Happy Necco Wafer Day!

As I'm sure we all know, we recently celebrated a non-national holiday filled with hearts, love, and flower deliveries.  For some of us, we were showered with presents, fluffy teddy bears, overly indulgent bouquets, and of course, candy.  For others of us, we were reminded of our loneliness, decided we thought roses were stupid anyways, and had a new found underlying desire to burn every fluffy, scented, pink teddy bear we could find. As you've figured out by now, of course I'm talking about Necco Wafer Day-- the holiday of true commercialism, designated to boost Necco's dying revenue.  Let's face it, until Valentine's day, Necco was struggling.  They had created a more than terrible business plan in which they decided to create the worlds most sub par, undesirable candy, the Necco Wafer which is so bad, in fact, that small children will always choose apples instead.  But suddenly, along came the "holiday of love" when Necco produced the sub-par but immediate smash hit, the conversation heart.  TXT ME, HUG ME, and KISS ME were printed on tiny, nearly flavorless hearts and suddenly, we had a holiday. Necco had found some annual financial stability.

Here's my beef with Valentine's Day-- shouldn't you appreciate the people you love every day rather than needing an excuse to.  An doesn't it mean more when you get random flowers on Thursday, May 17, than when you and every wifey-d, in-the-process-of being-courted, and "I-wish-you-hadn't-left-me" girl does too?  Just a thought.

But Valentine's Day is, above all, an excuse for us to spend a little more money and cook cray meals.  This year I decided on Risotto and Mussels.  I don't eat Mussels.  Never have, never will, no desire to try mussels.  But Dan loves them.  So I surprised him, brought home 1/2 a pound of the slimy, nasty, brainless creatures, and made him a "delicious" appetizer.  So happy Necco Wafer's Day, if you like mussels, I hope you like these!  Oh and wait until you see what I messed up be tried to prepare for dessert (cut me a break, I'm not a baker).


what you need...
makes enough for one person as an appetizer
1/2 lb mussels
1 cup white wine
2 cloves garlic (diced)
1/2 small yellow onion (or shallots, diced)
1 tsp tarragon
1 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

what you need to do...
1. In a medium pot, heat oil with garlic and onion and cook until onion and garlic is soft and fragrant.  Add wine and bring to a boil.  When wine is boiling, add mussels, cover, and cook until mussels have opened (about 6 - 8 minutes).  Discard any that don't open.
2. Remove mussels with a slotted spoon and transfer into a bowl.  Bring the cooking liquid to a simmer (over low heat) and whisk in butter.  Season with salt, pepper and tarragon.  When blended thoroughly, pour over mussels and serve immediately.

I served these up with some Ciabatta bread, brushed with seasoned oil and toasted under the broiler.  I even tried the cooking liquid with the bread and it was FANTASTIC!

PHO GAHHHHHHH!

At the beginning of each week, Dan and I sit down and plan out what we are going to eat each night.  This not only helps reduce the cost of our grocery shopping and the need for running out last minute, but also helps alleviate some of the indecisiveness we (particularly I) are known for.  We usually cycle through the typicals-- Kielbasa, Tortellini, and Pesto; Paninis; Pasta with Red Sauce-- but this week, I blurted something out before even realizing what I was saying.  Pho Ga.  Please don't ask me where on earth the idea or desire came from, but once it had bee introduced, there was no backing out.  We were making Pho Ga.

Pho Ga is a traditional Vietnamese soup that bears similarities to chicken noodle soup, but then takes crack and goes nuts.  It's essentially chicken noodle soup plus raw strange vegetables with Siracha Sauce (now is it becoming clear why I like this?).  

Dan and I are both under the impression that, try as it may, soup is rarely a real meal.  So naturally we searched for side dishes and settled on tempura sweet potatoes and broccoli.

what you need for pho ga...
(Serves 2-4)
1 yellow onion, halved
2 pieces of thin sliced chicken (halved)
8 cups of water
8 bullion cubes (ya I cheated what up)
1 package rice noodles
Toppings (optional and of your choice):
Fresh Basil leafs (torn)
Bean sprouts
Red onion (sliced)
Lime wedges/ lime juice
Cilantro (we couldn't find any because of the shortage)
Siracha Sauce

what you need to do...
1. Make broth by heating 8 cups of water with 8 bullion cubes over high heat until boiling.  Reduce heat to medium low once boiling and cover.
2.  Meanwhile, in a medium pot, boil 4 cups of water with yellow onion halves.  Once boiling, add chicken and boil until cooked through.  Once done, remove chicken from water and discard water and onions.  When chicken is cool enough to handle, tear apart so the result is similar to shredded chicken.  Add chicken to broth and turn heat to low.
3. When ready to serve--cook rice noodles as directed, strain and add some of them to large bowl (which we obviously didn't have).  Ladle some of the broth into the bowl, top with desired toppings, and stir in Siracha sauce for added flavor.

what you need for tempura...
1 head of broccoli
1 sweet potato, sliced lengthwise into "chips"
1 egg
1 cup of ice cold water
1 cup of flour
Oil for frying
Salt
Soy Sauce or Tempura Dipping sauce
                      - Soy Sauce
                      - Brown Sugar
                      - Ginger
                      - Scallions

what you need to do...
1. Heat oil (about 1 inch deep) in a pan with deep sides over medium high. Combine egg, water and flour in a large mixing bowl and blend thoroughly.  When oil is hot, dip vegetables in mixture until thoroughly coated and transfer into oil, cooking in hot oil until golden brown.  Be sure to turn constantly (especially the broccoli to keep from burning).  Strain on paper towel and season with a dash of salt.  Serve hot!

STFU Stomach, I'm Trying To Study

It's quite rare that I'm ever eating breakfast or lunch.  I'm generally super busy, always on the go, have class straight through lunch time, and then we're bordering on dinnertime and it's just not quite worth it.  But today, I made quite the impromptu decision and decided to eat lunch.  Typically I'm cramming up my extra time on Wednesdays with yoga or what not, but today, I have a monster load of studying to do.  Of course I have a test tomorrow morning in cognition, haven't quite started studying, and have two and a half hours of rehearsal tonight.  As I sat down to embark on my 5 hour studying marathon I realized-- oh wow, I'm starving.  My window is open because it's a beautiful day, and the smell of breakfast sandwiches seemed to be wafting into my room from the cafe downstairs.   You see, by now you've gathered that i LOVE sandwiches and believe that they are by far, the greatest invention on earth.  Yes, I feel the same way about breakfast sandwiches.  I tried to ignore it and go on wit my studying but it was simply a futile effort.  I ran to the store to pick up some bagels thinking, well, maybe a bagel with some jam and butter will do it.  But when I returned home, I noticed my carton of egg whites, positioned carefully on the shelf next to some left over spinach, some onion, and mozzarella cheese.  And that is where today's impromptu breakfast/ lunch/ "stfu stomach I'm trying to study" idea came from.  

 And of course, once I made it, decided to take a picture of it, and loaded the picture onto my computer, I realized just how far behind I was on this blogging business.  So... here we are.  Procrastination central.

what you need...

1 whole wheat bagel (toasted)

1/3 cup egg whites

1/3 small onion, diced (more if you want)

1/3 cup fresh leaf spinach, washed and patted dry

Grated mozzarella (as much as desired for topping)

Dash of vegetable oil to prevent sticking (as little as possible)

Siracha Sauce (optional--because I put Siracha Sauce on everything)

Salt and Pepper to taste

what you need to do...

1.  In a small pan, heat vegetable oil over medium with onions.  When onions become fragrant (starting to brown a tiny bit), add spinach and cook down for about one minute.  Pour in egg whites, season with a dash of salt and pepper, and cook as you would an omelet.  When ready, flip egg whites once add cheese to top side, cover and remove from heat.  Leave in pan until cheese has melted.  Top toasted whole wheat bagel with egg whites and add a dash of Siracha sauce if desired.  

And there you are! 

Okay... now seriously... back to studying! 

Gouda Gouda Gouda Gouda rocking everywhere

If you haven't gathered this by now-- I make a lot of paninis.  Mainly because, as previously mentioned, paninis were an amazing idea.  Putting an entire meal in delicious bread and then pressing it-- that's brilliant.  Paninis, as previously discussed, are one of my most favorite foods.  I've made some real delicious paninis along the way but this one takes the cake.  This is literally the most delicious panini in the entire universe.  I tend to exaggerate, but this is NOT an exaggeration!  This is a serious situation--a panini emergency.  The flavors are absolutely fantastic, and it's an absolutely phenomenal comfort food.  This is basically the a BBQ bacon burger, minus the bacon and burger, and PLUS grilled chicken.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so all you have to exemplify this ridiculously amazing sandwich, is a ridiculously awful picture taken by my old camera.

what you need...
1 piece of thin cut chicken
2 slices rosemary olive oil bread
2 - 3 fresh slices smoked Gouda
2 - 3 large portobella mushroom slices
Red onion (amount by our preference)
BBQ Sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's is where it's at...)
A dash of olive oil
Butter (for pressing)



what you need to do...
1. In a pan, heat a dash of oil over medium high.  When hot, add chicken breast and BBQ sauce (can be pre-seasoned or you can poke your chicken with a fork a bunch of times to cheat-season).  Cook chicken through and remove from pan onto a slice of bread.  Top with two or three slices of Gouda cheese.
2. Add mushroom slices to pan you were cooking the chicken in, and cook quickly for about a minute.  Strain and add to sandwich.  Top with additional BBQ sauce (to your liking) and some raw red onion.
3. When your sandwich is built, heat butter in medium pan over medium high.  When butter is hot, add sandwich, press firmly and cover pan.  Flip at least once and cook until both sides are golden brown the the cheese is melted.

We had this with sweet potato fries and it was AMAZING!

[Jose] Cosmo-ritas!

We totally ripped this off of the Friday's menu.  See, my roommate worked there last summer and this was one of her favorite beverages.  It also happened to be the first drink I ordered when I turned 21 (yes we went to Friday's at midnight?).  Now we had to make some serious changes here--for one we're college students and naturally didn't have any Patron just laying around the apartment.  Secondly, this would have been a lot easier if we had a shaker-- less innovative, but much easier (and less messy)

My roommate was the one who actually made these so props to Brittany for putting together such an amazing beverage.  I'm going to try to remember how she did it and, if I mess up, see comments for Britt's amendments.  Two of these are going to get you feeling real happy... if Britt makes them... so just be prepared for that...

what you need...
3 parts cranberry juice
3 parts lime juice
3 parts silver tequila
1 part triple sec
margarita salt for salting the rim
lime wedge

what you need to do...
1. Salt the rims of the glasses.  To do this, wet just the rim and then dip it in margarita salt.  Look at that eh?
2. Combine cranberry juice, lime juice, tequila and triple sec in a shaker with ice and shake well.  Pour into glasses and serve with ice.  Finish with a fresh lime wedge. YUM!

Fish Tacos! (I literally had nothing clever for this)

I've been wanting to make fish tacos for some time now.  Let's face it, if you mess these bad boys up, it's going to be a disaster.  You'll either end up with soggy, bland tasting fish or super-fishy-my-taco-tastes-like-the-ocean fish.  But when these are done perfectly... I can't find words to describe it.  So I'll let this picture do the talking.

I've made these twice now and used tilapia both times just because it was affordable and I felt more confident about cooking it.  Obvious substitutes could be Mahi Mahi, shrimp, or catfish. And if you reaaaaaaly don't like fish, feel free to sub in chicken.  And if you're a vegetarian, fajita veggies work quite nicely as well (trust me, I tried).

It's all about seasoning here.  Get that cajun seasoning... you won't regret it.  But perhaps most importantly, MANGO SALSA!  This is what we put the mango salsa on and the mango salsa is a MAJOR ingredient.  With the fish tacos, this will make or break your taco eating experience.  So once again... mango salsa!

what you need (serves two)...
mango salsa
1 ripe avocado, cubed
2 cups very thinly sliced lettuce
1/2 lb tilapia
4 small flour tortillas
1/2 lime, cut into wedges
cajun seasoning
oil

what you need to do...
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.  Wrap flour tortillas in aluminum foil and place on center rack.
2. In medium cast iron skillet (or pan that gets very hot), heat 1 tbs oil over high heat.  Meanwhile, season the fish generously with cajun seasoning, making sure to rub in.
3. When oil is hot, add fish to the pan and reduce heat to around setting 8.  Cook fish, turning at least once until done.Be sure to cook the fish at very high heat so that it doesn't become over saturated with the oil.  When fish is done, it will become flaky and fall apart when you stick a fork in it.  Because the fish will become flaky, remove from pan using a spatula and strain on paper towel, being sure to remove all excess oil.  Cut into strips.  Remove flour tortillas from the oven.
4. Serve tacos hot on small flour tortilla and top with avocado, lettuce and mango salsa!  Top with lime juice if desired.