Middle Cyclone

Homebrewing III: Honey Hefeweizen

2010-03-02T14:58:00.001-05:00

This time I decided to brew a hefeweizen, which is a beer that has a grain profile made up of about 1/2 malted wheat and characteristic cloudiness due to yeast in suspension. A hefeweizen is not my favorite style, but I do enjoy it when I'm hanging out with friends, at a BBQ, or when I just want to drink something refreshing without having to think too hard. Again, I started with a Home Sweet Homebrew kit as the base, their Wascal Wheat, what they describe as a Bavarian-style Hefeweizen. To this kit, I added 1 lb each of malted wheat and Carapils and 2 lbs of Honey. The wheat is to add a little more grain flavor and spiciness, Carapils is for body, and the Honey contributes a some floral character but mostly to bump up the alcohol level.

Similar to the Brown Ale I previously brewed, this beer required mashing the grains in 155F water and sparging (rinsing) with 170F water. This liquid and some water were boiled with the malt extract and the Hallertau hops for 60 minutes before being cooled and dry yeast was pitched. I fermented in the plastic bucket for 5 days before transferring to the glass carboy to finish. I made a little mistake and added a bit too much water so the beer didn't all fit in the carboy, but I improvised and made another fermenter out of an extra 1 gallon water jug I had laying around.

This beer has been very interesting to watch because unlike the other beers I've made, the yeast never really settled out. Usually, most yeast will floccuate (coagulate and drop out of suspension) after some time when fermentation is almost over, but this beer after 2 weeks of fermentation was still very hazy with many streams of CO2 bubbles rising to the top. The yeast seems to work a little slower than the yeasts I've used because after 2 weeks the specific gravity was still 1.020, which means there is still a lot of unfermented sugar left in solution. I waited another week to bottle so that the yeast to do some more work making some more alcohol and conditioning the beer.

For Chinese New Year, I bottled one 22 oz bottle a little before it was ready just to be able to share with everyone. This beer wasn't anyone's favorite as it has very distinct clove, banana, and citrus flavors, but I liked it. For this style of beer, the yeast provides the majority of the flavors, so it is important to use a good reliable yeast strain and keep it happy. In the winter, I keep my house on the cooler side, so the beer fermented at a much lower temperature, which keeps down the off-flavors and promotes formation of the good flavors.

I bottled this beer last week, but when it's fully carbonated and ready, I'll post a picture of it.

Geek Stats:
Grain Bill and Sugars: 6.6 lb Weizen Malt Extract, 1 lb Wheat Malt, 1 lb Carapils Malt, 2 lb Honey, 5 oz Honey for priming
Hops: 1 oz Hallertau (60min)
Yeast: Safbrew WB-06
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.017
ABV: 5%

Snowed-in February

2010-02-25T20:13:00.004-05:00

I think I got a little burned out from cooking and blogging everyday in January, hence the recent lack of posts. February in Philadelphia has been pretty crazy, with nearly 4 feet of snow in two consecutive storms and more falling as I write. There were some fun times, like Upper Darby Snowpocalypse Night at Justin's and the excitement of the first snow day. But there were downsides too. My car was trapped for most of the last two weeks, which limited our mobility. And Alex quickly realized that a week of snow days means an extra week at the end of the school year. We are definitely looking forward to spring.

As far as culinary endeavors, February has been pretty quiet. You'd think we'd have been making lots of soups and stews during the storms, but that didn't really happen. Not having a car meant not being able to make big shopping trips so we ended up picking things up at the local store as we needed them. We've still been enjoying all the frozen leftovers. One of our most fun meals were snow day nachos, for which we made our own chips by frying corn tortillas and then covered them with cheese and other toppings.Other than that, I haven't been trying many new recipes, mainly making comfort foods and doing some more baking. Let's hope as the snow melts that I'm more inspired to cook and blog.

Home Brewed Beer II: English Nut Brown Ale

2010-02-18T11:30:00.000-05:00

After the success of the first batch, I decided I would go to Home Sweet Homebrew myself this time and put together a beer. I like hoppy, high alcohol, aggressive beers, but these are not beers that I can easily quaff or share since many people don't necessarily like big beers. So I thought a mild, full-bodied, malty brown ale would be a great idea. Since I was making this beer, I made sure there was enough bitterness and herbal hoppiness to make a balanced beer to suit my palate.

I went to HSH and told them I wanted to take an malt extract kit as a starter and then jazz it up with some fancy hops and actual malted grain. The proprietor was very helpful and started with the Dark Star English Brown ale as the starter, additionally added 1 lb Demerara sugar, 1 lb Crystal Malt, 1 lb English Brown Malt, and Bramling Cross and Kent Golding aroma hops. The Demerara sugar is a special type of raw sugar from the Caribbean, the Crystal hops add a caramel flavor, the Brown Malt is for the rich color and chocolately flavor, and the Kent Golding adds a herbal, low bitterness, fragrant quality.

I decided to buy 5 gallons of spring water this time because accurately measuring all that water last time was a pain and this way I could be sure that I had the right amount of water and didn't have to worry about boiling or water loss from evaporation. I poured a gallon and a half of water into my biggest pot and boiled the malt extract along with the bittering hops (Gramling) for 45 minutes; then I added the Demerara sugar and another pound of dark brown sugar (for extra flavor and alcohol) and boiled for 15 minutes more. I then added half an ounce of the East Kent Golding hops, closed the lid to the pot and let it rest. At the same time, I steeped the 2 pounds of milled grain in 1 gallon of water at 150 F for 45 minutes. After that I boiled for 15 minutes to sterilized. After both liquids were ready I poured them into the fermenter with 2 gallons of cold spring water and let the mixture get back to room temperature, before I added dry yeast.

By the end of the day, the beer was already bubbling the krausen had risen about half a foot, almost to the top of the bucket. I let it go for 3 days and then transferred into the glass carboy for fermentation, dry hopping with the rest of the East Kent Golding hops. After 5 days, it was still going strong, so it must be all that extra sugar from the brown sugars, and malted grain. After another week the fermentation had about stopped and I wanted to start another batch of beer so I added corn sugar and bottled.

After about two weeks after bottling, the beer was fully carbonated. It could use a little more bottle conditioning to develop a little more, but it's great to drink now! The color is a little misleading as it's more of a dark brown than black, but the tan head looks great with a long sustaining head and a sticky lacing. The beer fermented quickly and with good attenuation which makes it clean with a dry finish featuring flavors of chocolate, walnuts, and herbal hops. If I were to brew this again, I think I would use a more complex malt to give a little more sweetness and body, however, for my first partial grain beer I am very pleased.

Beer Geek Stats:
Grain Bill: 6.6 lb Amber Malt Extract; 1lb English Brown Malt; 1 lb Crystal Malt 120L; 1lb Demerara Sugar; 1lb Brown Sugar; 5 oz Dextrose (priming)
Hops: 1 oz Bramling Cross (60min); 1 oz East Kent Golding (1/2 after boil, 1/2 dry hopped into secondary)
Yeast: Safale S-04 English Ale
OG: 1.058
FG: 1.013
ABV: 6.0%

Final Feast with the Veggie Dinner Club

2010-01-31T23:21:00.013-05:00

Fortuitously, my turn to host dinner club coincided with the end of home-cooked January. I decided to make a big meal full of comfort food. If this meal had a theme, it was butter, which was incorporated into most of the dishes. We had spinach yogurt dip for an appetizer, beet and avocado salad, "meat"loaf, macaroni and cheese, carrots, brussel sprouts, cauliflower and biscuits. I made two desserts, a chocolate-pear cake and cocoa brownies (both recipes from Smitten Kitchen, a fabulous food blog and great source of recipes all month). No one went home hungry...in fact, quite a few of us ate ourselves into food comas, but it was a great time and a fitting end to my month of cooking. I even got to use my new tabletop convection oven (Thanks, Mom!). Here are some photos and recipes:

Spinach Yogurt Dip (from Joy of Cooking)
10 oz package frozen spinach (thawed and drained)
3 scallions
2 cloves garlic
2 cups plain yogurt
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp sour cream
1/8 tsp nutmeg
Salt
Minced scallions and garlic in the food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until smooth. Refrigerate for at least one hour. I served with Hawaiian bread.

Beet and Avocado Salad
3 beets (roasted at 400F for 1 hour, peeled and cooled)
2 avocados, sliced
Red onion, sliced
Arugula
Layered and topped with:
Lemon Vinaigrette
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
Salt and plenty of black pepper
Combined with 1 tbsp warm water and pulsed in blender to combine and poured over the salad before serving.

Vegetarian Meatloaf (from allrecipes.com)
1/2 (14 ounce) package vegetarian ground beef (e.g., Gimme Lean TM)
1 (12 ounce) package vegetarian burger crumbles
1 onion, chopped
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons prepared mustard
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 1/2 slices bread, cubed (I used 1 cup bread crumbs)
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a large bowl combine vegetarian ground beef, vegetarian ground beef crumbles, onion, eggs, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, sage, garlic powder, mustard, oil, bread crumbs and milk. Transfer to a 9 x 13 inch baking dish and form into a loaf. Cover with ketchup glaze (1/2 cup ketchup, 1 tsp mustard, and 1 tbsp brown sugar). Bake for ~1 hour.

Mac & Cheese (from the Barefoot Contessa)
Vegetable oil
Kosher salt
1 pound elbow macaroni or cavatappi (I used shells)
1 quart milk
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
12 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (4 cups) (I also used some Parmesan - the photo shows the 12 CUPS total cheese for 2 trays of mac & cheese)
8 ounces extra-sharp cheddar, grated (2 cups)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 1/2 cups fresh white bread crumbs (5 slices, crusts removed)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Drizzle oil into a large pot of boiling salted water. Add the macaroni and cook according to the directions on the package, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well. Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan, but don't boil it. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a large (4-quart) pot and add the flour. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. While whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or two more, until thickened and smooth. Off the heat, add the Gruyere, cheddar, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add the cooked macaroni and stir well. Pour into a 3-quart baking dish. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, combine them with the fresh bread crumbs, and sprinkle on the top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top.

Quick-Glazed Carrots (from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)
1 pound carrots, sliced
2 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper
1/3 cup white wine

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil, then cover and adjust heat to simmer. Cook 10-20 minutes until carrots are tender and liquid is nearly gone. Uncover and boil off remaining liquid.

Braised and Glazed Brussel Sprouts (see previous post)

Roasted Cauliflower
Simply cut a head of cauliflower into florets, combine with some olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at 400F until browned (~45 minutes).

Yogurt Biscuits (from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 to 5 tbsp cold butter (more is better)
7/8 cup yogurt

Using the food processor, mix dry ingredients. Then pulse with butter. Stir in yogurt until it forms a ball. Turn the dough out and knead 10 times (no more!). Press into a 3/4 inch thick rectangle and cut out 2 inch rounds. Bake for 7-9 minutes at 450F. Serve warm.

Al Di La’s Torta di Pere [Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake] (from Smitten Ki tchen)
Courtesy of Al Di La Restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, at room-temperature
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 pears, peeled, in a small dice
3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and dust with breadcrumbs (I cheated and used flour), set aside. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the eggs on high speed until pale and very thick. (In a professional Kitchen Aid, it takes at least five minutes; on a home machine, it will take nine minutes to get sufficient volume)

While the eggs are whipping, brown the butter. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan (because it will foam a lot) and cook it until the butter browns and smells nutty (about 6 to 8 minutes). It helps to frequently scrape the solids off the bottom of the pan in the last couple minutes to ensure even browning. Remove from the flame but keep in a warm spot.

Add the sugar to the eggs and whip a few minutes more.

Just as the egg-sugar mixture is starting to loose volume, turn the mixture down to stir, and add the flour mixture and brown butter. Add one third of the flour mixture, then half of the butter, a third of the flour, the remaining butter, and the rest of flour. Whisk until just barely combined — no more than a minute from when the flour is first added — and then use a spatula to gently fold the batter until the ingredients are combined. It is very important not to over-whisk or fold the batter or it will lose volume.

Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle the pear and chocolate chunks over the top, and bake until the cake is golden brown and springs back to the touch, about 40 to 50 minutes.

Best Cocoa Brownies (from Smitten Kitchen)
Adapted from Alice Mendrich’s Bittersweet

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks, 5 ounces or 141 grams) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (9 7/8 ounces, 280 grams) sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (2 7/8 ounces, 82 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, cold
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottom and sides of an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.

Melt butter in microwave and add sugar cocoa and salt and whisk until smooth. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. Stir in the nuts, if using. Spread evenly in the lined pan.

Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, 20 to 25 minutes is Medrich’s suggestion but it took me at least 10 minutes longer to get them set. Let cool completely on a rack. Cut into 16 or 25 squares.

Boy, that was a lot of food. Reflections on the month of cooking to come soon. And don't worry, I'll keep posting tasty recipes and stories of our adventures (in and out of the kitchen).

Homebrewing Beer I: Amber Waves

2010-01-31T16:01:00.000-05:00

Kim bought me a beer homebrewing kit for Christmas this year and after a hectic holiday season I finally found the time on January 8 to get start brewing. The beer kit was for a hoppy, medium bodied, low alcohol amber ale, Kim bought from Home Sweet Homebrew on 2008 Sansom Street. The kit is made from extract, meaning one uses a malt syrup instead of actual grain, which makes for easier first time brewing--where all you have to do is melt and boil the syrup in the water.
I neglected to plan ahead and realized that I need to sterilize by boiling about 5 gallons of water first and start a yeast culture for brewing the beer, so it set me back a day. But the next day, with football on, I started brewing some beer. In a two gallon stock pot, I brought 1.5 gallons of water to a boil, stirred in the malt extract, and brought it up to a boil. I added some hops for bitterness. At this point, the wort (the liquid that turns into beer after fermentation) needs to be boiled vigorously for 60-90 minutes. After the wort finished cooking, I cooled it in a bath of ice water before pouring it into the bucket with about 3 gallons of water. Then I added the yeast starter culture, sealed the lid and waited for magic.

It took about a day for the yeast to start working, but when it did, CO2 bubbles came out of the airlock once every minute and the krausen (foam from the fermenting wort) rose up about 4 inches from the top of the liquid level. After two days when the yeast start to slow down, the beer gets transferred to a glass carboy for further fermentation. I let this go for about ten more days before bottling.

After a week from the beginning of fermentation, when the beer wasn't bubbling anymore and most of the sugar was turned into alcohol, I siphoned the beer into the bottling bucket and get ready to start filling bottles. I'd been saving bottles since Christmas and after taking off the labels, I run them through the dishwasher on the hottest water setting and dried them. In order to carbonate the beer, you have to add a little extra food for the yeast to consume while in the bottle to make bubbles. So, I dissolved dextrose (corn sugar) in a pint of water and boiled to sterilize it, then poured it into the beer. I mixed this all up, filled the clean bottles with the beer, capped them and waited.

The instructions said to wait 7-10 days after bottle to try, so naturally I waited 6 days and popped one. The cap came off with a satisfying hiss and it was good.

Spinach and Feta Flatbread

2010-01-30T20:21:00.004-05:00

Mom sent me a recipe for a spinach and Feta pita and it sounded so good that I had to try it for lunch today. I didn't have the exact ingredients in the recipe, so I just improvised and put together my own version. I spread some pesto on a whole wheat flatbread and covered it with fresh spinach. Then I topped it with some sun-dried tomatoes, green olives and Feta, put it in the oven at 350F for a few minutes just to let the cheese melt a little. Yum.
I didn't have enough flatbread to make one for Mike, so he made himself a double decker egg and cheese sandwich with tomato. It looked pretty tasty!

Cheese Omelette

2010-01-29T18:37:00.004-05:00

I knew today would be a busy day so I got my cooking out of the way early by making a cheese omelette for breakfast. I don't think I've ever made an omelette before, but it was pretty simple. Basically, you just get heat some butter in a hot skillet and pour in beaten eggs combined with salt and pepper. I used 3 eggs since the skillet I have is pretty big. After pouring the eggs into the skillet, I let them cook, while using a spatula to lift the edges, letting the uncooked eggs move to the sides and cook. It was looking pretty good, though not perfect:I didn't want any runniness in the eggs, so I cooked it for a couple extra minutes. Then I put some shredded cheddar in the middle, folded it in half and slid it off the pan. This finished product was a little brown from the longer cooking, but it tasted good. I will definitely try making omelettes again, next time adding some more exciting ingredients.

Armenian Lentil and Apricot Soup

2010-01-28T23:00:00.003-05:00

This recipe came from my dear friend, Gina, a member of the original Hyde Park veggie dinner club. It sounds like a weird combination, but it is really delicious.

Armenian Lentil and Apricot Soup

3 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
1 1/2 cups red lentils, rinsed
5 cups vegetable stock
3 medium plum tomatoes, chopped (or a can of diced)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

In a large soup pot, heat the oil and add onion, garlic and apricots. Saute, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft ~10 minutes. Add the lentils and stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender ~30 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and spices. Simmer covered for another 10 minutes. Remove half the soup and puree in the blender (or food processor). I actually used my immersion blender to get it to the desired consistency. Return to pot, season with lemon juice and additional salt and pepper as desired. Simmer, stirring, for 2-3 minutes.
This made a nice dinner on a cold night with some leftover salad from last night.

Lasagna and friends

2010-01-27T23:18:00.004-05:00

Since I was expecting a full house for game night, I decided to make a hearty lasagna meal. One of the tricks I use to make lasagna much easier is using “no-boil” noodles (Barilla and Trader Joe’s makes them). Here’s the basic recipe (but I don’t follow it specifically):
1 box no-boil lasagna noodles
2 jars prepared spaghetti sauce
1 15oz container ricotta cheese
½ cup Parmesan cheese
4 cups Mozzarella cheese
2 eggs
Spinach, basil, whatever veggies you want to add

Spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick cooking spray. Combine beaten eggs, ricotta, parmesan and 2 cups Mozarella. Pour in 1 1/2 cups sauce on bottom and then place 4 lasagna noodle in pan to cover. Cover with 1/2 of cheese mixture, a layer of fresh spinach and basil, then some more mozzarella and 1 cup sauce. Add 4 more noodles and cover with the rest of the cheese mixture, more fresh spinach and basil, some mozzarella and 1 1/2 cups sauce. Cover with 4 more noodles, 1 cup sauce and lots of mozzarella. Cover the whole thing with foil and cook for ~1 hour until bubbly. Remove the foil for the last 10 minutes or so.

I also made a giant salad and Mike grilled some sausage with peppers and onions. And of course we had lots of bread and wine to round off a great Italian meal.Erme and Aileen were kind enough to bring dessert, a pirate/LOST themed bundt cake, which was enjoyed by all. Game night will be taking a hiatus due to weekly LOST viewing, but we'll get back to gaming in the spring and maybe sometime in between!

Cheesy Mushroom and Broccoli Casserole

2010-01-26T20:21:00.008-05:00

A lot of classic casserole recipes are easily adapted to vegetarian versions by eliminating meat and replacing chicken stock with veggie stock. I found a recipe for a cheesy mushroom and broccoli casserole from the Food Network website that made a great veggie dinner with a few adjustments (indicated in red).

Cheesy Mushroom and Broccoli Casserole

3 tablespoons butter, plus extra for casserole dish
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 pound shiitake or baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups heavy cream (I used milk)
1/2 cup chicken stock (I used veggie stock)
1 (10-ounce) box frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and drained (I used 1 bunch fresh broccoli, parboiled for a few minutes)
2 cups shredded Cheddar-Monterey blend
3 cups cooked rice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Butter casserole dish (I used a 9 inch square pan and sprayed with nonstick cooking spray). In a large pot, melt 3 tablespoons butter and flour over medium heat until golden in color to make a quick roux. The roux should resemble the color of peanut butter. Add mushrooms, onion, garlic, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, milk and stock. Add broccoli, 1 cup of the cheese and rice. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Pour into buttered dish and top with remaining shredded Cheddar. Bake until cheese is melted and golden, about 20 minutes.

A few notes: I think this turned out really well but I was surprised that even with all that rice and milk, the 1/2 tsp cayenne still gave it quite a kick. It was a little too hot for Alex. One thing I took advantage of for this recipe was using the timer on my rice cooker. I set it up in the morning and the rice was ready when I got home, which really saved time. Putting this dish together really only took a few minutes.

Later in the evening, I was busy cooking again, this time for the Penn Alexander School bake sale. Alex and his friends are obsessed with a treat that I make which they have dubbed the "super-snack" - basically a double decker brownie layered with chocolate chip cookie. I made a double batch and apparently they sold out right away...I really need to consider a bakery truck parked right outside of the school...

Chocolate-Chip Brownie Double-Deckers (aka Super-Snacks)

Chocolate Chip Layer

1 ½ sticks butter

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 ½ cups flour

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Brownie Layer

1 ½ sticks butter

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 ½ cups sugar

¼ tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 ½ tsp vanilla

¾ cup flour

Preheat oven to 325F. Line a 9x13 pan with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. For chocolate chip layer, melt butter and whisk in brown sugar, then cool. For brownie layer, melt butter and whisk in cocoa. Stir in sugar, salt and then eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour just until blended and spread brownie layer into prepared pan. Finish chocolate chip layer by stirring in egg and vanilla. Then stir in flour, baking soda, and salt until blended. Stir in chips and drop spoonfuls over brownie layer and spread to cover. Bake 35-40 minutes until set (but don't overbake or they will be dry). Cool and cut into 24 pieces.

Greek salad and hummus

2010-01-25T21:07:00.004-05:00

We eat a lot of salad in this house, often as a side dish, but tonight I made a big Greek salad as a main dish. I started with baby spinach (much preferred to lettuce in terms of taste and healthfulness) and topped with tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers, olives, avocado, walnuts, Feta and balsamic vinaigrette. The salad was delicious.

To go with the salad, I made some homemade hummus, a super easy process using the food processor. I combined a can of chickpeas, ~1/3 cup tahini, 2 cloves garlic, 1/4 cup olive oil and the juice of a lemon and processed until smooth. I added a little water to get it to the right consistency. I served it with some whole wheat pita I bought and warmed up. The hummus turned out ok, a little bitter, but with good flavor (too bad I can't figure out how to make it just like Sabra). I must admit that this was the one dish so far that Alex refused to try due to his strong hatred of hummus.

Chilaquiles

2010-01-24T11:44:00.003-05:00

Chilaquiles are kind of like breakfast nachos. I discovered this traditional Mexican dish at some brunch spots in Chicago and tried my own version today. First I cut up some corn tortillas into triangles and fried them in 1/2 cup canola oil for ~3-5 minutes until golden brown, flipping them over several times. After cooking the tortillas, I poured off most of the oil, beat 4 eggs with 2 tbsp milk and added to the pan. I also added some chopped green onions and some prepared salsa (I didn't measure but I guess about 1/3 cup) and cooked for a few minutes. Then I added the tortillas to the pan and continued to cook until the eggs were done. I served with a little cheddar cheese and a few slices of avocado.

Pierogies

2010-01-23T23:47:00.008-05:00

Pierogies are Polish dumplings which can be filled with a variety of things but in our house, it's always potatoes. I used Mom Mom D's recipe:
DOUGH
2 ½ CUPS FLOUR
1 Egg
SALT
¾ CUP MILK

FILLING
4 LARGE POTATOES, PEELED AND CUT UP
1 MEDIUM ONION, DICED AND SAUTEED
1 LB COTTAGE CHEESE
3 OZ CREAM CHEESE

To make the filling, I boiled the potatoes and then combined them in the Kitchen Aid with the sauteed onions, cottage cheese and cream cheese. I actually made double the filling, but it was way too much! I made the dough in the food processor and then rolled it out to about 1/4 inch thick. Then I used a glass to cut out small circles. I rolled these out further so the dough was as thin as possible but could still hold up after being filled. I filled each dough round with a heaping spoonful of filling. I made a "paste" of flour and milk and spread it around the edges of the dough and then folded into a dumpling like this:
To cook the pierogies, I first boil them in salted water and then pan fry them in butter and onions. Today, I had intended to make these pierogies for lunch, but I got busy and made them later. So, I just boiled them and froze them to cook another day.SUNDAY UPDATE (as requested by Kelly): Since I made too much filling, I decided to make some of it into potato pancakes for dinner. I simply formed the filling into a pancake and dipped in a little bit of beaten egg to help hold it together and cooked in some butter. Yum!

Birthday Cake

2010-01-22T23:30:00.001-05:00

Now, I know that birthday cake does not really constitute a meal, but today was a busy day and I knew I wasn't going to have time to cook. So I did a lot of prep work last night and put together this Triple-Layer Lemon Cake for my co-worker Karine's birthday. The recipe comes from the Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book.

Triple-Layer Lemon Cake
2 1/3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 tsp lemon peel
2 tbsp lemon juice
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add lemon peel and lemon juice. Add eggs, 1 at a time. Add flour mix and buttermilk alternately beating until combined. Pour into 3 9inch circular cake pans. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes and cooled cakes on wire racks.

While the cake was cooling I made the lemon curd filling and lemon cream cheese frosting.

Lemon Curd
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp lemon peel
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup butter
2 beaten eggs

In saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Add peel, juice and butter. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir half lemon mixture into eggs, then pour back into pan. Cook and stir 2 minutes more. Cover with waxed paper to cool.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
6 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp lemon juice
4 1/2-4 3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon peel

Beat cream cheese, butter and lemon juice until light and fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar until desired consistency. Stir in lemon peel.

To assemble the cake, placed first layer on plate and spread half of lemon curd on top. Topped with second cake layer and spread remaining lemon curd on top. Topped with the third layer and frosted top and sides with lemon cream cheese frosting.

A really good sandwich

2010-01-21T22:21:00.008-05:00

Tonight was kind of leftover night, where we used some previously made components for our dinner. Alex had some leftover fried rice and I had some gratin and I used the pesto I made to make a delicious portabello mushroom sandwich. I realize this was the first sandwich I've made this month and it was really good! I just sliced two portabello caps into ~1/2 inch sliced and brushed them with olive oil and garlic and roasted in a 400F oven for 8-10 minutes on each side. To assemble the sandwich, I toasted some leftover Italian bread with pesto and a sprinkle of mozzarella and feta cheeses. Then I added the mushrooms, some sliced tomato and baby spinach. It was really a easy, tasty and good-looking sandwich (as you can see from the shots below).

A big pot of chili

2010-01-20T22:47:00.008-05:00

Tonight I made a great winter meal, vegetarian chili. I've made this recipe from Joy of Cooking numerous times and it never disappoints. I actually doubled the recipe, yielding an abundance of chili to share with friends on game night as well as to freeze for later consumption.

Vegetarian Chili (8 servings)
Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a large saucepan (or stockpot if doubling) over medium heat.
Add:
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped red bell peppers (I used half red, half yellow)
1 cup chopped green bell peppers
1 cup chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
Cook, stirring, until onions are golden (~15 min) then add:
1-2 finely chopped fresh green chiles (to taste)
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
Cook, stirring, ~2 min then add:
1 28oz can plum tomatoes with juice (chopped)
1 160z can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 16oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 160z can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup tomato juice
Salt to taste
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for ~45 minutes adding more tomato juice or water as needed.

I also made corn bread muffins to go with the chili (half plain, half with jalapeno and cheddar per Mike's request) and we had sour cream, cheese, jalapenos and onions as chili toppings.

Northern Corn Bread (also from Joy of Cooking)
1 1/4 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup flour
1-4 tbsp sugar (I used only one)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup buttermilk
2-3 tbsp melted butter

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine in a separate bowl eggs and milk. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. Fold in melted butter and pour batter in greased muffin pan. Bake 10-15 minutes at 425F. (For cheddar jalapeno corn muffins, simply add chopped jalapeno to the batter and sprinkle cheddar on top before baking.)

Despite a house full of guests, my freezer is literally overflowing with leftover chili (surely enough to get me through the winter).

Pasta with Cauliflower and Pesto

2010-01-19T20:26:00.008-05:00

I picked up a big bunch of basil, so I decided to use it to make pesto. I simply placed the pesto, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 clove garlic and 2 tbsp walnuts in the food processor and processed until smooth. I would have used pine nuts, but I forgot to pick them up at the store. Luckily walnuts work just fine. I used the pesto to compliment a pasta with cauliflower dish I found in Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian." A word about this cookbook... I've been using it a lot this month. It is set up really well where there are simple recipes with tons of suggestions for modifications. If you have an ingredient on hand, you can just look it up and find lots of options for dishes that can be made with what you have in the pantry. They aren't the kind of recipes you have to follow strictly, they really help me get creative. Like this pasta dish...I had some uncooked cauliflower that wasn't used in Saturday's gratin so I found a way to incorporate it with pasta and the fresh pesto I made. First, I boiled the cauliflower in water for 5-6 minutes. Then a transferred it to a skillet with a tablespoon of olive oil, a little crushed red pepper and some minced garlic. I cooked and smashed the cauliflower over medium heat while boiling pasta in the leftover cauliflower water. Once the pasta was ready, I combined it with the cauliflower in the skillet with some pesto. I topped the pasta with a little more pesto and a sprinkle of parmesan. I'm excited to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow with a little of the tomato sauce I made on Sunday!

A speedy Indian Monday night meal

2010-01-18T21:42:00.005-05:00

Mondays are tough. I always feel like the day gets away from me and I end up getting home late, making cooking difficult. Add to that I often do laundry on Monday nights and it's trash night and I feel like the evening always flies by! Tonight was one of those Mondays so I went with a quick stand-by meal that is easy and delicious, Curried Chickpeas and Spinach. It's home-cooked, but relies on some shortcuts that make it really effortless. Number one is Patak's Original Hot Curry Paste. I love these pre-mixed Indian spices because I worry about getting the combination just right and this does the job for you! To make the dish, I chopped roughly a medium onion and sauteed in olive oil until soft. Then I added a can of chickpeas and a couple big spoonfuls of the hot curry paste (you can use more or less based on your preference). I sauteed that for a couple minutes and then added a can of diced tomatoes with their juice. I threw in a couple handfuls of fresh baby spinach and then cooked over medium heat to combine flavors (~10-15 minutes). And that's it! Super easy. I served this with Trader Joe's Garlic Naan.

Is it Parmesan or Parmigiana?

2010-01-17T22:06:00.010-05:00

Parmigiana seems more authentic, so I'll go with that. :) Tonight, I made an Italian meal for a group of hungry boys (Alex, his buddy Grant, and Joey). I started by looking for an easy sauce recipe and fortuitously, one had been posted on one of my favorite cooking blogs, Smitten Kitchen, today! Now, I usually use premade sauce b/c it easier and, compared to my previous attempts, better, but this sauce has changed my mind. It's incredibly easy and amazingly tasty. The secret is butter (of course!). Here's the recipe:

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions
Adapted from Marcela Hazan’s Essentials of Italian Cooking

Serves 4 as a main course; makes enough sauce to lightly coat most of a pound of spaghetti

28 ounces whole peeled tomatoes from a can (San Marzano, if you can find them)*
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt to taste

Put the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste (you might find, as I did, that your tomatoes came salted and that you didn’t need to add more) and keep warm while you prepare your pasta.

I actually made a double batch to have enough to serve over pasta as well as in the eggplant and chicken parmigiana that I prepared. I dredged and fried some chicken cutlets and a sliced eggplant (pre-salted) and layered each with the sauce and some parmesan and mozzarella cheeses. I baked in the 350F oven for ~30 minutes until the cheese was melted and bubbly. While the parmigiana was baking, I made some pasta as a side and also a green salad. Everyone enjoyed the feast and we ended the night with a MarioKart tournament (in which I came in last every time)!

French Bread Version 1.0

2010-01-16T22:27:00.006-05:00

Cooking started early this Saturday with a cake in the oven by 9AM. Alex and I were planning to go see my grandparents for lunch and wanted to bring along something sweet so I made Moosewood Kitchen's Orange Cake.

Orange Cake
1 1/2 cups butter, softenened
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp grated orange rind
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tbsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup orange juice

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Added eggs one at a time, beating well. Stirred in orange rind and vanilla. Combined dry ingredients in one bowl and sour cream and OJ in another. Added these mixes alternately to butter mix, starting and ending with dry mix. Poured into greased bundt pan and baked at 350F for 1 hour. Cooled in pan for 15 min then completely on wire rack.

While cake was cooling, I made the following glaze:
Orange Glaze
1/2 cup orange juice
1-2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice

Combined ingredients in a small saucepan and brought to a boil. Lowered heat and simmered uncovered for ~3 minutes. Poured hot glaze on cooled cake.

Another project I undertook early on Saturday morning was a more ambitious one...my first attempt at baking French bread. I made the dough using my food processor and I can't begin to explain how ridiculously easy this appliance makes this process. Simply place 3 cups of flour, 1 tsp salt and 1 packet of instant yeast in the bowl. While running add 1 cup of water. Process until dough forms a ball, adding more water if needed. The dough was ready in a minute! Then I put it in a bowl and let it rise for several hours while I went to hang with the grandparents.

When I got home, I shaped the dough into a loaf and let it rise for another hour, cutting slashes on the top. I preheated the oven at 400F and then reduced heat to 375F before putting the bread in to bake. I baked it for ~45 minutes until the center temperature was 210F.

For my first try, I think the bread turned out ok. The bottom was a little overdone and the top could have been browner, but the inside was perfect in taste and texture. I think that one key part of making great bread is having humidity in the oven, so I will try that next time. It really wasn't much work to make my own bread and I hope to get better with practice.

With the bread, we had a cauliflower and potato gratin. Again, my food processor came in handy for slicing a couple pounds of potatoes. I parboiled half of a large head of cauliflower and combined in a 9x13 pan with the sliced potatoes. I covered these with a roux made from 2 tbsp butter, 3 tbsp flour and 2 1/2 cups milk with ~1 cup of mixed gruyere and parmesan stirred in. I then sprinkled the top with ~1/4 cup more cheese and baked at 375F for 45 minutes.

Taco Night

2010-01-15T23:16:00.006-05:00

We decided that Friday night dinners in home-cooked January should be "fun" food, so this week we made one of our favorites, tacos. We filled the table with lots of yummy taco fillings, including ground meat (real meat!), refried beans, grilled peppers and onions, lettuce, tomato, salsa, sour cream, cheese, and guacamole.
There really aren't recipes to share...for the beans, I use canned pintos and mash them in their liquid. Saute 1/2 of a small onion and a clove of garlic in olive oil, then add mashed beans and cook until desired consistency. I've tried to make refried beans (and other dishes) using dried beans, but they just didn't come out that well and it was a whole lot more work. I guess I'm just a canned beans kind of girl. :) I've made guacamole a few times and haven't provided a recipe, so I figured I'd describe even though I don't follow a strict recipe. Basically I just mash a couple of ripe avocados, then add a bit of chopped red onion (a slice or two is enough), a clove of minced garlic, salt, cilantro and juice of half a lime. All can be adjusted to taste.

Take a look at our tasty creations (Al's is the double decker):

Sweet Potato and Carrot Pancakes

2010-01-14T21:34:00.003-05:00

I had a couple of sweet potatoes that needed to be used so I made them into vegetable pancakes. I ran 2 sweet potatoes, 2 carrot and half an onion through the food processor with the grater attachment. Then I combined the shredded vegetables with an egg, ~3/4 cups flour, salt, pepper, a tablespoon of melted butter and a splash of milk. I shaped into pancakes and cooked in butter over medium heat until the vegetables were tender and the outside nice and crispy. These pancakes were really good and didn't take much work at all. You could use other root veggies to make similar dishes.

A note about portions: This week, it seems like leftovers are really piling up. I want to keep cooking every night but I hate to waste food. Most nights, it's just Alex and me, and Alex doesn't eat too much of some of the things I'm making (though I'm proud that he has tried everything!). But recipes are usually for at least four servings, so I'm trying to modify them when possible and not make too much. Otherwise, I'm going to have to start bringing extra lunches for friends.

Chinese food and game night and a late night cake

2010-01-13T23:19:00.006-05:00

The inspiration for tonight's meal came from the vegetable dumplings Mike's dad made for me. We have a special deal where he trades me dumplings for cookies. There were 40-50 dumplings taking up too much space in my freezer so I decided to make them for game night. But since those won't really home cooked, we also made some vegetable fried rice and fried tofu. I say we because Mike helped with the cooking...ok, he did most of the cooking, but I helped. Mike made great sauces for the tofu and dumplings. We had a pretty full table once Ihab, Megan, and Ben arrived.

After dinner, we played a rousing game of True Colors and had a great time laughing and finding out what everyone else thought of us. For dessert, Megan brought a yummy cake.

Once everyone left and I got done cleaning up it was pretty late and I was planning to go to bed, but I just couldn't get comfortable. So, I got up and decided to make a cake to bring into work in the morning for lab meeting. Late night baking has long been a habit of mine, though these days I sleep much more than I used to. I made a simple and delicious cake from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook - everyone at work seemed to enjoy it.

Brown Sugar Pecan Cake
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped toasted pecans

Combine the dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Add dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with milk and vanilla, beating until smooth. Stir in 1 1/4 cups pecans. Pour batter into greased bundt or tube pan and sprinkle remaining pecans over the top. Bake at 325F for ~1 hour until a knife inserted comes out clean.

A simple supper

2010-01-12T21:09:00.008-05:00

After last night's cream-fest, we needed a break and made a really simple meal. I knew I had a busy day so this morning I washed some beets and wrapped them in foil. Alex helped with the cooking by putting the beets in the oven at 400F while I was still at work. An hour later, when I arrived home, the beets were ready. I had a long, busy, and at times frustrating day today, and it was nice to come home to a warm house with an almost prepared dinner. I took peeled and sliced them and combined with little olive oil, salt and pepper and served them with Trader Joe's Harvest Grains. Aunt Fran introduced me to this tasty blend of Israeli couscous, orzo, baby garbanzo beans and red quinoa. You just simmer in some broth (I used my homemade vegetable broth) and it's ready in 10 minutes! The grains and beets went great together and made a wonderful simple dinner. Alex added some ham since he's not really a beet fan.

Seriously Amazing Soup

2010-01-11T20:26:00.003-05:00

I just made some seriously amazing broccoli cheese soup. It was so good that even Alex liked it - and I don't mean had a taste and tolerated but actually enjoyed it! Probably because it is also seriously unhealthy, full of cream and cheese. I think this is my favorite thing that I have made thus far. I found the recipe online as a copycat recipe of Panera's broccoli cheese soup, and it really does taste just like theirs (which I haven't had in years since it uses chicken stock). I made a couple of substitutions and the final recipe is below:

Broccoli Cheese Soup
1 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups half-and-half (I actually made my own half and half with 1 cup cream and 1 cup skim milk)
2 cups vegetable stock (I used the stock I made yesterday)
1/2 pound fresh broccoli (I used ~3/4 of a really big head of broccoli, basically enough to fill the pan)
1 cup carrots, julienned (I probably only used about 1/2 cup)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
8 ounces grated sharp cheddar

Saute onion in butter. Set aside. Cook melted butter and flour using a whisk over medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Stir constantly and slowly add the half-and-half, making a roux. Add the stock whisking all the time. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the broccoli, carrots and onions. Cook over low heat until the veggies are tender for 20-25 minutes. Add salt and pepper. The soup should be thickened by now. Pour in batches into blender and puree or use an immersion blender (that's what I did). Return to pot over low heat and add the grated cheese; stir until well blended. Stir in the nutmeg and serve.

The soup was rich and delicious, really a meal in itself. We just had a small green salad (to make me feel better) and some bread for dipping along with it. If you like broccoli at all (or even if you don't), you should make this soup!

2010-01-10T21:14:00.005-05:00

After one week of home-cooked January, I'm feeling good about this project. It's been pretty manageable and the food I've made has been tasty for the most part. I've mainly made decisions about what to cook from day to day and I'm trying to get better about planning in advance. To that end, I made a big batch of vegetable stock today to use later this week.

Vegetable Stock
1/4 cup canola oil
2 onions, quartered
4 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 potatoes, sliced
1-2 cups mushrooms (I used one king oyster and a handful of baby bella)
5 cloves garlic
12 cups water
20 stems parsley with leaves
1/4 cup soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in stock pot then add onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, mushrooms, and garlic. Cook for 5-10 minutes until vegetables start to brown. Add water, parsley and soy sauce, bring to a boil and then simmer, partially covered, for ~1 hour. This recipe makes just over 2 quarts. Strain, pressing vegetables and store in refrigerator for 3-5 days or freeze.

For dinner, I used the remaining king oyster mushrooms from Mike's dad. I simply sauteed them in canola oil with salt and pepper for 10 minutes and then added 1 tsp minced garlic and 1 tbsp soy sauce. After cooking for 1 minute more, I served the mushrooms over thin Chinese egg noodles. I boiled the noodles for ~3 minutes and then rinsed them in cold water. Then I added 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp soy sauce and some chopped green onions and stir fried the noodles in oil until they were heated through. I topped mine off with a little Sriracha hot sauce. The finished meal tasted better than it looked. The king oyster mushrooms have a chewy consistency and a mild flavor and went well with the Asian flavors and noodles. Alex isn't usually a mushroom fan but he thought they were ok, a pretty good compliment ;)

A busy day but I still had time to cook!

2010-01-09T21:20:00.011-05:00

Today, I escorted Alex and eight of his friends on a trip the Hershey Theatre to see Spring Awakening. I knew it would be a long day and I might not have time to cook, so I kind of cheated and prepared banana bread last night, which we ate for breakfast today. I'm really picky about bananas and only like to eat them when they are perfectly ripe so I always end up with overripe bananas, which I freeze to use for baking. I used a recipe from a book that has always proved reliable for baking recipes, the Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book.

Banana Bread
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (4-5 medium)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Grease a 9x5x3 loaf pan. Combine dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Combine eggs, sugar and oil in a separate bowl and then add to dry mixture. Stir just until moistened. Fold in walnuts. Bake at 350 for ~1 hour until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

The bread turned out great and made a wonderful breakfast.

It was a long day driving to and from Hershey (2 hours each way) and watching the show (which was really amazing). Alex's friend Sarah's mom rented a 12 passenger van so we could all travel together. The kids sang songs from Glee and Spring Awakening and kept us entertained on the long trip. When we got home around 6:45 I was planning not to cook, but I got inspired to make something simple, black bean croquettes, which are essentially Mexican-style falafel.

Black Bean Croquettes
1 can black beans, drained
1 small onion, minced
2-4 tbsp cilantro, minced
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp cumin
hot sauce to taste
1/4 cup bread crumbs

Mash beans (I used food processor) and combine with other ingredients. Form small 2-3 inch patties and fry in oil until browned evenly (~7-8 minutes), rotating patties halfway through.

I served these with some cheese quesadillas, fresh guacamole, sour cream and the leftover enchilada sauce from last weekend. They turned out well and I was proud that I got cooking done even after such a long day!

Pizza Party

2010-01-08T21:07:00.001-05:00

One of our favorite things to cook is homemade pizza. Many of our friends have enjoyed pizza parties at our place in Chicago and here in Philly. Tonight, we had a smaller get-together with Alex, Mike, Meg Smith and me and some delicious pizza. Megan and Alex opted for plain cheese, while Mike and I added pesto, spinach, walnut and tomato with feta and provolone cheese. I've made my own dough, but I find it easier (and just as tasty) to use premade dough from Trader Joe's (and it's only ~$1 per bag, which makes two individual pizzas). After dinner, we gave Megan a ride to her parents' in South Jersey and she treated us to Friendly's for dessert. Thanks, Meg!

Mushroom Risotto

2010-01-07T20:34:00.004-05:00

Mike's dad kindly gave us a couple bags mushrooms so I've been thinking of a way to use them. One bag is full of king oyster mushrooms and I still haven't figured out what to do with them but tonight I used shiitakes to make a great risotto. I found a recipe from Bon Apetit and made some modifications:

Wild Mushroom Risotto
(recipe says two servings, but I think it's more like 3 big or 4 small)
3 cups vegetable broth
1 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
(1 small onion, minced - I added this ingredient)
8 to 10 ounces sliced fresh mixed wild mushrooms (I used 2 cups shiitake)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme or 2 teaspoons dried
1 cup arborio or medium-grain white rice
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Bring broth and wine to simmer in heavy small saucepan. Cover pan; keep warm.

Melt butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook until they begin to soften. Add mushrooms and 1 tablespoon thyme. Saute until mushrooms soften, about 3 minutes. Mix in rice. Add all but 1/4 cup of broth mixture. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer uncovered until rice is almost tender, stirring occasionally, about 18 minutes. Add remaining broth; simmer until rice is tender and risotto is creamy, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Mix in cheese and 1 tablespoon thyme. Season with salt and pepper.

This was a super simple and tasty recipe that I'd definitely make again. We ate it with some leftover bread from last night, leftover brussel sprouts and a green salad...Alex had a little supplementary baked chicken. And I had a glass of the wine I used to make the risotto...are you supposed to do that?

Ziti and Blokus

2010-01-06T21:55:00.010-05:00

For those of you who don't know, Wednesday night is game night in our house. There's an open invitation to all our friends and a few regulars show up almost every week. Sometimes I cook dinner for the group, sometimes we order out and sometimes we convene after meal time. This being home-cooked January, I decided to make a meal for everyone tonight. It was Alex's idea to make baked ziti, which worked out well because I wasn't sure how many people would be coming and it makes great leftovers. I don't use a recipe for this dish, so the amounts are approximate but here's the general idea:

Baked Ziti (or Penne, etc)
1 lb box dry pasta (ziti, penne, rigatoni, etc)
1 egg
1 15 oz container ricotta cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
garlic powder, oregano, dried basil to taste
1 jar prepared pasta sauce (sorry, I'm a cheater)
Cook pasta until al dente. While pasta is cooking, beat egg in large mixing bowl. Combine with ricotta, 1/2 cup mozzarella, parmesan and spices. Add cooked pasta and sauce and mix. Pour into 9x13 pan and cover with remaining mozzarella (I also broke up a few slices of provolone. Cook at 350 for ~30 minutes until heated through and cheese is bubbly.

To accompany the pasta, Mike made some Italian sausage and peppers. Though I didn't eat it, the boys seemed to really enjoy it. We also had some garlic bread and plenty of wine.

Here's a shot of Joey eating the cheesy goodness:

After dinner, we played a few rounds of Blokus. Even though Ihab just learned the game tonight, he got the hang of it and turned out to be fierce competition.

Experiments

2010-01-05T22:53:00.011-05:00

Today I decided that I needed to cook the eggplant in my fridge so I looked around online at various recipes and decided to prepare it Moroccan style. I used a couple of recipes as a guide and came up with my own creation. I peeled and chopped the eggplant and put it in a skillet along with 1 can diced tomatoes, 2 chopped fresh plum tomatoes, 3 tsp minced garlic, 1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro, 1/4 c chopped fresh parsley, 1/2 tbsp paprika, 1/2 tbsp cumin, 1 1/2 tsp salt, dash of cayenne, 1/4 c olive oil and 1/4 c water. Some recipes I saw called for even more spices, but I was too nervous. Everything looked great in the skillet!

I cooked it covered for about 30 minutes, then mashed the eggplant and cooked uncovered for 20-30 minutes to cook down the liquid. The final product was colorful and smelled great. I served it over whole wheat couscous. The taste was fine but it was a little too salty and the spices were overpowering even though I reduced them! I would definitely try this again, using less salt and spices.

Later this evening, I had a serious craving for chocolate cake....I mean serious. So serious that I decided to dig up a microwave chocolate cake recipe I have seen and give it a try. Now I am a baking snob so I was skeptical of this concoction but desperate enough to make it. If you google "microwave chocolate cake" you'll find tons of hits with variations on this recipe (some people use hot cocoa mix, some omit the chocolate chips, etc):
Ingredients:1 Tall Coffee Mug
4 Tablespoons flour
4 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons baking cocoa
1 Egg
3 Tablespoons milk
3 Tablespoons oil
3 Tablespoons chocolate chips

After you mix all of the dry ingredients, you add the rest and stir completely. Then microwave it for 3 minutes.
Afraid of having the cake explode out of a coffee mug, I made it in a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup. The finished cake looked like this:

It tasted ok, but really not great and after a few bites, I was done. By far the best part was the gooey melted chocolate chips at the bottom of the cup that coated the cake. So, it was an experimental evening in the kitchen and neither project was great but neither was a totally failure. I'm just proud that I got a nice dinner on the table on a night when I got home late!

I ♥ Brussel Sprouts

2010-01-04T22:04:00.012-05:00

Really, I love them. I never even ate them until I was an adult, but I'm so glad that I discovered them. I built tonight's meal around some fresh brussel sprouts I picked up this weekend. I tried the Braised and Glazed brussel sprouts recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, which is similar to how I normally prepare them, but even more flavorful. Basically, you combine 3 tbsp butter, 1 lb brussel sprouts, ~3/4 cups vegetable stock, salt and pepper in a skillet and bring to a boil. Then lower heat for a simmer and cover for ~10 minutes. Then remove lid, increase heat and boil off all the liquid so that the sprouts get glazed and browned. These were so good, even Alex ate one! I served these with a Dittmar family favorite, mashed potatoes, and some lemony baked tofu or chicken using the following marinade:

Rosemary Lemon Marinade (this made enough for 1/2 block of tofu + 2 chicken breasts, also I've used it for a full block of tofu)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp dried rosemary
fresh ground pepper
Check out the finished chicken and veggie plates (notice Al's one sprout!):

A productive weekend

2010-01-04T21:37:00.008-05:00

So, I'm a little behind with blogging, but I've been right on track with cooking! On Saturday night, Alex and I made a Mexican feast with cheese enchiladas, black beans and rice, guacamole and roasted corn. I didn't follow any recipes except for the Mexican red sauce from the Moosewood Cookbook, which I've made before and really like. Everything turned out great. One thing that came up during our dinner conversation was what to do with the leftovers...if we're cooking everyday, when will we have a chance to eat what is left?? Of course, I'll be packing fabulous lunches this month, but that still won't use all the food. I'm also planning to freeze some things (for example, I froze half the batch of beans I made on Saturday) but freezer space is limited. What I'm hoping is that we'll be able to incorporate some of the leftovers into other meals, cooking new items to serve with them.

On Sunday, we had plans for lunch and dinner, so I knew I had to make breakfast. I decided to imitate a recipe from one of my favorite Chicago brunch places, The Bongo Room and make Roasted Red Pepper & Feta Eggs Benedict. In order to do this I had to poach eggs, which I've never done before. That turned out to be pretty easy - I think the key is having the water barely boiling and sliding the egg in gently. In 3-4 minutes, the egg is poached perfectly. Hollandaise sauce, on the other hand, was not so simple. Since it is an emulsion, it requires continuous whisking...I swear, I had it perfectly creamy and smooth and then I let it sit for a minute while I put together the other items and sadly, it had separated. Fortunately, it was still full of buttery goodness even though it didn't look great. To construct this dish, you need a toasted English muffin, upon which you layer roasted red pepper (I roasted the pepper Saturday night so it was ready to go), a sprinkle of Feta, a poached egg and top with Hollandaise. The picture below shows the finished product (clumpy sauce and all). I highly recommend this dish! I'm also beginning to fear that home-cooked January might make me fat...

Starting the year off right

2010-01-02T20:55:00.005-05:00

This New Year's was quiet and low-key, starting with dinner at Local 44 with Beth and Mac and followed by some drinks, games and a movie. Alex had his own party to attend, so Mike was left as the youngest dark-haired male in the house and carried out the Wodnick family tradition of coming through the threshold in the new year with bread and wine. Hopefully this ensures us all a happy and healthy 2010!

To get started with home-cooked January, we used that very same bread, baked by Beth, to make French toast. I didn't follow a recipe, but here are the basics:

Lightly beat 6 eggs and combine with 1 cup half and half. Added ~1 tsp vanilla, 3 tbsp sugar and the grated peel from half an orange. Soaked each slide of bread in this custard and placed in frying pan with warm butter. Lightly dusted with cinnamon and cooked until browned.
It turned out great and it was so nice to have a lazy morning, drinking coffee, eating and playing board games with good friends.

In the spirit of new beginnings and enthusiastic about my project for January, I decided to cook another meal on the first day of the month and year. I had some cauliflower in the fridge and decided to make it into a soup. I had planned to make a cream soup, but found the following simple recipe in Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" and thought it sounded good.

Cauliflower Soup, Italian Style
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp hot red pepper flakes
1 medium head cauliflower, broken into small florets
Salt and black pepper
1 quart vegetable stock (I used premade Trader Joe's)

Put about half the oil into saucepan over medium heat. When hot, added the onion and cooked ~10 minutes until soft and lightly browned. Stirred in garlic, red pepper, cauliflower, salt and pepper and continued to cook 3-5 minutes. Added the stock, brought to a boil over high heat, then simmered until cauliflower was tender ~15 min. Stirred in remaining oil before serving.

I served the soup with a simple green salad (something Alex and I eat most nights) and Olive Oil and Salt bread (also from Bittman). I'm not posting the bread recipe b/c it was only so-so...kind of dry and not very flavorful. All in all, though, it made a nice light meal for the first night of the new year.

Home-cooked January

2010-01-02T20:47:00.002-05:00

This blog has been quiet for awhile but I've decided to give myself a little project that should get me writing more. As a New Year's resolution of sorts I've decided to make a home-cooked meal each day in January. The reason for this is simply to get myself in the habit of making real meals as opposed to the veggie burgers and chicken nuggets that are so often served at our house. That said, I'm entering this with a realistic knowledge that I will not be making a culinary masterpiece each day. There are no strict rules. The idea is to make simple, fresh food and get better at doing it on a daily basis! I'm armed with some wonderful cookbooks and a kitchen full of equipment so I'm excited to see what I can come up with over these 31 days. I will share recipes when things work out well and let you know what ones to avoid. For our Philly friends, please drop by some night this month to share (I have a habit of cooking way too much!).

Eastern State Penitentiary

2009-09-12T15:35:00.002-04:00

Beth had the great idea to go tour Eastern State Penitentiary, so Kim, Alex, and I met her there at 21st and Fairmount. We didn't know what to expect other than that it would be really really cool! The gloomy, overcast day was perfect for a trip to ruins of one of the historic prisons in America.

In its day, ESP was the most expensive public building, due to its individual cells each sporting heating, flushing toilets and exercise yards. The solitary confinement was designed not to punish the incarcerated, but to prove them with the opportunity to reflect on their crimes, and thus was called a "penitentiary." The cells were arranged in a radial floor plan with a central hub and tower from which 8 wings radiate out, surrounded by a thirty foot wall. This allowed for guards in the middle to simultaneously see all of the cells in the prison at any time. This influential floor
plan became the inspiration for over 300 prisons built world wide.

As part of the admission fee, each patron is given an audio-tour headset that provides a tour of most features in the prison. You can divert off the tour to visit several art installations and exhibits strewn about the grounds. We spent about 2 hours at the prison and were very satisfied with the tour. It was a great way to spend the afternoon seeing one of Philadelphia's most impressive landmarks.

More pics on facebook.

Update!

2009-08-27T00:48:00.002-04:00

I know I posted that I would update this blog more now that I quit my job, but working on my house has really taken a lot of my time in the past few weeks. I had a few jobs that I really wanted to finish before school began since now I have time to start and project and commit the time it would require to finish. I wanted to remove all the damn mirrors that were left hanging on the walls when I moved into my house. I also had to fix the shower faucet that I broke a couple months ago, I broke the cold water stem so no leaking, but just only hot showers since I broke it. I also wanted to remove the wallpaper in the downstairs and paint the walls. My dad, who is retired, stayed with me for a week to help me work on these projects.

All these projects seemed as if they should take time to fix, but fixing the tub/shower faucet was a nightmare. After we took apart the faucet to figure out what the problem was, we spent the better part of a day driving around the city looking for the part to fix the broken valve stem. Eventually, I had to go online and order parts to fix it because no store, even specialty stores carried what I was looking for. I ordered several parts, but twice got something I had not asked for. And of course, they say if you open the item it cannot be returned, but you can't test anything without opening it first...and they charged me $10 each to ship the wrong item! In the end, my dad came back today to help me install a new tub and shower faucet. It took the better part of a day, but we did it.

Everything else just took time, it wasn't too frustrating, but just required labor. The mirrors came off the walls easily, but to my surprise, one wall of mirrors was hiding 3 layers of old wallpaper and a steel casement window that had almost rusted out. The wallpaper took a little effort, but came off pretty easily and the coats of paint on top is a huge upgrade over the wallpaper and floral borders. The window, though, will need to comeout and I'm having a contractor come over soon to look at it and give me an estimate on what it'll cost to replace.

Even after a week, it doesn't seem like that much it done, everything is just back to what it should be. But the window, though broken, doesn't leak and provides a lot of light into my once dreary house. As a reward for the work I did this week, I did finally buy the TV I've wanted for the past year, a 40" Sony LCD.

Poconos Weekend

2009-08-16T19:41:00.004-04:00

This summer marked the second straight summer that we went up to the mountains with some friends to visit Aunt Fran and Uncle Dave in the Poconos. Last year, it was Kim and I along with Aileen and Amanda, but this year we brought along Erme and Ihab since it was so much fun before. Kim, Ihab, Alex, and I left on Friday in the early afternoon to try to beat traffic and make it into the Mountains for dinner with Fran and Dave. We had a very nice dinner at Big Boulder Lake, outside on the patio and met up with Aileen, Erme and Amanda at the house before our night out.

In keeping with tradition, we spent the weekend doing many of the same things that we did last year. Since we only two days instead of the long Labor Day Weekend we had last year, we had to cut a couple things out. We didn't get to make it to Tribute Fest, which is a bummer, but after getting ripped-off by not seeing fake-Bono last year, we didn't want to set ourselves up for something that wouldn't deliver. However, we did get to do many of the fun things we did last year, but with more people, like karaoke at Shenanigan's, playing by the lake, BBQ'ing at AF and UD's big house, playing games, and drinking a little beer. When we first got to the bar at 10:30 for karaoke it was pretty sparse with only a few other people there, but that gave us a chance to sing a lot and get the most out of our limited time. I'm not sure who came up with the idea to play Charades (probably me) after the BBQ the next night at the big house, but it was the most fun I had on the entire trip. We all tried to make clues that weren't too difficult but that would be fun to act out, like Christmas Tree, Tabasco Sauce, or Hulk Hogan.

This year we had planned to do something new: whitewater rafting, but the dam release did not coincide with our trip so we decided not to take the lazy float down the Lehigh. All-in-all, it was a really fun trip and hopefully, we can keep going in years to come. It's always nice to get out of the city in the summertime to the Mountains where the air is cool and refreshing. Thanks to Fran and Dave for hosting us for the weekend and I hope we didn't wear you guys out to much!

Trying to Blog More

2009-08-13T02:26:00.008-04:00

I know that recently Kim and I have not been blogging as much as we used to. Part of that reason is because Kim didn't have internet for a while and was also starting a new job. A reason I haven't been updating as much is because I've been a lot more busy at work. However, now that Kim is paying for internet (wtf right?) and I am no longer employed, we will try to be less lazy, do more stuff, and write a little more.

After seeing Julie & Julia last weekend, we were inspired to think of different themes or takes we could undertake and then blog about. I haven't thought of anything good, but for now, just sharing pictures and stories from our adventures.

Meanwhile enjoy this comic from xkcd.com:

Last day at work

2009-08-09T12:38:00.006-04:00

Last Friday was my last day (as well as Chris') at the Dreyfuss Lab. I'm sure that most of you know that Kim also left the lab the week before because she could not stand the prospect of being there without me. But I left on slightly better terms and like her, on to greater things--a Ph.D program at Penn studying Biochemistry. Regardless, leaving the lab after three years, was still a little sad for me: cleaning out the bench and desk I had for the last two years, sorting through and throwing away most of my samples, and of course saying good-bye to many friends.

However, in order to forget my wallowing, we had a happy hour in the lab and went out afterwards. Since Chris and I were the guests of honor, we got to pick the beer for our party; but neither of the beers we originally wanted were available, so I chose alternatives: a variety case from Unibroue and Clipper City. The case from Unibroue was very expensive ~$70, but well worth it, especially when you consider how tasty they were and that all of the beers in the pack were at least 8-9% alcohol. The Clipper City Heavy Seas case was less expensive, but packed a good kick with 4 beers featuring 7+% alcohol. Clipper City beers are very good, brewed locally in Baltimore, and tend to be cheaper than most offerings from other crafter brewers. The happy hour was nice because a lot of people that don't often make it out came and even Lili, notorious for leaving at 4:45 everyday stayed until almost 6:30 drinking and hanging out. And as a reward for my years of hard work, I even got a hug and kiss from Gideon!

After happy hour, we took the 34 Trolley to 50th and Baltimore Sts. to one of Chris' and my favorite places: Dock Street Brewery. Dock Street usually has 5-7 house-brewed beers on draft, but mainly, the have great food especially the fries and pizza. Kim left from her new job and met us there, while Chris rode his bike from work. They got the restaurant a little early, since the rest of us took the trolley from lab, which worked out since the restaurant was starting to fill when I arrived with the rest from work. We got several pitchers of beer, my favorite being the Amarillo Pale Ale, and three large wood-oven baked pizzas for the ten of us to share. Some people were tired and ready for bed while others had families to get home to, but the party raged on. Chris suggested another West Philly gem to take the party, the back patio at Gojjo

To the unsuspecting, Gojjo is just another neighborhood West African Restaurant, but the back patio is very nicely constructed with pavers on the ground, landscaping, sturdy tables, nice lighting and even a TV tuned to local sports. I did not know that the back existed, so I was skeptical at first but it was a really nice surprise. Chris' high school friend, Joel, met up with us here and we stayed for a couple of hours drinking and telling stories. In the end, we stayed past 11, drank 4 pitchers of beer for $34 (yeah cheap too!), and had a great time.

As always, more pictures on facebook

Kristen and Adam's Wedding

2009-08-03T18:55:00.011-04:00

This weekend we were happy to attend the wedding of Kelly's best friend and our old friend, Kristen Z. (now Kristen P.). Before the wedding, though, there was a lot of traveling! I had off on Friday (since my last day of work was Thurs) and Mike took a half day so we hit the road around 12:30pm. We headed to Rockville, MD to pick up Mom and then drove to Dad's place in Richmond, VA. After some frustrations and then later good luck with traffic, we arrived in Richmond around 6:30pm and headed out for a nice dinner at Ruby Tuesday's and some shopping. We also discovered the reality show "Say Yes to the Dress", which follows salespeople and customers at a high-end bridal boutique, and it was surprisingly entertaining and appropriately wedding-themed.
Saturday morning, we left for North Carolina, all dressed up in our wedding clothes. We arrived in Raleigh just in time to grab a quick bite and meet up with Alex (who was visiting his other grandparents in Pinehurst, NC) before the big event. The wedding took place at Sacred Heart Cathedral in downtown Raleigh. Kristen was beautiful and the ceremony was lovely. Kelly performed her bridesmaid's duties admirably.
The reception was at the Hilton in Durham and we had a little time to rest up before a fun night of dancing. As always, the Dittmar family represented well on the dance floor, with Kelly starting off the dancing with Kristen's 8 year old cousin, Peter, who got just about every lady in attendance to sign his dance card. :) It was a great night and we were all so happy to be there to see Kristen take this big step in her life! (Check out lots more pics on Facebook)

University City Dining Days at Marigold

2009-07-29T17:17:00.007-04:00

West Philadelphia/University City has its own week of Dining Specials separate from the rest of the City at least once a year. Kim and I have taken this opportunity the past two years to go out and eat at a restaurant we normally don't go to. Restaurants participating in Dining Days will offer prix fixe meals with some choices for each course, with restaurants offering dinners from $15 to $30. Kim and I chose restaurants from the highest tier because we felt these restaurants offered the best value in terms of food. Last year, we had a very nice meal at Rx and so this year, we though we'd try another neighborhood BYOB, Marigold Kitchen.

For Dining Days, the menus are usually pared down from the restaurants normal offerings, but they will still to include vegetarian options for appetizers and entrees, which Kim obviously appreciates. As Marigold is a BYOB, we brought a bottle of red, a Wyndham Estates Shiraz, Bin 555. It was medium bodied, juicy and fruity, exactly what we both like in a wine pared with food. For an appetizer, I had a piece of crispy pork belly with fried green tomatoes on a bed of arugula with a buttermilk dressing and Kim had a salad of radish and snow peas. I really liked the balance the tart tomatoes added when eaten with the fatty pork belly. Kim tried a piece but was not impressed. Then, I had a perfectly prepared piece of seared salmon with dill potatoes and english peas and Kim had a Kalamata Olive pasta tossed with some vegetables. That salmon was the best salmon that I have even had made for me in a restaurant--it was just medium rare in the middle, a little bit translucent, and well rested so that it was evenly done throughout. Dessert, however, was a mixed bag. The blueberry biscuit was very good, but the peach cobbler with black pepper ice cream was a disappointment. The cobbler crust and ice cream were both overly salty and the cobbler was too small.

This is the second time Kim and I have been to Marigold, and the second time we were thoroughly satisfied. We always vow to go back but for some reason or another we just need the extra motivation to get going.

Kim's 3rd Annual Summer BBQ

2009-07-27T04:11:00.009-04:00

Since Kim's been in Philly, she's hosted a BYOM (bring your own meat) BBQ at her house for co-workers and friends. This year's BBQ was the third iteration and like the past two times, it was a great success. However, like in previous years, in order to host people at her house, the backyard first needed to be cleaned up. Alex and I helped Kim clean up the trash that migrates into the back and I bought a truckload of top soil to fill up holes and mulch to cover the large expanses of dirt. After all this work, the backyard looks great, I only wish I had taken a picture of what it looked like before for comparison.

For the BBQ, Kim made pasta salad, potato salad, dip for chips, rice crispie treats, cake cookies, and bought much more. I bought chorizo and zucchini, made guacamole, burgers, and hot wings. We also bought a lot of good beer and wine. Of course, many of our friends brought food to share too. Jeongsik brought delicious Korean-style chicken for the grill; Lili brought some spicy spaghetti; Ihab prepared some Middle-Eastern seasoned chicken kebabs; Anna Maria made several appetizers with prosciutto; Josh brought for the grill, tomatoes cut in half topped with garlic pepper Jack cheese, and basil; Zhenxi picked blackberries for us. Erme made some delicious cupcakes, which Lili's kids really enjoyed helping ice and decorate! And many (Daisuke, Aileen, Chris...) also brought drinks to share too, I was just too busy grilling to remember what everyone added to the party. But needless to say, no one went home hungry or lacked drink.

It was a lot of fun and well worth the time and effort it took to clean up the backyard. Now that all the hard work is done, I think Kim should host more BBQ's since all we would need to do now is invite some people and put some charcoal in the chimney starter!

Some people asked what was in my wing recipe, so I thought I would share it: you season the chicken wings equal parts chili powder, paprika and Lawry's Seasoned Salt with some fresh ground black pepper and then marinate them in hot sauce (I like Texas Pete's) overnight. Then I drain them thoroughly to make sure the marinade doesn't drop on the coals and smother the fire. I grill them for about 6-8 minutes on each side under medium-hot to hot coals to crisp the skin and then move them to the side to finish cooking through. The wings have bones that help keep the moist, but also requires more time to cook through

A Nice Weekend

2009-07-21T01:40:00.016-04:00

Kim and I both had a great weekend. Well, I had a nice weekend, but Kim only had a partly nice weekend what with her parking ticket, dryer and washer going missing, no internet...

On Friday, after work, I drove to the Airport to pick up my sister from her flight out of Raleigh. She came home for her 10 year high school reunion and it was nice to see her and talk for the hour or so drive home to my parent's. We got home to have dinner with my Dad and then sat around the table talking until my Mom got home. I spent the night there because the next day I had a picnic with the Brandywine Bonsai Society, in nearby Kennet Square, Pa. The picnic/auction was just okay because I forgot to bring cash so it was just a really long picnic for me.

I had to get back into the city though because Ihab had some work friends over to his house for a small party on in his outdoor patio/backyard area. I did not know what to expect from his yard since I've seen some gnarly backyards in the city (Kim), but Ihab's was really nice. The area was mostly paved over with concrete with some established trees and little gardens dotting it. The trees also provided a good amount of shade to keep it cool. Like always, Ihab made some great food, grilled some veggies, spicy burgers, Middle-Eastern chicken skewers, and some Lebanese staples. Kim, Tina, and Anna Maria all brought desserts. Kim made a lemon bundt cake, Tina brought some Swedish cinnamon buns and candies and Anna Maria brought some outstanding cheesecake from Midtown. Even Kim, who normally doesn't like cheesecake had a big slice and loved it.

The next morning, Kim and I met my parents and Frances at Ocean Harbor in Chinatown for Dim Sum. I haven't had dim sum in a long time, so I was really excited to go to Ocean Harbor. The food, as expected was great, and we had really good service from the waiters that kept our water glasses full and brought us a fork and knife for Kim. The cart ladies were helpful, bringing veggie dishes for Kim as well, as the good stuff for me: chicken feet, beef organ meat soup, shrimp dumplings, fried taro balls... For those of you considering going to dim sum, I would almost insist you go with someone who is Chinese or at least speaks Chinese. You need to assert yourself with the service staff and let them know who's the boss--white people are just too polite sometimes! After lunch, we walked around a little bit and saw some crazy old lady get caught stealing lychees from a streetside grocer.

And to cap off the weekend, Geoff had us over at his house for a fresh summer dinner. He made two cold soups, a savory strawberry soup with apricots and Vidalia onions and a gaspatcho. Next, we had a "Thai" cucumber salad, the recipe for which Justin got from a Meijer's in Ohio. And finally, Geoff made fritters from zucchini and other vegetables served with a yoghurt and herb sauce. The dinner was very nice, but what really made it fun was getting the chance to spend time with friends and catch up.

Cooperstown and the Hall of Fame

2009-07-12T21:56:00.012-04:00

Kim, brother Joey, Alex, and I went on a trip to Cooperstown, NY this past weekend to tour the town where baseball was invented, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and Ommegang Brewery. For me, this trip was the combination of two of my favorite things: fancy beer and our national pastime.

We started our trip early (at least for me) on Saturday morning and went to pick up Joey in Wenonah, NJ and see his new digs. His new place was much bigger than I expected and was very pleasant. From NJ, we then drove about North towards Cooperstown. The drive up was pretty short because traffic was moving briskly and we were catching up on stories. After about 5 hours, including a quick break for lunch, we arrived in Cooperstown for the first destination of our trip--Ommegang Brewery.

Ommegang is an American Brewery owned by Belgian company Duvel that makes very good versions of popular Belgium styles. The location in Cooperstown was chosen because it was once the hops-growing capitol of the US in the late 1800's and was already a tourist destination. Luckily we arrived at the Brewery right as a tour was beginning so we just jumped right in. The tour was very interesting as they showed us everything from the kettles where the grains are cooked and the fermentation vats in the brewering room to the bottling machinery and storage areas. The highlight of the tour of course was the free tasting of five beers: Witte (white ale), Rare Vos (amber ale), Hennepin (farmhouse or saison ale), Abbey ale (Trappist Double), and the Three Philosphers (Trappist quadruple ale). Although Alex could not participate in the tasting, he was a good sport to watch us gobble down several oz of each beer.

Following the tour of the brewery, we went to the hotel to unload the car and get settled in before dinner. Joe and I took a nap while Kim and Alex hit the hotel pool. When they got back, we headed out to Downtown Cooperstown to see the sights and grab dinner. We walked into Doubleday Field and visited several stores that sold mostly junk, but some gems were: a Phillies 2008 World Series edition of Monopoly and a really cool hat for the minor league team, the Montgomery Biscuits. The Monopoly set was $40 and they did not have a hat that fit me, so we I ended up walking away empty-handed.
The next morning, we woke up at 8 and got a pretty good free breakfast at the hotel before heading out to the Hall of Fame. It was cool that the admission tickets were printed with a Phillies themed graphic to commemorate their WS win last year. The Hall, as expected, was great and filled with all sorts of memorabilia from the founding of baseball in early 1800's to uniform pieces worn by players in the 2008 WS. It was amazing to bats used by Babe Ruth in his 60 HR season, Lou Gehrig's Uniform the day before he retired, Willie May's glove, and several Hank Aaron HR balls. My favorite article from the 2008 WS exhibit was the bat Joe Blanton used to hit a HR in Game 4 of the Series last year.

It was a fun trip, although too short, but I felt that we got to see everything that we were interested in. And according to Joe and Kim, the renovations the HoF made to exhibits really added to the fan experience.

4th of July Fun

2009-07-05T13:39:00.014-04:00

Yesterday, Mike, Alex and I spent the 4th of July holiday with our good friends the Wodnicks. Beth's parents opened their home (and pool) to us for the celebration. It was a big crowd, including the whole Wodnick clan, Megan Smith and Kelly. I had the idea for the Wodnicks to host an Independence Day party because Mike and I have been traveling a lot the past few weeks and we wanted to spend the holiday near home and the Wodnicks had a pool. For the past two years, the three of us have gone to Coney Island and see the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, but this year was just as fun without the long drive.

Mike and Alex came prepared for wiffleball (Mike brought 6 wiffle balls and 2 bats) and they were not disappointed. After John went over the house rules, the games were ongoing throughout the afternoon with almost everyone taking part at some point. However, the large quantity of good food and drink made it more difficult to get up and into the game. Then, we all cooled off in the pool before a BBQ feast with plenty of grilled meats and veggie burgers, salads, and fresh vegetables and tons of deserts.

After a rousing game of Apples to Apples, we headed out onto the golf course right behind the Wodnicks' house to watch the fireworks display. Everyone had fun oohing and aahing and picking their favorite kind of fireworks. It was a such a beautiful day, made more fun by good friends, good food and good fun.

Picture Mike took using the Fireworks as a flash strobe

My vacation wrap-up

2009-07-01T02:12:00.007-04:00

After a good week in Tennessee at the Great Smoky Mountains with Kenny, I cannot say that I am happy to be home. Of course, it was nice to see friends and everyone at work again, but I do not enjoy waking up before 10am nor do I enjoy going into work and spending 8 hours inside from the fresh mountain air and sunshine. Kenny and I had fun on our family vacation without the rest of the family and the rush of having to go everywhere and do everything.

That said, we visited almost everything in and near the National Park. We started out in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg at the North end of the Park in Tennessee. We climbed the tallest peak in the Smokies, Clingmans Dome on the NC/TN state line. We rafted near the east end of the park near the Pigeon River and spent the rest of the day hiking in Cosby. We saw Laurel Falls in the middle of the park and Abrams Falls in the very West of the Park by the Cades Cove, where there was a primitive road and a preserved fronteir settlement. And we camped at the south of the park in Smokemont, where I caught my first trout and we slept in our tent by a babbling creek.

All in all, it was great trip. We saw everything we wanted to, ate junk food, and still had time to watch TV in our hotel room. I would definitely camp again with Kenny!

You can see the rest of the pictures here on my Facebook album

Post Vacation Transition

2009-06-30T00:09:00.007-04:00

Mike and I both returned home from our respective vacations on Saturday evening. Alex went right from the airport to a friend's party and then got picked up by his Dad for a few days vacation in Pittsburgh. Even though we were tired, we wanted to get the most out of the vacation time we had left, so Mike and I went for a late dinner at the Standard Tap. After dinner, we walked next door to North Bowl to meet up with friends in honor of Joe's 30th birthday. Joe definitely had a blast on his birthday and we're glad we got to celebrate with him.

On Sunday morning after a tasty brunch at the South Philly Tap Room (best grilled cheese ever!), we drove down to Milburn Orchards in Elkton, Maryland to pick some cherries. At first, we were discouraged by trees with lots of old and moldy cherries, but eventually we found some good trees and ended up with a haul of nearly 6 pounds of white and black cherries. We finished off the weekend by meeting the other members of our dinner club at Harmony Vegetarian Restaurant for some tasty vegan dim sum. It was nice to see friends and prolong our vacation just a little bit longer before going back to work on Monday.

Disney Vacation Round-up

2009-06-29T23:42:00.006-04:00

Since my last post, our family vacation to Disney World has ended, but I wanted to share some of the highlights. After a fun day at Epcot on Monday, the whole family went to Blizzard Beach, a ski-themed water park, on Tuesday. We all enjoyed the relief from the heat. Most of us rode Summit Plummet, the second tallest and fastest free fall slide in the world and clocked in between 50 and 60 mph!

Kristen and Steve had to leave on Wednesday afternoon, so while they did a little outlet shopping with Mom, Dad, and Kelly, Joey and I took the boys to the Magic Kingdom. I must say this was the worst part of our trip. It was SO crowded that even the outdated boring attractions had 45 minute waits. A big disappointment was that Space Mountain is closed for renovations. However, we got our Fast Passes for Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and enjoyed those rides, along with the Buzz Lightyear ride, the Monsters Inc comedy show and the Haunted Mansion. By about 3pm we were done, and enjoyed the rest of the day at the pool. That evening, the boys went to see Transformers, and Mom, Kelly and I hung out at Downtown Disney, did some dancing and ate some amazing Ghiradelli sundaes.

I drove Joey to the airport early Thursday morning and then Kelly, Andrew, Alex and I headed to Animal Kingdom bright and early. We got to ride the newest roller coaster, Expedition Everest, several times and also did the River ride, safari, and the Bugs Life 3D show. By the late afternoon, we had covered all we wanted to see, so we headed back over to Blizzard Beach to cool off.

Friday was our last day at Disney and we started the day auditioning for the American Idol Experience at Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM). Alex and I didn't make the show, but we had lots of fun watching the other contestants. We had a full day at Hollywood Studios with multiple rides on the Rock N' Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror, some shows, and lunch and arcade games at Pizza Planet. We ended the day watching the finale of the American Idol Experience with the 7 winners of the shows throughout the day and then went home to get our last bit of swimming in before leaving on Saturday.

We had a really fun time with the whole family in Disney World and it was especially fun to catch up with our old friend, Andrew. We've already begun discussions on the next family trip!

Kim's Vacation So Far

2009-06-23T00:18:00.010-04:00

Since Mike posted about his trip, I felt that I should add a little something about my vacation. On Saturday morning, I headed to Minneapolis for the wedding of my good friend from grad school, Melissa. The wedding wasn't until 4pm so I had some time to hang out at the hotel with some other Chicago friends, Gina, Eric and their almost 3 year old daughter, Nora. I thought Nora might be shy around me, but she was totally friendly and playful even though she hadn't seen me for a year!

The wedding was beautiful and I was so glad to be there to wish the best to Melissa, Phil and their daughter, Delaney. It was great to catch up with several old friends from Chicago. We danced the night away at the reception to a really fun live band. I took lots of pictures which you can check out on Facebook.

On Sunday morning, I got up early and headed back to the airport and caught a flight to Philly where I hung out at the airport for a couple hours, met up with Alex and then boarded another flight to Orlando for our family trip to Disney World! Alex's friend from Aurora, Andrew, joined us and we just hung out at the house Sunday evening, swimming and catching up.

For our first day at Disney, we went to Epcot and hit all the major attractions. I think our favorite was Soaring, which is a pretty amazing flight simulator. Though a definite highlight was our stop to fake Germany in the World Showcase for some brats, pretzels and beers. We're having a great (though hot) time so far in Florida and looking forward to a fun week with the family. More soon!

First Day of Vacation!

2009-06-20T22:43:00.009-04:00

Today is Kim and My first day of vacation. I dropped Kim off at the Airport this morning at around 5 am, and then directly from Philly International, drove to outside DC in Alexandria, Va to pick up Kenny for our trip to the Great Smoky Mountains. I got to his house before 8 and I drove southwest towards Tennessee. We stopped once in Lexington, Va, home of the Virginia Military Institute to grab lunch. The town was very nice once we got to it, but the school looked like a prison, every building had the same rectangular architecture and beige stucco exteriors.

After a few hours, we stopped to get gas (I'd averaged 29 mpg up to that point!) and Kenny took over driving duties as I napped. Finally, after a couple breaks, we made it to our Interstate exit by 4:30, and took the opportunity to check out Bass Pro Shops' Outdoor World, which was an enormous outfitter right at the base of the Smokies. I bought some more fishing supplies I didn't need and ended up buying a 3-day trout fishing permit ($33.50), which I found out wasn't required since you don't need a trout permit to catch trout in the National Park, just the regular permit ($16.50) so I ended up giving the State of Tennessee an extra $17! I'd better catch some fish now.

We had some of the Smoky's best BBQ, Bennett's Pit Bar-B-Que, for dinner, which honestly wasn't better than BBQ that I make. Kenny had the great idea of making a little man out of the left-over bones from the ribs I had from dinner. I think that we did a pretty good job, but you can be the judge:We turned in early to get plenty of rest for a full day of fishing and hiking in the morning.

Bat in the House

2009-06-15T23:55:00.003-04:00

Today, I was scared more than I had been in a very long time when a bat surprised me in my basement while I was doing laundry. I was downstairs watching TV and doing the wash when a big black blur came flying down the staircase and into my basement. At first, I thought it was a pigeon by its sheer size, but the erratic flying and silent flapping informed me otherwise. When I saw the bat, I immediately thought of the Office episode where Dwight traps a bat in a trash bag over Meredith's head. However, I did not have ready access to a trash bag so I picked up the next best thing--a throw blanket!

After trying to chase it around, I saw a laundry basket on the floor and picked that up instead to try to corral the flying rodent. As the bat flutter around, I managed to shriek a couple times and stumble onto my butt before I managed to knock the bat from the air and hit it with the basket. It fell to the floor and I threw the basket over it. I didn't see the bat move after it hit the ground, so I think I dealt it a lethal blow with my expert basket swinging. I grabbed a pair of leather gloves from my utility room, picked up the dead bat and put it in the trash I was taking out for pick up tomorrow.

A flying bat turned an otherwise quiet night of laundry into a scene from a horror movie, but luckily I triumphed in the end, although now I feel bad about killing a bat that probably wanted out of the house more than I did. I had thought about taking a picture of the bat for the blog, but I thought better of it, plus I wouldn't want a permanent visual reminder of a flying rodent in the house I am trying to sleep in tonight.

The Inaugural Game Night

2009-06-12T00:44:00.007-04:00

For the past several months, Kim and I had a standing date on Wednesday to get together at her house for dinner and Lost. Megan, Ihab, Joey, and some of our other friends would frequently come to watch Lost with us. But now that there are not anymore Lost episodes, we thought it would be fun to still get together for dinner and games.

This time we thought it would be good to make Mexican food since it is cheap, delicious, and can be quickly made after work. We made rice, bean, bell peppers, guacamole, spiced ground beef, grilled chorizo, and the normal condiments. Aileen brought a tasty green salad from produce she got from her Co-op. To drink, I used fresh strawberries we picked on Sunday to make Strawberry-Lime Margaritas. Megan brought Choco-Tacos to finish the Mexican theme with dessert.

After a very satisfying dinner, we settled on playing Taboo. Ihab had never played this game before, but did pretty well save for one round where Kim buzzed him 4 times and he netted a total of -3 points. I hadn't played Taboo before either but it was fun and definitely something I would play again. At some point during the game, Kim got the clue word "Hostage" and with Ihab watching her, she gave hints such as "a Muslim would do this," and other words that Ihab took offense to!

Jenny Lewis at The Trocadero

2009-06-09T00:39:00.003-04:00

Earlier tonight, Kim and I went to see Jenny Lewis and her traveling band at the Trocadero Theatre in Chinatown on 10th and Arch Sts. I tried to bring my new camera, the Nikon D90 into the event, but the security guards told me that any camera with a detachable lens is considered a professional camera and thus I would need a photo-pass. So unfortunately, like the Bonnie Prince Billy show, I had to drop the camera off in the car. I need to find out how to get credentials so I can bring my camera into shows.

However, being camera-less did not detract from a great show by Jenny and her band. We arrived at the show a little late because of a great dinner of ziti, meatballs, and strawberry pie we had at home with Joey, but we still managed to get seats upstairs where we could see the stage and hear perfectly. Kim and I both heard every song we wanted to hear from Jenny's albums, as well as a great rendition of "Silver Lining" from her main band, Rilo Kiley's, last album, Under the Blacklight. We also enjoyed the new songs Jenny performed, which we both felt were more in-line with early RK album's energetic and catchy pop rather than the bluesy alt-country of Rabbit Fur Coat.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable show and I will definitely want to see Jenny Lewis/Rilo Kiley again next time they are in Philly.

Stuff Mike and Kim (and Chinese People) Like: #4 Pick-Your-Own Fruit

2009-06-07T17:09:00.011-04:00

Today, Kim and I took advantage of great weather to pick strawberries at Linvilla Orchards in Media, Pa. The 30 minute drive out to the country was nice and the orchard was very easy to find, just off of US 1 on Knowlton Road. We parked by the farm stand were treated to a hayride to the picking field about a mile away. Since early June is the peak of strawberry ripeness here in the Mid-Atlantic, we were expecting the cream of the crop and we were not disappointed. From my extensive strawberry picking experience as a child, I knew that the best ones would be far away from where people first arrive. We ended up picking about 10 pounds of strawberries for a cost of about $25.

Driving home with a tray full of strawberries, we had time to think about what to do with them all. In the end, we decided to eat some fresh, use some for strawberry margaritas, and make a fresh strawberry pie.

When we were children, my mother would often take us to pick fruit on the weekends, especially on Sundays after church and before Chinese school. I have many vivid and happy experiences from these occaisions. There is even video from when I first learned to talk, where my entire family picked about 100 pounds of black cherries.

I don't know why it is that Asian people like picking fresh fruit, I even talked about this with our co-worker Lili on Friday. I think the general consensus is that Asian people often come from places where many fresh fruits aren't always readily available, as is the case with my parents in Taiwan. And also, temperate climate fruits like cherries, strawberries, and apples are often very rare and expensive, so luxury associated with them.

Casual Viking, Chimeras, Cold Cave, and Love is All at Kung Fu Necktie, 6-3-09

2009-06-04T00:57:00.008-04:00

Last Night, I met up with Aileen and Erme to see the R5 Production show, Love is All at Kung Fu Necktie, a new bar in the Northern Liberties that hosts really intimate concerts. KFN is very convenient by public transportation--is just one block north from the Girard Street Stop on the Market-Frankford line, but I decided to drive since the show was likely to run long. The bar is a converted rowhouse with the first floor containing the bar and booth seating in the front, and the stage for the bands in the backroom. Upstairs they have an art gallery as well as staging for the performers.

We got there at 9pm and had a beer, while the first opening band, Casual Viking, was playing their set. We weren't really paying attention, but they played non-irritating background music for us to talk over. After the Viking's set, we walked up to the stage to see the next band, the Chimeras. The Chimeras were surprisingly good; a quartet which features Joe Cocker-like performance from the lead singer and guitarist, Walkmen-esque jangly guitars, and crooning reminescent of Dylan. They were so good they trigger an infectious bout of raised fist pumping. The next band, Cold Cave, was pretty cold and empty. From the time they took the stage until the finished, half of the crowd that stood by the stage had left to have drinks at the bar. We didn't know if Erme would make it through the show since she had to get up very early that morning, but Cold Cave was not good enough to end our night with.

We eagerly awaited Love is All through 3 opening bands and where utterly shocked when they took the stage because just minutes earlier the sax player, who was wearing a vintage Eagles tee, was standing directly in front of us with a drink watching the previous band. The lead singer, Josephine was hanging out in the front of the bar selling merch, and several other band members were just chilling around the bar before their performance.

Love is all put on a great show though. They play this high energy, dance-pop, that I would describe as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Grand Ole Party on Swedish methamphetamines. My favorite song was one about the guitar players flat that started with the line, "There's dust in every corner..." which drew laughs from Aileen, Erme, and me. The band was just fun and the audience, even the too-cool hipsters were dancing and jumping around.

The Hundred Push Ups Training Program

2009-06-02T14:41:00.003-04:00

So one of my New Year's Resolutions was to be better about working out. And though it took a little time, by this spring I'd really figured out a good routine. I think one of my biggest problems was finding the time to actually go to the gym so I've started working out at home. Mainly, I'm using videos by Jillian Michaels that totally kick butt. But sometimes I get bored with the same workouts and one night while searching for some alternatives, I came across the Hundred Push Ups Training Program. Basically, it's a 6 week program where you do increasing sets of push ups 3 days a week and by the end you're supposed to be able to do 100 consecutive push ups. Now, this was really appealing to me because as I started doing Jillian's workouts, I realized that am pathetic at push ups and one of my goals has been to increase my upper body strength.

The first part of the program is to perform a test to see how many push ups you can do at the start. I did this with Kelly and Mom while we were in Richmond for Memorial Day. I did 14 modified (on my knees) and Kelly did 14 regular push ups (yes, she's more hard core than me!). Mom was having some trouble with form and gave up on the challenge right there during the initial test. But Kelly and I have moved on and once I told Mike, he joined in too. I mentioned it at work and inspired one of my co-workers to start doing push ups in the lab! So, if anyone else is inspired, check out the site and join us!

I'm not sure that I'll ever be able to do 100 consecutive push ups but I'm going to give it my all. Look for an update in July to see if we did it!

Bonnie "Prince" Billy at the Trocadero Theater, May 22

2009-05-25T21:21:00.007-04:00

Last Friday, my brother, Kenny, came up to Philly for a short visit and also to come with me and Kim to see Bonnie "Prince" Billy. BPB is the stage name for Will Oldham, an alternative-country, neo-folk, indie musician. I met Kenny after work and we went to Nanzhou Hand Drawn Noodle House for dinner. We greatly enjoyed our respective dinners: I had the Beef Brisket Noodle Soup and Kenny had Beef Noodle Soup. We took a short walk around Center City before going to the venue, where Kim met up with us.

Unfortunately, the concert was the most disappointing I have ever attended, but not because the music was terrible. There were several great performances of songs from recent records but also a lot of weird jams where everyone in the band was just playing layer upon layer of indiscernible noise. The worst example of this was when the band played the leading song from the new album Beware, "I Want to be Your Only Friend," but added a several minute interlude in the middle of the song, before it finally unwound to the end. To add insult to injury, they changed the tune of solos in many of their more melodic offerings. It was unexpected and confusing in a horrible way.

The bright spot of the concert aside from BPB's haunting vocals, was the playing and singing of the violinist that tours with him, Cheyenne Mize. I was honestly more impressed with how well the tone and timber of her voice matched and in many cases surpassed BPB. I had to google her later to find out more about her, but it appears that she has a new recording with BPB that was recently released, Among the Gold, and she is part of a Louisville group Arnett Hollow. And she is much cuter than BPB if I may say so:

(Photo from Flickr user: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pirlouiiiit/)

New York for the Weekend

2009-05-17T18:25:00.008-04:00

We headed up to New York City this weekend to celebrate our good friend Mike Hartwyk's 30th birthday. The weather forecast did not look promising but we ended up dry after a weekend of great fun. We arrived in the city on Saturday afternoon and met up with Nina in Manhattan before trekking to Brooklyn for dinner at Song, a great Thai place, with Mike H, David and Beth. After filling up on noodles and fried bananas (I had a whole fried Striped Bass!) we made our way back to Manhattan to meet some more folks for drinks at St. Jerome's Bar in the Lower East Side. The loud music made conversation a little challenging, but everyone enjoyed the $2 Bud for Happy Hour that lasted until Midnight! Our friends, Hannah and Ali, who are expecting a little boy any day now, come out to the bar for a while and Ali had a beer. We crashed at Nina's last night and this morning, we met Ali and Hannah for brunch at the Sunflower Diner. After a successful shopping trip to Uniqlo, quickly becoming a tradition of ours, we caught the Bolt Bus home. Rumor on facebook is there was some kind of trouble with the trains this afternoon and Ihab and Geoff were stuck in Trenton for hours so I'm really glad we chose the bus!

Woohoo Fondue

2009-05-16T09:37:00.010-04:00

Last night, I hosted a fondue party for our monthly dinner club. We usually meet on Sunday but since May is such a busy month, it worked out to have it on a Friday night. This made food prep a little more rushed than usual but I think everything turned out great. I've been wanting to make fondue since my Mom got me a triple crock-pot (yes, 3 crock-pots attached to each other!) for hosting our family Thanksgiving dinner. I made classic gruyere fondue, feta fondue and, of course, chocolate fondue for dessert.

For the cheese fondues, we had cubed olive, sourdough and rustic white bread, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, bell peppers, tomatoes, olives, artichokes, apples and pears to dip. Preparing so many items for dipping took much more time than I anticipated, but it was worth it.

Although everyone enjoyed the cheese, the hit of the party was the chocolate fondue. Everyone just stood and hovered over it, not willing to take their eyes off the molten chocolate! We dipped: strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, Vanilla wafers, mandarin oranges, and homemade sponge cake.

It's a great that Ihab had fondue forks, otherwise I don't know how we would've made it work, but everything fell into place (triple crock pot, great cheese and chocolate, and fondue forks) to make this dinner club a success.

Phillies Game, May 12, 2009

2009-05-14T23:57:00.004-04:00

On Tuesday Night, I was presented the opportunity to combine three of my loves: the Phillies, friends, and Dollar Hot Dogs! Needless to say, I had a great time. The Phillies beat the Los Angelos Dodgers, 5-3, in a great game. The Phils starter, compatriot of many of our Korean friends, Chan Ho Park, had a rocky start giving up several hits in the first inning, but settled down and pitched very well. He gave up just two runs over six innings and just two earned runs to win his first game of the season and the first as a Phillie. Also, exciting was Jayson Werth, stealing second base, then third and finally home all in the same inning. I had never seen a steal of home before let alone one on the catcher.

This was my third Hatfield Dollar Hot Dog game, and the novelty is starting to wear down on me. The park instituted a one beer per customer limit, which for us was fine. But not for the frat boys and sorority girls sitting in our section that were late for the game and were constantly walking in front of us during the middle of innings. Altogether, I had 5 dollar dogs and was more than happy with my effort, although in the three games, the number of hotdogs I've consumed has been decreasing from 9 to 6 to now 5. Kim though did get the chance to try out the dollar vegan dogs, which were also a dollar. I didn't get to try it out for a comparison, but she seemed to really enjoy her two.

Kelly's 25th Birthday at Sazon

2009-05-10T16:38:00.005-04:00

Yesterday was Kelly's 25th Birthday, so she came down to spend the day in Philly. Alex was attending a friend's Bat Mitzvah so Kelly and I were free to roam the city and shop (and stop for some falafel at Maoz). Later that evening we met up with family and friends for a great dinner at Sazon Restaurant in Philly. It is a wonderful Venezuelan BYOB at 10th and Spring Garden. I chose this place because it serves one of Kelly's favorite dishes from Costa Rica, arroz con pollo (chicken and rice for you non-Spanish speakers). They also have a special menu with several varieties of hot chocolate, which we didn't get to try because we were too full from all of the delicious food.

We weren't too full for cake, though! After dinner, everyone came back to my place for some Brooklyn Blackout cake, which is a chocolate cake layered with a chocolate custard/pudding then covered in chocolate cake crumbs. As you can see, it was hard to resist! :)It's hard to believe that Kelly is 25 (especially because it means that I will be turning 30 later this year) but I'm glad that we got to celebrate her special day together. Happy Birthday sister!

Mike's New Blog

2009-05-07T21:01:00.002-04:00

Kim and I have been noticing that this blog can something be difficult to read because of the number of pictures and the way photos are formatted, so I decided to start a new blog focusing on topics in photography that are interesting to me and my own work. Check it out, I hope you like it.

Mike's Photo Blog

Independence Seaport Museum

2009-05-03T16:16:00.022-04:00

On Sunday, Kim and I went to the Independence Seaport Museum at Penn's Landing. We went to the museum primarily to see the new exhibit, "Tattoos in the Life of the American Sailor," that I had read about online. The exhibit was interesting, but not what I had expected. I thought there would be more photographs or even tanned pieces of human skins like that have at the Mutter Museum. Our favorite part of the exhibit was interactive tattooing station, where the image of a tattoo was projected on your arm.

Most of the other displays at the museum were only marginally interesting, with many of the interactive stations out-of-order. The first thing Kim and I noticed when we entered the ship-building workshop was how good it smelled inside. It smelled like newly mowed grass and fresh sawdust. Even better, This American Life was being played as we walked in. By far the best part of the museum was touring the two ships that they had opened for public: the USS Becuna and the USS Olympia. We visited the Becuna first, which is a submarine that operated during WWII. The most amazing thing about the Becuna was how narrow all the rooms, halls and accommodations were. I just could not imagine spending months at sea and being hundreds of feet underwater. This is the one bathroom shared by the entire crew of 67 non-officer crewmembers:

Next, we went onboard the USS Olympia is the last floating ship remaining from the Spanish-American War. She was the flagship for the Asiatic fleet while in service and is the third oldest floating ship, following the USS Constitution and Constellation and is the oldest Steel ship still afloat. In contrast, to cramped and stark Becuna, the Olympia was expansive, with very generous officer rooms. This should be expected since it was the lead ship in the Pacific fleet and hosted many of the highest officers of the US Navy. This was the Captain's quarters:

Although the Olympia is in need of repairs, $30 Millions worth according to a preservation society, the ship still has a lot of charm and best of all many of it's cannons still in place.

PAS Talent Show

2009-05-01T12:35:00.004-04:00

Last night, Alex took the stage in Penn Alexander School's annual Talent Show. It's always a fun event with a wide range of acts and talent. I think that all of the kids that get up there on stage deserve a lot of credit...it's not easy! One of the best things about Penn Alexander is that it is a really supportive and nurturing school community. Students from kindergarten through 8th grade and their families came out to cheer on their classmates and support the school even if they were not participating in the show.

Of course, Alex's performance of "New Shoes" by Paolo Nutini was a highlight. Check out the video, courtesy of Kelly!

Stuff Mike and Kim Like: #3 Dinner Parties

2009-04-27T23:53:00.016-04:00

I know dinner parties was listed at #90 on the Stuff White People Like blog, but Kim and I like dinner parties so much we decided it was worth an entry of its own on our blog. This past weekend, Kim and I were invited to two dinners serving great food: one on Saturday at our co-worker, Anna Maria's house and another on Sunday at Megan's.

Anna Maria made a lot of classic Italian food: antipasto of prosciutto, mozzarella, brie, and olives, salad, two lasagnas, one eggplant and one with beef and mushroom, roasted zucchini and eggplant, potato casserole, rice and tuna salad on a hard boiled egg half. It was fun to visit Anna Maria's and enjoy dinner with friends.

Megan made deviled eggs, spiced walnuts, pea ravioli in a lemon herb broth, warm potato salad, cauliflower gratin, and stuffed roasted artichokes. Megan's mom helped make dinner and it was nice seeing her again and hearing about things in West Virginia.

However, the highlight of any dinner Megan hosts is the homemade ice cream she makes. Sunday was no exception as she made an ice cream cake with a chocolate wafer cookie crust, pistachio ice cream, and a topping of whipped cream mixed with shortbread crumbs.

Geoff liked the ice cream cake too!

We like dinner parties so much that we are part of a monthly dinner club, VD (veggie dinner) club, as Megan likes to call it, since we stick to a mainly vegetarian menu because we have several vegetarian members. Kim was actually part of two different dinner clubs in Chicago and started one with Megan when she first moved to Philly. After that one fizzled out it was revamped with co-workers from Megan's work and our friends from Lab. We now have six members/couples that take turns cooking once a month on Sunday nights, which is nice since we each only have to cook twice a year. It's always fun to try peoples' culinary experiments and learning techniques we can use in our own everyday cooking.

Stuff Kim and Mike Like: #2 Bánh mì (Vietnamese Hoagies)

2009-04-20T17:46:00.010-04:00

Philadelphia is known for it's hoagies, sandwiches made from cold cuts, lettuce, tomato, onion, oil and vinegar first popularized by the Italian-American community. However, the hoagies that Kim and I really like are made by more recent immigrants: the Vietnamese. The Bánh mì is a sandwich made from fresh baguettes that is traditionally stuffed with roast pork, Vietnamese ham or head cheese, pate, mayonnaise, pickled carrots and daikon, jalapenos, cucumber, and cilatro. The hoagie features a combination of fatty, sweet, savory and and acidic flavors that blends very well together.

This beautiful sandwich is available at many plaes in the the city, but our favorite is Ba Le Bakery, on the intersection of 6th Street and Washington Ave. They even make a vegetarian version which replaces the meats with stir-fry seasoned tofu and vegetables.The Bánh mì is so good that even Chinese people, like our co-worker, Lili (pictured below) and our picky boss (not pictured) fight over a day-old sandwich! Not really, but it is a very well constructed sandwich and you should all try to find a shop that makes them to try for yourself.

Longwood Gardens

2009-04-19T23:56:00.015-04:00

Saturday was the first really beautiful day of the year, so Kim and I decided it would be the perfect day to visit Longwood Gardens. We knew that we were in for a treat when on the walk to the main entrance of the grounds we saw these Cherry and Magnolia trees in full-bloom.

As you can see, the sky was clear and cloudless. Although many of the trees weren't in leaf yet, some were showing great blossoms and on a day like that what can you really complain about.

The garden was well groomed and the fountains were going. The formal Italian water garden was beautiful right at the edge of the large pond

We walked out to edges of the property where many treehouses were built. We especially like this one overlooking the meadow, which made use of these very interesting yellow natural logs. I thought they were probably stripped yellow popular logs, but couldn't find a sign anywhere to give me more information.

Longwood also has a good exhibit of Bonsai in the back of the Conservatory. They have many wonderful trees including a Crepe Myrtle with great bark, several Maples and Hornbeams, but easily my favorite was the Wisteria that was in full bloom. This tree was flowering much earlier than the plants in the landscape so it was a wonderful surprise.

While we were there, I took the opportunity to take some photographs, including some with the Nikon 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 with Macro, that I recently purchased. I hope you enjoy my pictures!
I highly recommend everyone make some time on a nice day and drive out to Longwood Gardens. From Philly, the drive is around 45 minutes. Student tickets are $6 and normal adult tickets are $16, so it isn't too expensive.

Mike's Birthday at Yakitori Boy

2009-04-19T09:18:00.008-04:00

To celebrate Mike's 24th birthday on Thursday, a group of friends went to dinner at Yakitori Boy. The restaurant serves "japas" or Japanese-style tapas, including skewers of grilled meats and veggies, sushi, noodles, tempura, and just about any kind of Japanese food you could want. We ordered a lot of drinks and delicious food, including his favorite, the hamachi, Yellow Tail Tuna, neck!

Masako and Daisuke presented Mike with a cute little present at dinner time--a cute little miniature honey pot:
And then after a very filling dinner, we went upstairs to the karaoke lounge to sing! We picked some crowd favorites including, "My Way" and "Killin' Me Softly." Sungchan even serenaded the entire bar with his rendition of a Korean love ballad:

And here's a bonus picture of us at the lounge:

I had a great birthday with friends, enjoying tasty food, good drinks and excellent singing.

Stuff Kim and Mike Like: #1 Stuff People Like Blogs

2009-04-17T23:10:00.007-04:00

We got the idea for this segment of our blog which will turn our faithful readers on to some of the many things we like from the blog Stuff White People Like. As is clear from the name, this blog is devoted to the things that white people like, and for the most part, Mike and I find that we agree with their posts. I mean, who doesn't like Barack Obama, public radio, scarves, and expensive sandwiches?? It's a great self-deprecating look at stereotypes about educated, liberal, white people. Stuff White People like has become quite a phenomenon and spawned a book and a number of copycat sites such as Stuff Black/Queer/Jewish/Brown people like. Our favorite copycat site, Stuff Asian People Like, is quite entertaining. If you take yourself too seriously or are easily offended, you probably won't like these sites. But we appreciate the irreverance and irony and enjoy the chance to laugh at ourselves. Enjoy and look forward to stuff we like to be posted soon!

Grad School Decision!

2009-04-15T02:51:00.006-04:00

Today, April 15, is not only tax day, but also the deadline for me to decide where to go to Grad School for the next 5 (hopefully) years. I interviewed at and was made offers by Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania. After deep deliberation and delaying:

From Middle Cyclone

This was a very difficult decision for me because I like both programs a lot, maybe Columbia a little more. But NY is expensive and hard to live in whereas I love the life I have in Philly and being so close to friends and family. Both schools are good fits but would've required significant sacrifices either way. Living in NY would've been a great experience, however, I know that Philly is great too. Maybe in a few years I'll do a Post-doc in NY, Chicago or Boston. Ultimately I am happy with the decision I made and hope that Grad School will be pleasant, successful, and over quickly!

Neko Case at the Keswick

2009-04-11T22:05:00.007-04:00

Last night, we saw Neko Case touring in support of her new album (and namesake of this blog), Middle Cyclone. The show was at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, which seems like a cute little town. We had amazing seats (5th row center) thanks to Mike taking the initiative to call the box office and bypass Ticketmaster. Beth met us there and we arrived just in time to hear the last couple songs by Crooked Fingers, who we'd already seen open for Okkervil River and didn't like so much. They sounded better than we remembered but we were really just excited to hear Neko.

Of course, she didn't disappoint. She played a really long set, despite being a little out of it and complaining quite a bit about "women troubles". (Her best comment of the night was that she couldn't wait to get back to the bus to put on a sleeping bag suit and feed herself potato chips through a funnel connected to a vaccuum cleaner in reverse mode.) Her voice is just amazing and her songs are wonderful. Her back-up singer, Kelly Hogan, talked a bit too much for my liking, but it was a really great show and she played all of our favorites from Middle Cyclone and past albums. Sadly, the Keswick does not allow photography but Mike tried to sneak in a few shots at the end of the show so I'm sure he'll post them soon.

Edit from Mike: I added the only good photo I took from the show and one of the fascade. Also, I used a picture I took of the set and set it as the banner

Aileen's Birthday Party at Beneluxx

2009-04-09T22:29:00.008-04:00

Tonight, we went to Beneluxx on 3rd street, just south of Market to celebrate Aileen's Birthday. For those of you that have not been or heard of Beneluxx, it is a Belgian-style bar that serves small (150 mL and 50 mL) samplers and large servings of beer and wine as well fine cheeses and chocolates.They had more than 30 beers on draft, including 7 Trappist Ales, which are widely considered the best Belgian beers; 50+ top-rated wines; 20+ cheeses; and 10 or so rare chocolates (though Kim and I didn't have any)

And that's not even the coolest part, they have these high-pressure glass-washers built into the tables for you to rinse out your glass between tastings. It is great fun and very effective at cleaning--now if only that easy to keep track of your own glass.
Kavi had a lot of fun playing with the glass-washer. This picture below was taken right before she tested what would happen when you push down on the grate without a glass over the nozzle. Good thing I put the camera away...
Since it was Aileen's Birthday, Kim and I got Aileen a couple of gifts that we thought she would like. I got her a 12 oz. bottle of Dogfish Head's World Wide Stout, which is a limited release by DFH. It's 18+% alcohol by volume and pitch black, I can't wait to try it with her. We also got her a shirt that says, "To Err is Human, to Arr is Pirate," since loves reading entries from her Facebook profile which has the language set to "English (Pirate)."
And lastly, a pack of the gayest cigarettes I have ever seen. Nat Sherman makes a line called Fantasia Lights, which are thin, (think Virginia Slims) have gold painted filters, and rainbow colored paper wrapping the tobacco. In honor of Aileen's birthday, I had a pink one.

Bad game, worse weather, great company

2009-04-07T23:41:00.004-04:00

Tonight, we went to see the Phillies get shut-out by the Atlanta Braves, 4-0. Not only did we have to suffer losing, it was also around 40 degrees at the start of the game dropping to about 35 with 20 mph wind blowing in our faces, which you can see in this snapshot of the 2008 World Series Champion flag out behind center field

But it was fun to get out to the park and see the team for the first time after the World Series. To celebrate that victory, they gave out t-shirts that had "Champs" written on the front with a small Phillies logo that you can see on Alex in this photo of him and Kim

With the wind chill in the low 30's and the Phillies playing poorly, Kim was not happy...

In all, it was nice to get out to the park this early in the season and hang out with Joey (and friends) for a little bit, it's just too bad that Phils didn't play any better. I just hope they get it together before we go to Bank again on May 12 against the Dodgers on Dollar Dog Night or else I'll have to drown my sorrow in processed animal product and mustard

Live Neko Concert streamed live on NPR

2009-04-07T10:54:00.009-04:00

Quick Note:

On Thursday, April 9, at 9:30 pm, NPR Music will provide a live webcast of Neko Case's show from the 9:30 Club in DC. Check it out:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102641637

Update:
Kim told me that apparently Crooked Fingers couldn't make it tonight, so Will Sheff of Okkervil River filled in. If only we could be so lucky tomorrow because he is one of my favorite singer/songwriters

Sakura Sunday

2009-04-06T21:02:00.023-04:00

As usual, we had a great weekend, though it went by too fast! We had some nice meals and even got some chores done but the highlight was definitely Sakura Sunday. This Sunday, after a yummy brunch at Sabrina's Cafe, we attended the annual Philadelphia Cherry Blossom Festival at Fairmount Park. It was a gorgeous afternoon, so it was nice just to be outside in the sunshine. We met up with some friends and checked out all kinds of Japanese cultural demonstrations. Highlights included Mike showing off his origami skills (while wearing an origami-themed t-shirt), our friend Daisuke demonstrating calligraphy (he even taught our boss, Gideon), and of course, the beautiful cherry blossoms (even though they haven't all reached full bloom).

One disappointment was the Cosplay (costume play) pageant. We were excited to see people dressed up like anime characters, but unfortunately we had to wait an hour for the event to start and sit through a sound check for a pretty awful Japanese band, only to see about eight people in costume walk across the stage in less than five minutes. Even though we were a little frustrated, we enjoyed the sun and the great people-watching.

After being out in the warm sun all afternoon, we decided to go for our first Rita's Water Ice of the season. It was a bit of an adventure following the GPS to 69th St, but we were successful and enjoyed the refreshing treat.

EDIT (by Mike):

We also vacuumed and washed Kim's car!

Ohhh so shiny!

Why the Name

2009-04-01T20:04:00.006-04:00

For a while it was a joke between Kim and I to start a blog to write about everything that we do, because obviously our lives are so fabulous and who wouldn't be interested? Truth is, this is blog will not only allow us to share the fun things we do, but more importantly to help us remember the time we spend with each other and with friends and family.

I chose the name Middle Cyclone for this blog for several reasons. Primarily, it is currently my favorite album from one of our favorite artists, Neko Case. Music is special in our relationship, it is really how we first connected. The title of the album is symbolic of the frenetic nature of our lives right now as we move forward. And the songs are beautiful with a lot of personal meaning.

We have a lot of great things planned for the next couple weeks so check back often!

This would be great for our blog...

2009-04-01T19:21:00.000-04:00

Every time Mike and I do anything interesting, I always comment that we will have to blog about it. We never actually got around to creating the blog, so we've missed many opportunities to share our adventures...until today! Sadly, today was a pretty uninteresting day so I decided to post about our motivation for blogging.

I don't imagine many people will be interested in reading about our daily activities but I think that having this blog will put pressure on us to get out and do even more fun things than we already do. I mean, it would be totally uncool to blog about sleeping, work, house cleaning and playing Rock Band. So next time we're faced with the decision of whether to stay in or go out, we're going to get out of the house and do something blog-worthy.

OK, time to get ready for LOST... ;)