Last Webster Meal

Tonight's menu: grilled chicken with a spicy Asian glaze, corn on the cob, and grilled zucchini. A delicious way to end an era at the Webster house. On to new adventures in SE!

Spicy Asian Glaze (adjusted for 2 servings)
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/8 cup ketchup
2 T honey
1 T lemon juice
1 T Hoisin sauce
1-2 t Rooster sauce (depending on how spicy you like it)
1 t fresh grated ginger
1 minced garlic clove

Coat meat about 5 minutes before done cooking.

Stacey's Fallen Chocolate Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday Stacey!

Fallen chocolate cake from the Test Kitchen's cookbook, served with homemade whipped cream (lightly flavored with powdered sugar, vanilla, and Chambord) and fresh raspberries from the Farmer's Market.

Date Night: Tostadas

Saturday night, Shawn and I had a very much-needed quiet night in for just the two of us. Since we were watching a movie, I wanted to make something fun to eat and create. I was going to make pizza, but we just had our end-of-boot-camp pizza party two nights prior at Mississippi Pizza (see past review of pizza places in Portland), so that wasn't going to happen. What else could be fun to make and eat? Tostadas, of course. A close relative of the taco, but flat and fun to pile, the tostada seemed like the perfect choice, especially after a morning trip to the Hollywood Farmers Market.

I cheated and bought a can of Bearito's refried beans. Since discovering the ease and less-greasy taste of baking the tostada shells, I've been a convert. They turn out just as crisp and delicious and require much less oil, and consequently oil burns. We topped with ground beef with a homemade taco seasoning, and lots of veggies. Overall, it was a pretty healthy meal...and even more importantly, an extremely satisfying one.

Lots of color!

Close up of all the good stuff.

Meat and Potatoes, Updated

I am seriously slacking...blah blah blah. How many times can you hear the same story? Basically, I'm working a lot right now on a major career change and although I've been cooking, it's been hard to sit down and write this blog, as much as I miss it. I made an effort this weekend and these are the results.

We had another BBQ this weekend, despite the threat of rain earlier in the day. I had been doing a lot of cooking over the weekend for a weekend long fiesta thrown by a friend of a friend for various celebrations. Might as well continue the trend, right?

Three friends joined us for our usual Sunday dinner, so I had to figure out a way to feed them all and not go broke doing it. New Seasons had a sale on bottom round roast, a cheap but decent cut of meat, and I went from there. First, I cut the roast in half to reduce the grilling time and the chance that we might burn the outside and have stone cold meat in the middle. Next I took the old meat tenderizer and beat the hell out of it. And finally, I marinated it for about 7 hours in a good old standby sauce I got from Epicurious.

What to go with our economy piece of meat? Sweet potatoes, of course! Since I am trying to eat healthier these days, I went with the sweet potato, which is has a lower glycemic index than a regular russet. (I used a lot of recipes from Epicurious. I'll list them below.) Tomatoes were on sale, as well, and we simply grilled them and added some salt, pepper, and fresh sage. The sage, once cooked, was nice, but I'm discovering that I'm not a big fan of fresh sage. To round things out, I had a ton of quinoa salad leftover from Saturday's BBQ, so I ditched my plans for grilled broccoli (sad, I know), and served it as a side dish. As an added bonus, it really developed a deeper flavor after sitting for a day. Wonderful when that happens!

Dessert was provided by Stacey, who had spent her Saturday morning at the Hollywood Farmers Market. We were treated to some delicious berries with marscapone and pound cake. If you're nice, maybe she'll share her recipe.

Grillin' grillin' grillin'...

Tomatoes with sage, before the fire

A lovely table set with delicious food and beautiful sunflowers from my honey

A nice summer plate

Dessert care of Stacey

Filipino-Style London Broil
Quinoa Black Bean Salad
Grilled Sweet Potatoes (the vinaigrette is quite tasty, but use sparingly...trust me)
Grilled Tomatoes with Sage (I cheated and used garlic powder since I was almost out of garlic--gasp!)

First BBQ of 2010

Sunday afternoon in Portland was so beautiful and warm (you can tell it's spring when I think 67 degrees is warm), we had no choice but to BBQ our dinner. I bought bratwurst from New Seasons since they were on sale, but needed a good BBQ side dish.

I went to my Best Light Recipes for a French potato salad recipe. It's a very simple dressing of dijon mustard, a little olive oil, herbs (chives, parsley, tarragon...there was no chervil at the store), and  shallots over red potatoes.

Since squash is still mostly from Mexico and expensive, I decided to try barbequeing broccoli. I prepared it the way I normally would when broiling it, just coated with some olive oil. I forgot the sugar, which I normally add a tiny bit of when doing a quick roast like that to caramelize it a bit. It really didn't need it--it was seriously the best part of the meal. When broccoli is charred in areas and just cooked, squeeze a bit of lemon juice over it as well as fresh-ground pepper and salt.

So ready for summer to get here, just for meals like this..

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Sunday Breakfast

Tonight I'm not able to make Sunday dinner due to some plans we have this afternoon. I decided I would document our Sunday breakfast instead. Due to my workout schedule, usually my only morning available for making a nice, big breakfast is Sunday. It's been a tradition since Shawn and I first started dating to make breakfast and listen to KMHD or jazz records on Sunday mornings. Over five years later and the tradition still stands strong.

This morning, I made poached eggs over a chilaquiles-type dish. It's not really authentic chilaquiles, but a close rendition of them. Here's how I did it...

5 corn tortillas cut into small squares (about 3/4 inch)
1/2 lb. Mexican pork chorizo
onion (optional)
Bacon fat (or vegetable oil)
Salsa (my mom uses the verde, but I just had a little bit of Emerald Valley salsa left)
Eggs
Avocado, if desired

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Cook the chorizo over medium-high heat until cooked thoroughly. Remove chorizo from pan and place onto a paper-towel lined plate, leaving some of the drippings in the pan. Place the plate in the oven to keep warm while finishing the dish.

Add the bacon fat, or oil, to the pan. When the fat has melted, add your tortillas and fry until slightly golden and starting to harden. Add the onion and continue to cook until the tortillas are pretty firm, but not fried through, and the onion is translucent. Add the salsa and coat tortilla thoroughly. At this point, I added a little water, too, since I was low on salsa. It doesn't take much to coat, though.

While tortilla is cooking, cook your eggs as desired. I poached mine since I had some farm fresh eggs from a friend again. To poach, bring a pan of water to a boil with 2 T white vinegar and 1 t salt. Reduce to a simmer. Add your eggs (recommended to crack them into teacups or small container that can be placed into the simmering water to reduce breakage), remove pan from heat, and cover for 5 minutes, less if you like it runnier.

When tortilla is ready and eggs are cooking, add chorizo from the oven to the tortillas and keep in the oven to stay warm.

Serve tortilla mixture with a sprinkle of cheese, such as queso fresco or I used some grated parmaggiano-reggiano, place eggs on top and serve with a side of avocado, as desired.

Buen provecho!

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.