First week of Run, Swim, Bike & Cook

We have joined Chou over at Balance for Food for the annual RSBC. I hate to inform Chou and everyone else that we/I did not do as well as we/I would have liked! See my sorry excuses that I sent Chou!

We are participating; but, not too well this week. L. had to travel for business, I came down with a crappy cold which is lingering this weekend and I did not get a chance to make the Kale Hash I wanted to make for breakfast today. But, on the upside, we did well with the working out part, or at least I did. I walked Monday - Wednesday, anywhere from 2 - 3 miles, on the hills of San Francisco & mind you not a leisurely stroll but a hustle of a walk and I ran a mile two days, as well - I think the run triggered the cold to settle in my chest. So, we did part of this great challenge; but, not enough in my opinion. Next week for sure!!!

Soba Noodle Salad

Our friend B. introduced us to this creation of his - we love it! Quick and easy and full of flavor.

Dark Chocolate Madelines

with essence of fresh Seville Oranges. I love Seville Oranges and I always buy them when we are in Europe. Unfortunately, I have never seen them in the Bay Area; which, has bummed me out as I have wanted to try making David Lebovitz's Orange Marmalade.

Today was my lucky day. I stumbled upon Seville Oranges at one of our favorite little neighborhood markets, Bi-Rite. I had to buy them! All the way home I thought about what I would do first besides the obvious .... devour them! Then it hit me, I had to come up with something sweet and chocolately - Death by Chocolate like - as well, I wanted something for L. to take back to Boston for his family.

These little cakes are perfect for someone you love or for a sweet sinful little snack - as well they are simple to make!

Not Superfood

but Superbowl highlights!

We went to our friends D. & JT's house for the superbowl - a low key Sunday afternoon with good friends and lots of beer and great food - warmed olives flavored with oranges, garlic, & rosemary, lots of veggies with spinach dip, homemade guacamole, lots of chips and salsas and then grilled sausage with a warm red & yellow pepper slaw on toasted bread - YUMMY!!!

Thanks, D & JT!

Jellie Bellies Unite!

Dust off your bikes, unpack that swimsuit at the bottom of your dresser, pull out your running shoes from the way back part of your closet, it is time for you to join us while we jump start our year! You may even enjoy it as well!

January was incredibly busy for us - lots of extra hours of work, trying to catch up with friends that we had neglected during the previous year and just attempting to regroup for the new year. All this "busy" time left us no gym time or for that matter very little exercise time - the crappy weather we have been having has not made it easy either!

I stumbled upon Balance, when I was looking at Lemon Meringue Pies and saw that Chou was hosting the Ironman meets Iron Chef event - I knew that this was the perfect thing to get our Jelly Bellies off of the couch and back into the swing of things! As well, we had been cleaning out the fridge and pantry for the past couple of weeks, so we would definitely have some room for some great Superfood.

Check back weekly for an update as to how we are doing!

Sushi Saturday

Sushi Party Photos

Almost a year ago, I took a culinary course on making sushi - great gift from L. We were making sushi every Saturday for a couple months; but, then we got busy with life and have not made it in awhile. So, we invited our friend, R. over for dinner and we rolled!

Making sushi is not as hard as one thinks. The hardest part is getting your rice cooked and seasoned just right. I am not there yet, definitely need to practice more. The next part that is the most time consuming is all the prep work. Lots of washing, dicing and slicing. I always figure the above will take about 3 hours to complete. I usually wait to roll when our guests arrive, as well, it is fun to be the "sushi" chef ... rolling, laughing, drinking sake; a very social evening.

We picked up lots of sake, Japanese beer, Salmon, Maguro, Dungeness Crab and Tuna - you MUST use sushi grade! I get most of the fish at a Japanese market as well Whole Foods does have sushi grade fish, once in awhile, you have to ask for it. We also used ginger, spicy little Portuguese peppers, cilantro, avocado, green onions, mango and sesame seeds and sesame oil for filling and for seasoning.

The end result - a great evening of homemade sushi and sashimi!

Liquid Comfort

Here is our entry for the Click event over at Jugalbandi!

Pasta ..... Terrible Pasta

Okay, the bad thing about using everything you have in the kitchen is that you eventually run out of the good stuff and are left with the stuff you really do not like - chicken basil sausage that was a terrible hit last month, some left over broccoli and a tiny bit of cheese. Now, I did think it would all come together but the sausage was SOOOO bland, I added a ton of salt and Portuguese peppers, shallots, garlic, pepper - nothing worked! Then I cooked up some whole wheat pasta thinking that would at least add that nice nutty flavor - NOT! I think this was terrible. L. said it is okay - OKAY, he ate about 4 servings - that goes to prove the man will eat anything!

Duck Fat Risotto

For one of our holiday celebrations I made Cassoulet. While that bit of heaven was baking all day long, I skimmed off the extra stock and duck fat and tucked it away into the freezer for something special.

Not that cleaning out the kitchen is special but I just knew that special stock would make a wonderful risotto and it did! I kept it very simple, shallots, garlic, a little Thyme, white wine and the hidden gem. Now, L. claims he hates duck, well, he gobbled this up and was quit surprised to learn it was "duck". Served it with some simple sauteed spinach - lots of olive oil, garlic and Meyer lemon zest and the left over bottle of white Burgundy. For dessert we had some of that left over Bittersweet Chocolate Tart. Amazing what you can come up with, with all the things just laying around the kitchen. Too good of a meal for being a Monday.

If life gives you Lemons ...............

make pie! Jen, from The Canadian Baker, was our hostess this month and she challenged us with making a Lemon Meringue Pie. This was my first time making a Lemon Meringue Pie and I even got L. to help out - we actually had a lot of fun doing it together! We made it for a dinner party we had a couple weekends back and our guests loved it. We loved it so much we made, it again, the next day and then again the following weekend!

We did use our lemon of choice which is the beautiful Meyer. As well I do not own a pie pan so we used a tart pan. The pastry dough was light and flaky and the filling was a beautiful shade of yellow and had just enough pucker! Meringue well you just can not go wrong with any sort of meringue. The first two pies came from the same recipe and unfortunately, once you cut into the pie it was more like floating islands on lemon soup - great flavor though. The second time around, we cut the water down but it was still rather runny. The flavor was so fantastic that it really did not matter to us nor our guests!

Want a taste of the drool fest click the blue link!

Bittersweet ...

bit·ter·sweet (btr-swt) n. 1. A woody vine of the genus Celastrus, especially the North American species C. scandens and the eastern Asian species C. orbiculata, having small, round, yellow-orange fruits that open at maturity to expose red seeds. Also called staff tree. 2. See bittersweet nightshade. 3. A dark to deep reddish orange. adj. 1. Bitter and sweet at the same time: bittersweet chocolate. 2. Producing or expressing a mixture of pain and pleasure: a movie with a bittersweet ending. 3. Dark to deep reddish-orange.

There have been a few episodes the past couple of months that have been "bittersweet" for me. This event came at a perfect time.

As well, I am a chocolate addict. I would eat it everyday of the week if I could. The darker and the deeper the chocolate the better. No semi-sweet, milk chocolate for me!! It is like a bad drug. For this event which was hosted by Apartment Therapy The Kitchen, I choose a bittersweet chocolate tart - I love it because it is incredibly bitter (70% chocolate) and just a little sweet (hardly any sugar). I love to have it drizzled with olive oil and sea salt, or a drizzle of cream, or maybe a ripe red raspberry; but, this time around, the slight bite of the chocolate and the slight sweetness of the crust went incredibly well with a deep dark espresso! Pure sin ..... all things bad turned into one good thing!

Unfortunately, for you the viewers, the photos are terrible. As it was a very last minute decision, I forgot until half way thru the process that I was suppose to take a few photos of the baking process as well a few of the finished process. Because of chilling times, etc.. I missed all the wonderful natural light and had to work with what I had. I can assure you all ... this is a fantastic tart and you should definitely make it when you are feeling the need to be a little bad!

Pasta e Ceci

During the day on Saturday we had a nice break from the rain and cold; but, it came back just in time for dinner. It was a good night for some comfort and a good night to join Meeta over at What's for Lunch Honey and her monthly mingle - comfort food!

As I mentioned earlier in the week we are using up everything in the house - sort of a pre-spring cleaning. So, we are limited as to what we have on hand. I have been dying to make this lovely soup, recipe from one of Jamie Oliver's books, and lucky for us we have everything in the house. As well, it is pure comfort on a cold and rainy night!

Pasta e Ceci is like a peasant dish - simple, hardy, very easy and full of flavor - onions, garlic, a small amount of celery, chickpeas and a little pasta. If you like chickpeas this soup is for you. We added a loaf of our favorite crusty french bread and opened up a bottle of Italian wine to compliment it (ever since we had a FANTASTIC bottle of Italian wine at Delfina, we have been lushing after them). Was a very nice and cozy evening.

Cast Your Vote

Over at The Garden of Eating for COMFORT FOOD! We submitted Lil's Beef Stew - pure comfort for a cold, windy, and rainy night - just pop open a bottle of vino, add some crusty bread or biscuits and you have pure comfort!!!

Whole Wheat Pasta ...

The lovely Andrea is hosting "Grow Your Own" this month, was not sure we could partake as the weather is killing our garden but we found a few survivors out there, so here we go .....

I wanted to go for a sort of "Thai" or "Asian" taste, on the spicy side for tonights dinner. I browned some garlic and Portuguese chili peppers (the only thing still living in our garden) in olive oil until they were lightly crisp and very fragrant. I used whole wheat pasta because I like the nutty flavor, the texture and it is suppose to be better for us. After cooking the pasta (and draining it) I tossed some left over homemade butter into the pot of noodles, threw in some spinach for color and added the browned garlic mixture, sprinkled some Parmesan on top and we were ready! Very delicious for a dish that came from a near empty fridge and pantry!

Favaish

This week is clean up week at our house. Every couple months, I like to go through the pantry (all of one shelf), the fridge and the freezer (not that we really freeze anything but some bacon &/or pancetta, a bottle of gin, some ice trays, random glasses and the occasional food item that makes it there - the D. of Chez does not believe in frozen food) and we use up everything we have. Actually, I go through the entire house - closets, bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen cabinets, etc... and everything that has not been used or thought of in the past few months - GONE! Minimalist. But, we are not here to tell you about your house but rather about what we eat every night for dinner. So, we are back in our kitchen now .... like I said we use up everything we have left. I get very creative and sometimes I come up with some old favorite dish that I kind of forget about or maybe I come up with some new ones that we start using all the time. Tonight it was an old favorite of L.s ... Favaish.

L.'s mother makes favaish and she makes it very good, I will never be able to make it the way Mom does. Mine is probably more noveau but he likes it, too! Unfortunately, the vision I had for it quite did not happen because of the frozen bag of Fava's I used, they ended up being more like mush or split peas - that is why I prefer fresh, but what is a girl suppose to do in the dead of winter! Regardless, when you add a bottle of wine, some crusty french bread, you have a fantastic, flavorful meal!

Apetite Bom!

We both hate leftovers ...................

and we rarely ever have them. But, Lil's Beef Stew just keeps on giving! While it is very delicious and we highly recommend the recipe; we are glad to see it ago on the 3rd night!

Note to selves, cut recipe in half next time.

Dedicated to Tia Anne

I was feeling kind of nostalgic today. On the train, with L. reminising about trips to Paris, riding the Metro, heading back to the apartment with cheese, baguette and wine in hand - toss in a couple pastries, too!

When we finally got home, to our realistic home, it was rainy and drizzly, so we or maybe just I, needed some comfort food. I knew just what to make.

Mile high biscuits, from the Hollyhocks and Radishes cookbook, that my Great Aunt Anne, gave me - it was one of my first cookbooks, loaded with comfort food. The biscuit recipe is definitely the best one I have ever made. It has been awhile since I have opened the pages, but for some reason, thinking about Paris, food, being with the ones you love, she came to mind - maybe because of her sense of adventure and Paris is exactly that for both myself and L.

Regardless of the sentiment behind this meal, it was lovely. L. poured us a glass of Lillet, while I made the dough for the biscuits (keep in mind L. hates when I make biscuits, not because he dislikes them, because he can not just eat one or two - he eats ALL of them) and warmed the stew. We set the table, simply with tea lights in the little glass yogurt jars from Paris and opened a bottle of RN13 Vin de pique-nique and set down for a nice evening!

Hay Hay its Donna Hay # 17

We love Donna Hay, well, at least the photos in her cookbooks and the magazines we buy. They are truly a piece of art to look at, and to drool over. Have yet to try out the recipes.

So, I was pretty excited when I saw this event listed on one of my favorite blogs and fellow Daring Baker, 80 Breakfasts. We were going to some friend's house for a pizza/kid party last Saturday night so this was the perfect opportunity to try out Donna's pizza recipe.

Don't let homemade pizza dough intimidate you. It has to be one of the easiest things to make. I even made some extra for the freezer. In keeping with the theme of the event we made a couple of the Class Tomato pizza as well as a favorite for the kids - pepperoni. We also made a fennel and spicy Italian Sausage, before putting the cornmeal on the stone we mixed some garlic salt into it. This was our favorite!

You should definitely add this to your recipe box as a favorite. The crust was fantastic, crisp and flavorful and not chewy and you can get as creative as you want with toppings! You will be seeing this over at Chez, very often in 2008!

Lil's Beef Stew

The Garden of Eating hosted a challenge this month - comfort food. The beginning of the month I wrote about a chicken cutlet meal we had at our friends L. & P.'s home - the cutlets were outstanding as well as the beef stew she made. We have been talking about it all month and after a very long week and weekend, we decided we needed some comfort. So we picked up the ingredients and slow cooked this fantastic beef stew all afternoon. The beef was incredibly tender, literally melted in your mouth. The stew is made with white wine so it gives it a beautiful color, not typical of your gray colored stews, when you use red wine. The vegetables are cooked just enough to hold their colors with a little crunch to them - perfect! The only addition I did was to throw some brown mushrooms in, that we had in the fridge. We served it with some crusty french baguettes and a bottle of Chateauneuf de Pape. Warm, cozy, bursting with flavor and very comfortable!

Brownie in a bottle ....

okay this is not a meal nor a challenge of any sort, just something we wanted to share because the packaging was so cute and the final product was delicious. Our friend E. gave us brownie mix for the holidays and we had a chance to whip them up for a pizza party we went to on Saturday night. This brownies were bursting with flavors - chocolate, butterscotch, and walnuts. YUMMY!