Better Late

I sort of dropped the ball on Valentine's Day this year. Tobie had planned to get me a massage as a gift (wicked!) but then I fell in love with this scarf in Galway. And I was given the option to choose.

Chose scarf.

I couldn't find anything for him and I didn't want to buy something just for the sake of buying it.

So I cooked him a Valentine's Day dinner. But like most important meals I make, it was chaos on wheels. I had to go to four different stores to find everything. Buckwheat flour? Ceramic ramekins? What? Oh, and about 2 hours to do the shopping and cooking. I almost always try new things when I am under the gun. No idea why.

Thankfully I had some of the more exotic things on hand (well, exotic by some Irish standards). See I knew those vanilla pods, dried mustard, and bakers chocolate from AVOCA would come in handy some day! Mwahahahahahah!

Initial chaos. Bad idea to try 3 new recipes at once? Um. Yeah. And yes that is a washing machine in my kitchen. Welcome to Ireland.

So these were the appetizers--buckwheat and cheddar blinis with smoked salmon. The recipe is here. Possibly the finest achievement of the night was that MY version actually looked BETTER than the Food and Wine magazine photo! That was definitely a first. Seriously, go look at their recipe. The below photo is mine. Also, I used mascarpone cream mixed with lemon juice, lemon zest, and snipped chives instead of sour cream (as the recipe called for).

The main course was supposed to be this scallops with brussel sprouts dish. But for the life of me I couldn't get my hands on fresh scallops. Of course, the one day I am looking for them, nary a scallop is to be found.

So after much angst and gnashing of teeth, I decided to substitute smoked coley for the scallops in the recipe. And HELLO NURSE! It was actually quite nice, the smoked flavor went well with the pancetta. Not to mention the starving student budget points for saving money on le cheap fish instead of les scallope!

  Oh I should mention, Food and Wine kindy offers wine pairing suggestions. Conveniently I was doing a creamy, fishy appy and main (which probably goes against all the laws of 'treating your arteries right') so one wine cut it. I bought a mid-ranged Cabernet Sauvingon Blanc. I grabbed blind though because my white wine knowledge is even more limited than my red.  It was probably something that had a 'hand selected by SuperQuinn' sticker and '10% off' label on it. But, I have to say, the magazine's grape suggestion was bang on. The crispiness cut the cream and didn't bring out the fishiness.  So good work there Food and Wine magazine on the wine pairings! Do not quit your day jobs.

Dessert was a bit of an adventure as well.  I managed to find these ridiculously cute ramekins on sale. They even came with little lids. God I am a sucker for little lids, it must be a throwback from my early Easy Bake Oven days or something. 

I am a terrible/hopeless/pathetic baker so it is always a gamble when I get on the other end of a measuring spoon. But! My desserts turned out looking like some kinda fancy-schmancy little pots of heaven when I took them out of the oven! (Pictured above). And then I covered them with dessert-wine-soaked cherries and vanilla mascarpone cream--and made them wickedly evil.

A little HDL never killed anyone, right?

So despite the fact that the molten cakes weren't quite as molten as I'd like, and that my timing was a bit off (was whipping the cream while serving the main course, as evidenced by the flecks of mascarpone all over my microwave and backsplash). Tobie was a happy man. And I think I have regained both my sanity and my title as 'best girlfriend evah'.

Tobie was happy. I was happy. Lesson learned. 

Even though I should have been memorizing what antibodies are specific to systemic lupus erythematosus and drawing out the pathways of auto-immunity...I made buckwheat blini.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the gravity of SLE and the importance of keeping up with school work. But you know, sometimes you just gotta make buckwheat blini.

Spicy-Boyfriend-Is-Away Burgers

Tobie is, a bit of a picky* and somewhat regimented eater. For example, he'd never cook burgers if we didn't have green lettuce to put on them.

Tobie's Law--all burgers must have one or two crisp slices of lettuce on them or they shall be deemed inedible.

He thinks chicken on pizza is an abomination, won't eat any meat unless it is cooked to hell (I told him what chefs think of people who order steak 'well done'), he hardly touches left overs, and is lukewarm toward Mexican food.

I, on the other hand; love things bloody/nearly raw, hate to throw out food, could happily survive on Mexican food alone, have fairly loose rules on what foods ought to be eaten together, and think chicken on pizza is a nice way of getting lean protein into a meal.

Yet, we somehow make it work. 

But ground turkey is a major point of contention between us. I LOVE cooking with ground turkey. I used to make shepherds pie, burgers, meatballs, lasagna, chile--all with ground turkey.

Tobie loathes it. To the point where he practically gags when he tries it.

So I am back at the homestead alone now for a week while Tobie and his family cavort in Dublin. I had to stock up on groceries (I have a car for another 2 weeks until Terrence gets back and reclaims it) so naturally I bought some ground turkey breast because Tobie wasn't there to stop me!

[Cue maniacal laughter.]

Anyway, I frittered around with it and came up with this killer (IMHO) recipe. Enjoy!

        Spicy-Boyfriend-Is-Away Burgers
-1 egg

-

-3 inch piece of dried chorizo sausage, peeled and finely diced
-handful of bread crumbs (if you are making your own dice them very small, or grate frozen bread)
-2 tbsp chipotle chile flakes (or one med. sized chipotle chile in adobo sauce)
-1 tbsp chile paste (or dried chile flakes/tsp cayenne)
-1 tbsp garlic powder
-1 tbsp chile powder
-salt and pepper
-2 green onions, diced

Mix everything up, form into patties, cook on heated/oiled pan or in the oven until salmonella/E.coli risk free!

I ate mine with pita bread, radicchio, salsa, purple onion and a bit of mayo. It was pretty damn delicious. Also, I wasn't really measuring things so all of that is a rough estimation. If you're worried about spice level then put in 1/2 the spices and fry up a spoonful to test it. I like a pretty strong kick.

--
*He is definitely going to disagree with me that he is a "picky eater" if he reads this post. Sorry Tob, I calls them as I sees them!

The Only Accurate Thing About Grey's Anatomy

I used to watch Grey's about 3 years ago when I had gone back to do my pre-req courses for medical school. I'd spend a lot of time yelling at the screen when seriously inaccurate events were depicted (several times per episode) but yet I couldn't tear my eyes away. Yes, it was my television version of a train wreck.

The only thing they got right was the baking. Izzie used to bake when she was stressed and for me, that is bang on. Only I rarely bake, I cook.

action shot

Hence yesterday being rather therapeutic.

It was Ryan's birthday on Thursday so I offered him a birthday dinner as his present from me. I love cooking for people anyway, so it's like a double-edged gift sword of goodness (poor mixed metaphor? Whatever, I like it).

So out of the menu options he chose Hearty Wine and Beef Stew with Dumplings, I deviated slightly from the recipe because I loathe parsley, so the dumplings had green onion and basil in them instead. There was garlic bread and home made ceasar salad to start, and for dessert this berry custard and ginger cookie bowl of yumminess. And, naturally some mulled wine--hey, it is almost December. We have a farmers market here on campus I was able to get all organic veggies and even local organic meat (a.k.a happy meat) for a decent price.

Since I started making the stew at 1400h, it was great to study and breathe in the aromatherapy all afternoon. Somehow the different types of collagen and epithelial adhesion mechanisms just weren't that hard to bear.

By the time dinner was on the table I had been able to shake off the horrible feeling that had been churning my stomach all week. This was also in part due to the comments and emails of encouragement from the blogosphere---thank you! I definitely needed that pick-me-up.

School is hard, and most days yes, all encompassing. But somehow when there are people around that you love, delicious stew on the table, and mulled wine in your glass, life seems more than ok.

Caught with a mouthful of Ceasar.