cook's Illustrated recommends. Worked well until I gave up.

Tangy and delicious buttermilk mashed potatoes

Yep, that's a feast (grandma's macaroni and cheese is also featured). This is also my one and only picture of the amazing mustard vermouth pan sauce I made to accompany the ham.

Chocolate tart (before the refrigeration)

Apple upside down lemon-thyme cake (similar to a tarte tatin in method, but with a cake underneath instead of crust)

Most of the dinner went pretty smoothly. It all came out hot and on time. The only hiccup I had was reading the very lengthy directions on the cornbread stuffing. I sat there with my cream mixture and broth still sitting out of the dish wondering what in the heck happened. I somehow missed that step that said to let the broth and cream soak into the dried cornbread. Oops! Well, it fortunately turned out just fine, as you can see.

The cauliflower gratin was the hit of the night--who doesn't love creamy, cheese goodness topped with crispy breadcrumbs?? Although, if you ask my grandma, the chocolate tart was the best. A woman who normally doesn't eat much and isn't a huge fan of chocolate managed to sneak more than half of my mom's dessert while we were all talking.

Happy Holidays everyone!

The Christmas dinner prep has begun...

Cornbread for my cornbread and sausage stuffing...

Sorry so blurry...

On the menu for Christmas Day

Spiral cut ham with mustard vermouth sauce
Cornbread and sausage stuffing
Cauliflower gratin
Roasted green beans
Buttermilk mashed potatoes
Grandma's mac and cheese (provided by Grandma, of course)
Apple upside down cake
Chocolate tart

I've got a lot of cooking to do since mom is still recovering from her shoulder surgery. Wish me luck!

A Very Spanish Thanksgiving

For our first Thanksgiving as Mr. and Mrs., we decided to go a little untraditional with Thanksgiving and give it a Spanish theme. We also ended up throwing it at someone else's house since I was housesitting for the weekend. As much as I wanted to celebrate in our own home, especially since we just moved in less than 6 months ago, who could pass up the chance to use a 6-burner gas range and two ovens?? I certainly couldn't. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking since there is so much to share.

Attempt #2 (?) at the caramel. Stupid epicurious.com recipe gave odd directions on how to make caramel, a way that was completely different than how I've made it in the past and look what happened...

...that's a cup's worth of sugar burnt onto the bottom of my pan from attempt #1. I eventually moved on from these directions 2 cups of sugar waste and 1 2nd degree burn later.

Using the Test Kitchen method and one I'm more familiar with, the 3rd time was a charm. Using 1/2 cup water and 1 cup of sugar, bring to a boil and simmer on medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved, careful not to let any of the sugar hit the sides of the pan as it goes in. Reduce the heat to medium-low when it starts to turn golden brown and stir slowly until a lovely shade of amber.

That's more like it.

The pumpkin flan right after coming out of the oven.

I added a few things to the spiced pumpkin seeds to adjust for the season. Shawn was such a fan, he thought they were a tapa, not just topping for the flan.

Toasting the pumpkin seeds in a little bit of grapeseed oil until they puffed.

My best attempt at burning the skin of the red pepper for making the sofrito for the paella. It sucks not having a gas range sometimes. Ok, all the time. Ideally, you should burn the skin until black, then wrap in a paper towel, wrap again in a dish towel and then into a plastic bag to sweat it so the skin comes off easily. Mine came off less than easily. Imagine that.

After peeling the pepper, I minced it and added to the minced onion that had softened in a bit of olive oil over medium-high heat, along with minced, peeled tomatoes (about 1/2 cup), and minced garlic. Mincing is important--can you tell? Let that soften up and absorb much of the moisture.

Just about done. You can skip seasoning this much as it will be going into the paella, which will be seasoned later.

A guest is featured here on the blog. Michael made some amazing sherry chicken livers.

Sauteeing the onions and pancetta. Yum.

Chicken livers hot off the stove. He brought some mini toasts to pick it up, but we had to upgrade to the slices of Little T baguette...just couldn't get quite enough on the little toasts.

New Seasons called these Segovia style mushrooms. I just called them delicious. Very simple recipe, but very good. Yesterday we combined the leftovers livers and mushrooms into the Cuisinart, hit the button, and ended up with some incredible pate.

My first tarte tatin. My brother and sister hate pumpkin and always insist on an apple dessert. I decided it was important to keep it in the European family, so I made this French tart. I couldn't find a good pot holder in the foreign kitchen, so it got a little crisper on top than I would have liked, but it was good.

Flipped over--not quite as pretty as the picture, but definitely tasty. I am going to try a different strategy with the apples next time I make this dish. I think I could have smooshed in more.

Not much cooking in this picture, but had to get a shot of some of the great tapas we had before the main event. Spanish tortilla in the background, Little T baguettes, and apples, manchego and olives. The garlic-paprika aioli I made for the tortillas went fast.

The paella and costra innards before they went in.

My mama does it a little differently than most. Her paella starts with cooking the chicken, then sauteeing the rice before adding the chorizo. Either way, it turned out great.

As with risotto and most rice dishes, make sure your stock is hot before adding to the dish. I made a quick fish stock, then added the saffron before adding to the paella pan.

Made almost simultaneously...the costra. A very similar rice dish to the paella, but made with meat and scrambled egg is added mid-way through cooking. I'm used to there being more egg, but the basic concept is there.

The finished paella and costra resting before we dig in. I think I bought a little too much shellfish.

And to top off a fantastic day of eating, 3 desserts for 12 people. From the top, tarte tatin, pumpkin flan with spiced pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin cheesecake.

What are your Thanksgiving traditions? Do you do anything to mix it up every year? We may change the type of food at times, but we stuck with a few traditions--a puzzle (care of my brother this year), great food, wine and conversation. I am very grateful for such a wonderful day with my family and friends. I hope your day was just as spectacular!

Getting Ready for a Spanish Thanksgiving

I just bought a cazuela for our upcoming Spanish Thanksgiving (thanks to Kara and Emy and the Williams Sonoma gift card they gave me). Now I'm just trying to decide which tapas recipes to use and where I'm going to cook everything! So far all I have on the menu is paella and stuffed mussels. Can't wait to experiment!

Easter Dinner: White Bean Soup

Since Easter dinner's guest list just included me and Shawn, I went a little simpler than I normally would. We had a lovely brunch with my friends this afternoon, so a light and easy supper was just what the evening called for. Being Easter, though, we had to have some ham!

I had a leftover ham bone that still had a lot of meat left on it from Christmas. I threw it in the freezer once I knew we couldn't eat any more and needed to use it up soon. I found a recipe on Epicurious.com that sounded perfect and helped me use up a few ingredients that were lingering in my fridge and cupboards.

Fast White-Bean Soup (adapted from Gourmet magazine)

4 large garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 (14- to 15-ounce) can stewed tomatoes (chop up tomatoes to bite-sized pieces)
1 3/4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup dried Great Northern Beans
1 ham bone* and about 2 cups of meat cubed
Black pepper
1 bunch of kale
Baguette, sliced on the bias
Parmesan (optional)

If using dried beans, sort and soak beans overnight. Cook beans as directed until tender.

Remove as much meat from the ham bone as possible, then throw leftover bone into a large pot with about 3 cups of water, or enough to cover most of the bone. Boil until flavorful (about 30 minutes). Defat the broth and set aside.

While ham is boiling, preheat broiler. Prepare kale by  removing stems and center ribs, toss with a little bit of olive oil, until just covered. Put kale under broiler until just starting to char and crisp. Remove from oven (ok if it gets cold). Leave broiler going and brush tops of baguette slices with olive oil and throw under the broiler until crisp (flipping once during cooking).

In same pot used for broth, heat olive oil over med-high heat until warm and throw in garlic. Cook garlic until fragrant (about 1 minute) being careful not to over brown. Add tomatoes with their juices to oil/garlic mixture. Mix together, then add broth, ham, and beans. Let stew for about 10 minutes. If available, throw in a parmesan rind for extra flavor. After 10 minutes, add the kale and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and serve with baguette slices and additional slices of parmesan and black pepper.

*If you don't have a ham bone, double the chicken stock.

I chose kale in lieu of arugula or romaine for its heartier flavor and texture. I also chose to use dried beans since they are cheaper and I can control the sodium content better, but if in a hurry, feel free to use canned.

Sunday Dinner

Back when Shawn was working Sundays through Wednesdays, I would get lonely Sunday nights and invite some friends over for dinner. It became a bit of a tradition. And while we haven't continued it consistently since his schedule changed, I do try to make a nice dinner each Sunday night. It's a slow and comforting way to finish our weekend, which has usually been hectic.

Given that tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, cabbage was on sale at New Seasons. I've never been a fan of corned beef and cabbage, so I took the opportunity to try a cabbage dish I like and have never made: cabbage rolls. I realize there are about 5 million different versions of this simple dish, from about every country in the world. I ended up finding a recipe from Tyler Florence of the Food Network.

I was a little bit mad at myself when I realized that the America's Test Kitchen cookbook has a recipe for cabbage rolls and I forgot to look, but it's probably a good thing for me to branch out once in awhile. I DO wish I had read it at least for the method of how to remove the leaves, as this recipe tells you to remove them prior to boiling the leaves. NOT a good idea. I ruined most of them.

Despite the appearance (this is after I ate most of it and decided to take a picture), they were actually quite tasty. I would've preferred the tomato sauce to be a little more sour, as it mostly tasted like just canned crushed tomatoes (Muir Glen, which are delicious, but a little boring). I will definitely try out the Test Kitchen version next time I attempt this dish. Last night I just served it with the leftover rice from the mixture, which I quickly fried up in the leftover grease from the extra filling I sauteed. That was good, but I think the caramelized onion, green onion, and cheddar mashed red potatoes I made tonight trumped the simple rice.

On an unrelated note, I ran my first race of the year yesterday; the 2009 Shamrock Run. The Shamrock 15k last year was my first long race and I did really well then, averaging a 10:15 mile. that was much better than the 12-minute mile I was training at. I'm proud to say, yesterday I blew that out of the water, finish at 1 hour 31 minutes and 12 seconds--a 9:46 mile. I can't believe I actually finished a long race (going up Terwilliger no less!) in that time. Unfortunately, they give you ankle strap chips for this race. This was the result:
The first shot is of my poor ankle that was tortured by the velcro ankle strap chip they made me wear. The second is of me freezing my butt off 20 minutes after the race when Shawn and I were trying to find each other. At least I finished in one piece!

A Very Merry Christmas Indeed!

I spent the majority of last week working from home due to the snow storm we were having. I managed to bake about 14 dozen cookies in the process and prep all my food for our first ever Sibling Christmas. My sister, her husband, and my brother were all supposed to come down on Christmas Day and join me, Shawn, and two of our friends for a casual Christmas together. Plans were changed for many in the area, though. I'll get back to that.

Christmas Eve, Shawn and I made plans to dine at Roux, the cajun-influenced restaurant about four blocks from our house. They were serving a special Christmas Eve menu, and since we had no plans that evening, we decided to treat ourselves. We've been to Roux a number of times since moving to the neighborhood and the food has never let us down. The atmosphere is upscale, but definitely not uptight. There's always something interesting on the ever-changing, seasonal menu, so I'm never bored. I do have one problem with it, though. Two times that we've been there, this last time included, we've felt very rushed through the meal. The first time, with my dad and his wife, we didn't have a reservation and I understand that can be a problem. However, the hostess chose to tell us, at 6pm, that we could have the table, but it was reserved for 7:30, so we need to hurry. OK, fine, I get it--but we were done well before 7:30 anyway. This last time, we did have a reservation for 6pm, but were told multiple times that there was a reservation on the table at 8pm. This bothered me. Here we are paying a lot of money for a relaxing Christmas Eve dinner and basically being told to hurry up and get out. From the server's point, I can see wanting to make sure that we're not lingering and just wasting space when other people are waiting (I've had that happen before and been the person waiting...very annoying!), but on the other hand, there were plenty of other free tables. If the reservation arrived a bit early, because the times we were told it was still well before 8pm, they could always seat them at a different table. Or they could wait for a couple minutes in the bar. There are alternatives. What bothers me most is that I've spent so many lines talking about this problem and not about the delicious food we had. The issue shouldn't overshadow the food, and unfortunately, it did. For those who are curious, we started with the pork rillettes and shared the butterleaf salad. I had the blackened quail over gumbo ya ya and herbed rice. Shawn chose the ham with whipped sweet potatoes and rosemary biscuits. We had a nice bottle of Dolcetto, and split the fallen chocolate souffle cake for dessert.

Christmas day turned out fine, despite the earlier assumption and my siblings wouldn't make it down. My brother wasn't able to, and I was sad, but very grateful that Gina and Richard made the journey. When it started snowing heavily early in the afternoon, I started to feel bad for making them come down, but luckily they made it safely. Also, since our friends' plans were changed, we were lucky to welcome Jason and Megan to our house as well!

I made another loaf of the no-knead bread, which was a hit. I also dipped into the genius of the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook for the appetizers. I made goat cheese spread, chicken satay with peanut sauce (which I'll be using with some spaghetti tonight to make noodles and veggies in peanut sauce), and deviled eggs. Gina made mac and cheese, which was overflowing with cheesy goodness (and yes, the mini penne worked just as well as the rigatoni Steve...). We had many bottles of alcohol of various kinds and just generally had a great time. It was relaxing and fun and different.

Hope everyone's holidays were just as fun and family/friend-filled as ours! Shawn got me the America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book for Christmas, so many new recipes and breads to come!

Next up...New Year's at the Alibi. Otherwise known as the last night of smoking at the Tiki Bar!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm a day early, but Happy Thanksgiving! This is really my favorite holiday of the year. How could it not be? It's all about the food and drink! We're heading up to Seattle to celebrate with my family. I'm making andouille sausage and corn bread stuffing and green beans with pine nuts (because I can't afford haricots verts). I made both last year and they were a huge hit. I may also be making a pumpkin pie as I just found out no one else is! We have apple pie and pecan pie, but no pumpkin. That's a sin against the holiday. But I digress...

I "drew" a little Thanksgiving card to post. Enjoy!