Monthly Archives: March 2011

Mac&Chorizo

I’m on year two of a five year plan that was put into operation about 15 years ago.  I’m a little behind, I’ll admit.  But the plan, the plan is still good.  The plan is to take over the world.  At first I thought I’d do it with my charm and effervescent wit.  But that hasn’t panned out yet.  So now I’m thinking I’ll take a slightly different tack.  I’m going to take over the world through a slow, steady and judicious application of macaroni and cheese.

First, I get the world’s attention with irresistible bacon comfort filled baked mac& cheese.  Then I up the ante with a sophisticated, spring-friendly chicken, spinach and leek concoction.  And now I’m sealing the deal with this sassy chorizo, garlic and broccoli  mac and cheese.  It’s just a little taste of what my reign will be like: a macaroni in every pot.

Well, a penne anyway.  Or a rigatoni.  Maybe shells.  Or spirals. Continue reading

Sriracha-brined chicken and oil poached tomatoes

Why did the chicken cross the road?  To get to the rooster sauce.  At least, that would be my goal.

Like most people who pray at the altar of spicy food, my favorite edible deity is srircha sauce, or rooster sauce as it’s sometimes called (check out the bottle).  It is amazing, not just because it’s hot—and it’s hot—but because it’s packed with flavor.  I love hot sauce (have you tried making it?) but the thick, complex taste of sriracha is a perfect accompaniment to a lot of things, like pasta sauce.  It is also, I’ve discovered, an excellent addition to a meat brine.

Josh is a big fan of brining for two main reasons: 1) it gives poultry a much better flavor and more moisture and 2) he likes to do science to things and brining is really easy science.  As I explained in the brining pork ribs post,

If you don’t know, brining is the process of soaking meat in a salt solution that’s generally spiked with herbs, spices and other flavorings, for a few hours or overnight.  It tenderizes, moistens and flavors meat, making it really great for drier cuts of pork and poultry, in particular.

Continue reading

Pomegranate Vanilla Bean Curd

Lemon curd has become my new it-dessert for spring, I think.  It’s cheerful and luscious and sweet and tart and quick and easy.  I like to eat it with a spoon and someday, I may even spread it on a scone or two but mostly, I like to eat it with a spoon, in front of the fridge.  With the door open, of course.  Because I’m classy like that.  I like lemon curd so much that I started wondering what other kinds of fruit curds I could make.  Lime was my first thought.  My second thought was “spiked with rum.”  But then I had what I consider to be a brilliant idea…pomegranate.  It’s sweet, it’s healthy, it’s got a luscious red color.  And I know from previous experiments in pomegranate that anything made out of it is delicious.

So I set about trying it out on Saturday morning.  After a week away, it was a relief to be back in my own kitchen, puttering away.  I debated whether to add another flavor in with the pomegranate in the curd.  I didn’t want to do lemon–although I will try that next–because I didn’t want its flavor to overpower that of the pomegranate.  I also didn’t want something super citrusy.  I decided on vanilla, figuring it would make an elegant, rich companion and it did.  Continue reading

Chicago Eats

Josh and I headed down to Chi-town this past week so I could attend a work conference.  It was good timing.  The weather is finally starting to turn around, it was beautiful, the St. Pat’s celebration was in full swing, green river and all and I was itching to get to a bigger city and do what’s really important–eat.

I didn’t have any culinary plans, really.  The conference–and our hotel–were downtown in the thick of everything, and so my only real guideline for the week was “wander around until you find something that looks tasty that doesn’t have a one hour wait.”  And that’s pretty much what we did.  While the downside of just wandering until you find a place is that the place might suck, you also sometimes run into awesome places that make you go, “Mmmm.” Continue reading

Seven-Deadly-Layer Bars

Ogres have layers, bars have layers

It’s that time of year again.  Fat Tuesday.  Mardi Gras.  Carnivale.  For some people, “Paczki Day.”

I, for one, enjoy Mardi Gras.  Who doesn’t like shiny beads and socially accepted overindulgence?  Monks.  But we just won’t tell them about it.  Anyway, I enjoy the festivities.  There is, however, one thing that has always somewhat baffled me about the way people celebrate Fat Tuesday here in southeast Michigan, at least.

Paczkis.  The overwhelming obsession with paczkis.  I mean…why?

Now don’t hate me.  I know that already some of you are going, “Oh my god, you did not just say that,” and others are going, “You didn’t mean it; I forgive you,” and still others are going, “What the hell is a paczki?  And how do you even pronounce it?”  A paczki, pronounced here as puntj-ki, is a Polish pastry made of fried dough filled with jam. Continue reading

Foodie Skin Care: Vanilla-Almond Sugar Scrub

I love my chocolate bath scrub.  Love it.  Between that and the whipped chocolate soap I get from Etsy, I have the best smelling showers ever…and super-soft skin.  Which is important to me, especially in the freezing and drying air of winter.  However, the days are getting a bit longer, a bit bright and a bit more Dear-God-Is-That-Spring-I-See-Before-Me? and so, having reached the end of my current batch of chocolate scrub, I figured I would make something a little different, a little lighter perhaps.

I like making my own bath scrubs for a few reasons.  One, way cheaper.  Two, super easy–I can use stuff I already have in the pantry anyway and all I have to do is mix it together.  Three, I can control and pronounce the name of every ingredient in it.  I like to have very soft, healthy skin.  I am very skin-oriented and dedicated to the idea that the best way to improve and maintain your skin’s quality comes down to what you put in your body and what you put on it.  Don’t believe me?  I even have a free e-pamphlet stating as much with a bunch of different DIY food-based concoctions (see the Foodie Skin Care page). Continue reading

So a cow and a chicken walk onto my plate…

It’s a terrible dilemma, isn’t it?  Breakfast?  Or burgers?  Breakfast?  Or burgers?  Well, who says it has to be one or the other?  I say, have both.

I’m all very in to combinations this week.  On Sunday, a few friends and I had dinner at El Barzon in Detroit.  If you’ve never been there, it’s a fine dining restaurant in off Michigan Ave that serves Mexican…and Italian.  Mexican and Italian.  Mexitalian.  If that isn’t just a brilliant idea, I don’t know what is.  Why choose between tacos or lasagna?  Have both.  This is America, damnit, the land of opportunity…to have both tortilla chips and salsa and gnocchi in the same meal.  Apparently. Continue reading