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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Sichuan with Sissy

Tonight I had dinner planned with my sister Betsy and she requested something that would be good for her sore throat. We decided to try Sichuan Garden, a very highly recommended Sichuan-style Chinese restaurant just across the street from my apartment, so that she could have some hot and sour soup.

This place was awesome. It was pretty quiet on this night so we got served very quickly, in fact I think the whole meal was 30 minutes. We each had a small bowl of hot and sour soup that was very flavorful and really full of tofu and mushrooms. Betsy said it felt great on her throat. Then we decided to share the dan dan noodles and Kung Pao chicken. Dan dan noodles are something I have only seen at specific Sichuan restaurants but as you'd expect, each time I've had it its been slightly different. The first time it was more like a very spicy version of a pad thai with a peanut-flavored sauce and shredded pork. This time it was a thinner spaghetti noodle with a vinaigrette and very little pork. But both times it was delicious and crazy spicy (which I love). The kung pao was some of the best I've had - not greasy and not too heavy. The restaurant was clearly very authentic, and I've read some Yelp reviews saying so, since I can't proclaim to be an expert in this field. Just don't go here if you don't like spicy food, its what they specialize in.

All together we ate plenty and still had some left over (though it was mostly a plate full of the water chestnuts in the kung pao because Betsy doesn't like them - at least it meant I could take it home!). It was very well-priced and incredibly quick. Check it out if you're ever in my neck of the woods!

http://www.sichuangarden2.com/

http://www.yelp.com/biz/sichuan-garden-brookline

Monday, February 23, 2009

Times Two

A huge time and money saver for me is stretching one meal into two. I'm running low on take-to-work lunches so I decided to make a dinner I could take with me tomorrow - Tex-Mex Rice Bowls!

This is something I invented a while ago by basically raiding my pantry and trying to figure out what to do with what I had. The basic make up is rice and beans, but I make all sorts of variations. I start with a microwave package of brown rice. These things are a lifesaver! Making real rice takes forever and the rice just re-steams in the microwave and is just as good. Then this particular night I had a can of black beans to be the next layer, mixed with some frozen corn. That also went into the microwave. In the meantime, I grilled two boneless skinless chicken breasts on my trusty grill pan with a little seasoning mix on it. One was for tonight and one was for tomorrow. The rice and beans are always too much for one sitting, so as I assembled my rice bowl, the leftovers and extra chicken went into a separate plastic container. Everything gets topped off with some shredded cheese (always the low-fat kind), salsa, and a dollop of sour cream (also low-fat).

By time dinner was ready, so was lunch tomorrow! It's sitting in my fridge all ready to go, including sour cream in a separate plastic container. I always wondered what I'd use those really tiny ones you get in the Tupperware multi-pack! My dinner was very good and filling, full of healthy grains and lots of protein from the beans and chicken. I can't wait to have it again tomorrow!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Now to Try This Working...

I started my new job yesterday, so I don't have much interesting to report on the dinner front. On my first night I made myself a very basic meal of a turkey burger, cooked on my grill pan and topped with some Gouda cheese I had left over. I toasted a wheat bun and sliced up some onion for a quite tasty little burger. On the side just some frozen corn from Trader Joe's. I really like the frozen vegetables from Trader Joe's better than the usual Green Giant or whatnot. The vegetables are always really large and fresh tasting, and they have this particular kind of sweet corn that is ten times better than others I have tried. It stays really crisp - I hate it when its soggy or mushy.

It was nice to take a shot at cooking dinner after working all day and commuting home. As strange as it might sound, I have never had a job where I could just leave at 5pm. This concept is so foreign to me I had to ask my co-workers if that's really what they did. Even with the bus and T ride home during rush hour, I was sitting on my couch by 6pm. I think this bodes well.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Cafe Brazil

I have a strange crazy love of fried plantains. I don't know where it started but they serve them in Brazilian restaurants and therefore, I love Brazilian food. My dad was visiting yesterday and we wanted to go somewhere good to also have an early birthday celebration for my sister. We chose Cafe Brazil, a small hole in the wall in Allston. You would never expect to find such quality in this little place next to a used car lot but it was delicious!

We started with a plate of grilled linguica, a spicy sausage, and a sampling of empanadas, each with a different meat filling inside. They put this hot sauce on the table, and warned us before we attempted it that it was very spicy. They certainly weren't lying - the flavor was intense but only a small dab had a considerable kick! I love spice though so I wasn't afraid. I ordered the Minas Especial - a still sizzling loudly plate of grilled marinated chicken with onions and those plantains I love so dearly. It also came with rice and vegetables. The chicken was so tender and flavorful with garlic and lemon. I had a taste of everyone else's meals, and everything was so good. My sister ordered Sabor Do Brazil, which was just a gigantic plate various grilled meats. It was so much food! They also have a good selection of inexpensive wines and fresh squeezed juices.

http://www.cafebrazilrestaurant.com/

Monday, February 16, 2009

The Pesto Trials

Homemade pesto trial number one was last night. My dear friend Brynne was visiting and I thought it would be fun to make dinner on Sunday night together. Total dork I am I asked for a small food processor for the holidays and I've been dying to try to make some fresh pesto. I decided to use Ina Garten aka Barefoot Contessa's recipe. It called for pine nuts and walnuts mixed but I chose to do all walnuts since pine nuts are so darn expensive! At least I can snack on the extra walnuts.

Reading the recipe, I was surprised to see it calling for nine cloves of garlic! That sounded insane so I peeled only six. I couldn't really tell if I had as much basil as the recipe required, so I decided I'd just eyeball everything and change it to taste. I started with four cloves, all the basil, and a good handful of cheese and walnuts. I also admit cheating with the crappy canned Parmesan cheese that I already had to save some money! That's kind of an Italian food sin but...oh well. I tasted-tested a few times, adding some salt or cheese or walnuts or oil. Thank goodness I didn't just throw in all of the garlic because the pesto was extremely garlicky with what I put in initially. I asked Brynne if she liked garlic, because if she didn't we were in big trouble!

Brynne made us up a salad of baby greens, dried cranberries, feta cheese, and some of the spare walnuts. I quickly mixed up a lemon vinaigrette. I've completely stopped buying jarred salad dressings. I can make something ten times healthier and just as good in two minutes with some lemons or some red wine vinegar. I then tossed the pesto with some penne pasta and some frozen peas that I didn't even need to defrost - they heated up in the pasta pot. The pesto was a real treat. It's amazing how much more flavorful it is made fresh. The basil's crisp sweetness shines through and the garlic is even better when the heat of the pasta cooks it a bit and makes it fragrant. I have about half of it left and am freezing it for another super-fast dinner soon!

Here's the recipe (just use the pesto part below): http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/pesto-pea-salad-recipe/index.html

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Trying Tofu

Lately I've been on a kick of ordering tofu in several Asian dishes I like to eat, instead of chicken or other meat. I thought maybe I'd take a shot at cooking tofu at home, as it is an inexpensive and healthy protein option. I did a little research on how to cook it and found not too much that was consistent, so I cut it into small slices and let it saute in a bit of vegetable oil. I was hoping the pieces would brown up like you find in the restaurants. It did, but even with sufficient oil it stuck a bit. I'll have to figure out how to fix that for next time, I still have half of the tofu left. I took it out when it was brownish and then stir fried some frozen broccoli with a bit of minced garlic and the rest of the green onions I had left over from another recipe. I when they were cooked through I added the tofu back into the pan, and tossed it all with some Trader Joe's General Tso's sauce, which I have now become obsessed with! It's sweet but not overly, and a little goes a long way. It's very similar to take out I've had. I served it over the rest of a pack of microwave brown rice, also from TJ's. I'd opened that up a couple of nights ago to make a bean and rice burrito. You will soon notice a theme here - since I generally cook most nights for just myself, I try to never let anything go to waste. I hate throwing food away!

All in all, the entire thing took only about 25 minutes, and it was delicious! Though I'm pretty sure that sauce could make roadkill taste good. The tofu was surprisingly close to what I was going for, slightly caramelized and crispy on the outside. It was filling and healthy. Now to figure out what to do with the rest of the tofu...

What To Do With Extra Bacon and Eggs

A couple weeks ago, I bought a pack of bacon I was supposed to bring to a friend's "Unemployment Breakfast," and forgot to take it with me. Shout out to his amazing banana chocolate chip pecan pancakes! I kept noticing it in the fridge but I never did any thing with it. Finally last week when I was sick, I'd used a couple slices for a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich for dinner, so now the package was open and was going to go bad soon. Watching 30 Minute Meals one night, Racheal was making a carbonara-inspired pasta made with bacon and eggs. Ken and I both were drooling, so I promised to make it or something similar that week. I remembered my mom mentioning a quick pasta she'd made with the same ingredients, so I asked her for the recipe. Fittingly, my first dinner blog comes via my mother and isn't that how all cooking should come?

The recipe is called Late Night Pasta and its from Emeril Lagasse:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/emerils-late-night-pasta-recipe/index.html

It's incredibly simple and I didn't even have to go out for any ingredients (thanks to a random jar of red pepper flakes I tossed in a moving box). The sauce can be made easily in the time it takes the pasta to cook. I didn't have any shallots so I just used a small onion, which I thought worked just fine. I think I actually would have put more onion in than the recipe calls for. I also went heavy on the red pepper flakes, per my mom's suggestion, and it gave the pasta a real kick. The egg and the cheese create a creamy coating to the pasta and no one can ever complain about bacon. It made enough for Ken and I to have hearty portions, and for me to take for lunch the next day, a major plus for anyone who is trying to save money. I highly recommend it!

What am I eating tonight?

Hello friends, and welcome to The Dinner Blog! I'm a food nerd. I watch a little too much Food Network and I keep a binder full of recipes in plastic covers (its in case things spill!). This is my food story.

My life is in transition. What better time to start a blog (haha)?? I moved to Boston in early December after living in Los Angeles for the last four and a half years. I quit the job I'd once only dreamed of getting (as an assistant in drama development at ABC Network - I worked on shows like Pushing Daisies, October Road, and Life on Mars) and moved myself back another 3000 miles to find a new path that would make me purely happier. After settling into a beautiful Brookline apartment with my good friend Ken, I realized I had a lot of time on my hands and I better find a productive way to use them. I hadn't had a long period of not working full time (plus tons of overtime and one terribly long commute) in five years and it definitely felt strange. Cooking a good meal every night seemed to be a great way to fill my evenings. I was also watching a ton of Food Network shows - some of the only decent programming on in the middle of a Wednesday. Not only that, with no job I obviously needed to pinch the pennies, and cooking at home is one of the best ways to do so.

My dinners are simple. My dinners are usually spent sitting at my small dining table with Ken, watching Seinfeld and Jeopardy. Sometimes they are on my own at my coffee table. So the goal is always quick, easy, and healthy. I have many go-tos, basic dishes that I've been perfecting over the years. Then sometimes I pick a specific recipe to make. I try to choose one recipe every time I go to the grocery store. Since I usually cook for only me, I tend to go for things that will create enough for a dinner and a lunch to bring to work the next day.

As much as I love to cook, I like going out to eat just as much! I now actively use the term "Yelping" to find the best place to out. There is nothing better than discovering a cheap hole in the wall with absolutely delicious food! I've been lucky enough to get to some exceptional restaurants in my life and it is my goal to get to more. Eating at Le Bernardin in New York is definitely on my "To Do Before I Die" list. So here and there, I'll also be blogging about what I'm getting in Boston, and what I recommend.

As I said before, my life is still changing, and I'm about to start a new job in a totally new industry. I'm slightly freaked out, but much more excited, and I don't really know what my life is going to look like over the coming months. In every real job I've ever had, I've been a virtual slave, and doing everything I really wanted to was challenging. Now I have a job where I can leave the office at 5pm, take the T to the gym, and still be home by 7:30. I can cook a hearty meal instead of constantly stopping for take out because its too late and I'm too exhausted to cook. Or so I hope.

There is probably little need for another blog in this world but I hope you'll check it out! Even if its only for me, I'll enjoy keeping track of what I'm doing. I think you'll relate. I'm young, I'm living on my own, I'm trying to save money, and I'm trying to save time. I'll be doing my best to post as many nights as I can, so check back regularly! I hope you'll join me in the telling of my food story. As they say, bon apetit!