A weekend of Venetian Plaster

Our friend, BH, offered her knowledge in a technique called Venetian Plaster a few weekends ago to beautify our bathroom. After two full days of work, four coats of plaster, a batch of mac and cheese and a little pad thai, our bathroom was completely transformed. The work was well-worth how gorgeous it turned out. Thanks, BH - we love it!

Here's a before and after picture:

Spicy Cucumber Noodle Salad with Edamame

It's been awhile...I know. I've definitely been trying out new recipes over the past few months but I just didn't feel that inspired to post. It may have been that I was worn out from my new job (btw, I'm back at my old job again with a new found enthusiasm...and perhaps more time to blog!). Also, between all of my recently discovered food allergies, I guess I was finding cooking a little less fun and a little more of a chore. So I needed to shake all that in order to get back into the groove. We'll see where this goes...

The weather was awful today; I'm sure it was awful in your neighborhood too wherever you may be. So it was a perfect day to stay indoors and cook. I cracked open my Cooking Light magazine on drive to a restaurant last night and found a rather simple noodle salad recipe that had my name all over it. So today, my husband and I set to work on this for a quick lunch and were pleasantly surprised.

Here's the recipe (From Cooking Light):

8 ounces uncooked soba (buckwheat noodles)
1 cup frozen shelled edamame (green soybeans)
1 cup diced English cucumber
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons white miso (soybean paste)
1 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon chile paste with garlic (such as sambal oelek)
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1 1/4 cups fresh bean sprouts

Cook soba in boiling water 2 minutes; add edamame. Bring to a boil; cook 2 minutes. Drain; rinse with cold water. Drain; cool. Place soba mixture in a bowl. Add cucumber and onions. Combine mayonnaise and next 5 ingredients (through oil); stir with a whisk. Pour over the soba mixture; toss well. Top with bean sprouts.

We tend to avoid mayo at all costs but the mayo was a nice balance with the chile paste. If you hate mayo, there's some really good recipes online for tofu-based mayo which tastes pretty similar to the real thing and more importantly provides the needed texture. Next time, I think we'd cut the sauce mixture in half; the noodles were pretty drenched with the mixture and probably unnecessary calories were brought into the equation. Also, I think I'd make an extra effort to aquire the bean sprouts to have that needed crunch. Sadly, our local Harris Teeter only had about 10 bean sprouts to purchase totaling a mere $0.05. We have leftovers for lunch tomorrow which my husband is convinced will even be tastier cold. He loves his cold leftovers.

It's a keeper.

Oh, here's my current blog crush: 28 Cooks
I have yet to cook a recipe from here that I didn't love. Make sure to check out all the hummus recipes!

New Potatoes and Red Bell Peppers in Fresh Green Curry

The thing I love the most about Thai restaurants is the vast array of curries. Unfortunately, I seem to never be able to bring the love to my own kitchen. I've tried out a few curries over the years and either ended up with too-firey-to-even-get-hint-of-flavor curry or a bland-watered-down-bore-me-to-sleep curry. I must admit - they have all been derived from some sort of paste, powder or package in a language I don't speak. When my friends, LS and FK, came to visit over the 4th of July and brought The Curry Book in tow, I was so impressed by the curry recipes that I thought I'd give making curry another whirl. On Saturday night, we invited our friend, RB, over for coffee from our new Senso coffee maker and dinner. I'm just happy that we can finally offer our friends coffee and not directions to the nearest Dunkin' Donuts. For dinner, we tried out the New Potatoes and Red Bell Peppers in Fresh Green Curry Recipe. Here's a quick summarized version of the recipe:

1 lb new potatoes, quartered
1 red bell pepper, julienned
2 tablespoons shallots, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon ginger, chopped
2 fresh jalapenos
3 tablespoons plus 1 cup water
3/4 cup cilantro
1 can of coconut milk
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fresh basil

The recipe basically calls for blending the curry ingredients into a pasta and mixing it with the coconut milk. The potatoes and red bell pepper simmer in the curry until the potatoes are fork tender. Top with basil and cilantro.

Overall, I think we all enjoyed it. The curry recipe was the right consitency, right level of spiciness but needed a little more of a flavor punch. Maybe a little extra ginger? Or maybe something not called for in the recipe like lemongrass? But with a little tinkering, I think the curry could be a household standard. However, there's way too many yummy-looking recipes in this book to try this recipe again for awhile.

Side note - when I searched to find a description of The Curry Book for the blog, I ran into a limited preview of the book on Google Book Search. Sure enough, the one recipe they have in its entirety is this recipe. So cook it up and let me know what you think! :)

For dessert, we wanted to attempt to be healthy. I think we ended up with a version of healthy. My original idea was to pick up fresh strawberries, whipped cream and those pre-made crepes in the dairy/fruit area of the grocery store. No luck. The strawberries were furry and cost more than the last tank top I bought and crepes were no where to be found. Then we ran into nutella...and it all changed. I think I've had nutella before or at least I seem to have some preconceived taste memory associated with it. So we compromised and found a pack of puff pastry (yes, that's when it became a version of healthy) and bought bananas and nutella for one option and raspberries and cool whip for the other. Thus, Puff Pastry two-ways emerged...

The nutella was so good that the next day AC made a sandwich with nutella, bananas and cool whip. tee hee...


One random thing before I close, I am in the process of getting allergy testing. Last week, I had phase I which I like to call the side dish round and today, the main dish round. I'm shocked how many foods I'm allergic to. I really only went to the allergist so I could be treated for my allergies to cats but I'm really happy now that I'm doing the whole set of testing. So far, I'm apparently extremely allergic to soybeans, lettuce, malt and navy beans with lesser allergies to corn, cane sugar, onion, pork and orange. I'm such a weakling - it's time to start shopping for a human-sized plastic bubble :(

All settled in

I just wanted to show all of you a few more pictures now that we have been living here for about a week. We are still waiting for our storage bin so please excuse the piles of junk.






































































Thanks for everyone tolerating us saying our famous phrase "when we move into the condo..." over the past few years. I'm sure some of you were thinking this condo thing was all in our head. If you aren't convinced by the pictures that it actually exists, come visit us! Or just come visit us anyway!

Ok, now that we are all moved in - I'm switching gears pretty much back to cooking. :)

My friends, AS and her husband, gave us a cook book titled "The Curry Book" that I had mentioned around July on my blog. Thanks! I plan to make my next post about one of those yummy-looking recipes in that book. But for now, I must fill my brain with complex math until my final on Thursday.

Stay Tuned!

Time to move!

Since we have tortured all of you with stories of our condo over the past few years, I feel you are owed an updated. Our closing went well (ok, let me rephrase - it ACTUALLY happened), our keys worked and after a late night of packing up the last remaining things, we are all ready to move! The movers come at 8 - so I'm up now since they have a reputation of being nortorious early.

I hope we can get back to life as usual and start cooking up some interesting dishes soon!

Ok, let's try that again...

Today, we had our official preliminary walk-through of our condo. Overall, we are really pleased and can't wait to move in! We are scheduled to close on Friday, December 1 and move in Saturday, December 2. Keep your fingers crossed! Enjoy the pics!

First view into the condo from front door

Our cozy den

View of the kitchen from the family room (contractor not included)


Bathroom


Family room from balcony with TV ready for many hours of Montel viewing pleasure

Kitchen (already equipped with a dimmer switch! :) )


Kitchen view from family room

Bedroom

View to the north of Washington Monument and exciting office buildlings

View of Route 1 North

View to the east of the Potomac River and National Airport.


View to the west of Skyline and picturesque water-treatment facility

Today's condo walk-through

...of not our condo. Unfortunately, when AC and I arrived for our walk-through today, the lead sales woman informed us that our walk-through had been rescheduled. Apparently, they sent us a letter (just checked the mailbox - no letter) and left a message probably at my old job. Geez. Apparently, people were either getting 5 phone calls informing them about the change and other people like us heard nothing. So I pulled out my pathetic smile and asked sweetly if we could just go over to the building and take a peek. So we got a walk-through of a - one floor below ours. Here's a few pictures just to give you a taste.


The lobby - they are still painting so no judging on color...yet!



Elevators on the first floor


First view from the front door - we got all wood floors instead of carpet and tile


The kitchen - we got black granite and slightly lighter colored wood cabinets. Love the recessed lighting!


Family Room with background views of DC


View from the balcony via the bedroom - if you squint, you can see Washington Monument. We will probably have that view for a year or so.

Bedroom


Bathroom - the only room that should look exactly the same.


Our walk-through will be sometime next week instead. oh well. Time to see Borat!

Rajas Jalapeno con Queso

A few days ago, I was really craving the Rajas Poblanos at one of my favorite local Mexican restaurants, Taqueria Poblano,, but it was getting late, AC was stuck at work late and my tummy was getting pretty grumpy. So I decided to make a quick run to Giant to pick up the necessary ingredients to make my own version of Rajas Poblanos. You might ask - what are rajas? Basically, it's just julienned chile peppers combined usually with onions and other spices; it's a pretty common dish in Mexico. Here's a cool website that talks more about the joys of rajas.

I drove down to Giant expecting to be able to quickly pick up the necessary ingredients for the rajas: poblanos, yellow onions, a bulb of garlic, a lime, random Mexican spice mix, flour tortillas, cilantro and a pack of Monterrey jack cheese. I went immediately to the produce aisle because I had an inkling that they wouldn't have any poblanos. Sure enough...no poblanos. I went to Safeway - no luck. So I decided just to get jalapenos instead and try that out. Overall, it was pretty tasty and I think I'd definitely make it again. It's pretty easy - just sauté the veggies with spices and a squirt of lime in an oven-safe pan, top with cheese, throw pan into oven until bubbly and then remove and top with cilantro. If you love cheesy and spicy things, it's a great quick meal.

So this brings us to the question of the day - why are some items so hard to come by at the grocery store? Subquestion - Are my standards too high as a grocery store food snob or are the grocery stores around here inferior?

Speaking of grocery stores, I think we should be having some good grocery stores readily available to us in the near future. According to National Gateway Arlington's website, the developer of the area that includes our condo complex, Elwood Thompson’s, Fresh Market and Bloom should be opening over the next few years. Also, a 2-story Harris Teeter will be opening below our condo sometime in the February – March 2007 time frame. I’ve heard lots about Bloom through heavy radio advertising over the past couple of weeks. Apparently, it’s a Food Lion concept store with a new innovative layout. According to wikipedia, Bloom’s layout includes “a TableTop section at the entrance to the store where the shopper can purchase ready to eat foods, deli meats and sandwiches and salads. Next to this is the fresh bakery section which lead to the organic and fresh produce departments. This part of the store provides ingredients which the customer can continue in his/her meal planning. Gourmet Angus beef and meat counter along with a fresh seafood counter occupy the rear of the store. The center of the store offers quality condiments, name brand and Bloom grocery products and household/paper products. The end aisles are devoted to frozen and dairy and a pharmacy occupies the front side corner next to the Customer Service counter.” Apparently, they have little stations to look-up recipes and other computer-integrated shopping features. But my question is, with all this great technology and innovation, will they manage to have poblanos? :) I think I should make a bigger effort actually growing some of my staples next year.

On a side note, we have our condo walk-through next week!

Have you ever made green chile sauce?

...asked my friend AS in an email last week. In the email, she sent me a link to this blog: Recipes from a [Gluten Free] Goddess . I think she's a regular on the blog but it was the first time for me. After I got over my initial pangs of envy over her gorgeous pictures, I was really impressed with the blog. AC and I really enjoy Mexican/Central/South American food but haven't really explored the southwestern cuisine arena. So one night last week, we decided to try the New Mexico Green Chile Sauce recipe and served it over wild salmon. Overall, it was delicious but I have one issue with the recipe...I really think it would be best run through the food processor. I do love chunky sauces but the addition of the cornstarch almost turned the sauce into something with the consistency of those fruit jello molds...ok, not THAT awful but it wasn't as fresh as I was hoping it would taste due to the cornstarch. Perhaps, we needed to add a little more peppers and tomatoes to the recipe to give it a little fuller consistency. We are going to play with the proportions and see what we can come up with. I would show a picture of our meal but her picture really does the sauce more justice (grrr...) :) AS, did you take a stab at it?

On a side note, I love it when you go to the grocery store and buy something a little out of the ordinary from the fresh fruit and veggie aisle and the cashier doesn't know how to ring it up. 9 times out of 10, I end up getting the item for much cheaper than it truly should be. For instance, I've gotten tomatillos for the price of brussel sprouts and specialty chile peppers for the price of regular green peppers. I always love a good deal :)

One more aside, I found out the Harris Teeter below our condo is more than likely not opening until February! For some reason, I figured the sequence of events would be the grocery store opening first and then we move in. I figure we are built-in customers and plus what grocery store would not want tons of customers around the holidays? My laziness is already setting in and thinking what a pain it will be to actually drive to the grocery store to buy holiday groceries...how in the world am I already so lazy? :) We should be moving in about a month or so!!!

Dinner with Friends

Oops, I forgot to post this!

My story begins with my first friend in Northern VA when I moved here about 4 years go. SMC was one of the people in my initial training for work at the PTO and we clicked pretty instantly. Sadly, he moved to Kentucky a little more than a year ago with his insanely adorable son and lovely wife. It sounds like they have a really good life there so I'm happy for them despite my occasional secret hopes they realize how much they miss it here and drive back one night and move back :) ha ha. I'm happy to say that we've done a good job of keeping each other up-to-date about our lives - especially in regards to food :) SMC messsaged me the other day and told me how he recently decided to start up a group which would meet weekly with some people from his church to discuss various religious/ethical topics. He stressed that, although the formal discussion was important, he also wanted to have everyone work on a project together in order for everyone to get to know each other and get some friendships blooming. He thought cooking would be a great mechanism to achieve this and, as a result, they would have a tasty meal to eat once the meeting gets rolling. So here's my contribution to some soup/stew recipes for his new group. Maybe some other people might want to check these out? My suggestion for the simpler soups/stews is to have a group work on the soup/stew, another group prepare a bread and another group a simple salad. SMC, let us know if you find any other tasty stew/soup recipes since those winter months are just around the corner!

I think you should be able to click on each of the pictures and print from your web browser to get a full page recipe.

Enjoy!

Simple Dinners

I realize that I've disappeared from the blogging world for awhile. My initial excuse was that I really haven't been making anything worth posting recently due to time constraints but I decided that was a lame reason. I know most normal (and reasonable) people will cook meals that take less than 30 minutes from start to serve. Most people who know me know that I like to do and pick things that tend to complicated (someone unnecessarily) - especially in the cooking arena. I truly know that complicated meals do not necessarily equal good meals and likewise simple meals can be incredibly delicious. So we've made a shift recently to more simple dishes and it's about time for me to sit down and post about them already and quit being such a recipe snob.

You might ask - what's been taking away from my precious and beloved time in the kitchen? Back in May, one of my dearest friends, m-scribbles, convinced my husband and me to join her in training for the Army Ten Miler in Virginia on October 8. We are less than 2 months away so we have kicked up our training and now are working out 6/7 days a week. Wish us luck!

Anyway, here's some simple yet delicious meals we've made recently:

From Real Simple - August 2006, Peach, Mozzarella and Basil Salad. It's pretty similar to A.C.'s mom's pasta salad but instead with peaches - perfect for those afraid of overindulging in carbs. I was about to say "yummo" - but I think I need a less annoying catch phrase :) I'd definitely make this again but try to look for peaches that were a little more ripe and juicy.

From bakingsheet.blogspot.com, Banana Black Bean Tacos. Have I mentioned these before? It's a great twist on normal black bean tacos by adding pan-fried bananas. The caramelized bananas add a nice sweetness to the relatively healthy tacos. Just make sure to get rid of the extra grease by placing the bananas between paper towels after frying. I think we've gotten to the point where we have been making these about once a week sometimes with Dave Lieberman's guac recipe.

Sorry for no pictures...I actually took some but blogger is being stubborn and will not let me upload. So just use your imagination.

Countdown...(an update)

We rarely have gotten any updates about the progress of our condo but the other day I got an email from our builder with the adjacent photo. Although, I must admit, the condo complex does have a nice view of DC - this picture is way too zoomed in and are the fireworks really THAT big? Regardless, it will be a perfect place to watch fireworks next year...if we move in by then! It's nice that they are attempting to throw us a bone.

Latest update for move-in: mid to late November. I guess we'll be getting our Thanksgiving meal from a Chinese restaurant since we'll be living out of boxes at that point...I can only pray for such a scenario :) Please let it stop being so hot so those workers can finish up our building!!! I'm tempted to take some lessons on putting up dry wall and bricklaying.

Mozzarella, tomato and arugula sandwiches

I'm home today studying for my mid-term exam which is tonight. So naturally I'm home taking pictures of my lunch and blogging about it :) However, I must give myself a bit of credit...I did manage to get in several good hours of studying as well.

We are trying to be more budget conscious and, in doing so, we are trying to bring our lunch to work more often. It's easy to make a crappy lunch that by the time lunch rolls around, you really don't want to eat. So I really wanted to find a good recipe that I would not only enjoy but could happily eat for multiple days in a row. When I worked/lived in Crystal City, I used to go to Au Bon Pain and get their Tomato and Mozzarella sandwich at least once every week or two. So I decided to replicate the sandwich but replace arugula (a typically more expensive ingredient) for the romaine and bring that for lunch this week. I'd like to think that making your own sandwiches is always cheaper but the math geek inside me decided to prove this theory and calculate out how much I'm actually saving...


For my sandwich:
$1.29 for the Giant brand french bread loaf - $0.33/serving
$3.99 for the Sorrento brand fresh mozzarella - $1.00/serving (on second look, I realized I said the wrong brand - now corrected)
$1.99/pound for the vine-ripened tomatoes - $0.50/serving
$1.99 for Giant brand baby arugula and lettuce salad mix - $0.25/serving
$3.49/jar for Classico brand pesto sauce - $0.35/serving
Total for sandwich - $2.45


Sandwich at Au Bon Pain:
MOZZARELLA AND TOMATO (V)
Mozzarella, Tomato, Romaine with Basil Pesto served on a Baguette - $4.59


My sandwich is almost half the cost and just as tasty!


I watch Good Deal with Dave Lieberman on occasion and he always claims to make gourmet meals for a fraction of the cost...however, annoyingly, he usually would fail to substantiate his claims! So I felt this burning desire to actually prove that something like a gourmet sandwich can actually proven to be cheaper.

One more thought...The nice thing about this sandwich is that it does use good quality ingredients that can easily be incorporated into other lunches or dinners. So if you really don't want to eat these sandwiches for 5 days in a row, you could make a pesto dish for dinner one night with sauteed tomatoes and topped with fresh mozzarella or make a nice hearty salad.

Ok, I suppose I should study some more...

Countdown...

We drove by our condo today to check on its progress with the guise of going to Target. Here's some pictures we took from the road:

We marked our condo with an arrow - if you couldn't figure that out :) From what we are told, we are going to move in late this year..whatever that means. And how is this related to cooking, you may ask? I can't wait to cook in that kitchen!!! :)

Zola's Coca-Cola Cake

I had the honor of making my good friend, EF's, birthday cake for her 30th birthday party this weekend. I am not much of a baker but I was willing to give it a shot since I love her so much! This recipe was passed on from EF's mother...Thanks, Mrs. Frownfelter! The cake turned out SO moist and the coca-cola gives it a nice kick! I will definitely make it again :)

Here's the recipe:

Mix in a saucepan and bring to boil:
1C coca cola
1 stick margarine + a tad
1/2 C oil
4 T cocoa

Remove from stove and add:
1 1/2 C small marshmallows to hot mixture and let melt

Pour this over 2 C sugar and 2 C flour

mix well and add 1/2 C buttermilk
1 t baking soda
2 well beaten eggs
mix well!

bake in greased 9X13 pan
40-45 min @ 350 degrees

Coca Cola Frosting:

3 T cocoa
1 C nuts (pecans- chopped up)
6 T cola
1 stick margarine
1 C small marshmallow
1 t vanilla
1 box (1 lb) powdered sugar

mix cocoa, cola, butter, vanilla and marshmallows.
put on stove and let come to a boil. Pour over sugar and beat with mixer until smooth. Add nuts and pout over warm cake in pan.

I just added the powdered sugar to give it a nice effect in the photo...really not very necessary.

Singapore Curry Noodles with Green Peppers and Shrimp and Curried Cauliflower

For the 4th of July weekend, two friends from high school came to visit. We had a whirlwind adventure visiting NYC for two days and then driving back to D.C. to go to the zoo and see the 4th of July fireworks on the mall. On a quick side note, we saw Avenue Q on Broadway; if it comes to your city - go see it, it's hilarious. My two friends love to cook at least as much as I do so we had discussed ahead of time what recipes we were going to cook up during their trip. My friend brought this cookbook and we decided on the noodle dish and my other friend decided to make her curried cauliflower dish to go with it. I have to give them credit - they did all the cooking but I did set the table! I LOVE this cookbook - we made two recipes from there for our 4th of July picnic - a curried chicken salad and a curry yogurt dip. If anyone is thinking about getting me a random gift anytime soon, here's a worthy present! :)

Spicy Mamma's Mac and Cheese with Corn bread and Wasabi Green Beans

I've never been a fan of mac and cheese. *gasp* - I know, it's a sin in some people's books. I'm convinced it's one of those foods you like because you grew up with it. I did not grow up with that or really any dish laden with cheese. Keep in mind I come from a family whose dad is a very health-conscious vegetarian and mom is a picky eater who is lactose intolerant. So basically Kraft macaroni and cheese never made it to the dinner menu. Even throughout childhood when I would visit people's houses and faced with the opportunity to try out mac and cheese, I had already determined it was a disgusting concept and deemed it as one of my least favorite foods. I do realize in my wise old age that I can't decide I HATE foods without ever trying them. I finally broke down and tried mac and cheese at my husband's parents house a few years ago. I must admit I really didn't want to try it but I figured it would be rude to refuse to eat my dinner based on artificial determination I hate all mac and cheese. Man, it was SO good. So now I'm a pretty big fan of HOMEMADE mac and cheese.

We decided to make dinner with a spicy theme - so we whipped up spicy mac and cheese, spicy cornbread and wasabi green beans. The mac and cheese was a slightly altered version of Mamma's Mac and Cheese from foodtv.com. Here's the altered recipe below:

Mamma's Mac and Cheese
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Yield: 6 to 8 servings

1 pound elbow macaroni
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups plus 1/2 cup shredded sharp Cheddar
*** add 2 - 3 finely chopped chipotles in adobo sauce

Cook the macaroni in boiling water for about 10 minutes until tender but still firm. Drain well and set aside. In a deep skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour to make a roux and cook, stirring, to remove any lumps. Pour in the milk and cook until the mixture is thick and smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in 2 cups Cheddar and continue to cook until melted. ***Add the chopped chipotles and stir*** Add the cooked macaroni and stir. Transfer the mixture to a 2-quart casserole dish. Bake in a preheated 350-degree F oven for 20 minutes. Remove the casserole from oven, top with remaining 1/2-cup cheese. Bake for an additional 5 minutes until hot and bubbly.

The cornbread was made from a bagged cornbread mix but I added chopped chipotles in adobo to taste and a can of corn. Add cilantro if you have it on hand.

For the green beans, I decided to mix a tablespoon or so of sesame oil with one of those small wasabi packets you get when you buy grocery store sushi and use a pastry brush to baste the steamed green beans. I'd definitely make this recipe again and maybe add some sesame seeds to the top next time.

For the record, to this day, I think I still have not eaten mac and cheese from the box...and after eating this recipe, I probably never will :)

Calling All Fellow Food Artists...

My brother has recently discovered his love for cooking so he has joined Patently Delicious to post about his own kitchen exploits. So stay tuned for his postings...

On the same note, I know have many friends who also love to cook so if anyone wishes to post here or make a quick comment about one of their latest creations with a link to their own blog, please let me know and I'll make you a member of Patently Delicious! And no need to have any interest in intellectual property to post here! Especially M-Scribbles (she's really making me look like a slacker), Exuberant B, SMC and brother-in-law S.

The Swedish Chef still cracks me up :)

Roasted Mushroom Salad with Spinach and Bacon paired with Grilled Corn

So we managed to go to the grocery store three times today. First, to stock up at Costco - one of our least favorite tasks because we always manage to spend a ridiculous amount of money and wind up dizzy at the end of the trip. However, today we got to redeem our Costco American Express rebate check so the trip was a lot more like a shopping spree (although we did exhibit some discretion). We kept getting inspired this afternoon after looking at our Mexican cookbooks resulting in multiple trips to the grocery store. Now we have well-stocked kitchen once again (so hopefully stay tuned for more frequent updates) and a pretty full tummy as I type right now.


We decided to go back to one of our favorite cookbooks - Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless and try out a rather simple salad recipe and last minute decided to grill up some corn because Safeway was having a great special. The main working element behind the salad was making a roasted mixture of chunks of thick-cut bacon, sliced mushrooms and red onions. The bacon does a heavenly (yes, heavenly) job of coating the vegetables with grease to make a bacon-flavored, crispy yet moist topping for a bed of spinach leaves. The salad were then topping with a olive oil dressing containing oregano, lime and minced chilies in adobo. We also used this Emeril Lagasse recipe for corn on the grill. Both recipes were major winners...let me know if you want the salad recipe - it's very easy! Clearly, I was pretty pleased with dinner considering I've already posted about it! tee hee!

Oooh, dessert is ready! Hmm...maybe I can cram in one more thing tonight :)

Tortas

Last week, AC and I took a trip to visit his brother and family in Salem, OR. Like us, S and his wife love to cook and basically are foodies. We also share a similar love for Mexican/Central/South American cuisines...in fact, I believe this past Christmas we all gave each other Mexican cookbooks :) I can honestly say I ate very well on this trip with minimal cooking on my part. My favorite meal, S and his wife whipped up, was tortas with his wife's, R, famous rice recipe. AC and I are definitely going to need to make this dish sometime soon! Here's the recipe copied from the blog of S. Oh, btw...I think onions are perhaps the best thing ever on the grill because they carmelize perfectly while staying moist. yum!

(Quantities represent what we use to make 2 sandwiches)

Tortas DF

2 bolillos (basically Mexican-style French rolls -- available at most Mexican bakeries and every Super Wal-Mart in the Willamette Valley)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 large onion, thinly sliced into rings
1 avocado, sliced
queso asadero, sliced thin (queso fresco works as well if it's not too crumbly)
pickled sliced jalapenos
mayonnaise
butter or margarine
salt
pepper
chile powder (I generally use hot New Mexico)
olive oil

Cooking
1. Season chicken with salt, pepper, and chile powder. In the winter I tend to thinly slice the chicken, season it, and then saute it in olive oil over medium to medium-high heat. In the summer, I season the chicken, grill it, and then thinly slice it after it's grilled. You have one of these, right?

2. Thinly slice the onions into rings. Carmelize with olive oil in a pan over medium to medium-high heat.

3. Slice each bolillo lengthwise. Slather the inner surface with butter or margarine. In a pan with enough flat surface (comal, griddle, saute pan -- I use an 8" Calphalon saute pan for my comal duties) over medium-high heat, place the butter side down of each bolillo-half and cook until the butter surface is browned and the bolillo-half is warm. Be careful not to burn them -- watch your heat level.

Assembly
For each bolillo, slather the bottom half with mayonnaise. Put each bottom down, because now we stack. First, put as many pickled jalapeno slices on top of the mayo as you think you can handle. Second, put the sliced chicken on top of the jalapenos. Third, put the onions on top of the chicken. Fourth, put the thinly sliced cheese on top of the onions. Fifth, put the sliced avocado on top of the cheese. Finally, place the top of the bolillo on the stack. If you are brave, cut it in half.

While in Oregon, we also visited Bend, OR and had some pretty good microbrews at Dechutes Brewery. I was surprised that I actually was enjoying the darker beers - perhaps, when you find quality, it's easier to venture outside of your comfort beer zone. I think our next challenge should be to make our own beer :)