What I ate: Stir-Fry

Stir fry. Ohhhhhh stir fry. You basically leave me speechless.

I have such conflicting feelings towards you that I get tongue tied and confused.

On the one hand, you can be delicious, easy, healthy and fun.

On the other, my parents made you three times a week, while I was growing up, 

and I can barely stand to look at you.

All I think is "not again!" 

...even though I was the one that put you on the menu 

and that, prior to tonight, it's been at 2 years since we last met.

And yet, I can't help but cringe when I think about you, even though dinner was delicious.

Sorry guys. Stir fry and I have a very complicated relationship; I just needed to get a few things off my chest in order to move on. Stir fry is like an old reliable flame that was very prevalent in your life, for a long time, but began to suffocate you, so you broke it off. Then you guys met up at Christmas break, for old times sake, but it was a big mistake and you knew it. And yet, you just can't seem to stop giving stir fry chances because, at times, things are so perfect. Even though reality you know that things could never work out because although stir fry is great, it's only really great in small doses - otherwise it becomes dull. 

STIR FRY INGREDIENTS:	MARINADE INGREDIENTS:
1cup chopped bok choy 1cup bean sprouts 1cup chopped green pepper 1.5cups chopped mushrooms 1.5cups chopped red pepper 1.5cups broccoli 3/4cup red onion 1tablespoon ginger 2tablespoons garlic 1tablespoon chili 1 small okra, sliced 1 Tablespoon grape seed oil 1 Tablespoon sesame oil 1 teaspoon fish sauce 1 Tablespoon sweet chilli paste 2 Tablespoons water	1/2 Tablespoon garlic 1/2 Tablespoon ginger 1 Tablespoon brown sugar 3 Tablespoons soy sauce 1 Tablespoon dark soy sauce 2 Tablespoons grape seed oil 2 teaspoons fish sauce

-  Mix together marinade ingredients. Toss steak (or tofu) in marinade, ensuring everything is coated, and then refrigerate until needed.

-  Heat wok. Add sesame and grape seed oil, tossing in ginger and garlic after a minute.

-  Add mushrooms and onions, allow to cook for 2 - 4 minutes.

-  Mix chilli paste with two tablespoons of water and add to wok, following with the broccoli.

-  Fry ingredients, allowing to soften further.

-  Add steak and marinade. Cook on both sides. Mix with vegetables.

-  Add peppers and cover. Let cook for 5 - 7 minutes, or until beef is cooked to your liking.

-  Add bok choy and bean sprouts, toss and fry for another 2 minutes.

-  Serve over rice or noodles -if you're some kind of thrill seeker.

Notes:
This could easily be made vegetarian.
Swap out beef, swap in tofu.
Presto Change-o; Vegetarian!

Once you throw in the bean sprouts and bok choy don't let it cook 
much longer. Everything speeds up double time at that point causing the veggies
to lose their colour and crunch.

Sprinkle peanuts over top of the stir fry to add something extra special.

What I ate: Fancy Adult Mac & Cheese

Jack and I first became obsessed with this dish when we had it at Mix Fresh Kitchen last year. Within a week of ordering it we were at home trying to replicate it's deliciousness. If you've tried to replicate menu items before, you'll know that it can get pretty tough to do without a wordy dish description. Lucky for us, at Mix, they are very wordy. A quick glance at the menu and we knew what key ingredients were - aged Cheddar, smoked bacon, pasta (obviously) and basil bread crumbs.  

Once the key ingredients were identified we googled a few basic homemade mac and cheese recipe to mix, match and fill in the blanks. 

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups macaroni
1 1/2 cups grated aged cheddar
5 slices bacon
2 cloves garlic
1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons fresh basil

Begin by placing the bacon on a cooking sheet, and baking for 15 - 20 minutes at 400 degrees F - or until the bacon is crispy. Remove from oven and transfer to paper towel to soak up the grease. Once cool enough, crumble the bacon and set aside.

Grind bread into breadcrumbs (or just buy breadcrumbs) and mix with ground basil. Set aside.

Might as well go ahead and cook the noodles now to. Once those are done, put them aside - but keep an eye on them so they don't clump together and get mungy, oil or butter can usually combat this.

Next, get on the sauce. For this you will need 4 hands. Got 'em? Good.

Chop up the garlic. Heat the milk and garlic in a small saucepan, making sure they don't boil. 
Once heated, pour milk through a sieve and discard garlic.

In a medium pot, melt the butter and then mix in the flour. Cook over low while stirring for 2 minutes. 
Once you've created a paste, add the hot garlic milk, continue to milk and cook for another 2 minutes, allowing the sauce to thicken. 

Off the heat, add the aged cheddar, salt, pepper and nutmeg. 

Final stages. Choose a pan, pour the prepared noodles into it. Next, realize you wanted a smaller baking dish and transfer the macaroni from your rejected pan to a smaller, younger, better one. It's cool though. You love washing dishes so unnecessarily dirtying them pays off in the end.

Once the pasta is in the right dish mix in the bacon. Then pour the cheesy goodness over it all. No worries if your cheese didn't melt completely, dump the cheese clumps right on top and then mix and distribute the pasta to cover the dish. Finish by tossing breadcrumbs in a layer on top of the pasta. If you're full-time fancy, rest some little basil leaves on top of it all so the whole world can see.

Baked for 35 - 40 minutes.
Let sit for 10 minutes upon removing from stove.

Accidentally polish off at least a quarter of the entire dish in one sitting.
Then spend the rest of the night sneaking off to the kitchen for extra bites.

Notes:

I may even use 3 cups of macaroni next time to stretch

the deliciousness of the dish.

Enjoy. This is the perfect staple during the winter... 
unless of course you don't want to gain 40 lbs by spring.
If that's the case, stick to making it once or twice a month, rather than every day.




pssst.
Have you checked out this super awesome, super vintage
Shabby Apple giveaway?

What I ate: Nicoise Salad

I first discovered Nicoise salad last summer when I took the plunge and ordered it from FRED. 
I had heard of it prior to that occasion but had never actually had the opportunity to give it a try. 

It was delicious, I was hooked.  

We ate it once a week for the entire summer.

Usually the idea of a salad as a main course makes me cringe. I've tried to do it, but always end up hungry again within the hour regretting my attempt at being dainty as my growling stomach rarrrrrs and arrrggs for the rest of the night. However, Nicoise salad has so much to it (potatos, fish, egg) that I am sufficed for hours following the meal. I didn't have any on hand but usually, I like to serve the salad with a slice of french bread which makes it all even better.

INGREDIENTS:

1 large head of Boston lettuce

1 pound green beans, cooked and refreshed

2 tablespoons minced shallots
1/3 cup basic vinaigrette (below)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 ripe red tomatoes, cut into wedges (or 10 to 12 cherry tomatoes, halved)
4 "boiling" potatoes, peeled, sliced, and cooked
Two 3-ounce cans chunk tuna, preferably oil-packed
6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and halved
1 freshly opened can of flat anchovy fillets
1/3 cup small black Niçoise-type olives
3 tablespoons capers
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Serves 6

Put the potatoes on to cook, and the eggs on to boil. Once each are finished, set aside to cool. Arrange the lettuce leaves on a plate or in a shallow bowl. Clip the ends off the green beans and cut into inch-long pieces. Boil for 2 minutes and then plunge into cold water. Shortly before serving, toss the beans with the shallots, spoonfuls of vinaigrette, and salt and pepper. Baste the tomatoes with a spoonful of vinaigrette. 

Prep the eggs, capers, olives and parsley. 

Arrange all ingredients on plate in a way that you think looks nice. 
Once you've got everything on there, add the tuna and then drizzle with dressing and serve with french bread.

FOR THE DRESSING:

1/2 Tbsp finely minced shallot or scallion
1/2 Tbsp Dijon-type mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 Tbsp wine vinegar
1/3 to 1/2 cup excellent olive oil, or other fine, fresh oil
Freshly ground pepper

Stir the shallots or scallions together with the mustard and salt. Whisk in the lemon juice and vinegar, and when well blended start whisking in the oil by droplets to form a smooth emulsion. Beat in freshly ground pepper.

Notes:

There are many variations on Nicoise Salad, all of them delicious. 

For this meal I tried to not vary any of the ingredients. 

The one change I did make was using kalamata olives rather than nicoise olives. I know, right? It's only the essence of the salad! My reason for the switch is that I really enjoy olives and kalamata are meatier than nicoise, so I like them more.

I used a mesclun mix with romaine lettuce because I had it on hand.

This recipe is for 6. I did not check that when I started. 

For two people: I used 3 eggs, half the potatoes and kept everything else the same.

What I ate: Pistachio and Blue Corn Tortilla Crusted Pork Chops

A few weeks ago Jack bought a coupon from Dealfind for nearly two hundred dollars worth of organic meat from True Organic. While we're still waiting on our fish portion of the order but the rest has come in and Jack is having a ball. Obviously the first thing we did was turn to food52 and see what sort of gems we could uncover. 

The Pistachio and Blue Corn Tortilla Crusted Pork Chop immediately caught Jack's eye on account of his insatiable taste for pistachios, and love of blue corn chips. One of the best parts of this recipe is the effortless prep time - seriously, crushing chips and nuts, easy peasy. I would recommend ensuring that your blue corn chips, pistachios or both, are salted. We were feeling particularly healthy on this day and made the mistake of going for the non-salted, it wasn't bad but you could tell something was missing.

With Jack doing the tough guy stuff over at the meat station, I worked on our sides: Quinoa salad and asparagus. The asparagus was easy, I just sauteed the stalks in butter for five minutes and then tossed some salt and pepper on top. For the quinoa salad I fell back to some choice ingredients that I have relied on in the past and know work well together. I didn't worry about any dressing since when the feta crumbles it coats the salad well enough to act as a one, although I did throw in a tablespoon of oil when the grain first came off the heat.

What I ate: Fish Tacos

There are many reasons to watch Law&Order. The gritty detective work and no-nonsense zingers, the fine-ass lawyering, the fact that it's on exactly 2364786 times a day and now, apparently, I can add "for food inspiration" to that list.

First, you saute red onions, green peppers and yellow peppers in sesame oil

Last week, Jack and I were watching Law and Order: LA (don't judge us) and a detective, or lawyer or something, was eating fish tacos and loving it. I paid no mind as I was way too wrapped up in the drama, but this fact stuck with Jack. He became completely enraptured with the idea of making them. 

Then chop up your fixins and set aside - it's good to be prepared. It also helps if you actually get cilantro and not parsley...

I, never having tried fish tacos before, thought the idea was slightly icky - something about it just didn't sit right with me. But, and this is a new thing I'm trying, I kept this thought to myself. I didn't even wrinkle my nose, scrunch my face and sputter an unconvincing "yeah, sure". I was mature… and it paid off.

Now cook the fish all delicate-like - we used tilapia

I'm not quite sure what made me so apprehensive to the idea of fish tacos to begin with - I'm not a picky eater, I like seafood, and I don't tend to cower at texture ( I honestly like everything about tofu) and yet, even up to the moment before my first bite, I worried. Then I scarfed, and scarfed again and I kept inhaling my delicious, delicious dinner until there was no more to be had.

Then you put it all together and what do you get? Why delicious tacos, of course!

I am a newly converted lover of fish tacos who cannot wait until we eat these next (in face I have designed next week's grocery list around them)! So if you are like me - or even if you are already acquainted with the joy that is fish tacos - try this recipe, it's amazing. Clearly, it is from food52 (surprise surprise) which means you will definitely not be disappointed*.

*This is not a guarantee - I do not want to be held liable for your taste buds… although I'm 99% sure that they will 

through me a party if you do try these out. Lawyered.

Jack and I also like to make fresh salsa we're addicted now that we know it's so easy. Take all those ingredients up there...

...put them in a bowl, and toss. voila!

Rib-licious

Now I'm no steak-crazed, rib-devouring meat worshipper but I'm also not a vegetarian. Although I probably fall closer to the vegetarian side of the spectrum, often opting for a meat-free moussaka over filet mignon, I just can't turn my back on the option of meat.

So when Jack got a jonesin for some ribs, my only requirements were we were to have lots of veggies on the side, and we check food52 for a recipe - because, as you know, I'm obsessed.

The recipe, aptly named: Seriously Delicious Ribs, turned out just as fantastic as promised. The only change I'd make is to broil them for longer next time as my favourite part is always the caramelized layer on top. The glaze is a delicious blend of sweet and spicey which is perfect for someone like me who is not a big fan of ketchup or BBQ sauce. As a side, we had a few fries and tossed together a little salad with some mixed greens, julienned green apple, blueberries, red pepper and green onions topped with a balsamic vinaigrette.

I strongly suggest looking this one up.