Happy New Year! & Favorite Blogs

HAPPY 2011!

Okay, please forgive me… for I have totally neglected this blog. I think I had promised an updated at least a month ago and, of course being a procrastinator, didn’t upkeep that.

I’ve definitely cooked plenty of healthy, delicious meals in the past few months. I must say, I don’t cook as many fancy dishes anymore, but more so focused on meals plentiful on veggies and protein.

With the new year upon us (and Chinese New Year! Gung Hay Fat Choy!), my resolution is to update this blog when I have something new and tasty to share. I won’t bore you with any boring meals. :) That, I can promise.

For the time-being, I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite blogs. I encourage you to check them out:

• Kath Eats Real Food
• Eat Live Run
• Oh She Glows
• Savory Sweet Life
• Meals and Miles
• The Pioneer Woman
• Healthy Tipping Point
• How Sweet It Is
• Young House Love

Till next time!

I'll be back shortly!

Don't fret, friends. I feel horrible that I haven't posted in 2 weeks but with vacation, last few days before heading back in to work, etc. just haven't had time to upload all those pretty pictures and recipes!

I'll be back shortly. Today or tomorrow. :)

Sunday Night Feast: Comfort Food

Does anyone else find it a tad bit difficult to decide what to eat for dinner every night of the week? I’m raising my hand here. However, I find it especially hard when it comes down to Sunday night and there’s nothing good in the fridge!

This past Sunday I decided to prepare myself by researching online various recipes that I’ve wanted to try. Then, I threw together THE best homemade dinner I’ve had in a while. It was pretty bomb.

The theme of the night was Down Home Southern Cookin’ so what better than to make a feast of BBQ chicken, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, and corn?! Behold… the best dinner ever… no joke.

Silence. I’m sure you’re staring at the screen. I surely am right now.

Below I break down the recipe selection and the adjustments I made to each of them.

First and foremost, I searched high and low through Allrecipes for an easy and high-rating BBQ chicken recipe. What I ended up with was Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken Barbecue, a simple yet very delicious chicken dish. For the BBQ-lover, this is sure to please.

Below is the recipe for this dish, accompanied by my slight alterations and pictures:

Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken BBQ:

Ingredients

• 6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (instead of 6, I used four chicken breasts)
• 1 (12 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce (friends, you must use Sweet Baby Ray’s. It THE best bottled BBQ sauce!)
• 1/2 cup Italian salad dressing (Mr. Newman helped with this one)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (this was my first time buying Worcestershire sauce, and I don’t know why I loved the classic paper wrapper so much ???)

Directions

1. Place chicken in a slow cooker. In a bowl, mix the barbecue sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the chicken.
2. Cover, and cook 3 to 4 hours on High or 6 to 8 hours on Low. (I cooked on High for 3 hours and it was perfectly fine)

Step 1: Pour in the sauces and condiments into a bowl. Don’t be alarmed by how oily it looks, it’s the Italian dressing.

 

Step 2: Whisk, whisk away! Don’t you love the action shot? Forgive me for the chipped nail. I need a manicure, stat.

Step 3: Place chicken breasts into the crock pot and cover with the sauce mixture. Be generous. Cover those breasts up.

Step 4: Cook for 3 hours on High. And presto!

Now for all you pasta/cheese-lovers, I’ve got the perfect dish for you courtesy of Mr. Alton Brown of Food Network fame. This dish, Baked Macaroni and Cheese, has over 1.3K reviews at a 4-star. People sure love this dish, me included!

Here’s the recipe below from the Food Network site, including my slight adjustments:

Alton Brown’s Baked Mac n Cheese

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound elbow macaroni (used 1-lb of rotini pasta)
• 3 tablespoons butter (2T instead)
• 3 tablespoons flour (2T instead)
• 1 tablespoon powdered mustard
• 3 cups milk
• 1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
• 1 bay leaf (omitted the bay leaf)
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika (1/4t cayenne pepper)
• 1 large egg
• 12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded (8oz instead)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt (used regular salt)
• Fresh black pepper

Topping:

• 3 tablespoons butter (2T instead)
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf.

Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.

Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.

I must say… it was pretty damn delicious! Trust me on this. Joe can vouch for it, too. :)

Before:

After:

And after a solid chunk was removed…

 

Voila! If there is such thing as food porn, that, my friends, is it above.

If you’re looking to cook some comfort food, try out those recipes. Let me know if you do. :) It was so delicious that the bf and I decided to have this for leftovers tonight (Monday). Yum!

By the way, for the sides, the mashed potatoes were instant Idahoans and canned sweet corn w/ no added salt.

What’s your favorite comfort food?

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies. Truth.

As a young kid circa 1992, I remember baking chocolate chip cookies from the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook. I was the little baker in the house, often times baking cookies, cakes, etc. My dad always raved about those chocolate chip cookies so I was all the more happy to bake.

Nowadays, with the internet and all, I’ve migrated most of my recipe-seeking straight to Allrecipes.com. If you’ve never used the site, then you must go! Now! What I love about the site is that thousands of cooks and bakers have posted their very favorite tried and true recipes ranging across any cuisine and type of food you could ever imagine.

With an entire section devoted to cookies, from holiday cookies to bar cookies to brownies, this is definitely where I navigated to when I recently had a craving to bake homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Behold the gloriousness of these decadent, chewy cookies:

I brought dozens of these cookies to work this past week and they were gone by the end of the day. :) I ended up taking the remaining cookie dough yesterday and baking them. They’re just as delicious as last week.

Given the 5-star tried and true nature of this recipe, I am happy to share with you the details. I took the original recipe, located here - Best Chocolate Chip Cookies and made some slight modifications, which will be listed below.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from Allrecipes

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar (reduced this down to 0.5 cups)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar (increased this to 1.5 cups)
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons hot water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (used special white/milk chocolate swirl chips)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (omitted walnuts) 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.
3. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

I don’t really like raw cookie dough, but they sure do look delicious:

I promise you that this is a fail-safe chocolate chip cookie recipe and will please any cookie lover. The holidays are coming up, so cookie-baking is in the air. I’m sure I’ll be sharing more with you. :)

What is your favorite cookie?

An Oldie but Goodie: Seattle Dining Recommendations

Below is a re-post of some of my favorite dining recommendations in the Seattle area from my previous blog attempt (sarah+joe)… Joe, I still love you. :)

Picture: Spicy sausage rigatoni from Tavolata.

*******

One of the struggles that we often have is what to eat and where to eat. How is this possible living in Seattle, a metropolis filled with plentiful top-notch eateries?

I’m sure that you, too, have asked yourself these same questions, so we’re here to help you digest your food-night-out with our top recommendations:

1. Northlake Pizza Tavern: In the mood for pizza? How about 10 lb. pizzas? The pizza they serve here is the best we’ve ever had, and we’re confident that you’ll leave feeling full with food babies. Our favorites are the Combo and Logger. Joe LOVES this place and happily introduced this to me. Prior to NPT, I hated olives. But, chopped olives on these pizzas are what makes it. I swear! Great for group gatherings and for a date night with your significant other.
2. Purple Wine Bar: This place holds a very special place for us. We absolutely love this place, not only for the ambience and service, but for the amazing wine and cheeses. If you need a place to take your date to, look no further than Purple. We highly recommend the Baked Brie (super cheesy brie goodness with these crazy delicious crackers), Humboldt Fog goat cheese (served with those crackers and figgy condiment) and pizzas. Trust us. Do it.
3. 5 Spot: Interested in late-night grub? Fried chicken and taters? They have an evolving menu based on different themes/worldly regions. We’ve always found our dishes tasty and satisfying. Plus, how can you go wrong drinking beverages out of mason jars?
4. Coastal Kitchen: I think this is a sister restaurant to 5 Spot because their menus/decor are oddly similar. Breakfast is to diiiiie for, and they’re typically very busy. Call ahead for a table. While you’re at it, try their blueberry pancakes!
5. 14 Carrot Cafe: Located on Eastlake Ave, this place is also fairly busy on the weekends. Hit them up when you’re craving a delicious breakfast/brunch. Can’t go wrong there. Delish scrambles, omelets, etc. Effin’ good coffee, too!
6. Paseo: UHHHHH – if you haven’t tried this place, you MUST. Not just a typical sammich place (yes, we call sandwiches sammiches), they offer an array of hot-off-the-press Cuban-style dishes. Try the Midnight Cuban, filled with meats, peppers, and cheese in a perfectly crusty baguette. Be prepared for a foodgasm and hot dripping mess off your hands. Rather than wash your hands, why not just lick ‘em? Better yet, ask the stranger next to you to do it.
7. Peso’s Kitchen & Lounge: Go here for breakfast, but be prepared for the stench of the previous night’s bar happenings. But, they serve chips and salsa and humongous breakfast burritos. ‘Nuff said.
8. New Hong Kong Restaurant aka DIM SUM: Hello, I’m Chinese and I like dim sum. Have you not had dim sum? No? I’m sorry. Dim sum is kind of the equivalent of Japanese sushi, but in Chinese form. As you’re seated, waiters push carts full of hot, steamy foods – shu mai, bbq pork bun, har gau (shrimp dumplings), etc. There are sweet and savory options to suit everyone’s needs. Joe loves dim sum, too. We hit up the ID (International District) every so often, maybe every other month, JUST to experience dim sum. Just don’t eat things like chicken feet  – they scare me, but hey – whatever floats peoples’ boats. At least try dim sum once, or be like the Chinese and have this at least once a week.
9. Tavolata: I tried this for the 1st time a few weeks ago for HH and fell IN LOVE with their food, particularly the gnocchi and rigatoni dishes. The gnocchi was soft, little heavenly pillows of dough melting into an array of delish tomato sauce and parm. The rigato was a bit spicy, but not overpowering, mixed in a tomato sauce with yummy bites of sausage. Who doesn’t love the sausage? TWSS! I also hear that they have the most delicious dessert in the form of doughy lemony things. Ask them about it. Tell them I told you.
• New Update: Since this post was first published in March 2010, I have definitely frequented this place numerous times. Ethan Stowell and his many restaurants are TOP NOTCH. Definitely go to Tavolata if you’re in the mood for Italian. See picture above. Yum!
10. Pho Cyclo Cafe: This is the best pho place we’ve had in Seattle. Located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, it’s often hard to find parking. BUT, who really cares about parking when the food is delicious? For those who don’t know, pho is a type of Vietnamese dish – basically a bowl of broth/soup with noodles and meat or tofu. Typically, you take the base (broth and noodles) and add extras like sprouts, basil, hoisin sauce, chili sauce, etc. Whatever you desire. It’s delicious, aromatic, and really warms your heart.

Now, Seattle does have quite a few good restaurants. Often times, there’s just not enough time to try them all. Here comes in options like “Dine Around Seattle” and the upcoming Seattle Restaurant Week. Tons of top-notch restaurants participate in special menus like 3-courses for $30 or 3 courses for $25 to get patrons to come in and try.

Hope you all find the suggestions above helpful.

I’m always up for new suggestions, so what are your favorite restaurants in Seattle?

One of my favorite dishes: YUMM BOWLS!

For my very first food blog posting on this new blog, it would only be fitting if I featured one of my very, very favorite food dishes.

I love most any food, but when it comes to cooking at home, I like dishes that are flavorful, YUMMY, and easy-to-make. I may think of myself as a foodie, but I rarely slave over the stoves for hours at a time.

Let me introduce you to the Yumm Bowl. What is this, you ask? Let me preface this by giving you a little bit of history. I grew up in Eugene, Oregon. Go Ducks! In this college town, there are several cafes called… dun dun dun, Cafe Yumm! The owners of this cafe created these deliciously amazing concoctions called Yumm Bowls many years ago. Google “yumm bowls” and you’ll see a plethora of results and sites raving about them.

My homemade Yumm Bowls are comprised of some very simple, basic ingredients, layered on top of each other:

• Rice (brown rice or jasmine rice)
• I truly love Lundberg's Organic Long Grain Brown Rice, which you can find at your local Costco.
• Shredded cheese (I prefer cheddar cheese on mine)
• The infamous Cafe Yumm! Sauce – I stockpile quarts of this sauce whenever I visit Oregon. $10-$15 per bottle, but well worth it!
• Note: For those that don’t have access to the real deal, Google the sauce to find some web recipes created by addicts – heard they’re very similar!
• Diced tomatoes (you can certainly roll with chunky salsa as an alternative)
• Sliced avocado
• Sour cream
• Tapatio hot sauce – hot damn! SO good, but alas is my own personal preference as Cafe Yumm! doesn’t make this a default
• Optional for my homemade bowls, depending if I have it on hand, but default on the true Yumm Bowls:
• Beans (red or black beans)
• Sliced olives
• Cilantro

As many of my friends know, I rave about Yumm Bowls! Joe (my boyfriend) and I generally have Yumm Bowls once a week. It’s really the perfect dinner and considered one my very favorite comfort foods.

Try it. If you don’t have the real Yumm Sauce, try out some of the makeshift recipes online… just do whatever it takes to get some. :)

Here’s what this deliciousness looks like:



Hope you try this! If you do, let me know what you think. :)

Hello, friends! It's me again giving another try.

So, as some of you know, my foray into the blogging world has hit many bumps along the way. I've done the LJ thing. That was, like, 10 years ago. WordPress? Yes, that lasted for a little while until I figured it needed plenty of maintenance. Tumblr? I was doing okay with my focus on blogging about my 10-week bootcamp until I suddenly sprained my ankle. No go there.

Now I'm trying Blogger and hopefully this will stick!

My new blog will chronicle my adventures as a 20-something living in the city (aka Seattle), dining out, making new foodie concoctions at home, and, well... my random musings. My love of food will definitely be a focus on this blog. The occasional Yumm Bowl concoction will probably overload this blog, but I sure do love my Yumm Bowls.

I hope to make this at least a semi-regular activity, so hope y'all enjoy! :)