Goal for the week

Our goal for the week is only to eat Asian food for dinner...all home-made. We're starting on Sunday with sushi, so if anyone has any recipes, tips or tricks, feel free to share. Here are some other ideas we're entertaining:

• Yakitori, or some kind of satay, maybe with peanut sauce
  
• Oyako don, which is a chicken & egg rice bowl (photo above)...oyako means "mother & child"- get it?
  
• Soba (maybe cold with lots of green onion...called zaru soba, and it's really a summer food, but it's my favourite, so I don't really care)
  
• Udon (mmm...with lots of mushrooms and wakame)
  
• salad rolls
• Pad Thai
• Tempura, if I'm feeling REALLY adventurous (You can't beat tempura bananas. To die for.)
  
• Onigiri (Japanese rice balls...basically just a ball of sticky rice wrapped in nori. One of my favourite snacks in Japan; great for picnics.)
• Toasted peanut butter, banana & Clodhopper sandwiches- yes, it sounds weird. My host-mom in Fukushima, Keiko, invented it, and it's awesome!
  

One thing that I've never been able to find is those hot-springs eggs. They're sort of soft boiled eggs (supposedly boiled in a hot spring), but they are sold unrefrigerated...for some reason they don't need to be kept cold. I'll have to ask my Japanese student, Eiji, if he's seen them here. So good! But anyway, that's our excitement for the week, so wish us luck! I'm looking forward to it...when else but January do you have time to do cooking experiments like this?

Recipe- Super Easy Romantic Supper

Sometimes in the middle of crazy exam/paper writing time (I've got two papers due on Monday, and the hubby has three exams next week that are worth 100% of the marks for his term) you just need a nice, quiet, romantic dinner, but you don't want to waste a lot of time and energy putting it together. Hence the reason that I've developed my patented super easy romantic supper.

DISCLAIMER: due to the high proportion of garlic in this menu, usage is not recommended on a first date. The author of this menu takes no responsibility for the consequences of such action.

Creamy Pesto Tortellini:

• Boil a package of herb and cheese tortellini.
• In an oven-safe deep baking dish, mix together equal proportions of ricotta cheese and tomato sauce (I used the larger sized tub of ricotta), plus about 1/3 cup of basil pesto (I used Classico), salt & pepper to taste.
  
• Mix the cooked & drained pasta in the dish with the sauce. Grate some mozzarella or Parmesan cheese on top.
  
• Bake in a 375 degree oven until the cheese is bubbly and slightly browned.
• Bake a premade loaf of garlic bread from the supermarket along with the pasta.
  
• Make up a Caesar salad (from a kit, if you're really pressed for time).
  

The pasta and the garlic bread should be done at the same time, in about 20 minutes. Serve with a glass of wine & some candlelight. It's the perfect relief from a stressful week, and there will be lots of leftovers for lunch! Enjoy.

(non)Recipe- Shepherd's Pie

I realized on Saturday night that I hadn't posted a recipe in awhile, & I tried to rectify it then, but Blogger was being annoying. Part of the reason for the lack of recipes is that the hubby has been cooking a lot lately (yea for me!) and the other part of it is that when I cook, I don't really use a recipe. I'm one of those people who can just know what they want to cook and go from there. I don't really ever use a recipe (unless I'm baking, & then it's essential, but baking is not cooking), and I quite enjoy it. Things turn out a little different every time, which is fun. It might make things a little difficult for those of you who would like to attempt to make whatever it is that I'm describing, but hopefully my directions will be clear (although somewhat un-recipe like.) So here goes:

• Cook three small chopped onions over med-high heat until translucent. Add about 3 lbs of ground beef (mine cost $5.54 and I paid $1.88/lb for it, so you can figure out how much I had) and cook until brown.
• Add a bunch of chopped carrots, a small bag of frozen peas (mine were Green Giant baby peas) and a can of corn kernels. Also add a package of Lipton's onion soup mix and about 3/4 c. water, lots of salt & pepper, and some dried thyme.
• Simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated and the carrots are getting tender.
• In the meantime, make up about 10 servings of instant mashed potatoes (mine were Idahoan.)
• Divide mixture between two deep baking dishes, top with mashed potatoes, and sprinkle with finely grated cheese (whatever you've got on hand- I used mozzarella, 'cause that's all we've got.) I have one big & one small baking dish, so I end up with one two-person size and one four-person size, which goes in the freezer for another night. (these are really big servings, too.)
• Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes or until the potatoes are brown on top. You might want to put your baking dishes on a cookie sheet in case the juices start to boil over.
• Let sit for about 10 minutes after you take it out of the oven so that the juices can thicken a bit and it can stop bubbling.
• Eat!

So that's my fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-but-damn-it-tastes-good non-recipe recipe for Shepherd's Pie. You can't mess it up. Enjoy!

Recipe- Acorn Squash and Apple Soup with Potato Latkes

So today is a double recipe day. Since I have my lovely new stock pot (see the chili posting), I decided to make something else in it- acorn squash soup. I've been dying to make this ever since it turned cold. The latkes are also something that I've wanted to try making for awhile, and I thought they would go nicely with the soup (both of these are first time tries, recipe wise, so hopefully they go well.) It's a very hearty, fall-y meal. The soup recipe is by Ina Garten, and if any of you watch Food TV, you know the Barefoot Contessa, and you know that everything she makes looks absolutely phenomenal.

Okay, so, here's the rundown. I'm exhausted! That was quite the labour intensive meal. I've linked to the actual recipes, so I'll just outline how I altered them (I can never leave a recipe alone!)

Soup: I used acorn squash instead of butternut (Sobey's didn't have any acorn), and it still tasted great. Instead of peeling and cutting up the squash and then simmering it in the soup, I roasted the sqash in the oven and just scooped the flesh out of the skins. I simmered the apples in the water while the squash was roasting, and then added the squash and pureed it right away. I have one of those hand-held immersion blenders, so the hubby just buzzed it right in the pot. The combination of the hint of curry, the squash, and the sweetness of the apples is lovely. Add a dollop of sour cream on top, and it's perfect.

Latkes: This recipe is annoyingly vague, which I didn't realize until I actually started trying to make it. Like, for example, what exactly is a medium potato? I just guessed, and the consistency of the batter turned out fine. I would put in two onions next time, because by the time you finish grating one onion, you've lost half of it, and I enjoy the oniony flavour. Also for next time, I would make these much thinner so that they're more crispy (mine were a bit soggy). Also, make sure that you've got the oil going quite hot- the hotter the oil, the less of it the potatoes will absorb. And keep a box of baking soda handy in case of any pesky grease fires .

Overall, this was a really nice, gourmet-ish, and tasty dinner, but I was so tired by the end of it, I didn't have much of an appetite. I wouldn't suggest trying to make both of these recipes in one night, or else leave yourself the whole day to putter in the kitchen (this took me a good 2 1/2 hours to complete.) I definitely recommend the soup, though, and I know that it'll taste even better for lunch tomorrow.

Recipe- My Dad's Famous Chili

Today is a double posting day, because I couldn't resist putting my dad's chili recipe up tonight. I am incredibly excited by the fact that I finally made chili today. Yes, I know that I'm a nerd, but there is a good reason. I have been DYING for a big stock pot to make soup and chili in (the hubby's stock of pots & pans being sadly lacking), and I finally got one. It's adorable...it's a pretty soft yellow, and it's huge enough to make anything that my heart desires. So tonight, I made chili.

The recipe is super simple, and it always turns out well. If you're the kind of person who needs really clear and precise instructions, I'm sorry, because this is the kind of recipe where you just kind of wing it. There aren't really any real amounts of stuff that you need to put in, but I'll approximate what I used today:

Ingredients:

• I tbsp vegetable oil
  
• 3 medium onions, coarsely chopped
• 2 lbs ground beef (extra lean)
• 3 cans stewed tomatoes
• 2 cans red kidney beans
• 1 can romano beans
• 3 cups of quartered white mushrooms
• 4 tbsp. chili powder, or to taste

Instructions:

• Saute the onions in the vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a large stock pot until translucent.
  
• Add the ground beef. Cook until brown.
  
• Add tomatoes (with their liquid).
  
• Rinse the beans under cold water in a colander. Add to the stock pot.
  
• Simmer over medium heat until most of the liquid is evaporated (this will take at least an hour or more).
  
• Add the chili powder and mushrooms.
• Simmer until all of the liquid is evaporated and the chili is thick enough that a spoon will stand upright in it.
  
• Serve with condiments (sour cream, cheddar cheese, chopped cilantro, Tabasco sauce) or for purists like my family and I, serve with a loaf of really good quality Italian bread for dipping and a glass of milk.
  

That's it! Super easy, stick-to-your-ribs, and absolutely delicious. This is something that my dad makes on cold Sundays- always on Super Bowl Sunday, although we never actually watch the Super Bowl. I wonder why that is (the ritual chili making, and the not watching)? One of those family quirks, I suppose! But I hope you enjoy the chili.

Recipe- Hallowe'en Cupcakes

Happy Hallowe'en everyone! Now, on principle, I'm against Hallowe'en as a holiday, but who can resist some cute cupcakes? I know that you're probably wondering why I don't like a holiday that's all about candy and scary movies, but there are a number of reasons for it:

1. It's genetic. My mother HATES Hallowe'en. She hasn't always, but it gets more and more pronounced every year. She rejoices if she has some reason to be out of the house on that night, and she's getting to the point where she just turns off all of the lights and pretends not to be home.
   
2. It promotes greed, unhealthy eating, and cavities (this is said with a bit of a wink, but you know it's true!)
3. For grown-ups like ourselves, it's a bad excuse to get dressed up in semi-pornographic costumes and get drunk.
4. It's a silly corruption of what used to be a quite interesting pagan/ Christian holiday.
   
5. Costumes are expensive, and you can only wear them once a year.
   
6. I'm too old to go trick-or-treating anymore. :(
   

There are a couple of good things about Hallowe'en, though, namely fun cupcakes and half- priced candy on November 1st. But as the hubby and I can't afford to buy costumes that we'll only be able to wear for about 3 hours, we decided to make cupcakes and see a movie instead. I used the recipe for Gummi Worm cupcakes on foodnetwork.com. I know that it looks a bit strange at first, having Coke in the batter, but they turned out great. I ignored the icing recipe and just bought a tub of Betty Crocker vanilla icing, which I tinted orange with food colouring, and it looks and tastes great. I like that the chocolate batter shows through the white tin liners, because then there's a nice contrast between black and orange. And they sure are yummy.

The hubby and I went to see The Prestige tonight, which I'll review in another posting. And I made chili for dinner. I think today will have to be a double posting day; I mentioned my mom in this one, and the next one will have to talk about my dad and his famous chili recipe. Man, is it good- and spicy! Check back for that one later on tonight.

Just as a note, if you'd like to be emailed whenever I update, just let me know, and I'll put you on the list. I'm going to be posting at least every other day, so check back often.