I've moved!

I made it to sunny Florida, and I brought FeDish with me! This page will stay intact for reference/ trips down memory lane, but from now on, I will be documenting my cooking adventures on fedish2.blogspot.com. I know, not very creative, but I like the name! Hey, if it aint broke...

So, that's it. I am a Floridian once again. Come visit me. Virtually, if not actually.

m

good reads

Hi everyone,

No cooking this weekend; I spent it packing and cleaning. But I did find some food blogs that I wanted to share. They have really beautiful photography and interesting recipes.

http://www.honeyandjam.com/

http://www.lottieanddoof.com/

http://racheleats.wordpress.com/

http://www.roostblog.com/

http://www.sproutedkitchen.com/

http://spoonforkbacon.com/

http://whatkatieate.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

m

fridays

Every Friday, for the past 8 months or so, Maria and I have gone to Seiyo on Washington Street for lunch.

Our waitress is Yennie. She doesn't give us menus (in fact, a few of the cooks call me "Volcano girl"), and if we miss a Friday, she yells at me the following week: "Where were you Friday?! I miss you when your gone!!"

A couple weeks ago, I told her I was moving. When I told her where she asked, "Ooooh, you like the Jaguars?!" She then told me about how she liked them, but the coach was no good, because "He don't know how to win games!" I thought it was so hysterical that she had so much to say about the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

our order

I would have never pegged Yennie as a football fanatic. But now, I can just imagine her jumping up and down, screaming at the TV...

When I showed her this picture she said, "Oh my God, I am so beautiful."
I am going to miss you, Yennie!

m

roommate dinner

On Sunday night, I had my farewell dinner. I wanted to make something simple and elegant, but impressively delicious. This month's Bon Appetit, although a bit pretentious in my opinion, had a few Greek-inspired recipes that looked exactly like what I wanted. So I bought a couple of whole chickens and went to work. Unfortunately, approximately half of my dinner party had to cancel at the last minute, so I halved the recipe, and saved the other half for a roommate dinner tonight. :)

You can find this recipe on here. But if you are feeling like staying on one page tonight, I'll put it here, simply.

Start by whisking together 1/8c lemon juice, 1/4 olive oil and 1T honey. Add a couple turns of fresh ground pepper and a little sea salt. Also, preheat the oven to 400.

I decided to not be a spaz and do all the prep work before, so I sliced a couple of lemons and a few shallots.

...and lined my le creuset with some fresh rosemary.

I rinsed my chicken, and rubbed some of the lemon-honey mixture under his skin... Tom. Under Tom's skin. Then I shoved a sprig of rosemary, a few lemon wedges and shallot slices up his booty-hole. I respectfully laid a few slices over his bosom, and the rest of the lemons and shallot around his body. I sprinkled his carcass with the last of my chopped rosemary, and said a few words.

Pop him in the over and set the timer for 45 minutes. I checked in every few minutes or so with a baster to make sure he was nice and juicy. When 45 minutes was up, I covered the pan with foil, lowered the temp to 375 and left him for what Bon Appetit says should be 10 more minutes, but ended up being closer to 30.

It's okay though, it gave me some time to work on a few sides.

I sliced a baguette, buttered and parmesan cheesed-them. When the chicken was finished, I set the oven to broil and broiled them for about 6-7 minutes, along with my veggies.

Asparagus and mushrooms, sea salt and balsamic vinegar. Mmmmm.

It was really nice to have dinner with my roommates. We are rarely all at home at dinner time together. I like it.

Here's another option for a side dish. I came up with it last minute on Sunday.
Roast in a pan:
2 small eggplant, chopped
2 bell peppers, chopped (1 yellow, 1 orange)
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 28oz can whole stewed tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped

farewell dinner 

I think this roast chicken is going to be in rotation from now on. 

What are you eating these days? Discover anything new lately?

m

flavors of India

This should come as no surprise, but on Friday night, another spontaneous Indian party erupted. And of course, resulted in some delicious food. This time, Susieji made a few vegetarian dishes for Aditya, who came for a visit from San Jose! He fried some chopped potatoes in spices, and made Dal (lentils) in tomato and turmeric. He also made a chicken dish that included onion, cilantro, tomato, and a garlic ginger paste.

For the Dal, he started by sauteing some chopped tomatoes in a large pot, then added the lentils and water (follow the measurement suggested on the box). He also added turmeric. Susieji is the same kind of cook I am, in that we don't measure. So I'm sorry I can't tell you how much turmeric. Follow your instincts. While that was simmering, he sautéed some garlic and chopped jalapenos in oil in a separate pan, and added them to the lentils once finished. He seasoned with salt and pepper. Soo delicious.

After dinner, we were all sitting in the kitchen when Susieji walks back in with a present. They presented it to me while Rajiv snapped a few pictures, hoping I would cry. I didn't, but I'm sure I will once I read what they each wrote on the inside cover. Oh yeah, it's an Indian cookbook, which I guessed as soon as they handed it to me. We know each other so well.

So many surprises sprung from my new life in Boston, and I love each and every one of them.

The following morning, Sujoy used the leftover chicken to make omelets, also amazing.

This is the book that the boys picked out for me. Out of curiosity, I yelped Indian groceries in Jacksonville and found several promising prospects. I'll let you know once I visit them, and once I test out my new cookbook :)

Tonight, I'm hosting my own going away dinner, with a few more of my favorite people. I'm trying out a Greek-inspired chicken dish, so stay tuned!

m

belated PFW

I feel so bad, but I totally missed this month's Party Food Wednesday. So we're celebrating a little late. And also hopefully next week, for the real May PFW. Have any of you observed this holy food holiday yet? If you haven't, you should.

Its been incredibly quiet and boring at work lately. So I've been passing the time by doing a little homework, listening to npr podcasts, pretending to be busy, and checking out some food blogs. This week, I was looking at Deb's spring inspired recipes on Smitten Kitchen and decided that her leek toasts with bleu cheese would be a perfect edition to this week's hors d'oeuvre dinner.

I started by chopping and washing two large leeks, and soaking them in cold water. Don't skip this step! It was pretty disgusting how much dirt was in the bottom of the bowl after a few minutes.

Then, I sauteed them in a little booder and awl. Actually, I melted the butter and oil in high heat, then added the leeks and turned them down to low, covered and let simmer for a while, stirring occasionally.

A few cranks of pepper and some sea salt, and they're done. Easy!

While those were sautéing, I started on my shaved asparagus pizza, also from Smitten Kitchen. Shaving asparagus with a potato peeler is actually a lot harder than it looks. It took the entire length of Sanne's shower for me to finish shaving a bunch of asparagus. 

This pizza had 1/4c parmesan cheese, 1/2c mozzarella cheese, and shaved asparagus...

but I didn't measure, obviously...

I grated a little extra parmesan on top, and a little salt and pepper, and broiled it on high for about 5 minutes. 

And no Party Food Wednesday would be complete without some bone marrow and parsley salad...

and Indian boxing (?).

We may or may not have been given a little Indian rum after dinner, and Susieji may or may not have made some of his beef curry. It was a genuine Party Food Wednesday, complete with matching party.

I'm going to miss these guys so much when I'm gone...
Susieji and I were talking tonight and he said something that managed to stick in my foggy mind: "When you are cooking, you get to just be you." He is a wise one, that Susiegee.

oh man, this smell...

I made a quiche with the rest of my leeks, which turned out to be perhaps my best quiche to date. 

Susieji and I share not only a love of cooking, but a love of the Cranberries. I can't even tell you how happy this video makes me:



And that was PFW3. A very good one.
By the way, we are a mere 10 posts away from 200!!! Hopefully I can knock those out before I move. I think I can...

m

say it to my face

Is it true?

"I love laughs!"

It’s time for another theme night! Kasia suggested one of her personal favorites, Marilyn Monroe. I wasn’t sure what kind of foods would relate to this theme, so we decided to go with a color—rosé. But if it’s pink or red or gives off a diamonds-are-a-girl’s-best-friend vibe… well, that’s okay too.

We’ve done salmon and scallops, so tonight I decided we needed something not only fitting the color theme, but also a little on the decadent side. Steak! I had a little radicchio left over from Easter to rosé-up our salad, and Kasia requested roasted bone marrow appetizer—since she still hadn’t tried it. Hey, when it comes to bone marrow, you don’t have to ask me twice… or once.

Now that I think about it, the movie is all about these women trying to snag themselves rich husbands by pretending to be rich. They just pawn their furniture, live off hotdogs and hang out in the mink department at Bergdorf-Goodman's. "Champagne taste on a beer budget"... that's our theme.

I started by marinating the steaks. I used garlic, s+p, Worcester sauce, and some raspberry balsamic glaze that I picked up at Cardullo’s a while back. Perfect for this theme, ay?

Kasia and I decided to make our own salad dressing again, this time using raspberries as a base. Kasia pushed them through a sieve to separate out the seeds. She saved half of it for our dessert, and to the other half we added oil and balsamic vinegar, a little sugar, a little lemon juice and some s+p.

It turned out pretty tasty...

and red!

We sipped on some wine (red, of course), while Adam did manly things, such as man-ning the steaks while wielding a sharp knife.

Not everything was red-red, but it definitely fit our "How to Marry a Millionaire" theme. In case you didn't know, bone marrow is dirt-cheap. I think that's because most people use them for stocks and stews, not as meat butter (their loss). Making your own dressing is cheap, but definitely fancier. The parsley salad is simple but elegant as well.

The main cost for me was the steak. But seeing as how I rarely buy/eat steak, I didn't feel guilty about this one indulgence. Besides, these were $15 for three, which at a restaurant would be much, much more.

I don't have a grill, so I referred to Pioneer Woman's cast iron skillet technique. It worked out nicely, especially with some caramelized onions on top.

Oh, by the way, the parsley salad is:

chopped parsley
thinly sliced shallot
olive oil
lemon juice
s+p
a little minced garlic

I didn't measure, I just eye-balled and whisked everything together. This parsley salad brings it to the next level. It's awesome. Now I'm wondering what else I can put it on...

After dinner, we quickly threw together the cakes, which I'm officially calling Kasia's specialty.

And Adam brushed up on his cat photography...

...and popped open the bubbly

heehee

well get you!

So that's that. Another successful theme-dinner. Kasia thoroughly enjoyed her first bone marrow, Adam was a trooper, sitting through a Marilyn movie without complaint, and I saved a bundle and had a blast cooking with friends. I'm not sure what the next theme night will be... any suggestions? I'm thinking Italian (and maybe Moonstruck?).

Have a great week!

m