Greg and I took a impromptu road trip to San Antonio on Saturday and I'm kicking myself for not putting my phone on the charger the night before. I would have love to have gotten pics of the trail we walked at Mission San Juan near the river. We saw a beautiful crane (we have those in Houston near the bayous but it always feels special to see one), some fuzzy caterpillars and other creatures. Of course the mission itself was beautiful too, but the walk was a real highlight for me. I grew up in the country and I miss being in nature.
We also went to Mission Espada, which has a chapel that is still in use. But we mostly drove around. There was some festival going on downtown but we weren't quite up for braving a crowd of thousands, especially given my slowly healing foot injury. We didn't set out to do anything in particular anyway, so we headed back after a few hours of exploring and knocking one of Texas Monthly's top 50 cheeseburgers off of our to-do list. We had wanted to go to The Cove, a funky laundrymat/carwash/grill but the line was out the door. We settled for a place called MoMak's and while the burgers were delicious the atmosphere was very suburban. Not really our thing but Greg did leave with a delicious malt for the road. I do want to make it to The Cove sometime though.
Oh! We also stumbled upon a cool old cemetery in Columbus on the way that I'm sure Greg will want to revisit. He hadn't been there before and I had started to think he'd seen it all.
I guess there's not much more to recount but that's because the roadtrip itself is a lot of the fun. It's always good to get away!
Monday, April 30, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Paint your face!
I'm just popping in real quick to recommend an excellent blog! Full disclosure: I'm totally biased because it's written by my friend Geri. She's doing a different makeup look every day for the month of April, ranging from practical (wedding looks, makeup that won't melt off of your face on a hot day, etc) to fun and wacky (Cleopatra, Ziggy Stardust). Bonus: she's really pretty and also her name is Geraldine. (I highly recommend having a friend named Geraldine because it's really fun to say.)
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Thai style something or other
I wanted to try my hand at crispy tofu and I think I succeeded! I took 2 blocks of extra firm tofu, cut it into pieces and pressed it with paper towels to get the moisture out (I'm learning there's a method to do the whole block at once so I'll be looking into that). Then I coated it in a mixture of corn starch, salt, pepper and garlic powder. They needed about 6 minutes on each side over medium-high heat in a pan generously coated in oil. I also cooked up some onion in another pan and added a bag of frozen stir fry veggies to that, mixing in some green curry paste, sriracha and fish sauce. The I served the whole thing over rice and topped with peanut sauce and cilantro. I wish I could have added a bit of coconut milk, but I threw this together out of stuff I had on hand.
Full disclosure: this came out a bit salty which is a food crime I CANNOT abide, so I will have to be more careful next time. I think the fish sauce is betraying me. I've only cooked with it twice and I think I'm vastly underestimating its salt content. Rookie mistake. Live and learn! The tofu itself was great though. I make a chicken coconut curry with eggplant, potato and carrots and I can't wait to do a version with the tofu.
Full disclosure: this came out a bit salty which is a food crime I CANNOT abide, so I will have to be more careful next time. I think the fish sauce is betraying me. I've only cooked with it twice and I think I'm vastly underestimating its salt content. Rookie mistake. Live and learn! The tofu itself was great though. I make a chicken coconut curry with eggplant, potato and carrots and I can't wait to do a version with the tofu.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Adventures in hostessing
I love parties but I'm not one to throw them. The thought of a lot of people in my house has historically freaked me out, but I knew that living with Greg meant I'd have to add some hostessing skills to my repertoire. And what better way to break in the new house than to have 60-70 people over and commit to making a bunch of food! Oh boy. Unfortunately it was impossible for me to feed everyone, but I did what I could. Those that got there early were able to partake and I got some good feedback. I have to admit that I like showing off my skills a bit, so even though I was a bit overwhelmed at first it was a lot of fun. The food came out awesome, the turnout was good and I hardly freaked out at all...once I had a couple of drinks :) The best part though was sharing the evening and my home with some of my favorite people. I seriously have the most wonderful friends! People said that the house really reflected both of us, which was so important to me. One highlight: overhearing someone say "this house is really weird". I couldn't ask for a better compliment :)
So! As far as the food. I did empanadas because they're a good finger food and you can prepare and freeze them the night before. If you choose to do so, just individually wrap them in plastic wrap and bag them. Alternatively, you can place them in Tupperware separated by parchment paper to keep them from sticking together. I did a version with diced mushrooms, red onion and goat cheese but the beef ones were a real hit so I'm including the recipe here. You can put literally anything in an empanada, so have at it. I'm not a very experienced baker, so my dough is a little stickier than it should be. It comes out tasting fantastic, but I'm totally open to any modifications you guys can suggest. I also did some antipasto kabobs and cheesecake stuffed strawberries, both of which I found on Pinterest. Kind of an eclectic menu. Ideally I would have done some sort of theme, but sometimes it's fun just to make all of the random things you want to make.
Beef, Poblano and Potato Empanadas (makes 10-13)
Ingredients for dough:
-3 cups flour
-1 tbsp salt
-1 tsp sugar
-3 shortening (chilled is better)
-1 tbsp butter
-1/3 cup cold water
-2 eggs
-1 tbsp vinegar
Filling:
-Half pound of ground beef
-1 small potato
-1/2 white onion
-1 poblano pepper
-1 clove garlic
-Cumin, chili powder, oregano, salt and pepper for seasoning
-Cheese of your preference. I used a pre-grated mexican cheese blend for convenience sake but if I wanted to be a bit more splurgy I'd get a nice wedge of manchego.
Instructions:
1 - Mix together the flour, salt and sugar
2 - In a separate bowl beat the eggs then add the vinegar and water then set aside
3 - Divide the shortening and butter into small chunks
4 - Cut the shortening and butter into the flour mix (Look online for how to do this. I don't have a pastry cutter so I used two knives)
5 - Add the wet ingredients in and mix.
6 - Once it becomes stiff, kind smush it with your hands then knead on a floured surface
7 - Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour
While dough is chilling, prepare your filling. Hey that rhymed.
8 - Dice potato, poblano (removing seeds) and onion
9 - Saute in olive oil over medium heat until almost tender, adding the garlic after about 10 minutes
10 - Add beef and cook until brown
11 - While beef is cooking, add salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder. I'm sorry that i don't have precise measurements. It's all a matter of personal taste though I will say I'm quite generous with the cumin and chili powder. You can taste it when it's all cooked and dump some more in there if you need to
Let mixture cool then prepare the dough. Now's also a good time to preheat the oven to 375.
12 - Roll out dough on floured surface (add flour between the dough and rolling pin too to keep it from sticking)
13 - Cut into 6 inch circles
14 - Rolling out the scraps should give you an extra 2 or 3 empanadas so do that
15 - Place a spoonful of the beer mixture in each circle then top with a pinch of cheese
16 - Fold dough in half over mixture then crimp with the tines of a fork (super easy but google it if you're not sure)
17 - Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 until golden brown. Should be about 20 minutes, but longer if you froze them the night before. Just keep an eye out and check every 3-5 minutes when you're on the home stretch. I've heard people say to paint egg on them prior to baking to make them shiny and pretty, so if you try that let me know how it goes!
Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries:
Recipe via Thesweetslife.com
Antipasto Kabobs:
Recipe via thehungryhousewife.com (I accidentally bought green olives with pits so I couldn't use those, but I did add artichoke hearts)
And of course no party is complete without...
Cheers!
So! As far as the food. I did empanadas because they're a good finger food and you can prepare and freeze them the night before. If you choose to do so, just individually wrap them in plastic wrap and bag them. Alternatively, you can place them in Tupperware separated by parchment paper to keep them from sticking together. I did a version with diced mushrooms, red onion and goat cheese but the beef ones were a real hit so I'm including the recipe here. You can put literally anything in an empanada, so have at it. I'm not a very experienced baker, so my dough is a little stickier than it should be. It comes out tasting fantastic, but I'm totally open to any modifications you guys can suggest. I also did some antipasto kabobs and cheesecake stuffed strawberries, both of which I found on Pinterest. Kind of an eclectic menu. Ideally I would have done some sort of theme, but sometimes it's fun just to make all of the random things you want to make.
Beef, Poblano and Potato Empanadas (makes 10-13)
Ingredients for dough:
-3 cups flour
-1 tbsp salt
-1 tsp sugar
-3 shortening (chilled is better)
-1 tbsp butter
-1/3 cup cold water
-2 eggs
-1 tbsp vinegar
Filling:
-Half pound of ground beef
-1 small potato
-1/2 white onion
-1 poblano pepper
-1 clove garlic
-Cumin, chili powder, oregano, salt and pepper for seasoning
-Cheese of your preference. I used a pre-grated mexican cheese blend for convenience sake but if I wanted to be a bit more splurgy I'd get a nice wedge of manchego.
Instructions:
1 - Mix together the flour, salt and sugar
2 - In a separate bowl beat the eggs then add the vinegar and water then set aside
3 - Divide the shortening and butter into small chunks
4 - Cut the shortening and butter into the flour mix (Look online for how to do this. I don't have a pastry cutter so I used two knives)
5 - Add the wet ingredients in and mix.
6 - Once it becomes stiff, kind smush it with your hands then knead on a floured surface
7 - Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour
While dough is chilling, prepare your filling. Hey that rhymed.
8 - Dice potato, poblano (removing seeds) and onion
9 - Saute in olive oil over medium heat until almost tender, adding the garlic after about 10 minutes
10 - Add beef and cook until brown
11 - While beef is cooking, add salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder. I'm sorry that i don't have precise measurements. It's all a matter of personal taste though I will say I'm quite generous with the cumin and chili powder. You can taste it when it's all cooked and dump some more in there if you need to
Let mixture cool then prepare the dough. Now's also a good time to preheat the oven to 375.
12 - Roll out dough on floured surface (add flour between the dough and rolling pin too to keep it from sticking)
13 - Cut into 6 inch circles
14 - Rolling out the scraps should give you an extra 2 or 3 empanadas so do that
15 - Place a spoonful of the beer mixture in each circle then top with a pinch of cheese
16 - Fold dough in half over mixture then crimp with the tines of a fork (super easy but google it if you're not sure)
17 - Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 until golden brown. Should be about 20 minutes, but longer if you froze them the night before. Just keep an eye out and check every 3-5 minutes when you're on the home stretch. I've heard people say to paint egg on them prior to baking to make them shiny and pretty, so if you try that let me know how it goes!
Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries:
Recipe via Thesweetslife.com
Antipasto Kabobs:
Recipe via thehungryhousewife.com (I accidentally bought green olives with pits so I couldn't use those, but I did add artichoke hearts)
And of course no party is complete without...
Cheers!
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