See you later

I haven't posted on here in a while. At first I was busy; since then I've just been hiding. The strange thing is that Brian and I actually made 3 or 4 more dishes back in July that I was so excited to share at the time, but just never got around to posting. July was a crazy month of 10 hour work days and lots of ice cream (trust me, I needed it), so I cut myself some slack. But then August came (and with that the Great Move, something I'll touch on more later), which actually gave me an unprecedented amount of down time. By that point, I was just scared.

Being held accountable for what I eat is slightly terrifying. So in many ways, I've been hiding, both from you and from myself. If I don't write about it, no one has to know about it, not even myself. I don't have to keep track of the restaurants I've been in or the oreos I've eaten or the amount of times I've asked Brian to cook something quick for me (or, on that note, the amount of butter he's put into it). It's easier to just stop cooking and blogging all together than to admit defeat (yet again) and start back up (yet again). Coming up with meals is time consuming and cooking, while less so, still feels like a big production. It's not--as I discovered a few months ago--but it still feels that way.

A project that wasn't supposed to feel like a diet is really starting to act like one.

Not to say that I haven't legitimately been busy. Since the last time we've spoken, I've moved twice, started a new job, started school, attempted unpacking, and decided that I'm just not settled enough right now to get back into cooking. The Great Move consisted of first moving from PA to LI, languishing in my mom's apartment for two and a half weeks, and then moving again from LI to NYC. As stressful as moving was, I'm very lucky to have a supportive family who came together to make all of this possible. Without their help, I never would have been able to pack/drive the U-haul to NY from PA, store my stuff in a safe (and free!) place, find a place to stay, or have an amazing relay team get my things from the second U-Haul to my apartment in an elevator that is roughly the size of a door squared. While I thought I had my bases covered, what I wasn't anticipating was the massive brain exhaustion from worrying about my new home, buying things to get set up, and just plain waiting for school to start. Even after we got into our new (gorgeous) apartment, standing on that precipice has been so consuming that I haven't even been able to fully unpack. With my internship in its second week and classes finally getting underway today, I'm hoping I'll be able to get myself back in gear ASAP.

Until then, though, I'm going to continue hiding. Just for a little longer. Just until I have learned how to juggle all of the balls I've got up in the air. Hopefully I'll be back soon, but in the meantime I've got a few guest posts up my sleeve that I'll be unveiling periodically. Thank you for all of your encouragement and support :)

See you later,
Danielle

Guest Post: Josh's Risotto!

My friend Josh messaged me the other day to ask what he should make for dinner. He said that he had been inspired by my efforts and wanted to make a real meal for dinner instead of just having pita and hummus (a great snack, to be sure, but not the same as a full meal). He gave me a run-down of what he had in the house and based on the chicken stock, wild rice, and mushrooms he had in his pantry, I suggested a risotto. It was a lengthy process, but he was very happy with the results, so I asked him to write a guest post about his experience. Please enjoy Josh’s post below; hopefully it will inspire you to get into the kitchen as well!

Thanks for posting, Josh!

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Hello World.

I’ve never written a blog post before, so I was a little skeptical when Danielle suggested I contribute to her site. This entry might turn out to be a mess, but I assure you that it won’t be nearly as bad as the mess I made in the kitchen!

I am quite culpable of eating far too much food not of my own creation.  Reading this blog has been steadily increasing my guilt factor over the last few days, so I finally decided to cook something.

So, Danielle suggested a risotto and I found this recipe (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/butternut-squash-and-shiitake-mushroom-wild-rice-risotto/detail.aspx) online for Butternut Squash and Shiitake Mushroom Wild Rice Risotto and gave it a whirl.  The recipe calls for 40 minutes of prep time and 60 minutes of cooking time, but you have to be pretty on your game to be that quick.  I have no counter space and am a slow chef, so it was about two and half hours after I started that I finally got to eat.

This recipe has some distinct stages, so you’ll want to read over the recipe before you begin to make sure you have everything rolling.

I’ve never cooked with butternut squash before, so I learned that peeling is important; if I didn’t have a peeler, this would have been miserable.  Don’t just peel the outer coating, though.  You want to peel until you get to the deeper orange of the squash “meat.”  And you’ll need to clear out the seeds and gunk from the center.  One squash was plenty for me (even with a third of the squash falling in the trash bin…).

I made some minor substitutions for economy, availability, and by accident.  I bought fresh shitakes without realizing the recipe called for dried, but that seemed to work fine.  Perhaps dried have a sharper taste.  Maple syrup became pancake syrup because I couldn’t justify $9 for an ingredient I needed a tablespoon of.  And the supermarket (not really so super) didn’t have any short grain rice, so I went with a medium grain.  I also went with the parmesan over the gorgonzola, but to each their own.  I imagine the gorgonzola would make for a richer of a risotto, which I kind of wanted later, but I’m wary about gorgonzola… If you can swing the Parmigiano-Reggiano, great, but I used a plain jane block of parmesan.

I’ve had a few bad experiences cooking rice recently, so I was really worried about the rice cooking fully.  After I spilled some of the vegetable stock, I was worried about not having enough liquid to soak into the rice, so I added some more white wine (I doubt you can go wrong there). When you’re adding the liquid into the rice mixture (this is done in stages), I’d recommend a ladle.  This lets you transfer enough liquid without pouring liquid down the side of your saucer (yes, I’m speaking from experience…sizzzzzzle).

I ended up with a ton of risotto, so I invited a friend over to eat it with me.  That being said, I could probably have fed six more.  The risotto is quite filling, so the portion you need for a meal is much less than I realized.

Ultimately, the dish came out better than I expected, especially the consistency.  The wild rice added some tougher texture to give the dish more textural dimension than a normal risotto.  I cut the amount of wild rice by two and it still worked well enough.  I feel that the dish might need one more flavor to bring it home.  I’m thinking it needs truffle, so if I did it again, I’d sprinkle in some truffle oil Yeah, I know it’s not real truffle (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/dining/16truf.html), but I’m not Jean Georges!

Work in Progress

The End Result!

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If you or any of your friends have started cooking more as a result of this blog, please let me know  – I’d love to make this a regular feature!

Mom's Stir Fry

My mom called me up today and said "I have an onion, peppers, and beef that's been cut up into strips, how do I make a stir fry?" I couldn't believe my ears. I even made her repeat herself.

As a general rule, my mom doesn't cook. It's not that she can't, per se, it's that she just never wanted to. I mean,  in the general sense, sure, but in the immediate "hey, let's cook dinner tonight!" way, she was always much more inclined to order chinese food. Needless to say, I was shocked to hear that not only did she want to cook, but that she'd already bought ingredients!

I tried looking up recipes, but a lot of them included things that mom just doesn't have, like a fully-stocked spice rack and three different types of vinegar. Instead, we decided to improvise. Mom got out a big saucepan, some olive oil, garlic powder, paprika, and a few soy sauce packets from the last time she ordered chinese food.

Improvisation, a cook's best friend!

First, she heated up olive oil so that it would be hot when the meat hit the pan. She had a little problem with her stove because it was making the oil evaporate, but then she turned down the heat and it was just fine. She then used 4 packets of soy sauce, garlic powder, and a little bit of paprika to make an impromptu marinade for her meat. At first I suggested less soy sauce, but with over a pound of meat, she thought more was appropriate.

Next, she chopped her onion and cut her multicolored pepper strips into smaller, bite size pieces. She asked me if she had too many peppers for her one onion, so I told her that she's the chef and it's her call. She ended up using all of them.

Once her oil began to spit (or start shooting hot oil at her), she put in her steak. She also opened more soy sauce packets and put them in a measuring cup so that she could pour it on her veggies while they cooked.

As soon as her meat browned (she flipped it once), she seasoned and added her vegetables. And then realized that the pan wasn't big enough for all of her ingredients! She freaked out a little bit, but then she grabbed a new pan, started heating some more olive oil with some cooking liquid from the other pan, and scooped out as many veggies as she could. When the new pan got hot, she put the peppers and onions in there to cook down so that they wouldn't take up as much space when cooked with the beef.

When the vegetables cooked down, she put them back in with the meat, let the flavors simmer together for a minute, stirred, and served.

Good job, Mom!

I'm very proud of her for attempting this stir fry, especially since she came up with the idea all on her own. Even though I was on the phone talking her through it, she really did this all by herself. And the best part is - she had fun :)

Well, maybe the second best part. The real best part was that it came out so good that she's already talking about cooking again!

Tart Time!

The Food Yenta posted a link a while ago for a beet and goat cheese risotto that looked like something I had to try. The post was witty and well-written, and the finished product boasted a winning food combination. There was one problem, though: the dish looked like raw meat. The author described it as "jewel-toned" and although I agreed at first, the more I looked at it, the more it looked like blood. The Food Yenta's solution was to substitute red beets for yellow ones. Mine was to take my craving for beets and channel it into a dish that I already know I love: The Food Yenta's Beet and Goat Cheese Tart.

I already wrote a little bit about the tart back in my second post, aptly named The Food Yenta as a homage to my facebook friend who helped me get started on my better food kick. When you're done with this post, head on over to her blog at thefoodyenta.blogspot.com to gawk at her amazing pictures (she's a professional photographer in addition to being a foodie) and try out some of her incredibly simple recipes. You won't be disappointed.

The last time I tried this recipe, I decided that I didn't like goat cheese and wasn't going to use it. This was a poor decision. Not only was the cheese I chose too strong for the flavors of the dish, but the truth is that I'd never had goat cheese before and was just afraid to try it. I faced my fear over my birthday weekend at a local restaurant and discovered that goat cheese was a lot milder and yummier than I had initially thought. As today is the first time I've ever used goat cheese in anything and only the second time I'm eating it, I'm going to classify this as a ***NEW FOOD ALERT***

Goat Cheese = ***NEW FOOD ALERT***

This time around I'm going to document the entire process, from trying to roast beets to fighting with puff pastry dough. Because I'm taking time away from cooking to write about it, the cooking time is going to seem very long. The recipe should take about an hour to prepare and 45 minutes to bake, which is still pretty long but not unreasonable.

And now, a running commentary of the cooking process, complete with pictures and recipe modifications. Here we go!

7:14pm: Time to get started! I don't remember how to roast my beets, but I'm sure the internet will tell me.

7:17pm: The internet comes through again. Here's the website I used to help me roast my beets last time: http://localfoods.about.com/od/preparationtips/ss/How-To-Roast-Beets.htm . They took over an hour because I used 4 really big ones, but today I'm using 2 medium ones, so I'm going to start with a half hour and check on them from there.

Fresh beets :)

7:29pm: And I hit my first snag. Apparently we don't have aluminum foil in the house! I'm going to put them in my smallest casserole dish and hope for the best.

7:45pm: Ok, I've got my beets in the oven, my puff pastry defrosting, and the recipe right in front of me, I'm good to go. Next up is making the balsamic honey onions.

7:57pm: I modified the recipe a little bit by using white balsamic vinaigrette, clover honey, and some garlic powder (I forgot to get garlic). I'm also using only one onion because last time there was enough for a whole week and I want to try to minimize leftovers.

Bubble bubble toil and trouble....

8:03pm: It was looking a little thin, so I added some more honey. The measurements are just guesstimates, feel free to alter them to your liking. The white balsamic smells a bit sharp right now, but the sweetness of the honey will mellow it as it reduces down.

8:19pm: Great tip for defrosting puff pastry fast: let it sit out next to the stove while the onions are cooking. Well, ok, it was an accident, but it got the job done. My puff pastry is from the freezer section and comes in pairs. Last time I completely forgot about putting it away, so my second pastry became a gooey mess instead of tart number 2 (as I had planned). I tried to roll it into a ball and start again, but then I found out that by rolling it up, I completely ruined the texture that makes puff pastry puff up. Whoops.

Here's what my pastry looked like defrosted and put in the pie mold. The edges are crimped with a fork so that they stay down, not necessarily because it looks cool (although it totally does).

8:22pm: Onion update: They're mostly translucent and starting to smell sweet. Now I just have to wait for the liquid to reduce.

8:26pm: Beets are roasted and resting. They look a little like shriveled coconuts.....

I've got a lovely bunch of beets, deedle dee dee

8:28pm: Onions done. See how the onions have changed color and you can clearly see the bottom of the pan? That means they've absorbed the flavors. When you use regular balsamic, they end up a little darker caramel color. You can also tell they're done because they resist the spoon more.

Sweet and tangy

8:43pm: Time to make the filling. I don't particularly like dill, so my first thought was to replace it with basil. My basil plant went limp, though, so I decided to substitute mint instead. I have no idea how the mint will go with the beets, but considering it mixed really well with the vinaigrette for my cucumber blueberry salad, I figured it couldn't hurt.

Yes, my mixing bowl has a spout. It's awesome.

8:52pm: This is me sloughing off the beet skin. You can tell the skin's off because the beet has a slightly lighter and more purplish color. (Thanks to Brian for taking the picture!)

Yes it's hot pink, and yes it will get all over everything.

Isn't that a beautiful color?

9:13pm: All done and in the oven! Whew! Here are pictures of the tart getting set up. The Food Yenta said two beets, but I think one would have been enough. Since I had so much extra, I decided to do two layers of beets instead. I finished it off with goat cheese, parsley, and some torn mint for garnish (although not too much because I put a ton in there).

  

First layer of Beets

Adding the onions

A second beet layer, extra goat cheese, a handful of fresh herbs, and it's all ready!

10:09pm: Out of the oven and looking great! We had a little photo session to make sure I got it's good side for my post. Brian's heading off to work in a few minutes, so we'll cut into this beauty then.

10:31pm: Wow, it is out of this world! The crust is light and flaky and the hidden layer of beets really ramps up the flavor. I didn't expressly taste the mint as a distinct flavor, but the tart had a refreshing after taste that I attribute to it. It's a lot smoother than last time too; the goat cheese has a very nice flavor. I realized after I finished that I easily could have made two tarts, and I think that's what I'll do next time. Although I think I'm going to do two layers again, because all those beets turned the tart hot pink, and you know I can't resist a pretty picture.

Speaking of, here it is, in all its glory:

Smells as good as it looks!

Extreme Close-up

Overall, I'd call this a huge success. Brian said he'd have the tart for breakfast tomorrow, too....but I don't know if it'll last that long!