Venison Guinness Stew

Yay for trying out venison. This version is adapted from someone else's recipe and consists of venison flank steak, onions, carrots, celery, cranberry preserves, bay leaves, crushed juniper berries, thyme, garlic, olive oil, salt & pepper, and Guinness (of course).

The venison's texture was totally like beef, and it had an initial taste like beef, but again, the gaminess came out towards the end, in the aftertaste. Theoretically, the juniper berries should have taken that gamey taste out of both this and the rabbit, and perhaps they did work in that the meat might have been even stronger had I not used the berries. But no matter, it's passable... I cut the venison into small pieces to save for later.

I probably will not make this or the rabbit again (well for one, they weren't super cheap, and secondly, they weren't earth-shattering as far as things to rave about). I've never had venison other than this cooking attempt, although I have had rabbit before (at the self-described "Provençal and Tuscan cuisine with California style" restaurant called Zazou). The rabbit was okay although I remember it having more small bones than I cared for.

Of Herbs And Stewed Rabbit

Yes, images of Ithilien passed before me as I thought of the rabbit stew that Sam had made. I'm sure that stew tasted much better than mine, as Sam seemed more a cook than I (he hauled all his pots and pans around Middle-Earth as much as he could before being forced to abandon them somewhere, probably somewhere inside or near Mordor).

Anyway, I just had to get this rabbit or else risk the opposite of buyer's remorse. Sadly, it was pretty traumatizing to handle the meat. The main source of unease came from the fact that the rabbit was essentially still whole, i.e. I had to joint the thing (makes me wonder why I don't shudder at whole duck or whole chicken...).

Using as reference a combination of Darina Allen's West Cork Rabbit Casserole, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Rabbit Stew, and Theodora Fitzgibbon's Irish Rabbit Stew, I made this stew of primarily Guinness, onion, carrots, mushrooms, apples, shallots, crushed juniper berries, parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper. It looked like a soup (I didn't add any thickening agents) and smelled like your usual meat stew. The rabbit itself looked like chicken, and the initial taste was like chicken, but I personally thought the gaminess came out towards the end, in the aftertaste. Surprisingly, Kevin was totally fine with the rabbit! He ate a good percentage of it, and I deboned the rest (which was annoying given all the small bones) to freeze and save for another day...

Sweet Potato Colcannon

This dish is a twist on the traditional Irish recipe, substituting Japanese sweet potatoes for the regular tubers. I referenced the recipe from Ballymaloe Cookery School (courtesy of Darina Allen). Except for the sweet potatoes, the rest of the ingredients are faithful to the original... kale, milk, green onions, butter, and salt & pepper. I was semi-confused as to the difference between champ and colcannon, but it turns out that colcannon is essentialy champ plus kale/cabbage. Given that tidbit, why make champ if you can get it with kale and call it colcannon? Anyhow, this was okay... I liked the concept more than the actual dish. Here is something I learned from Wikipedia: Colcannon in Irish is cál ceannann, meaning "white-headed cabbage". Yay...

Cupcake Vineyards

Lovely bubbly chardonnay... I'm a huge fan of whites as long as they are not too dry. I purchased this bottle of Cupcake Vineyards because I actually got them confused with Cakebread Cellars, which I wanted because it sounded cool.

Cakebread was fine... I actually went to Napa and did a wine tasting at their vineyard. It wasn't anything I needed to write home about. Cupcake Vineyards, on the other hand, deserves more accolade. I am not a wine connoisseur by any means, and that may be the very reason I like this bubbly "Blanc de Blancs" from France which is described as "a creamy sparkling wine... aromas of apples, pears and almonds with brioche notes on the palate. It's reminiscent of a toasted almond caramel cupcake." Their Pinot Noir rosé (not pictured) is even better... the label describes that one as filled with strawberries with rose petals, reminiscent of a strawberry cream-filled cupcake.

I love how these wines have this dreamy appeal to them... Truly it is as if savoring a delicate, dainty sweet cupcake without really being that sweet-- kind of like a refreshingly light dessert wine, for those who don't care for dry wines and generally prefer sweet whites and rosés without the excessive cloying sweetness that some dessert wines have. I would definitely recommend Cupcake Vineyards. At around $7-$13 per bottle, this is a fairly affordable wine that is delicious on the nose and palate. In fact, if I actually had a café, this would make it on my wine list.

Since we are on the topic of wines, here are some other wines I've tried that I would vouch for that would also appear on CaféConnie's wine list:

Reggiano Lambrusco Rosso Dolce - Soft Red Wine (Italy)
Incanto Rosé Vino Frizzante - Sparkling Rosé (Italy)
Cornet & Cie Banyuls Rimage - Red Dessert Wine (France)
Jackson-Triggs - Vidal Icewine (Canada)
Vino Dei Fratelli Moscato D'Asti (Italy)
Novella Rayons de Soleil - Muscat Canelli (Paso Robles, CA)
Mönchhof Robert Eymael - Riesling (Germany)
WeinKeller Schick Eiswein Kerner Pfalz - Icewine (Germany)
Villa Palatina T.B.A Ortega Pfalz (Germany)
Campbells Rutherglen Muscat (Australia)
EOS Tears of Dew Moscato Late Harvest (Paso Robles, CA)
Innocent Bystander Moscato (Australia)

As for beers, here are my picks thus far:

Magners Irish Cider (Ireland)
Lindemans Framboise Lambic (Belgium)
Smithwick's Irish Ale (Ireland)
Maredsous Brune (Belgium)
Eel River Acai Berry Wheat (Scotia, CA)
Samuel Smith Pure Brewed Lager (England)
Celebrator Doppelbock (Germany)
Traquair House Ale (Scotland)
Delirium Tremens (Belgium)
O 'Hara's Irish Red (Ireland)
Hen's Tooth (England)
Guinness Foreign Extra (Ireland)
Guinness Draught (Ireland)

Okay enough with the alcohol...

Ancient Grain Elbows & White Cheddar Topped With Chervil

Yay for this macaroni that's made of amaranth, quinoa, kamut, spelt, and durum. I love ancient grains! The fiber and protein stats for these types of whole grain carbs are amazing, compared to their white refined cousins.

So I actually made this mac n' cheese by dumping the macaroni, cheese powder, and an entire package of shredded cabbage with carrots into guess what? Yep, the rice cooker! I eyeballed the amount of water to add (which yes, does result in disaster at times but for the most part works). When it was done, all I had to do was mix it up, top it with some herbs for aesthetic purposes (in this case, chervil), and yay! The chervil itself was very delicate in flavor so if you're looking for something bold and daring, look elsewhere.

Chewy Egg Nog Cookies With Raw Skim Milk

Another impulse purchase from TJs... I saw these cookies at TJs and had to get them, considering lately I've fallen into infatuation with pumpkin-related and holiday spice-related baked goods. There is pretty much zero nutritional value in these things except for a small amount of vitamin A... The skim milk, on the other hand, is teeming with good things! Sadly, Whole Foods doesn't carry this anymore, but one can still find this at Sprouts. It runs at around $3-4 per half gallon, for the skim variety, and more for the whole milk and the heavy cream. This unprocessed milk has enzymes and a bunch of other stuff that processed milk lacks. Read more about it here. I like the idea of eating raw foods, but haven't really committed to consistent organic and local support, let alone going raw...

Nut-Crusted Parisien Ribeye with Taro & Pumpkin Butter

This dish here and the previous one are just about the max as far as effort spent trying to be artsy and creative with food (at least so far)!

I bought a few pieces of ribeye, and basically, as the title says, rolled it in this mixture consisting of demerara sugar, chopped raw brazil nuts, and this spice blend called Parisien Bonnes Herbes, which is made up of chives, dill weed, French basil, French tarragon, chervil and white pepper. So again, I threw these ribeyes into the toaster oven, lined with diced taro, and kept the oven going for who knows how long at about 350 degrees.

I took them out a bit too late, so the ribeye was pretty much well done, but oh well. At least I didn't blow an expensive filet or something from Omaha steaks, and anyway all that flavoring really made up for this not being medium. The taro was an interesting addition and something I would do again. Some of the taro pieces were crispy whereas others were moist (those that were in closer contact with the meat), but I liked that juxtaposition of textures and even taste (the moist ones were more meaty and herby whereas the crisp ones were more purely taro in flavor). And you know what else? TJ's pumpkin butter is absolutely fabulous! It's a bit on the sweet side (more grams of sugar and more calories than an equivalent serving size from the Williams Sonoma variety) but still a crowd pleaser nonetheless. That, along with the oil from the nuts, and the sweet demerara sugar, probably did enough to keep this from being a dry dish. I topped the pumpkin butter with some of the remaining chopped Brazil nuts. I think the only downsides were that the taro looked kind of like chicken breast (probably should have mashed it instead), and the red from some cranberry sauce would have made this prettier rather than the tannish color of the pumpkin butter.

Yay! I would totally vouch for that Parisien spice blend and would definitely serve this to... well not everyone but maybe some of the more adventurous eaters. Admittedly, I don't take total credit for this creation, as it was inspired by a similar dish I saw on TV once, but I believe that had some other type of starch on the bottom (possibly potatoes?), and had seared lamb instead of ribeye. I don't think the lamb was encrusted with anything besides pepper, but she did have the spinach and the pumpkin butter in this tiered fashion

Turkey Over Polenta with Toasted Pinenuts, Wilted Spinach, and Cranberry Sauce

I had these whole mustard seeds and whole coriander seeds that I didn't know how to use (and apparently too lazy to just google how), so I bought a pepper mill and spent forever grinding the two spices in advance so they would be ready to use when spontaneity calls. The only reason I had those whole spices in the first place was because they came with my spice rack.

Anyway since I spent so long grinding these things, I decided to incorporate at least one of these spices into this dish. So I got some lean ground turkey, seasoned it with cinnamon and some of that ground mustard seed, along with a bunch of toasted pignolias (i.e. pinenuts), and formed them into little balls which I sprinkled with freshly cracked peppercorns and placed on top of sliced polenta. Into the toaster oven this thing went, about 350 degrees or so, for I don't remember how long. Out they came, and I placed these alongside some wilted spinach and cranberry sauce, and there you have it!

I loved the pinenuts in the little meatballs, and the broth that came from the turkey imparted a delicious savory flavor and moistness to the polenta. The cranberry sauce was not really necessary but I guess it added color, as did the spinach... I couldn't make out the mustard seed at all, but it didn't seem like a strong spice anyway, compared to the coriander seed. The cinnamon was really random but I felt like it worked out very well.

This is totally something I don't intend to make regularly as it took more effort than usual. But then again, did it take any more effort than roux? No. So maybe I will make the likes of this again if I get motivated enough...

Dubliner with Irish Stout

Kerrygold's Dubliner with Irish Stout is one of my favorite cheeses, along with the original Dubliner, and Cahill's porter cheese. I'm used to the cheese coming in wedges cut from a larger round of cheese, so when I saw this mini cheese wheel, I absolutely had to get it! How cute they are, side by side! I'll probably be enjoying this straight or alongside a pint o' Guinness (speaking of which, I tried the Foreign Extra variety of Guinness and found it really good... though stronger and apparently more hoppy than the usual Guinness Draught)...

Chardonnay Apple Sausage Gumbo

Summer squash, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, and bell peppers, along with apple sausage and homemade roux... Into my rice cooker they went, and out came a variety of gumbo much different from the dark one from Lucille's and missing the chicken and shrimp and celery/onions, but still enjoyable nonetheless. I figured since I'm the only one eating gumbo around here, and I'm not a huge fan of all that meat, to just forego most of the other proteins and just have one kind, which in this case was the sausage. Actually, all the veggies (with the exception of the bell peppers) wouldn't normally be in gumbo but I had them sitting around for some other dish that I didn't end up making, so I just threw them in. The dish was pretty watery at first probably mostly due to the tomatoes, but it thickened wonderfully after mixing it for a little bit, compliments of the roux. I wouldn't market this as gumbo but as far as I'm concerned, it's still satisfying in that it still provides that bitter, smoky bite.

Oyakodon

Well I used the last of my oyakodon sauce... will have to get more next chance I have. This particular incarnation of oyakodon was slightly different than previous ones in that I actually took the time to cut carrots, zucchini, and summer squash to throw into the mix along with small pieces of broccoli and the usual onions. Also, I used chicken tenders instead of dark meat. Yay for not having to trim chicken fat as I normally would have had I used boneless skinless thighs, but the tenders had this weird tendon-like thing which was annoying to remove. Again, this is not very pretty but it probably will never be until I decide to bite the bullet and take more time with the eggs.

My hair has become pretty unhealthy the last couple of years for some reason, so I looked up whether diet could improve hair health (Top 10 Foods for Healthy Hair) and will try to incorporate more of this stuff into my meals. So one combination that's doable is something like this oyakodon, which combines poultry, eggs, carrots, and whole grains. Another combination I have in mind is fish with legumes and spinach. Then I've got the yogurt with nuts, and cereal with milk... Maybe I should eat more fruit again...

Incanto Agave Beef with Herbes de Provence

This pulled beef looks rather ordinary but it was slow cooked for 10 hours in Incanto Rose, sprinkled generously with herbes de Provence (which in this particular blend included marjoram, savory, thyme, rosemary, basil, fennel, sage, and lavender), and drizzled with organic raw blue agave. So you could call this fusion cuisine, since the rose is Italian, the spices are French, and the agave is Mexican. I actually also had onions and purple sweet potatoes in the mix, which are not shown in the photo. Anyway the beef itself was nicely flavored but I guess this cut is relatively lean, so in spite of being simmered in all that liquid, it didn't turn out as moist as I would have liked. I wouldn't call it dry though, as it was still tender. It was so tender that I could pull apart the beef effortlessly with a fork. Maybe the smaller chunks of stew beef are more conducive to moistness due to increased surface area for the liquids to seep in?

Beef Mushroom Risotto

The rice cooker greatly simplifies cooking at times. I threw in one package of TJ's frozen mushroom risotto, some frozen spinach, and some frozen leftover beef chunks into the rice cooker, and half an hour later, dinner is served! May not be too pretty, but I thought this actually tasted really good (Kevin agrees).

Unadon

This is essentially a Japanese donburi (rice bowl) dish made with unagi kabayaki which is grilled eel coated with sweet sauce. This is actually incredibly easy assuming you have the eel already made for you. One can pick up an entire fillet of this eel for anywhere from $2.50 when it's on sale to about $4 or $5 when it's not. I got mine at Market World (Korean) but other Asian markets probably carry these. You simply defrost, throw in the toaster oven, and there you have it! It pains me when I see these things being offered at Japanese restaurants for the likes of $15 for about half or 2/3 the amount. Here I have this served over a blend of long white Jasmine and French Akai rice and simple steamed broccoli.

Maple Almond Butter Cornbread

So I used the cornbread mix from Bob's Red Mill and "followed the directions" except for omitting the eggs and oil and adding a bunch of maple almond butter (from Justin's Nut Butter). I used the slow cooker for this one. After a few hours, I got a good rise out of this. Disappointingly, the cornbread didn't hold together as much as I would have liked, although I can't be surprised because obviously I omitted the eggs. It was still very fluffy though! Oh well. The result was still distinctively cornbread in flavor, although I could definitely make out the almond butter both in taste (nutty) and appearance (small brown flecks).

Brandied Chocolate & Pumpkin Butter Kabocha Cake

So this looks incredibly moist doesn't it? That's because I steamed this via the rice cooker! The ingredients? Whole grain kamut and oat flours (yay for finishing these finally), vital wheat gluten, mashed cooked kabocha squash, pecan pumpkin butter, and melted brandy chocolate. This held together pretty well and was dense and substantial yet soft at the same time. The flavor? Hmmm... I guess it came across as some sort of spiced pumpkin/date loaf that was interestingly not too sweet. I had some of the kabocha, melted chocolate, and the pecan pumpkin butter (click me) each by itself before mixing it in. I would guess that the squash contributed mainly to the texture as well as toning down the sweetness level, while the pumpkin butter contributed most of the final flavor and also added spice/moistness/sweetness, and the liquored chocolate threw in a sort of bite/kick to the whole thing. Very interesting... but I probably wouldn't dare serve this to the average guest.

Seafood Pasta

Okay so we're back to my home-cooked dishes which may not be too pretty... Here I threw in frozen spinach, frozen lobster ravioli, and frozen Italian veggies mix into the rice cooker, and then tossed the result with white clam sauce. Yay for a quick meal, except I was so tired from the jet lag and the travel in general that I forgot to refrigerate the leftovers. So it sat out all night and I pretty much had to toss them the next morning. Wah.

Iced Açaí Tea Muddled With Mixed Berries

So I was ridiculously thirsty after our flight back from HK and made myself iced acai tea (herbal) and threw in frozen berries. The lighting is pretty terrible here but oh well. You get the idea.

Red Bean and Cheese Loaf

I picked up this loaf at Kevin's aunt's favorite bakery. It was this really heavy loaf, and one can see why after having sliced it. I'm not sure what kind of cheese this is... perhaps some sort of cheddar. Either way, this bread was creative and tasty (and filling!).

Hong Kong Seafood

Yay for seafood... counter-clockwise from top are lobster noodles, a conch-like thing, and abalone on a half shell. The lobster noodles were cheesy and really good but there is no visible lobster meat here since I am generally too lazy to work for things like crab, lobster, and shrimp. The conch-like thing was supposed to be spicy but was not that spicy in my opinion. They had these holes knocked through each shell, and you're supposed to unfurl the flesh from that opening. I felt like I might have been one tier above eating snails... Not sure if I'll be able to convince myself to ever eat escargot. The abalone was good... seasoned with some sort of citrus peel and onion/ginger.One thing that really impressed me about the seafood in general is that things like squid and abalone were surprisingly tender and easy to bite into, as opposed to the chewy rubber you may experience elsewhere. I'm not usually a fan of abalone, not because it doesn't taste good but because I don't understand why Asian parents love them so much (i.e. a Chinese banquet isn't a banquet without the abalone, or other notions like that). I think they taste fine but are somewhat overrated, but these were definitely worth eating. So now after having eaten these, the brownish thin and chewy slices back in the states are almost inexcusable. Oh well.

Pumpkin Coconut Milk Soup

Hubby's aunt in HK made this during one of the dinners which we actually had at her place. It was a swell house party, with lots of wine, good food, and Cantonese banter that really amused me though I understood only about 1% of it. I was already really full when my aunt brought these out but they were so impressively delicious that I ended up downing two of these bowls! She said she just cut up some pumpkin, added coconut milk and sugar, and brought it to a boil once. I'll have to try it one of these days...

Hong Kong Dim Sum Part 3

Here is another photo of some noteworthy dim sum. The one in the back was this flaky yet chewy thing filled with peanuts and some other stuff, and the one in the front was this soft sticky thing filled with some custard-like stuff. Haha my descriptions are terrible and don't do justice to these puppies. They were delicious and far more interesting to me than the usual dim sum I see in the states.

Hong Kong Dim Sum Part 2

This was probably my absolute favorite dim sum ever. They arrived nicely presented on a small plate lined with a doily, and they look like those flaky Taiwanese mooncakes (not the brown ones that are squareish that are pressed into shape with a mold), but upon biting into it, all these juices spill out as if eating a shao lun bao (sp?). I loved these! They were dainty and cute yet deliciously filling... innocent on the outside but daring and bold on the inside.

Hong Kong Dim Sum

So the next few posts will actually be selected photos of food from Hong Kong (not cooked by me). This here is an assortment of some dim sum, which I was very impressed by. My favorites from this photo would probably be the white bun on the far left with the random yellow strands on top with some desserty rice in the middle, as well as the dumpling-type thing bursting with variety veggies and meat on the lower left. The lower right was a delicious spicy dumpling (fire dumpling?) which I think is supposed to be more Shanghai/Beijing style than Cantonese. The best fire dumplings I've tried were actually from this random Chinese restaurant in Las Vegas... haha! Okay anyway, I'm not a huge fan of shu mai or har gow or chan fun (or however you Anglicize the spelling for those rice noodles with stuff folded in them), but this chan fun on the upper right looked pretty good though (and was good). It annoys me when restaurants skimp on fillings for these. The fried triangle thing was also good but I think I like crab rangoon better, even though that may be comparing apples to oranges.

Baileys Chocolate Buttermilk Squares

So I decided that perhaps another problem with the Baileys bread from the previous post was not just that it was too alcoholic, but it was something more basic than that. Perhaps I threw in too much baking soda, and there were no acidic ingredients to counter that soda (I doubt the Irish cream would have sufficed). So I decided to crumble the bread and mix it with eggs, buttermilk, and chocolate chips, and threw it in the oven as a sort of bread pudding in hopes of salvaging the spent Baileys. The oven blasted at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes before I had to go to the in laws'. It was rather runny and eggy when I left, but upon return, the bread pudding had set very firmly. In fact it was so firm I wouldn't call it a pudding anymore. The prominent flavors were buttermilk and chocolate, with the Baileys in the background and no more sharp burn of alcohol or baking soda or whatever it was that had prompted the redemption of this bread from its former self. These are now sitting as squares wrapped in foil in the freezer, waiting to be consumed at a later date. I've had enough of chocolate, Baileys, buttermilk, and the like for the time being. I'm craving some vegetable juice...

Baileys Oat and Corn Flour Loaf

I recently bought The Cornbread Gospels from Amazon and tried out one of their methods, which is to fill my slow cooker with water halfway and place an ovensafe container inside, above a trivet-like device, which could be a wadded up ball of foil just to prevent the bottom of the container from coming in direct contact with the bottom of the slow cooker. So we're essentially steaming the bread. I think the method turned out a success! I didn't have to watch for burns, and the bread was moist and evenly heated! So score on the method!

But the actual bread of my choosing was a semi disaster. I promise promise promise... next bread I make will be that cornbread mix where I can't possibly mess up! This one, I felt like being adventurous, since sometimes you strike gold when you experiment. Alas, this proved to be one of the failures. I mixed whole grain oat and corn flours with baking soda and vital wheat gluten, and then used Baileys Irish Cream as a sort of heavy cream substitute, and some of that praline liqueur just for kicks. Those were the sole liquids binding this dough. All looked well at the end of the 4 hour setting. The loaf released cleanly from my stainless steel container, and there was nothing odd about the aroma. Even the texture looked fine as I broke off a piece... But let me tell you that one bite of this will have you crying for a chaser! I thought the alcohol would have cooked off but I guess not, because this was basically alcoholic bread! I tried smearing on some Kerrygold salted butter but the Baileys/praline kick completely overwhelmed the butter. Finally I found that topping the bread with gobs of chocolate chips helped to tone down and mitigate the burn. This was almost reminiscent of my oatmeal cooked in beer, except that was not as strong, bitter, or fragrant as this one.

So anyway, as a default plan, I had originally settled on just slicing this loaf and making chocolate chip sandwiches with them to stick them in the freezer for a rainy day. But then I got another potentially wise or disastrous idea (see next post)...

Sumac Veggie Spaghetti

Yay for the deep red color and refreshing tang imparted by the sprinkling of sumac onto an otherwise unnoteworthy meal.

Praline Pecan Spiked Coffee

So I was at Bevmo the other day and this New Orleans Pecan Praline Liqueur really caught my eye. Candied pecans and walnuts are among my favorite things to eat, with pralines not far behind. So anyway I had this liqueur straight the other day and also over ice cream, both of which were fairly disappointing (too strong, not sweet). But in coffee, this liqueur really shines! Somehow, it becomes sweet and lends a nutty, rich taste to my coffee without the cream and sugar. I had almost resigned myself to figuring out how to bake with this liqueur before discovering the happiness of pecan praline spiked coffee! I have this in my cK cup (it says "Live long and prosper" in hand-painted Star Trek font on the other side) with the pine trees reflected on the coffee's surface. One sip of this warm, divine beverage can whisk you away to the deep south, down to the French Quarter of New Awlins or to the banks of the mighty Mississippi, steeped in rich history and romantic ruggedness...

Nyåkers Swedish Marzipan Biscuits

I saw these at World Market and thought they looked really cute. They come all the way from Sweden. If I were less lazy, I would make my own marzipan cookies or biscuits, and drop all the preservatives that allow these sorts of products to last until like next April. These have seriously no nutritional value, but they are a bit fun due to their extremely soft and springy texture. It's amazing how long a shelf life some of these holiday baked goods can have-- stuff like panettone, stollen, and these biscuits. So yeah this purchase was more of an impulsive mini splurge than anything.

Mop Passed Out

This is Mop, my baby Maltese, or one of them anyway (Mop has a younger, less wild brother named Andrew who's elsewhere in the studio). Somehow, Mop got himself in this odd-looking position. Maybe he drank too many pints of Guinness while we were away, or just got too sleepy while perusing some of my books? Either way, this was too adorable for me to pass up. For a real dog, I wouldn't get a Maltese though. They are super cute as puppies but would inevitably grow up into mops, without regular grooming. I'm leaning towards the West Highland White Terrier, but we'll see...

Chicken Rice Soup

If you read the previous post, that will set the context for this bowl of chicken soup, which is essentially chicken soup with spinach rice porridge thrown in. Yay for permutations of chicken soup. First I had whole wheat penne, and here we have jasmine long rice... What's next? How long will K be sick for?

Corn Rice Porridge

I had intended to make a rice porridge to go alongside chicken soup. To change things up, I decided to throw in spinach in the rice porridge, and use chicken broth instead of water for the porridge. All this went into the rice cooker while I made soup with chicken drumlettes/wings plus corn plus random dried veggies on the stovetop. When the porridge was done, it was apparent that I had not only made too much of it, but also that I had thrown in too much spinach. K would not have eaten that porridge, with all that green. So I ended up mixing the porridge into the chicken soup for him, to downplay all that spinach (see next post). However, I was perfectly fine with all the spinach so this here is a combination of the solids from the soup (corn and dates) and the extra rice porridge. It's not shown here but I eventually added tofu for protein, since I let K have all the chicken. Not too pretty but I actually liked it.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Nothing spectacular here. I made chicken soup since K somehow got sick. It's super convenient to just use frozen chicken wings and drumlettes for this type of thing. I threw in penne, mixed frozen veggies, goji berries, and dates. Yay for serving in the cute handled soup bowl, from the Ballydoughan poppy range.

Pomegranate Chicken Pilaf

I forgot how this one worked, but somehow I mixed together rice with diced rotisserie chicken, mixed frozen veggies, and topped that off with pomegranate seeds. This one looks colorful and arguably pretty, but I didn't actually think the pomegranate matched the rotisserie chicken taste. Oh well at least I dispositioned the white meat from the chicken.

Pomegranate Persimmon Guava Fruit Salad

You can't see the greens but here I have TJ's herb salad mix, which has the usual greens plus a nice twist with organic parsley, cilantro, and dill! I scooped out some Hachiya persimmon flesh and topped that with pomegranate seeds, sliced guavas, halved Feijoa (pineapple guava), and sliced Fuyu persimmons. All the fruit came from my parents' backyard. This was a lovely and refreshing salad, especially with the fresh dill. The soft Hachiya persimmons served as a pseudo dressing, due to its consistency and strong, sweet flavor.

Raspberries & Crème Fraîche

The name says it all... The crème fraîche was so much more interesting and delicious than whipped cream, in my opinion. I never was a fan of berries and cream, but this crème fraîche takes it to a whole other level. Cream cheese is also good with berries but it's harder to eat that straight and is usually mixed with sugar of some sort. This is still very rich though... Will probably have to get yogurt next time to compensate for this...

Lamb "Stroganoff"

Bought lamb shoulder and put it in the rice cooker with mixed mushrooms (crimini, shimeiji, field, abalone, shiitake), carrots, and whole wheat rotelle pasta. For flavor, I had paprika, Kerrygold butter, salt, and pepper. I dumped in a lot of the rotelle pasta, dry, so I had to add SOME kind of liquid, and settled on half a bottle of Reggiano Lambrusco, which is a very affordable ($5) Italian soft red wine from Trader Joes. It's actually very drinkable so I didn't really have to cook with it but it's been sitting around so why not? It's basically a bubbly sweet red, but not cloyingly sweet.

So the trick to using the rice cooker for tender meat is to cook the dish for several rounds in the rice cooker. Embarrassingly, I can't advise on how to do this using the modern rice cookers. For the trusty old school Tatung ones, all you do is just keep pressing the simple lever down, giving it about 20 minutes in between the time the lever pops up and the next time you press it down, and possibly adding some water if the lever pops up too quickly after starting the second round.

Anyway I personally thought the lamb was tender (probably due to the multiple tablespoons of butter), and the pasta fluffed up nicely with the wine and with the butter giving it an extra smooth texture. I was going to add some nonfat yogurt and call it a stroganoff, but when the dish came out of the rice cooker, it didn't look like it wanted to be tampered with, so I left it alone and served it without the yogurt. Again, I really liked this dish, although it was definitely on the rich side, even without any dairy (so rich, in fact, that I actually needed tea afterwards to balance it out). Kevin, however, was not a fan. He liked the lamb but not the pasta, citing excess sauce as his reason.

Lambrusco Braised Lamb with Juniper Berries, Tarragon, and Sage

I used the rest of the lamb shoulder, mixed mushrooms, carrots, whole wheat rotelle pasta, red wine for this slow cooked dish. The spices are different from the rice cooker pseudo-stroganoff dish. This time, I used juniper berries, tarragon, sage, garlic, salt, and pepper, along with olive oil instead of butter. According to Williams Sonoma, juniper berries are "blue-black berries [that] come from an evergreen tree in the cypress family. A favorite in Scandinavian cookery and Europe's alpine cuisines, they're prized for their refreshing pine aroma and spicy, astringent flavor... balanced by floral and woodsy notes." Yay for pretty spices with a pretty name.

So anyhow, I turned the slow cooker off shortly before the 6-hour setting had completed, since it looked like most of the liquid had boiled off. The rotelle noodles did not hold up as well in the slow cooker as they had in the rice cooker... They became incredibly soggy and failed to retain their distinctive spiral shape. The lamb itself was very tender, albeit somewhat bitter due to my probable overdoing of the juniper berries. That's what I get for casually eyeballing the amount thrown in rather than actually counting out the berries. I also did not fill the entire slow cooker with meat, so that probably made a difference, as the relatively strong sage and the 20 or so juniper berries probably overwhelmed my 4 or 5 pieces of lamb shoulder. Furthermore, I might have to consider getting those herb infusion bags so as to impart the flavor of the berries on the food without having to pick out them out individually afterwards (the juniper berries did not taste that great and are harder to pick out than something like a bay leaf or star anise). I couldn't really make out the tarragon taste-wise, but it definitely added pretty little specks in the meat and noodles. 

Overall, the flavor was definitely reminiscent of a rustic autumn meal, and I enjoyed the novelty of the taste. As expected, Kevin wasn't a fan, but I still made him help me eat some.

Cod With Sumac Egg

These are the wild cod pieces from TJs, sauteed with onions. There was a lot of liquid so I ended up letting this simmer. Some added sumac (a tangy Middle-Eastern spice) contributed to the red tint of the dish. I topped this off with some scrambled egg sprinkled with even more sumac. Eggs really match sumac well. I loved the taste of the dish. My only complaint is that the pan I used to cook the eggs is really bad after only a few uses. I must have scratched off all the coating, which is disappointing since you'd think Calphalon stood for something. Maybe it's time to go for that cast iron pan. We'll see. Anyway that's why my eggs are in pieces...

Gordon Ramsay's Sublime Scrambled Eggs

I actually tried following his recipe, minus the chives since I didn't have any, and minus the whole bit about taking the pan off the heat and putting it back on, over and over again. I used Kerrygold butter and Bellwether Farms Crème Fraîche (pronounced krem fresh). Of course this was good, with all that fat and cream! I actually ended up making the eggs more well done rather than creamy and soft, since I typically like my eggs over hard. To me, the well done eggs have more flavor than the runny ones. You can watch Gordon himself make his sublime eggs here.

Honey Cashel Blue

I saw Cashel Blue cheese at Whole Foods and had to get it. Thankfully, it was a relatively small wedge, seeing as it was actually wayyy too strong for me. It was so much more pungent than gorgonzola! I had to tone down the strength of the Cashel Blue by essentially drenching it with my raw honey, which has an extremely strong and sweet taste, and mixing in those wine crackers for some crunch. I won't be getting Cashel Blue again, but it was worth trying at least once, seeing as it is the only blue cheese from Ireland, made, of course, in Cashel, County Tipperary.

Bronze Cut Penne with Buffalo Meat Sauce

Okay back to food. One of the things I learned about Kevin after getting married is that he actually loves penne, which I never really cared for previously. But I'll make an exception for this Delallo penne ziti, which was made in Italy and cut with bronze plates. That does not sound like a big deal, but the texture of each tube really does seem to allow the pasta sauce to adhere better to the penne. Also, these are good sized and I think they are prettier than their ridged cousins (penne rigate). Although the stats aren't as good as the whole grain types, there's still a decent amount of dietary fiber, iron, and other nutrients. This penne totally holds together during cooking, which is more than I can say about some of the other whole grain penne that I've tried. The meat sauce is made out of ground buffalo meat, which is pretty lean, sauteed onions, and marinara sauce. There's nothing out of the ordinary besides the buffalo meat, which piqued my interest. It pretty much tastes like lean beef.

Bear Griffin

Meet Bear Griffin, the cute bear that Kevin stuffed at Build-a-Bear last weekend. He is related in spirit to Blake Griffin of the Clippers. I think the Clipper uniform is what totally makes this bear-- that, and the fact that he's sooo stuffed that he can stand on his own! Can you believe this Build-a-Bear was only $1.50, including accessories? What a steal. He even has his own little Spalding basketball, which Kevin is being Chinese about and leaving the plastic on. Often, one will hear Bear Griffin saying, "Let's play ball!" Too bad Jack Hana isn't as stuffed as Bear Griffin. Oh well. They can still play with each other.

Jack and Russell Hana

Jack Hana was born on February 6, 2010. He is named after the cute and feisty Jack Russell terrier that ran after our slowly moving car in Hana on Maui, HI. Yay for Build-a-Bear. The little guy on the bottom was too adorable to pass up. His name is Russell Hana. Actually the reason I'm posting Jack and Russell now is because I want them next to Kevin's bear... But these guys bring back memories of the lovely and windy road to Hana. The backside of Haleakala was absolutely beautiful. That, along with watching the stars atop Haleakala and being above the clouds as the sun rose, were my favorite things from our Maui trip last December. If ever we go to Hawaii again, I'd like to visit Kauai...

Jme Biscuits and Other Indulgences

I've visited Williams-Sonoma way too many times within the past week. Basically I was drawn in by that fall baking pan with the wells shaped like acorns and mini pumpkins. That was the beginning of my streak, which included various pecan-related baking mixes, pecan pumpkin butter, spices, and these biscuits. These hail all the way from England-- the "Nutty pecan & pumpkin seed" ones are especially delicious!

For my spices, I first saw the gumbo filé and caved in and bought five other spices so I could get the wooden spice caddy for free... The spices of choice were sumac, vadouvan, French lavender, Herbes de Provence, and juniper berries. I then completed the spice buying binge by trekking over to and buying some (more affordable) spices from World Market, including real Tahitian and Madagascar vanilla beans, turmeric, dalmation sage, lemongrass, tarragon, marjoram, and ground cardamom seed. I'm excited to try these spices out!

Mozart Kugeln

You know the holidays are almost upon us when stores start putting out their holiday merchandise. I saw these at World Market the other day and was intrigued. Named after one of my favorite composers, these are, according to the packaging, a "deluxe confection exquisitely filled with pistachio-marzipan made from fresh green pistachios, almonds and rich hazelnut nougat, enrobed with delicious milk and bitter chocolates." They were truly delicious. I think the flavors worked together very well and the pistachio nougat center was absolutely heavenly. This is as opposed to the chocolate covered marzipan from Niederegger, where the chocolate overwhelmed the marzipan in taste, and the marzipan itself was too sugary. Anyway I wonder if there is such a thing as Chopin chocolates...

Turkey With Cranberry White Stilton Miniwiches

I finally caved in and bought the cranberry white stilton from TJs. They also have an apricot variety but the cranberry looked more interesting to me. The white stilton is very tasty on its own, and a far cry from its pungent, blue veined cousins. When eaten alone, this was almost like a dense cheesecake, both in texture and taste. It worked very well with the turkey. I was very satisfied with these mini sandwiches but I guess it wouldn't have hurt to add some cranberry spread.

Roast Beef Cheddar Miniwiches

They don't look too mini, but these actually use the small parm-iago rosemary rolls from TJs which looked cute and artisan. I really liked the strong flavor of these rolls and they probably would have been very tasty if toasted and dipped in olive oil, but as sandwich bread, they were too hard. Thankfully, the red leicester cheese complemented the rosemary well, somehow, and added some interest to the otherwise boring roast beef and mixed greens. In college, I would often ask for roast beef sandwiches with cheddar, baba ganoush (an eggplant spread), sprouts and other veggies. They were great and a relatively healthy change of pace from another regular of mine, which was a simple quesadilla made from burrito sized flour tortillas and filled only with cheddar cheese, but lots of it. These led to food comas...

Filet Mignon

So filet went on sale at $7 per pound, providing an opportune time to try my hand at stovetop steak again (we don't have a grill). I actually cooked these on medium/low heat, in butter, but I'm still not doing these correctly... First, the lack of grill marks was rather unsatisfying (although that could be rectified if I just bust out the grill pan from our stash of unopened registry gifts at the in-laws'), but second, I ran into the situation again where the steaks looked done, but a sanity check on the inside yielded totally raw and bloody centers. So I basically had to score all the steaks on both sides to try to let the centers cook some more. I took them out when I thought they were medium. I think they were still too red, but Kevin raved about them. At least one of us liked these.

Sliders

Got this weird desire to make sliders... The only noteworthy thing here is that I used Kerrygold's Red Leicester cheese, which is essentially a mild and tangy cheddar. The only thing I don't like about making sliders is that the patties seem to shrink, making it slightly harder and annoying when trying to stack up each slider. Perhaps they won't shrink if I grilled the patties rather than attempting to cook them in a stovetop pan. The best sliders I've had are from Claim Jumper, and they are actually not beef patties but are tri-tip slices, with grilled onions and buttery-looking buns. They're called tri-tip dips on their menu but we haven't gone in awhile since they got rid of their Fri/Sat late night happy hour.