Dinner #33: See Dinner #32

Monday, March 30, 2009: Back to the weekly grind. I had the exact same thing tonight, as last night. Tomorrow is looking like leftovers again but maybe I can get something new in.

Dinner #32: Skirt Steak with a Lentil, Grape, Feta, and Herb Salad

Sunday, March 29, 2009: This recipe came from Tyler Florence's Tyler's Ultimate cookbook. This is the first recipe I've made out of this book but if they are all this good it won't be the last.

I've been a fan of Tyler since his How to Boil Water show on the food network. I've been to his restaurant, Cafeteria in Chelsea a few times as well. Everything I've always had has been great but I hear lots of differing opinions. Not really sure if he is still involved in it or not anymore anyway since his move to California.

To start I roasted a head of garlic. It was so good. I also loved this picture of it.



The skirt steak and lentil salad were also super easy to make. The skirt steak was very good but I think the lentil salad was the star of the show. The combination of beluga lentils, green grapes, cilantro, feta, and jalapeno is great. You get earthy, sweet, spicy, salty, I honestly think this could be my new favorite salad.



You can find the recipe for all of the above on google books.

Dinner #31: Leftover Chicken with Roasted Cauliflower and Brussel Sprouts

Saturday, March 28, 2009: Not even the wine I drank with dinner tonight was new. Most of this you've seen and heard about before so I'll spare the description.

Dinner #30: Leftover Pork, Chicken, Coleslaw, & Beans

Friday, March 27, 2009: It was a long work week on top of Emily being sick all week with vertigo. If not for Dorothy coming in town to watch Emily I don't know what I would have done - Thanks again, Dorothy!

Since Emily is still on "white" foods (rice, plain pasta) I just pulled together random leftovers from the week. Tonight's included BBQ pork (finally, the last of the pork), part of a rotisserie chicken from Zabars, coleslaw, and cowboy beans (getting close to polishing these things off as well).



Not much else to say. Need sleep.

Dinner #29: Dukkah Crusted Snapper with Avacado and Grapefruit Salad

Thursday, March 26, 2009: Tonight was Dorothy's last dinner with us in her week-long stay to take care of Emily. We went simple with just salad and fish. To start I made a grapefruit and avocado salad. The dressing is a combination of grapefruit juice, salt, pepper, cumin, and extra virgin olive oil.



We got red snapper for the fish as it is a nice and firm. The coating on top is dukkah. If you don't want to follow the link to the recipe (and don't know what dukkah is) dukkah is a mix of nuts and spices (hazelnuts, sesame seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, salt pepper). I coat the top, sear it in olive oil on the stove top, then flip it over and finish cooking it in the oven.



Definitely won of my all time favorites.

Dinner #28: Fried Tofu with Black Bean & Chili Sauce

Wednesday, March 25, 2009: For a little change of pace tonight I decided to go with tofu as the main course tonight. I really like tofu and everytime I have it wonder why I don't cook it more often. The source of tonight's tofu is Kylie Kwong. Emily & I first heard about her from Delicious magazine. We were going on vacation to New Zealand & Australia and they said we had to stop by her restaurant, Billy Kwong while in Sydney.

We were excited to go & planned to get there early as the restaurant doesn't take reservations. We showed up at 6:30 hoping to get in later in the evening but at that point they were already booked for the night and not taking any more reservations (apparently you need to show up around 5pm to get a table sometime that night.

A few years later I happened to pick up her Simple Chinese Cooking cookbook and this recipe comes from it.

Below is a picture of the tofu dish.



The recipe calls for salted black beans but I didn't have any (I need to make another trip to chinatown) so I used some black bean paste I had instead. The resulting sauce turned out really well. We also had stir fried bean sprouts (not pictured) which were very tasty. I tried to see if I could find the recipe anywhere online for either of these but didn't have any luck.

Dinner #27: Spinach Linguine with Sicilian Meatballs

Tuesday, March 25, 2009: Emily is still in about the same shape on the vertigo piece of this. Sucks. Really wish I could do something to make it better but the ENT says only time will heal.

Tonight I got rid of the last of the Sicilian meatballs I made for dinner #10. We had frozen about half of them so Dorothy (Emily's mother) pulled them out to thaw while I was at work. These I did with some spinach linguine I bought at Fairway over the weekend. They have great fresh pastas in one of the aisles near the orange juice (which is very good. Instead of a red sauce I just added some good extra virgin olive oil and some pecorino locatelli cheese.



Dorothy was also very nice to have gone out and picked up a nice nero d'avola from Best Cellars on Broadway.

Dinner #26: Herb Coated Fish with Cauliflower & Brussel Sprouts

Monday, March 23, 2009: Emily is still not doing any better with her vertigo. Her mother, Dorothy, came in town today to help keep her company and take care of her during the day. In keeping with the standard weekly tradition though, most of what I used for dinner where things we needed to use before they went bad. With that said...

The fish I used was some cod I picked up at Citarella the day before. I had some herbs (cilantro, parsley, & mint) that I needed to use so I chopped a bunch of those up and put them on the fish along with salt, pepper, & lemon. I pan fried the fish in some olive oil which made the herbs slightly crispy.

For the vegetables I ran across this recipe for roasted cauliflower & brussel sprouts with orange in our copy of the Bon Appetit Cookbook. I was actually looking for a recipe for cauliflower panna cotta as Emily & I had been talking about making that (topped with cavier) for a party we're planning in the spring. I didn't find the panna cotta recipe but this one sounded (and ultimately tasted) very good.

Below is the final result. It's pretty green/white so maybe next time I'll actually add the orange segments to give it some color (I just didn't have any extra oranges this time - you'll need 3 total: 2 for juice, 1 for segments).

Dinner #25: Duck Salad

Sunday, March 21, 2009: We spent the whole day inside today as Emily's vertigo still has not improved. I ran out to the store quickly to grab a few things for food this week including half of a rotisserie duck. I used this along with cilantro, a long red pepper, cucumber, & scallions to make a duck salad. The dressing is a combination of hoisin, soy, balsamic vinegar, and sesame oil. It's originally from an Australian chef; Bill Granger's Open Kitchen cookbook.



Emily and I ate breakfast in his cafe Bill's Surry Hills when we were in Sydney. His scrambled eggs are some of the best you'll find - likely because he adds heavy cream to them.

Dinner #24: See Dinner 23

Saturday, March 21, 2009: Spent the whole day at Roosevelt Hospital. Emily somehow ended up with a case of vertigo. If you've never had it, count your blessings. I'm in that bunch but from watching how much discomfort Emily is in: dizziness, nausea, vomiting, dehydration, it looks really bad.

We left here around 9am this morning & got back home around 8pm. Emily had about 4 IV bags to re-hydrate her & about 3 different nausea pills. I had a bottle of water & some dried fruit. Despite having eaten little I'm exhausted & Emily still doesn't feel any better. She went straight to bed, I had, yet again, leftover pork & cowboy beans. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

FYI - Staff (nurses & doctors) at Roosevelt are great.

Dinner #23: Leftover Pork and Beans

Friday, March 20, 2009: It's Friday night AND the NCAA tournament just started. Add to these items that Emily is sick and not eating it means 1 thing. Leftovers. To see what I ate tonight, scroll down 2 days to Wednesday - it's the same thing. Sadly I still have a lot of leftover pork so I'm going to have to figure out something else to do with it. I'm thinking of throwing it in BBQ sauce, making some coleslaw, and making BBQ sandwiches. We'll see but for now I have to cheer on the Louisville Cardinals in the NCAA Tourney. Go Cards!

Dinner #22: Fatty Crab

Thursday, March 19, 2009: Emily & I had dinner tonight at the newly opened Fatty Crab on the Upper West Side.


I've been waiting for this place to open for about 6 months! It was seriously delayed and at one point I wasn't sure if it was going to open at all. Finally though it did actually open and I'm happy to say is every bit as good as the village outpost - and the space is bigger too. I still had to take a 6:15 reservation to get in but I can live with that for now.

It's family style so we ordered the green mango salad, steamed pork buns, bok choy, the crispy pork and watermelon salad, and one of the specials of the day, a whole cooked fish (branzino). Below are a few food picks courtesy of a review on yelp. I didn't have a camera on me so hopefully the folks at yelp won't mind me borrowing a few as long as give them the credit.

Dinner #21: Pork Shoulder with Sour Orange Mojo

Wednesday, March 18, 2009: I finally had the pork tonight. Took me 3 days to get to this point. One day to make mojo & marinate the pork, one night to overcook it (more on that later), then finally tonight to re-heat & eat it. To make it a true stereotypical "guy food" meal, my vegetable was beans.



The overcooking of the pork still irks me. I thought the pork was a bone-in shoulder so I cooked it longer as meat with a bone it it takes longer than meat without. However, once I pulled out out I realized that it didn't have a bone. I should have been tipped off by the fact that it was tied up with string, but how many times do you run across a 5 lbs boneless pork shoulder? Every one I've seen before is closer to 3 lbs. Anyway... it was still very good but just needed a little extra mojo to keep it moist.

The beans are also one of my favorites. These are "quick cowboy beans" from Rick Bayless' Mexican Everyday cookbook. These start out so well simply because you start with bacon. If there's any better smell than bacon cooking, it's bacon & garlic cooking together - which is the second ingredient to the beans. Also combined with diced tomatoes, pinto beans, chicken stock, & pickled jalapenos. Worth every effort to make - especially given that they are super easy.

Dinner #20: English Peas with Mint and Carrot Rosti

Tuesday, March 17, 2009: So I've been trying to make this pork shoulder with a sour orange mojo for 2 days now. Yesterday I made the mojo and marinated the pork in it for 24 hours. Fine, has to be done. Unfortunately I got home too late to make it for dinner tonight as it has to cook for 2 hours so I'll be having it tomorrow night.

This means of course that I'll be having leftovers again tonight. So that I don't have 2 days of the same leftovers though I wanted to make something new. So I decided to cook some English peas I got at Fairway. I made a compound butter with mint & salt to melt into them.



I also finished off the rest of the carrot rosti so I'm feeling good about getting rid of another container in the fridge. I'm sure I scraped up a few other things as well but those 2 items made up the majority of last night's meal.

Dinner #19: Random Leftovers

Monday, March 16, 2009: It doesn't really get much more random than tonight. Essentially I spent my normal "cooking" time making a sour orange mojo that went on a pork shoulder that I'll cook tomorrow. After than I ate whatever random tidbit I could find in the fridge. So tonight that was an arugula salad, refried beans, carrot rosti, and lavash bread. No pics really needed as you've seen pictures of all of these in previous posts.

Dinner #18: Sumac Crusted Lamb and Carrot Rosti

Sunday, March 15, 2009: This recipe came out of Delicious Magazine - another recurring theme I expect you'll see throughout the year. The Aussies definitely know what to do with their lamb and this recipe is no exception.



The lamb is simply coated with salt & sumac then cooked in olive oil. If you've never had sumac it's this great tart lemony taste. Combined with the salt it's amazing.

The carrot rosti was what originally attracted me to the page with this recipe. It's a combination of grated carrots, vegetable stock, eggs, creme fraiche, & cheddar cheese. You can get the recipe for both off taste.com.au.

Dinner #17: Panko Crusted Chicked and Broccoli

Saturday, March 14, 2009: You'll probably see this one a lot over the course of the year. Panko crusted chicken is a favorite of both Emily & I.



It's super easy and really good comfort food. This time I tried a something a little different in that I added lemon zest to the panko bread crumbs. I picked up this trick on an episode of Iron Chef. I only used 1 lemon and it was a little faint so next time I think I'll go with the zest of 2 lemons.

Turns out I had bought some broccoli a few days earlier & forgotten about it so we ended up having broccoli with dinner tonight too.

Dinner #16: Land Thai Restaurant

Friday, March 13, 2009: It was a long week and Friday started and ended in a crazy way - go figure since it's Friday the 13th. As a result I didn't feel like cooking tonight. Emily & I also met friends out for drinks after work so we were late getting home as well. So all this added up to delivery from Land Thai Kitchen. My favorite Thai place on the upper west side.

Every time I go I always start with the green papaya salad.



I'm assuming that this is traditional but it always super spicy (although sometimes more than others). I like my heat - which is part of the appeal of this dish - but it has a great variety of sweet, sour, and spice. I could eat this every day of the week.

I also tried something new in getting the Massaman Lamb Curry.



This one was also tasty but not my favorites. Next time I'll give something else a try.

Dinner #15: Broccoli, Radicchio, & Meatballs

Thursday, March 12, 2009: As I mentioned in the previous post, all I really wanted for dinner tonight was vegetables. So I stopped by our corner market, Broadway Farms (on 85th & Broadway), to pick a few things up.

I kind of knew I wanted broccoli going in but didn't know what else I was going to get. I think I was drawn to the radicchio because of the red/purple color & the feeling it would look nice next to the broccoli. I also really like it baked in the oven with olive oil, salt, pepper, and some lemon juice.



I also had some leftover meatballs and rice so I threw those onto a plate along with the veggies so I got rid of a few leftovers as well.

Dinner #14: Smoothie, Balance Bar, Almonds

Wednesday, March 11, 2009: I got dinner at O'Hare airport tonight. Instead of the standard fare from Starbucks I decided to try something different. Starting off with the B-Cool smoothie from the "Burrito Beach B Smooth" stand. It's a delectable combination of blueberries, bananas, & pineapple.



The bar & almonds (from a Hudson News stand) I usually save for the flight. It works for the trip home but really leaves me feeling like I need some vegetables.

Dinner #13: BBQ Chicken Sandwich, Apple, Peanut Butter

Tuesday, March 10, 2009: Dinner at the aloft hotel in Chicago. Yum!

Okay, not really. I love the aloft hotel but the one downside of it is that there is no restaurant on the premises and none nearby (it's out by O'Hare airport). They do have a little snack bar downstairs so I was able to scrounge up a BBQ chicken sandwich, an apple, and some peanut butter. Random, yes. But at least I got some protein and fruit.

Dinner #12: Leftover Pork & Kmuquat Stir Fry

Monday, March 9, 2009: Not much to talk about in the food category tonight. I'm traveling to Chicago tomorrow morning (coming back late Wednesday) so it's leftovers from last night. I'd post a picture but all you really need to do to see it is scroll down the page :)

Dinner #11: Pork & Kumquat Stir Fry

Sunday, March 8, 2009: I found this recipe in the Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh cookbook. You can also get the recipe on epicurious.com.

We were a little late getting dinner on the table so prior to making the stir-fry I whipped up a salad of arugula, cranberries, and blue cheese.



The stir-fry may sound pretty funky but it's actually quite good and can be prepped & cooked very quickly. It's a great mix of spice, sweet, and sour. My wife doesn't really care for spice so I just used canola oil instead of the chili oil and it was still a winner - which is good as there is enough that I'll be eating it again sometime soon.

Dinner #10: Sicilian Turkey Meatballs

Saturday, March 7, 2009: Dinner tonight was Sicilian meatballs (using ground turkey instead of ground beef) with an apple & arugula salad. Note: the apple & arugula salad has appeared a lot lately as we're trying to get rid of some lemons & apples that we bought in bulk.

The recipe for this comes from the Gourment Cookbook. If you've never heard of or tried these before I highly recommend it. It's this great combination of flavors you don't traditionally think of in an Italian meatball. It has breadcrumbs, almonds, sugar, cinnamon, pine nuts, dried currants, & pecorino cheese. Here's what they looked like prior to going into the oven.



Funny thing about this recipe in the book is that they outline ingredients & how to assemble the meatballs, but they totally forgot to include cooking instructions. There are tons of ways to cook them (I prefer cooking them in the oven as opposed to in a skillet with olive oil) so this isn't much of a problem. It's just funny in that the book was pretty meticulously put together so it's a surprising oversight. Below is the finished product. It's not the best composed & colorful photo but I like that you can see the currants & pine nuts in the meatballs.

Dinner #9: Breakfast Burritos

Friday, March 6, 2009: Unfortunately I have no pictures of our dinner for this post. I did take 2 pictures that looked really nice through the viewer in my camera (Canon 30D). I had even imagined how I would start the post. However, after dinner I sat down on the couch and noticed that the CF card for my camera was sitting on the coffee table. Then after cursing for a bit came to accept the fact that there would be no pictures.

On the upside though, I generally make this meal a lot so I'll have pictures for a future post.

The breakfast burrito I make is inspired by the one served at The Grove in San Francisco (I like the restaurant in the Marina district the best)



Since we were also working on getting rid of some stuff in the refrigerator our burritos were really more of an open face burrito. I had some corn tortillas that we warmed up to make soft. Topped it with some refried beans, scrambled eggs, guacamole, pico de gallo, and bacon. IMHO, comfort food is a great way to end a long week. Next time, photos of the finished product - promise.

Dinner #8: Airport Fare

Thursday, March 5, 2009: I had to make a day trip to Chicago today. I'm not sure if I love of hate these. It's nice because I get to sleep in my own bed that night. However, on the downside, I'm up at 4:15am and then don't get home until midnight. Dinner is never really that great either as it's generally purchased at the airport - O'Hare airport in Chicago in this case.

My yummy dinner came from the Starbucks in terminal 3 near gate H11. Which also happened to be the gate where my flight was leaving - funny how that works out no?



To be accurate, only the banana & apple came from Starbucks. The cliff bar & almonds came from the Hudson News stand which was also nearby. I considered getting dinner from the food court - O'Hare has a pretty nice one - but can never find much that appeals.

I also have a preconceived notion that all airport fast food is bad for you. One day when I'm seriously delayed I'll take a trip through & see what I can come up with in terms of nutritional value for the options there.

Dinner #7: Leftover Noodles with Shrimp

Wednesday, March 4, 2009: Nothing says "middle of the week" like leftovers. The work day is usually long so coming home around 8pm all you want to do eat as quickly as possible then chill a bit before heading to bed to start the whole routine over again the next day.

Enter: leftover noodles & shrimp!

This delectable creation was originally made 3 or 4 days ago. And while it doesn't look or taste quite as good as it did on day 1, it does the trick. Mid-week dining at its best.

Dinner #6: Tuna Melts and Asparagus

Tuesday, March 3, 2009: Still working on getting rid of the sourdough boule. I have a feeling the next few dinners will all include bread as an ingredient some way or another. For a change though, Emily made dinner instead of me. See the tuna in process below.



Dinner was also very low key last night as we were meeting (virtually) with Dave Cerchio (no online profile that I could find) to do some financial planning. Dave is a friend, financial planner, and all around smart guy. It gives me a little heart to hear the he is equally befuddled by the behavior of the stock market. But that story is for another place... Back to the food thing.

My favorite part about this meal is that our oven's propensity to go to whatever temperature it wants - no matter where you set the dial - doesn't really matter. Rub olive oil, salt, pepper on asparagus, stick in oven, check occasionally, pull out when done. Pretty much the same goes for the tuna melt. Simple, quick, & tasty. How can you argue with that?

Dinner #5: Turkey Panini

Monday, March 2, 2009: Tonight's meal was request by Emily - Turkey Panini!



Every now and then one of us (usually Emily) will get in "Freezer Clean Out Mode" at which point the sole mission is to make something that includes at least 1 freezer item every night. This mode also exists for cabinets, containers, and just about anything else inside a house. The real fun begins when these initiatives overlap but that's another story...

Tonight was only Freezer related and specifically directed at a sourdough boule - which I have to admit makes a great panini bread (see shot above). So that we had a vegetable (if you can call it that) I also made a salad with arugula, dried blueberries, and a strawberry vinaigrette

Dinner #4: Cedar Planked Salmon (Without the Cedar Plank)

Sunday, March 1, 2009: While at the store I picked up some great looking wild steelhead salmon (see below).



My favorite preparation for this is to grill it on a cedar plank. Unfortunately though for us city dwellers with no access to outside space, no grill, overly sensitive smoke alarms, and a snow storm bearing down this isn't an option. But we have no choice but to carry on... just kidding.

Anyway, I love to prepare it the way. I top it with a mustard honey glaze (a combination of stone ground mustard, mayo, honey, & soy) and even without the cedar plank it's still great. A little time in the oven at 425 & you have a really nice piece of fish. Originally I was going to serve with a side of asparagus but opted for a side salad of arugula, apples, & celery instead.

Dinner #3: Shrimp & Noodle Stir Fry

Saturday, February 29, 2009: this was originally going to to be chicken with soba noodles but over the course of the week I never got around to cooking it so I ended up using some of the ingredients for other things. So in my traditional take on stir fry I ended up piecing something together based on what I had & bought at the fish store (Citarella).

I'm sure this is a sin in someone's book but I bought wild shrimp from Maine & decided to use it. These are really small & sweet (I bought them whole - head & all - but forgot to take a picture of them). I used rice sticks for the noodles along with a red pepper, celery, and scallions. The sauce was a mixture of soy, rice vinegar, sugar, and sesame oil. I didn't look very appetizing but was very tasty along with some sichuan pepper & salt. The only item really worth putting a photo up of was dessert: humbolt fog blue cheese & manuka honey (from a trip to New Zealand).

Dinner #2: Cousins Pot Luck

Friday, February 27, 2009: Tonight was "Cousins Pot Luck Dinner" night. We try to get together at least once a month to catch up see what's new in everyone's life. Attendees last night were Emily (my wife), Brad, Katie, Matt (not a facebook guy), Jack (Katie & Matt's son) and me. The cousins in this case are Emily, Brad, & Katie. Everyone brings a dish to make it a bit easier and tonight Emily & I hosted.

So on tonight's menu were b'stillas and an apple & celery salad (made by Emily & me), chorizo stuffed dates wrapped in bacon & romaine hearts with a white balsamic dressing & hazelnuts (made by Brad) and for dessert, butterscotch cookies (made by Kate). See below for some photos




The b'stillas (out of the Gourmet cookbook) are one of my favorites. They are however, time consuming to make. And unless you really enjoy slathering layers & layers of fillo with butter, a bit of a pain. In the end though you really get something unique and very tasty. Ingredients include chicken (poached in chicken stock with onion & saffron), onion, rasel hanout, cinnamon, sugar, almonds, cilantro, egg, and a few other things that escape my memory right now - yes, I am too lazy at the moment to get up & look it up.