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So in my "I'm trying to be healthy, y'all" (I don't actually say y'all but here it seems appropriate) kick, I've decided to try new grains. And so I introduce you to farro! If you aren't familiar with the chewy delicious little grain, from Wikipedia: "Farro is a food product composed of the grains of certain wheat species in whole form. The exact definition is debated. It is sold dried and is
So after the holidays come two different thoughts. One is ohmygodIatesomuchfoodIneedtopurge and then I also think itissocoldIwantcomfortfood. And as you can see purge normally =/= comfort food. But soups can be that balance of healthy and comfort food. On cold nights, I find that smoothly spicy food can be the best treat. And I'm not talking really "scald your mouf" spicy, but that warm you
So first of all, I have to apologize for the lack of posting lately. Between the technical issues with my pictures, and starting a new job, it's been kind of crazy. But I promise, no more lapses! Anyway, onto the delicious recipe. It's the holiday season and time for holiday parties! Brett and I decided to have a pre-holiday party party and have a few people over to have some dinner befor
So apparently resetting some of my settings on Picasa caused Google to freakin massacre my entire blog. I need to re-upload about a thousand pictures. If you've come to the site and are frustrated with the lack of pictures, I am sincerely sorry. This should all be fixed in the next few days.
When I was in college, I worked for a couple years at this bar on campus. Okay, not a bar on campus, the only bar on campus. And while it was a fun bar to go to (once you were 21...for real, there was a list of students who were 21 and you had to be on it to get in - small school) the highlight for many people was the food. Now you could get any type of bar food. Pizzas, buffalo chicken fingers
Sometimes when I make food for football weekends, it's about this time of year that the food selection become monotonous. Chili, wings, repeat. So this weekend I decided that mix it up. No chili, I say! Nay! We shall have something different! However, I was also in a lazy mood. Heavy cooking all day long for a noon Michigan game? Uh no. So I poked through my freezer and fridge and thought
So we're deep into fall football season, yet in DC it hasn't gone much below 60 degrees. But when I realized that 12 people would be at my house for college football Saturday, I thought well, guess it's time to pull out the chili! Chili always reminds me of the fall, cold autumn nights, and college football. Or football in general. There are many ways to make chili. Some believe it should never
So this week we went to Charleston, SC to see my beautiful cousin and her now husband get married. They've been dating for a long time and live in DC, so I've had a chance to get to know them well as a couple and as people over past years. We arrive to the house we were staying, just outside Charleston on the Isle of Palms. Coincidentally, I've been here many times. Brett's family does a family
Mussels. They are so incredibly delicious. And easy! I've always love all sorts of shellfish, but mussels hold a place in my heart. They are meatier than clams and cheaper as well. You can get a big ol bag of mussels at the store usually for about $5-6. And they're incredibly malleable. I've cooked mine with fennel, broth, curries, you name it. But I strongly think that this is the best kind of
There are just some times where a good salad is the best meal. It's not that I don't love a good burger or fried foods because believe me, I do. But a hearty salad can make my tum feel so good. So as I sat with my block of tofu (yes, sit, we're friends) I was trying to figure out what I wanted to marinate the tofu in. I decided a good Asian-style marinade would be a good option. Fis
Sloppy Joes are one of those things that remind you of childhood, for better or for worse. Mom's dinners, cafeterias, school lunches....all harken back to the days of sloppy joes. Which leads us to tonight's dinner. As I sat at my desk wondering what I should do with the bison meat in my fridge, I started going through a list of meals in my head that would usually use ground beef. Tacos? N
Mmmm lentils. Lentil soup is such an amazing go-to recipe. Quick and easy (aka under an hour), it's a filling and great vegetarian soup. You can really throw whatever you want in there - all kinds of curry pastes, curry powders, etc. - and chances are that it will come out yummers all the time. I've mentioned this before, but lentils are also super healthy for you. They're a great little
FOOOTBALL! It's football season again and I couldn't be happier. For me, football is all about the party. The party, you ask? Yes, the party. To me, football isn't just about the sport. Yes, I know a lot about football and I like watching both the NFL and college (go Browns and go Michigan!) but what I love is getting together with lots of friends, both at our house and at bars, and celebrating
Is there anything better than scallops? They're such a perfect food. Sweet and plump and so meaty, scallops probably come to a close three-way tie for my favorite seafood, alongside soft shelled crabs and lobster. So when I was going along the aisles for inspiration in the store for a dinner recipe, I spied the scallops and my first thought was yyyesss...but.... See, Brett was at the time at th
Smooooothies! I guess I am already getting nostalgic, even though I haven't hit the end of summer, I am still kind of craving the days for needed to grab a cool drink. (Actually. To be honest. I'm so ready for fall.) BUT any time of the year is good for smoothies! And this one is super easy and super delicious. It's a great snack, breakfast, lunch, whatever. Don't make it the meal for
I've always been slightly obsessed with figs. One of the only cookies that we could eat when I was a kid was fig newtons. We weren't a big sweets household. But the taste of figs always reminds me of being a kid. While I eat a lot of fig spread, but I rarely actually cook with figs. They have a relatively short growing season so I rarely see whole figs in the grocery store. But I knew that Whol
Sometimes I am faced with the fact that I have a huge amount of vegetables and fruits and I have purchased with little plan as to what to cook. Tonight I faced that fact. When I see so many beautiful fruits and vegetables at the farmers market, all I can do is purchase them. So tonight I faced a bowl full of produce. Brett is out of town, which means usually I eat vegetarian. So a basket fu
Tomatoes tomatoes tomatoes! How I love thee. I really think that the best part of the summer is consuming massive amounts of the fruit/vegetable (yeah, I know it's a fruit, but it always seems like sort of a vegetable to me). And you know what is my favorite prep for them? Roasting them. Now some people insist on slicing them in half and roasting them open faced. I say NO. I say roa
I love this time of year. Peaches and tomatoes and the like are full of flavors and juicy. And this morning, even though it was in the pouring rain, we headed out to the farmers market to pick up some produce. It's why I love Sundays. Dupont farmers market is the best. It's such a great farmers market and it is a close walk from our abode. However, what was I not planning on? A downpour. It pou
My favorite meal, perpetually, is brunch. It's the best of both worlds, breakfast and lunch. And in DC, brunch is hugely popular. There are a ton of awesome places here that are delicious. But waiting for weekends? Not good enough for me. I want to have brunch all the time! So I decided to make a brunch for dinner meal. One of my favorite things to eat? Quiche. Eggs, cheese, fillins and crus
I feel like after I travel a lot, my body hates me. Maybe it's because I eat as much delectable, buttery, craptastic food that I can imagine. Oh hello bacon egg and cheese on an enormous croissant, why yes you are a WONDERFUL idea at 6:00 AM at the airport! Oh, giant sandwich packed high with pastrami and dripping with fat, why yes I will consume all of you! It's kind of like I travel away from
Spaghetti and meatballs. Comfort food at its best. I still crave spaghetti like I did when I was young. Big huge heaps of starch, gobs of tomatoes, huge savory meatballs. Om nom nom. I used to buy meatballs and canned tomato sauce. But now I'm all about making my meatballs and sauce. It's a little bit more work, but really, not that much more. And it gives me to freedom to play with
So earlier this week we hosted people over at our house for the Olympics opening ceremony. And I had all the intentions in the world to make white chocolate dipped strawberries. But then came the six pizzas. And the champagne cocktails. And soon, I had completely forgotten about the massive amount of strawberries in the fridge and the white chocolate chips sitting beside them. Now,
So, in case you hadn't heard, this girl got to go to the White House. I know, I'm so baller. Don't be jealous. I know I made some awesome sangria, but I had also mentioned that I had made an appetizer. Well don't fret...I'm going to tell you...that this is that appetizer. I know CELEBRATE Y'ALL! Just kidding. To be honest, we had a dinner reservation for 8:45 that night, and I knew that all of
So. A very exciting thing happened this weekend. I got to go to....THE WEST WING! Like real life, lookin in at the Oval Offices, sneakin outside the Situation Room. It was my real life SQUEEEEE. I'm a total political nerd. So of course, what did I want to do? Make an appetizer and a sangria. Because I mean, why the hell not? My friends Melissa and Anne Marie were coming over to meet up with Bre
Is there anything better than braised meats? No. The answer is NO. Okay maybe there are SOME better things, but really, fall off the bone succulent meat is a delicious treat. One of my favorite meats to braise and cook sloooowly are lamb shanks. There really is no quick way to cook them either. But the low and slow method really brings out the flavor. Lamb has a wonderful almost ear
Every year growing up, my mom would make me my favorite meal for my birthday. And since I was about 15, that was always soft shell crab. There's something very carnal about consuming an entire thing.... And it's a lot easier than taking apart crabs, which is something I also enjoy doing. So when a friend asked me to prepare soft shell crabs for a dinner party, I relished the opportu
I love eggplant. It's such a great vegetable. It's like a little sponge. You can roast it, grill it, saute it. Wonderful vegetable. And plentiful at this time of year. I was contemplating a good side dish to bring to a BBQ that could sit out for a while and could be made ahead. This clearly leaves a lot of options on the table. But, as I said, I love eggplant. So I wanted to make a new dish tha
Compound butter is one of those things that always confounded me. I thought that it would require, I don't know, churning butter. While I'm all about making my own things, churning butter isn't one I quite have room for in my tiny kitchen. But, turns out, compound butter simply means let butter come to a room temp and mix things in it. Then put it back in the fridge, let it all meld together, and
I have a very big chef-crush on Johnny Monis. His style of cooking is one I'd love to emulate. Fresh, unique, and ingenious, I have enjoyed both Komi and Little Serow immensely. I also think it's a real damn shame that he hasn't been given a James Beard award, because he deserves it. But enough about that. About what I was getting to, the food. A while ago, a good friend of ours gave Brett
I've always been enamored with the idea of making my own cheese. But I always viewed it as an impossible task; I thought it was like baking in that it required precision and skill. Turns out, not so much. It was much simpler than I thought, and absolutely worth the effort. Creamier and less chalky than store bought ricotta, I would have eaten the whole pile of it, if I could. I m
Poaching. What a beautiful method for cooking fish. I've only recently really started playing with poaching salmon and the like, but I have to say it may be my favorite method of cooking fish. No threat of dry fish, obscenely easy to clean up, and almost fool-proof, it's really an underused method in my house. No more! So with poaching on the mind, I headed to the grocery store intent on salm
So I've always had a penchant for chicken thighs. They're one of my favorite meats to cook with. Malleable and forgiving, chicken thighs are a really great option for easy weeknight dinners. I also have started stuffing them really with whatever I have in my fridge. A couple of weeks ago, I did savory, combining pesto and sundried tomatoes with feta. Well, in this case,
I have a real love for Asian fusion food. I'm obsessed with Korean tacos....add kimchi with corn tacos? HEAVEN! I am not exaggerating when I say that when I, or one of my colleagues, see the Korean taco trucks are parked outside of my work, I will jump and get three gut stuffing tacos. And enjoy them until I can barely move. But it's not just tacos. When we were i
We have a summer calendar dominated by weddings. So this means going on various forms of travel across the country. Lots of travel means lots of time to distract myself with books and pretty magazines. And I'm okay with that. Really I feel like I haven't had that much time to just read for fun anyway, so this break gives me an excuse to do so. Our latest wedding was in New York City. I have a
So occasionally, Brett does the shopping. He'll ask me for basic parameters, and I'll send him off with orders on what to get. This time, he asked what he should get for vegetables. I told him, well, whatever looks good. Apparently....bell peppers looked good. Unpacking the groceries I found myself starting at a good six bell peppers. And I had kinda made a bunch of recipes for side dishe
There are many things that I love about living in DC. The culture, the food, the beautiful monuments....love it. I've been here six years and don't plan on leaving any time soon. However, living in a city has its drawbacks. A couple of years ago, Brett and I bought a place right in the best area, between U Street and Dupont. We live in a great building in a condo that w
It's summer squash time! A few days ago, one of my lovely coworkers gifted me with two huge zucchinis. I had been telling him that if he ever had any extra vegetables that he and his wife couldn't cook, I could happily take them off of his hands. And then I got zucchinis!! Win! Now, I've cooked with zucchini before, but never ones this large. So I decided it may be a good i
So, I know I've said it before, but man do I love tacos. And I think that the rest of DC must agree with me because there has been an EXPLOSION of taco shops. Everything from Asian-style tacos, to traditional shops. I squealed with delight when I saw that near me, there was a new taqueria opening up. Yeah, I'm irrational. But so are people who don't love tacos.
One thing I often wish I had was a double oven. Not because I'm some huge super baker, it's because when I'm making food, if two things need to be baked, I'm out of luck unless they magically have the same cooking temperature. I encountered this issue earlier this week when I wanted to bake chicken thighs and make potatoes. I suppose because potatoes are pretty malleable little guys, they could
So I should start out with an apology (sort of). It's been a while since I've blogged, but that's been all the craziness that my life has been lately. And while it's easy to put off things that we want to do, I decided that it's about time that I start putting up my food again. Even going through the pictures of this recipe, and doing all the editing, made me happy that I picked
Growing up, my mom used to make a "caesar salad dressing," which until I was older was what I thought was caesar. In reality it's more like a caesar vinaigrette. But its acidity is awesome. And it makes for an awesome dressing. So I decided to use it along with something less conventional. Kale seems to be everywhere, and I love it steamed and sauteed, but I deci
I'm pretty sure that lentils are my new favorite form of protein. And salmon has always been a winner in my book. But I'm still a bit of a newbie when it comes to preparing lentils. However, while perusing the Food Network I came across the Barefoot Contessa and she was making....lentils! The recipe sounded a bit weird though. Turnip, onion with cloves, what the what? &
One of the best dishes I've made as of late was my Bo Ssam. But roasting a pork shoulder for five hours takes forever. The flavors though blend so well together. So I figured maybe I could replicate with chicken. By dicing up the chicken small and cooking just in a simple blend of soy sauce, rice vinegar and honey, it made for a great protein filling. The bite of the gi
This past Christmas Brett gave me a Kindle Fire, and one of best parts about the little portable guy is being able to read magazines. My favorite, other than the New Yorker, is my subscription to Bon Appetit. At first their app was just basically reading a PDF, which was pretty not fun, but now they've upgraded to this more interactive magazine format. It's really inexpensive, so
