March 2013

Following a recipe from K’s Veganomics cookbook, K, A, and I made these hearty, very filling banana apple oat bran muffins. Yum!

A beautiful day at the Leonardtown Wharf.

Mexican food from On the Border, in Columbia, MD. That roundish thing was a deep-fried avocado… I’m so happy that I am discovering the amazing things one can do with an avocado to make it very tasty. This thing was a revelation. It was a stressful day… this meal, particularly the gloriousness that was that avocado, helped me feel a little better.

K made one of her friends and me some dinner one night - brown rice with tofu, peanuts, and baby broccoli. The sauces she added elevated the flavor of this dish… a most delicious and satisfying dinner indeed.

Despite the day not being as warm and pleasant as it could be, this stroll through Meadowlark Park in Vienna, VA was still nice, and being able to see some beautiful irises brightened my day. Of course, the company I had also helped to make this outing a good experience.

Magnolia blossoms in the park in the L’Enfant Plaza area (right outside the Smithsonian castle).

A duck that kept circling our paddle boat, while we were paddling in the Tidal Basin. It was most likely asking us for food. (Those mournful eyes are a clue…)

We didn’t get to see cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin, but we did in the parking lot of Pho 75.

A squirrel. Yes, totally photo-worthy. They’re hilarious creatures. Never heard of the Clint Eastwood squirrel, or the peek-a-boo “OH GAHD THE HUMANS ARE STILL THERE” squirrel? Well, let me tell you…

An orange cornmeal cake that turned out to be most delicious. I followed this Martha Stewart recipe, adding more cornmeal and less sugar and some orange juice from an actual orange in addition to the sweet wine. The cake came out warm (heart-fuzziness-warm) and crunchy and comforting.

Pudding made from scratch, using half-and-half and cornstarch and sugar, and more vanilla extract than called for, in both vanilla and chocolate flavors. Leaving the pudding uncovered to create that “skin” was totally a great idea. We followed Mark Bittman’s recipe from his book How to Cook Everything: The Basics, but here’s an online version of the recipe. This batch was the most delicious… the subsequent ones I’ve made by myself have been quite “meh.”

A and I made a savory three-cheese quiche for Easter dinner, without using marjoram and varying the vegetable ratio at will. We followed Joy the Baker’s recipe for no-roll pie crust.

Here was the rest of the dinner with the other folks’ handiwork: Greek-style roasted leg of lamb with baby potatoes and artichoke hearts, pureed cauliflower with garlic, brussel sprouts (if I remember correctly…), beet salad, mushroom couscous (again, not 100% sure at this point), and strawberry dipped in dark chocolate. There was also a very tasty, moist and flavorful (but not too sweet) carrot cake.

March was a good month for food and beautiful pictures of the wonder that nature is, even in the gray, cloudy gloom. So much to be grateful for, if you take the time to think about it. Song that is currently stuck in my head - Pink’s “Just Give Me a Reason.” So melodious, so filled with emotion. The uncertainty and vulnerability she conveys through her lyrics is contrasted with the power in and strength of her voice. Art.

Vegas and Orlando

Business trips in March, to attend higher education conferences. During the free time we had, of course we had to explore!

This was my first trip to Vegas and my first time in that desert-y region of the country. All the neat architecture (of hotels, but still) to see!

Fish tacos from the Cheesecake Factory in Vegas, which was the first time I had eaten at a Cheesecake Factory. One of my past roommates had once brought me a wonderful slice of red velvet cheesecake to help me feel better during finals… she was such a sweet person! As for these fish tacos… I had high expectations, but they weren’t met. Oh well. Now I know. But the avocado!

After setting up in Orlando, we had time to wander through the hotel in which the conference was to be held, and also visited Disney (on our own dime, of course). It was beautiful weather pretty much the whole trip… definitely something to be grateful for.

February 2013

Noms from a Chinese supermarket, Kam San, in Rockville, MD. Some of these really reminded me of home. From left to right, in zigzag fashion: Green bean cake, “eight treasure” porridge (made from a bunch of grains and beans, such as oats and red beans), pineapple shortcake, salted duck egg, honey green tea pound cake, Mr. Brown coffee, flat wheat noodles, sachima (egg yolk rice crisp snacks), milk caramels, sesame- and peanut-paste-filled glutinous rice balls, sweet and spicy chili sauce, milk & peanut dessert soup, toasted shredded fish with seaweed, barley tea, “barbecue” sauce (which contains shrimp and fish), snack noodles, and Kuai-Kuai corn puffs in coconut and five-spice flavors.

Chinese New Year feast with K, her sister & sister’s bf, and A. Stir-fried bamboo shoots and mushrooms, braised meatballs with cabbage, dumplings, and za-jiang-mian (spicy fried-sauce noodles; there’s black bean paste in the sauce as well as vegan protein). We cooked the bamboo shoots & mushrooms and made the noodles; the other two things were store-bought and heated up.

Something I had been craving: noodles with strips of eggs originally fried in omelet form, strips of ham, and grated cucumber. And I added tofu to the side just because. This was a delicious meal. Aaand we had stir-fried leek flowers. The buckwheat noodles and leek flowers were from Kam San.

The green bean cakes! They were soft and smooth and basically melted in your mouth. They also had a distinct taste, light and slightly sweet and green-bean-y.

Caramel corn from scratch. I’m struggling to find the recipe I used, but this was roughly how I made it: Pop the popcorn. Heat the oven to 350 F. In a saucepan, combine agave, brown sugar, and butter, and stir until the syrup mixture is of a consistency that would allow it to be easily coated on 2 cups or so of popped popcorn. (Since I don’t remember how much of each ingredient I used, apart from 1/3 cup agave, I would eyeball everything else…) Roll the popcorn in the syrup mixture, after it has been removed from the heat, then spread the popcorn out on a baking sheet and heat in the oven for 5 minutes or so. The popcorn turned out nicely crunchy, nicely sweet, and satisfied my craving. A and I made this for a movie night.

A and I followed a Bon Appetit recipe for blueberry banana oat bran muffins; we used fresh blueberries. The oat bran certainly added a great deal of fiber to the muffins! The berries became syrupy after the baking… we had the brilliant (no sarcasm!) idea of cutting baking paper into little squares and lining the muffin tin with them. Such elegant little muffins! So proud.

January 2013

Bright winter day at the lighthouse

Brie and water crackers. One of the best ways to unwind after a day of walking.

The ingredients to make bean burger patties. Recipe from Mark Bittman’s book How to Cook Everything: The Basics (he’s got an online version of the recipe too). Onion, oatmeal, chickpeas from a can, salt, black pepper, chili pepper.

Assembled bean patty pita sandwich! Romaine lettuce, a sweet dairy-based sauce (I think it was buttermilk ranch…), and grated cheese. We were aiming for the pita sandwiches at Amsterdam Falafelshop… but our patties still need some work.

Massamun (tender beef, potato, peanut) curry at Thaiphoon in Pentagon City.

Banana nut bread. Very rich and quite sweet (in a good way though). Thanks A! Though it was later revealed to me that this banana bread contained a whole stick of butter… eee!

Calvert County cliffs… at the end of the trail

Homemade sweet & sour soup and quinoa (the latter from a box, but good nevertheless) after a long day outdoors

Cornstarch, vinegar, sesame oil, tofu, mushrooms, scallions, and pork loin went into this soup. Again from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. That guy is awesome - his recipes are easy to follow, make intuitive sense, combine amazing flavors, and deftly use photographs and words to guide the reader through the process.

Christmas 2012

The orange glaze for the ham. This was the recipe we followed.

Preparing the spiral-cut, pre-baked ham with chopped-up basil.

Stuffing before being put in the oven. We didn’t make enough broth for this batch, unfortunately… though A liked how the stuffing was soupy in places, dry and crunchy in others.

Finished!

The finished ham

Mashed potatoes, the ham, sparkling cider, mashed sweet potatoes with brown sugar

Cranberry sauce, bread stuffing, two types of fruit cider, scrambled vegetables

Gingerbread Cookies & Biscochitos & Tiramisu

Gingerbread business. I think it was a Martha Stewart recipe we followed. I ended up baking the cookies for too long, and they dried out and became rock-like. At least they smelled good.

Biscochitos. The recipe called for lard. A whole pound of it. I guess that’s why the cookies turned out as buttery/flaky as they did. A divine experience, though probably not the healthiest.

Cinnamon sugar dusting for the biscochitos, before they went into the oven.

Ta-da!

This picture doesn’t do them justice. The cookies were soooo rich and flaky. The anise seed flavor was so strong and made this cookie so unique.

Tiramisu. We looked at David Lebovitz’s recipe but ended up following Giada’s.

We had found tiramisu mascarpone, which helped with the flavor. After this experience we learned to not dunk the ladyfingers in the coffee-rum mixture, but instead, just brush the mixture onto the ladyfingers… this helped the finished product stay more solid. (Though I personally prefer more coffee-rum as opposed to too little…) This dessert was so rich and tasty. Tiramisu is an amazing thing.

Eating at Home, Christmas Break 2012

Scrambled eggs with basil, tofu and onions and mushrooms.

Red bell peppers and broccolini, scrambled eggs, basil pesto chicken sausage.

Hot chocolate, made using real cocoa powder and agave and milk. I think the sweetener was agave.

Broiled tuna steaks, rubbed in olive oil and salt and black pepper and cooked for about 10 min at 450 F or so. Blanched vegetables to the side, lemon juice for the fish, couscous for the carbs.

Buttermilk pancakes from scratch. Deliciously fluffy.

Carrot pork loin soup. Thin, watery, pork-oily. That’s the way I think soup should be.

Probably a leftover-ingredient day.

Recent Eating Out

1-27-13 for 12-7, 12-8, 12-13, and 12-14-12 and 1-9-13

The following events were from a while ago. Memory, GO!

Dinner at Das Ethiopian in Georgetown with K and her sister. To the left was a potato salad and to the right was a mushroom dish, salty and saucy. Served with some injera bread.

K, the sister, and I then went to Paolo’s in Georgetown for drinks and desserts. I shared a vase-like vessel full of tiramisu, and had for myself a raspberry-flavored vodka drink. It was sweet but I started to get a little worried about how much alcohol exactly I was ingesting, and so stopped. The tiramisu was good, but I had been hoping for a more sizable portion, haha.

Nando’s Peri-Peri in Chinatown. A and I shared a medium-hot half-chicken and herb & mango half-chicken, with mashed potatoes and Portuguese rice.

Froyo after falafel pita sandwiches in Adams Morgan. There were pomegranate seeds! Yum!

A free Georgetown cupcake. Maple syrup frosting on top of a pumpkin bread cupcake. Quite good, though it became a bit too sweet towards the end. Loved the sugar leaf - very pretty.

A chocolate-covered strawberry. That day was a good free-food day.

My gyro pita with tzatziki to the side. It was good, but not exactly mind-blowing. This was at Busboys and Poets on K Street.

Margherita pizza, also at Busboys and Poets.

Vegan Oreo cheesecake. It was dense and thick and creamy and rich and mmmm so chocolate-y. Busboys & Poets.

The rocky road vegan cheesecake. Both cheesecakes were delicious… I liked how the “crusts” were not basic graham-cracker crusts… the restaurant did its own (yummier) variation on the crusts.

At Rabbit Grill in Clarendon. To the left was a vegan white velvet cupcake; to the right, a chocolate beet cupcake that was the flavor of the day.

Bacon, Spinach, and Cheese Quiche

1-24-13, for 12-1-12

The flour mixture (most memorable ingredient: grated frozen butter), for the no-rolling-needed pie crust, recipe from Joy the Baker.

Frying the bacon until crispy…

Layering the spinach with crumbled fried bacon. I think what came next was some Swiss & feta cheese, and then spinach, and then more cheese.

This was a Paula Deen recipe. I insisted on not using heavy cream for the egg mixture; we substituted it with milk, I’m pretty sure I’m remembering correctly.

The beautifully-done finished product!

What the quiche looked like on the inside. It was an impressive tower of cheese, spinach, bacon, and egg, and of course the buttery, flaky, most delicious crust ever. It was so easy as well! We had to experiment with the crust a bit, make a little more of it after pressing what we had into the pan, and then popping the pan into the freezer to let the crust cool and shape before baking. A quarter of the quiche (yes, we cut that 8” beauty/beast into quarters) was more than enough for a meal - I was stuffed before I was completely done with one slice! So flavorful, so rich. And pie crust from scratch - I can now mark that as “done” on my checklist of must-attempt kitchen feats!

Thanksgiving 2012

1-24-13, for 11-22-12

Sauteing the onion & celery, and preparing the stock, for the white bread & cornbread stuffing

Preparing the aromatics to stuff inside the turkey - onion and cinnamon sticks and apples. The turkey had already been sitting in brine for about a day beforehand, in a mixture of orange peel, black peppercorn, allspice, salt, and I think much more. I don’t remember all the ingredients that went into it, but the soak kept a lot of the moisture/juices in the turkey meat. It turned out very well.

Making cranberry sauce from scratch. Water, orange peel and lots of sugar went into this pot with the fresh cranberries.

Some to-be-sauteed vegetables, and what I like to call “artistic blur.”

Mashed sweet potatoes, with brown sugar and I think some butter too. But even without butter it would’ve still been amazing.

The turkey, all done!

And the stuffing, all done as well!

Made the gravy using flour, water, and juices from the turkey-roasting pan.

Bowlful of Thanksgiving bounty! So grateful for the delicious, homemade food and the excellent, warm company.