bread

One reason I was excited to move into our New York apartment was because we'd have a full-size oven! Which meant that I could bake so much more than just cookies in our little toaster oven! So I decided to try baking some bread. We were also trying to save some money, so I thought it would be great if we never had to buy sandwich bread ever again.

It turns out that bread is harder to make than I thought! The first couple loaves came out like bricks, and they were pretty hard to eat. So I gave up.

But THEN, Cyrus got me the item at the top of my birthday list: a Dutch oven. After having read a bunch of food blogs for the past couple years, I realized how useful this thing could be, and how limited I felt without one. So after experimenting with a couple recipes with the Dutch oven (the galbi jjim and coq au vin both came out beautifully!) I decided to try Jim Lahey's no-knead bread recipe.

I also decided to give dry active yeast a rest and use instant yeast instead. (Maybe something was wrong with my yeast?) Anyway, the recipe worked! The bread really tasted like something you might buy at a store. I used cornmeal to sprinkle onto the crust before I baked it, and it filled the entire apartment with the smell of popcorn! Heavenly!

Anyway, I have a total bread fixation now. Cyrus loves rosemary, so this next recipe caught my eye: I will attempt America's Test Kitchen's rosemary foccacia! (More about how much I love America's Test Kitchen later.)

JEW

Yesterday while I was cooking, I listened to all of the Jimmy Eat World songs that I have. And then I ended up with that feeling... a combination of happy-nostalgic and sad-nostalgic, and excited about and dreading something big that I felt like was about to happen. Why are all Jimmy Eat World songs like this? Anyway, I loved it.

I also ended up with a crazy delicious coq au vin, so that was a nice way to end the Jimmy Eat World jam session.

cooking adventures

I've been having a lot of fun cooking this past week. Here are some pictures!

Gomtang (Korean chicken soup)

Strawberry shortcake (I made the whipped cream from scratch, too!)

Roasted brussels sprouts. It was my first time cooking or eating them -- not bad!

Fun!

stadium food law

There's Murphy's Law and...some other laws. Cyrus and I went to a Red Sox game last week and was a victim of Stadium Food Law.

Here's what it is: The popcorn guy (or Italian ice guy, pizza guy, whatever) at the stadium walks by you a zillion times in 30 minutes. After the zillionth time, you realize you want popcorn/Italian ice/peanuts/whatever. You get your money ready and you're craning your neck to see if you can see him. You wait. And wait. Any minute now... And then he never comes back until like an hour later when you've pretty much given up hope.

Has anyone else experienced Stadium Food Law?

how ina eats

In response to yesterday's post about Esquire's "How Men Eat," I thought I'd make my own list about how I eat.

- I share everything: my food, my drink, my napkin. Anything can be cut in half. Or in fourths.
- If I'm eating with a close friend, I stay at the restaurant or bar until we've exhausted every conversation topic possible. In my experience, we tend to leave a larger tip the longer we stay, especially if the server is gracious about it.
- If there are half-portions available, I order the half-portion.
- If there is a cocktail with fruit puree, I'm ordering it.
- The terms appetizer, side, entree, dessert, etc. are interchangeable. There's no shame in ordering a side as an appetizer, and an app and dessert for your main course.
- If I'm in a rush or if something in the meal is going wrong, it's important that the server validates my feelings.
- If it has a side of grits, mashed potatoes or pretty much anything starchy and gooey, I'm ordering it.
- There is no such thing as three square meals a day or snacking too much.
- An unfamiliar-sounding cheese is just a friend I haven't met yet.

Do you have any rules about how you eat?

how men eat

I came across this list by Esquire through the James Beard awards list. It's a slideshow about "a personal catalog of likes, dislikes, habits, and rules. By men."

A couple of standouts:

- I'll eat something that fell on the floor without thinking about it. Women seem to have a problem with this.
- If any of the daily specials contain the words "potpie," "goose fat," or "barbecued," order it.
- I would rather wait till dinner than have brunch.
- A man doesn't cut a burger in half.

- I don't particularly enjoy sharing. Except with a woman, and then only on the first two dates or any wedding anniversary after the tenth.

- A man can talk while he's chewing as long as it's a really good point and he needs to take advantage of the moment.

- There is no joy in a wrap.

Check out the entire list, with pictures, here.

tuscan cantaloupe + prosciutto

I've told you about how much I love cantaloupe, right?

Well, did I tell you how much I love Tuscan cantaloupe?? At Trader Joe's last week, I saw two types of cantaloupe: regular and Tuscan. Next to the Tuscan cantaloupes stood a sign that said, "Sweeter!" So you can imagine which one I got.

Tuscan cantaloupes have distinct basketball-like grooves.

I like to wait until the cantaloupe is extremely ripe before cracking it open. I left this one in our fruit basket for about four days before I could 1) smell it from halfway across the room, and 2) see that the skin under the webbing was more goldeny than green. Actually, I've noticed that the smell is actually a better indicator of ripeness because the skin of this cantaloupe was plenty green, even though it was fully ripe.

Anyway, I cut it up...

...and paired it with prosciutto! On our honeymoon in Barcelona, I got a chance to experiment with all kinds of meats and fruits, thanks to our daily breakfast buffet. The combination I loved best was Iberico ham with cantaloupe. They don't sell Iberico ham at Trader Joe's, but prosciutto works just as well!

MmmMMmMMmmm!! What a delicious snack!

category game: restaurant memories

Do you remember the names of all the restaurants you and your significant other have eaten at? Ever?

Cyrus and I were taking a long, long drive the other day and to amuse ourselves, we started playing the "category game," which I think my brother invented. Name a category (cities in Europe, fruits) and name everything in that list.

After some pretty boring categories, we decided to list all of the restaurants we've ever been to together! I didn't think it'd be so hard, but we were naming restaurants for a good 30-45 minutes, and even a day later, we're still running up to each other and saying, "Tasca!"

In honor of our game, I thought I'd tell you about some of my favorite restaurant experiences we've had together.

- Maneki: Seattle, WA. Izakaya-style Japanese restaurant we scoped out while we were in Seattle for a wedding. An oasis in a weekend full of traveling and grogginess.

- Ten Tables: Jamaica Plain, MA. Intimate, romantic, and tiny restaurant we went to for Valentine's Day 2009. One of my best meals ever.

- Hungry Mother: Cambridge, MA. Every meal we've had here has been amazing! Southern inspired upscale food in a comfortable setting with very reasonable prices! Amaaahzing cornbread!

- Ray's the Steaks: Arlington, VA. Back when Cyrus was more of a carnivore, this was the only meal that Cyrus smiled all the way through.

- Tapas24: Barcelona, Spain. An everyday tapas eatery, which was the only restaurant we visited that had fewer tourists than natives. (This was also the only restaurant where the server didn't immediately switch to English when they realized Cyrus wasn't comfortable speaking Spanish. It was a total surprise and embarrassment when she switched over to English near the end of our meal!)

What are some of your most memorable restaurant experiences with someone you care about?

more cantaloupe, please!

My tastes have been changing lately, and I can no longer stand cooked salmon or quinoa. But for some reason, I have started to love cantaloupes! And I mean loooove! They are my new favorite fruit for sure.

After doing some research on cantaloupes, I found out the most astounding fact:

Cantaloupes are rich in vitamin A. One serving (1/4 of a medium melon) provides more than 400% of your daily vitamin A.

So kids, don't listen to your parents when they tell you to eat your carrots because they have vitamin A. Throw the carrots away and ask for a cantaloupe instead! :)


Some more fun/useful facts about cantaloupes I found through my extensive internet research:

- They originate from Cantalupo, Italy where historians say this species of melon was first grown.
- A cantaloupe is also called a muskmelon.
- You'll know a cantaloupe is ripe when the skin underneath the webbing is golden, not green, and when the cantaloupe smell comes out quite strongly from the stem end of the melon.
- Cantaloupes are rich in folic acid, antioxidants and potassium.
- Cantaloupes are considered a beneficial component in the diet of a pregnant woman. This fruit relieves water retention by helping the body to excrete the excess sodium.

Do you know of any other interesting food facts?

is offal so awful?

http://no-carrots-please.blogspot.com/

I don't know about other cities, but Boston restaurants are just carraazyy about pigs! Every part of the pig! I'm seeing pig cheeks, half pig head, pigs tail, pork belly (yum), and cured pork fatback on menus!

Check out these articles:
- Snout to tail is the route chefs are taking with pigs these days - Boston.com
- 5 courses with Phillip Tang of North by Northeast - Stuff Magazine

This post would be a lot more interesting if I had a picture of me eating a pig. But I will tell you that I ate a lamb heart sausage at Craigie on Main for our Valentine's Day dinner. Eating heart! Sooo romantic!

What's the craziest animal part you've ever eaten?

umami = flavor

http://no-carrots-please.blogspot.com/

Have you guys heard of the term umami in your restaurant review reading? I thought it was some kind of Japanese sauce that Craigie on Main was for some reason putting in their burger, but Wikipedia is telling me that it's just a Japanese term for...uh...flavor? To be more specific, it's neither sweet, sour, salty or bitter. It's umami. Other words like brothy, meaty, or savory are other incomplete synonyms of the word, and it's used to describe what gives the oomph in mushrooms, stocks, cheese and protein-heavy food. Interesting, huh? Maybe. But I still don't get it.

When I first realized it was a way to describe food, I first wondered if it had anything to do with the Korean term goo-soh-heh, which is used to describe things that taste rich or nutty, sesame oil possessing the quintessential goo-soh-hehness.

Shrug.

Ooh, here's an interesting NPR article about the discovery and science behind umami. I love NPR.

tj's + ny = ?

http://no-carrots-please.blogspot.com/

I keep daydreaming about what it would be like for us to live in New York. I mean, I thought Cambridge was urban enough for us! To be honest, I think the most difficult things about leaving Boston to go to New York would be 1) leaving friends and community for the second time in a year and 2) waiting in line to get into the only Trader Joe's in Manhattan.

I've mentioned my love of TJ's in the past (...yesterday), and the Yelp reviews of Trader Joe's in East Village scare me! I did a search for the word "line," and it showed up 63 times in only 40 reviews! Not a good sign.

(Don't get me wrong - I really hope Cyrus gets this clerkship! He deserves it! If he gets the job, I'll have no problem packing up and leaving... it's just a little scary!) 

So can anyone share some things about New York City that a couple homebodies like us might appreciate?

favorite trader joe's items

To balance the negativity of the last post, I thought I'd tell you about some things that I love! Inspired by this Yelp talk thread, I want to share my favorite items at my absolute favorite grocery store of all time: Trader Joe's. I only started shopping there a few years ago, and now I don't know how I'll ever live without it! The prospect of living in New York scares me, mostly because I hear there's only one Trader Joe's in Manhattan. o_O

So here's what you'll usually find in my shopping cart when I'm at TJ's.

(Wish I had some pictures.)

Portobello mushroom ravioli. This is always a treat for us because it's so easy to make, and the filling is the perfect amount of creamy (from the provolone, I think). One package is exactly enough for Cyrus and Ina (3/5 of the package go to Cyrus, 2/5 to Ina). Perfect drizzled with olive oil and topped with some Parmesan. No sauce necessary!

Frozen hash browns. This stuff is amazing. I used to stick it in the toaster oven to cook it, but once I put it on the frying pan, I've never gone back. These hash browns are better than even your best memory of a McDonald's hash brown. We usually complement our meager cereal breakfasts with this little delight.

Mushroom risotto (frozen and dry). I only saw the frozen package at first, and it's super easy to make, and it's ready in 5-10 minutes, but there are only two (real) servings. Then I found an almost identical product in the dry pasta section. The rice here comes raw (?) and completely uncooked. So you have to do the whole sauteeing of the rice and wait for it to plump up when you add broth, but the dry risotto is cheaper than the frozen and has more servings. Yum!

"Rich and creamy" vanilla and blueberry yogurt cups. I don't really like regular Yoplait that much, and Greek yogurt makes me dry heave. So I've found the richness and creaminess of these cute little yogurt cups just perfect.

Gala apple juice. This is 64 oz. of unfiltered apple juice. What are the ingredients? "Unfiltered apple juice." Period.

Frozen chicken tikka masala. I only recently discovered this. Pretty darn good. I don't know a lot about Indian food, but I've had this dish a lot. Once it's heated up, it's actually pretty hard to tell if it's different from what you might find at a decent Indian buffet.

Do I have any readers already? If so, do you guys have any favorite TJ's products you wanna share? :)