My friend Annie and I are marathon runners, so it's only right for us to have a marathon cookie making day, right? Right.
Well, perhaps there is not a direct connection other than the more miles you run, the more cookies you get to eat, but we shared a wonderful Sunday afternoon into evening baking about 60 sugar cookies. We even made homemade icing and used our "artistic" abilities to decorate the cookies. And yes, the word artistic is used loosely...it's the taste that counts :)
Okay. This roasted chickpea stew is amazing and easily falls within the top three dishes I've ever made (it's closely ranked the beef bourguignon and a Moroccan stew). I stumbled upon the original recipe on the Whole Foods website while searching for a use for leftover ginger root.
According to the original recipe, the dish has Ethiopian roots which is a type of food I've never experimented with. It's heavy in spice and requires roasting the chickpeas prior to making the stew. This is an absolute necessary step as the roasting intensifies the otherwise bland chickpeas.
Last Saturday, I invited some of my closest friends over for dinner and pre-dancing drinks. My goal was to be creative and to stay away from the more traditional group foods like lasagna and pizza. I also wanted to give my friends the opportunity to personalize their dish as much as possible (it's probably important to note that I'm a big fan of food personalization...so, bring it on!). And so began my quest to offer a variety of flavors and options...
The focus of this post is the three dipping sauces that accompanied the beef and chicken kabobs, roasted peppers, and brown rice. And, of course, the fresh bread.
In the photo above, the dipping sauces from left to right is a tomato-ginger chutney, a feta/herb sauce, and a lime/cilantro creme. And below, a complete plate of food...
Well, time for round two of cooking for my parents. I chose minestrone soup because it's healthy but eats like a meal. Yikes, I sound like a Campbell's commercial but it's late and, well, I just can't think of another way to describe it. However, since my parents are a tough crowd (I kid, I kid), there was some skepticism in the room on whether it'd be enough food.
You know you've made it when your parents request home cooked meals from their only daughter over one of the biggest food holidays of the year - thanksgiving.
Just kidding.
In all seriousness, while visiting my parents over the holiday, I had the opportunity to cook not one, but two, meals in a real sized kitchen, with high quality cookware and endless utensils. It was a young cooks paradise, a la Big Girls Small Kitchen, so I took full advantage.
On the first night, I made spaghetti squash with roasted tomatoes and onion. I wasn't prepared to cook - still recovering from overeating the day before - but made due with what was on hand. For example, the roasted tomatoes were actually canned tomatoes. Not ideal, but blended with roasted onions, herbs, garlic, and a dash of balsamic vinegar, this dish was pretty good considering the limited resources.
This roasted pork with cranberry-apple glaze dish stemmed from a similar recipe in Sheryl Crow's cookbook, If It Makes You Healthy, which is one of my favorite cookbooks. Sheryl's recipe called for figs and plums, but after a frenzied search for both items at Whole Foods, neither were available. I decided to get creative and combine two of my favorite flavors for a glaze for roasted pork.
One of my best friends, Sharon Schiff, was kind enough to photograph this cooking session and provide feedback (thankfully, it was positive):
"This dish radiates the seasonal aura of autumn," Sharon stated.
"It's almost as if you could capture the wonderful scent of potpourri through your taste buds."
While I don't think she had much of a choice but to compliment the meal, I'd say Sharon legitimately enjoyed this dish... :)
Today in East Africa, in a region known as the Horn, more than 13.3
million people are in crisis – more than the populations of New York
City and Los Angeles combined. The worst drought the world has seen in
60 years is devastating farmlands, uprooting families and killing tens
of thousands in four countries: Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia.
Drought, conflict and famine are forcing people from their
homes in search of food and water. In fact, nearly 700,000 Somalis have
fled ---many walking over 100 miles to refugee camps---in search of food
and water. Nearly half of the children arriving at the camps in Kenya
and Ethiopia are acutely malnourished; all are in need of emergency
assistance.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has launched the Famine, War, and Drought (FWD) campaign to bring worldwide recognition of the ongoing crisis in the Horn. Last week, as part of the FWD campaign, USAID staff made public service announcements that are now available on YouTube. Here's mine:
For more information on the FWD campaign, visit USAID.
Vichy carrots have recently become a staple of the Gabler family Thanksgiving celebration. They were made on a whim a couple of years ago but are consistently requested and will probably be a part of our dinners for years to come. So, what better way to share a great meal than with great friends:
My grown up grilled cheese dish was actually served with the butternut squash soup recipe and a side salad. Of course, the little kid in me craved an exact replication of the grilled cheese I enjoyed at Friendly's years ago. I still, to this day, have no idea why their grilled cheese was so delish yet so simple, but I decided to switch up the classic American soul food with a more grown up option: brie cheese, pear slices, arugula, and red onion. Even steered clear of the plain ol' white bread...go me.
There's nothing like coming home from work on a rainy, cold Thursday and warming up to a bowl of homemade butternut squash soup. It was my first time making this type of soup and it's pretty easy, although I have a question for my SEVEN readers out there:
How the heck do you efficiently peel a butternut squash?
It seems to take an unnecessary amount of time...almost putting it in the same category as beets (effort vs. output; i.e. something to leave to the professionals). Once you finish the excessive peeling and chopping, this soup is pretty easy to make. Patience is a virtue.
Ahhh...it's that time of year...winter veggies. My neighbor, Lisa, is the recipient of a weekly half share of fresh fruits and vegetables from a local farm. However, she went out of town and I was the lucky recipient of last weeks share. It was fantastic - purple turnips, French radishes, broccoli, tatsoi, kale, everything. With all those options, it's pretty easy to turn this:
Okay, I'll admit that making a dish that completely forgoes its namesake is a bit off kilter, but I'm a bit off kilter with my dislike of spicy food. I'm getting there; a few years ago, I would have never considered making chili. I've come a long way and this dish still packs enough flavor to satisfy the most daring of palettes.
In any case, try it - you can always play with the spices to pack more of a punch than a beginner like me.
In a moment of slight despair, I caved to my one true love that is the antithesis of this blog: mac and cheese. To my credit, it's organic...whole wheat...no trans fat...and I added vegetables. No harm no foul, right? On to the next meal...
Looking for a warm, hearty fall meal that is as healthy as it is delicious? Definitely try out this lentil dish. It may not look very appetizing in the photo (yes, I'm still mastering the art of food photography with an iPhone, if that even exists) but my boyfriend and I both ate very slowly just to thoroughly enjoy all of the flavor of the dish.
At first I wanted to qualify this post as a "No Meat Monday" option, but it has a bit of bacon that purely adds flavor rather than crunch. I'm considering trying a bacon substitute, something I've never done before, to see if it still packs the same flavor without removing it from the vegetarian realm. However, the fresh roasted garlic is an absolute must.
Seasonal Pantry (1314 9th Street, NW Washington, DC) is a new local food shop in the heart of Shaw. They're known for incredibly fresh products and offer seasonal clubs, such as an ice cream club and even a supper club. During September, they offered a Pasta Club with several types of pasta. My favorite is the herb ricotta agnolotti. It's flavorful and delicious and perfect for fall.
A walnut pesto was provided with the pasta, but I'm slightly allergic to nuts and in observance of safety, decided to make a brown butter and sage sauce with sauteed butternut squash, carrots, string beans and yellow squash. The result? A warm, healthy meal with a savory edge.
There are times when you know you're making a great dish, and other times you just have to wing it. Thursday night was one of those nights. I had a random assortment of items in the kitchen and wanted to use all of them because I'm taking a mini-vacation in Kiawah Island, SC, this weekend. I opted to make soft tacos since I had fresh wraps from Whole Foods that were sure to go bad and a bunch of cilantro. So, here goes nothing...
My cat, Peter, is my official partner in crime in the kitchen. He is fascinated with anything I do in there. He isn't begging...he is simply observing the action. Maybe he'll start his own blog some day :)
About a week and a half ago, I had the privilege of traveling to El Salvador for work. It was a whirlwind of a trip - I found about about 5 days before departure that I would be traveling to the country to train the USAID Mission on the Google Apps Suite.
El Salvador is a gorgeous country. Gorgeous people. And, of course, gorgeous food. Unbelievable food at that. Everything I had, from filet mignon, to pupusas, to fruit, was fresh and flavorful. I attribute this to most of the food being local. The idea of "local" is something that is preached here in the United States, but I think that local food is the norm in El Salvador. Perhaps it's because of the climate, the vast farmland, the type of jobs available, or a mix of all three, but it was truly a treat experiencing the local cuisine of the country.
As you can guess, it took me be a while to get back into the swing of things, and tonight (9/18/11) I'm finally back in the kitchen cooking a homemade meal. I'll post about it soon...glad to be back!
This past weekend, the entire east coast was on high alert for Hurricane Irene, which was supposed to be the largest storm to hit the region in quite some time. I was very lucky here in Washington, DC that we had minimal damage - just some fallen branches and general messiness. Regardless, I'm happy to use any excuse to stay in on the weekends to regroup from the work week and experiment with new recipes.
On Saturday night, I made Moroccan-style braised lentils and a pitiful excuse for yeastless bread. The dish (minus the bread) was a success - let me know if you want the recipe. Sunday night's dinner was much more notable. I made herbed chicken breast with string bean salad and cous cous. It was exactly the "homey" meal I was looking for after the storm...
No Meat Monday is a catchy little phrase I first saw at Whole Foods and soon learned that it's an ongoing international campaign. I decided to embrace this act - as well as removing meat from the most (but not all) of my meals - for health and environmental concerns (or, just being totally freaked out after reading The Omnivore's Dilemma). I'll admit that changing my diet is a challenge. Dinner used to be a simple task...simply cook meat, carbs, and veggies, and you'd be good to go. Nowadays, dinner takes research and creativity to ensure a healthy, flavorful, and most of all filling, meal.
I made chickpea burgers with baked potato and veggie crisps. The meal met all of my meatless requirements...check it out!
Watermelon ranks right behind ice cream as my favorite summertime treat. I'm lucky to live in a city filled with farmers market so this sweet fruit is easily accessible and always fresh. Watermelon is versatile, too. It can serve as a dessert one day and as a meal the next.
I made a watermelon salad to spice up a more traditional beef tenderloin dish. It was easy to make AND I had enough leftovers to enjoy as workday snack the following day.
Stock photo disclaimer: I'm still mastering the art of photographing food. Bear with me until my meals look as delicious as they taste :)
After devouring the M3 for Sunday night dinner and Monday's lunch, I still had about a cup of the mango salsa left over. Naturally, I didn't want to compost such a delicious topping, so I turned to Sheryl Crow's new cookbook, If It Makes You Healthy, for some inspiration.
Sheryl (yes, we're on a first name basis) has a fantastic Soffrito Rice rice recipe that features mangos as the key ingredient. I made a variation of the recipe to (1) reuse the mangos and some leftover veggies from the weekend and (2) avoid Whole Foods at 7:00 p.m. on Monday at all costs.
My mother visited this past week, so naturally we did all that great mother/daughter stuff: shop, chat, and of course, we ate. After a subpar dinner out on Thursday night, followed by two decent dinners, I decided I should "wow" her with a home cooked meal. I attempted a fresh, Mexican-style meal full of flavor and nutrients: zucchini corn fritters with grilled mesquite chicken, chipotle mango salsa, guacamole, and cilantro lime sauce.
Oddly enough, I've had several conversations about my last meal, and my answer is always the same: macaroni and cheese. I'm not talking about gourmet, fancy-schmancy macaroni and cheese, I'm talking about the boxed-up Velveeta kind in all its gooey deliciousness.
I think the time has come to move on from cheese that doesn't require refrigeration to real foods that require a bit more thought, time, and room for error. I'll be chronicling my new life in the kitchen (and probably some other topics, TBD of course). Hopefully you'll enjoy the trial and errors of my culinary pursuits and maybe even learn something, too :)
