$3 Apple Pie

$3 for the bag of apples from our neighborhood Farmer's Market.  That's all it took to make apple pie.  Well, plus additional spices and ingredients from the pantry.  I didn't intentionally buy the bag of apples to make the pie, but took advantage of the we're-closing-up-so-here's-a-prepackaged-bag-for-cheap deal and my sweet tooth told me to make some pie.  Everything just pieced together perfectly.

I actually ended up combining two recipes - one for the pie itself and the other for the crumb topping.  I already had a ready pie crust from a previous shopping trip so easily decided to just follow Pillsbury's recipe for the pie.  It was easy enough but then it was time to find a crumb topping recipe.  The final verdict was taking part of the recipe from Baked By Rachel.  It ended up being very simple too, but just a little difficult to stick all the crumb bits onto the pie.  I was finding little holes and crevices to stick the crumbs into and the fact that I used way too many apples and made it too round caused a little challenge but you can see here that it's just part of the process.  The crumbs ended up sticking very nicely and the final product wasn't so bad either.

My last time making real fruit pie was probably Home Economics in high school and I recall the apple pie not turning out like this, which is a good thing.  We devoured this baby so fast, I wanted more.  Don't be discouraged by its looks, I actually think it's a pretty good beginner pie to try out because there's no special pie crust or fruit mixture involved.  The crumbs were a perfect topping that don't require much technique because you know, it's just really fun to stick gooey bits all over your pie.

BEFORE 

AFTER

READY TO SERVE!!

Chicken & Artichoke Pasta

The best word I can find for this dish is "refreshing."  It's not a pasta dish with thick white alfredo sauce or typical red marinara sauce...it's just chicken, bacon and the almighty artichoke.  Sound good?  Keep reading.  My first two ingredients were the starting points: pasta and artichoke, so my Google search led me to this cute blog with an appealing recipe.  Currently on their blog, they have a feature for Grilled Fish Tacos with Cantaloupe-Pineapple Salsa.  Umm, hello??!  Yes, please, now, thanks.  And I hate fish.  EDIT - looks like recipe actually originated from So Tasty So Yummy (and so true)

I digress, let's get back to business.  The total cook time was about 45-60 minutes, so a tad long for a week night but definitely still doable because it gives you leftovers for lunch.  Try it out for yourself with the recipe below, but my two cents is to add less lemon because it takes away the flavoring from the rest of the dish.  Plus, canned artichoke already gives a little citrusy twist.  And if you're like me, you love some delicious bacon, so why not add more slices?  The decision was okay in my book because we subbed it with turkey bacon anyway, score!  Can we make this again, soon!??

Ingredients

• 12 oz spaghetti
• 3 slices bacon
• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, halved and pounded to 1/4-inch thickness
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
• 2 tsp capers, drained
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 Tbsp butter
• Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

1. Cook pasta in salted water until al dente, according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.
2. Cook bacon to a crisp in a large pot over medium heat and remove, setting aside, leaving the rendered fat behind.
3. Whisk together the flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow plate.
4. Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture and shake off any excess.
5. Add the chicken to the pan and fry until cooked through and golden brown, ~5 minutes per side.
6. Transfer the chicken to a paper towel-lined plate and let rest.
7. Add the artichokes, capers, and wine to the pan, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan and cooking for ~2 minutes.
8. Add broth and lemon juice, cooking for another 2 minutes.
9. Add the cream and the butter to the pan, stirring until the butter has melted and incorporated.
10. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
11. Slice the chicken into 1/2-inch slices and add to the caper-artichoke sauce.
12. Add the bacon, pasta, and then gently toss the mixture. Serve immediately.

Yields: 4 servings
Estimated time: 45 minutes

The Grill

I'm marking May 13th as the start of summer in our home.  Why?  Because it's the first time we put use to our BBQ grill.  I don't want to turn this into a product review, but after the two hours it took me to assemble it in Dec (Christmas present from my parents) and the hour it took today for my husband to ignite the gas (still didn't work so we had to use a lighter), I can finally say that it worked wonderfully.  If you check out the photo below, you can see that I didn't use any non-stick product before cooking so that's something I've learned but this thing is a work-horse and is really strong for the small, convenient product that it is.  We still don't know why it doesn't ignite and will now always have to use a lighter, but better than having to return it for another one.  I despise returns/exchanges.

Our summer kick-off dinner consisted of corn, a hot link, and chicken drumsticks.  The corn was brushed with melted butter, garlic, salt and pepper then wrapped up in foil and grilled for about 30 minutes, rotating every 10 minutes.  The hot link was easy and just tossed on for about 30 minutes as well.  And lastly, the chicken was marinated with a recipe by my girl Giada.  Everything was really easy and super tasty and I'm counting down the days until our next BBQ adventure.  P.S. Close the lid when grilling.  I left it open the whole time to admire the meats so everything took a tiiiiiny bit longer to cook than directed =)

Shabu-Shabu / Swish-Swish

Living in Japantown, we could obviously walk down the street and walk into the Shabu restaurant and have everything served to us while we enjoy our meal but if you can prepare everything at home, then why not??  We've had about 5 shabu nights since we discovered how yummy and easy it was to set up.  Since our first fondue experience wasn't a major success, we realized the same pot could be used for shabu.  All ingredients can be purchased at our local Japantown market right down the street and to be honest, it ends up being cheaper than going to the restaurant before tip and all that.  And of course, you can add items that they don't normally provide on the menu like meatballs and baby carrots.  For the basic shabu dinner, here's your grocery list:

-miso base (2 packet) with boiling water

-napa cabbage

-spinach

-potstickers

-seaweed

-firm tofu

-enoki mushrooms

-udon

-thinly sliced beef

-ponzu sauce

-sesame sauce

Mama's Clam Chowder

Been meaning to write about this dish for some time now, but needed to dig up my mom's recipe for Clam Chowder.  If you know me well, you know that I LOVE clam chowder.  Ask my girlfriends and they'll tell you they once found bits of clam chowder in my hair.  True story.  I can't always head to the mall and order a bowl from Boudin, but there's also something different about my mom's version.  When I used to live at home, I remember waking up to the smell of bacon and jumping out of bed because I knew what was for lunch.  Not eggs, sausage, and bacon, but her special clam chowder.  Okay, enough of the trip down memory lane.  After viewing the ingredients list, you'll see it's not authentic New England Clam Chowder...it's definitely got a twist with the added bacon, dill weed, and even celery, but boy it hits the spot.  Here's the recipe - enjoy!!

Ingredients:  

5 slices of bacon, trim fat and chop

2 6.5oz cans of chopped clams (save juice)

2 red potatoes, cubed

2 celery sticks, cubed

1/4 cup dill weed, chopped

1 tbsp butter

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 pint whipping cream

sugar, salt, pepper to taste

corn starch, if needed

Directions:

-Cook bacon for 5 minutes then drain fat

-Stir in clams (without juice), butter, and onions and cook for 5 minutes

-Add heavy cream and clam juice

-Wait to boil then lower heat.  Allow to simmer for 5 minutes, add potatoes.  Simmer another 5 minutes, add celery.  Wait 5 more minutes, then add cornstarch with water until desired thickness.  Top off with dill weed.

Thai Red Curry by Joe, Trader Joe

This dish is actually extremely simple and really depends on what you put in it.  In the dish below, I put in some cubed chicken breasts, fried tofu, tomatoes, a can of pineapple chunks, then finally threw in Trader Joe's Red Curry Sauce.  If you sniff the sauce, it's has quite a strong kicker so I ended up adding milk and sugar then just fix it according to our taste preference.  In regards to the meat, you can use chicken, beef, and even duck then add in other small items; eggplant, basil, bell peppers and peas are some good examples.  The difficulty level just depends on what you want to include, so have fun!

FoodieWeds' 1st Thanksgiving

So with the hiatus, I also never got to chance to post about Thanksgiving.  And since Christmas food is pretty much a repeat of the Thanksgiving meal, what a perfect time to post this now.  I hosted for the first time with my in-law's which means I made my first turkey!  In previous years, I always ended up helping my mom out but for the first time, it was all me...fanning the smoke detector and all.

It took days to search for a decent turkey recipe and my end result was actually a recipe using turkey breasts, so I took a risk.  After multiplying the recipe enough to fit the cute 8lb. turkey, I felt confident the Rosemary-Peach Glaze would turn out okay!  While cleaning the turkey, I discovered my little turkey from Target didn't have legs!!  No drumsticks, no wings, nothing to tuck under!  After some serious pondering, I figured it was just one of those turkeys where they chop off the legs and sell it separately as turkey drumsticks, but man...that's where all the dark meat lives!  Part of me was relieved because I couldn't find kitchen twine to tuck them in anyway.  Anyway, the whole process was very straight-forward.  I brined the turkey in an apple cider mixture (see recipe) in the morning then made the glaze right before the turkey was headed for the oven.  Butterball houses a really helpful website to determine your roasting time as well as other various cooking methods for a turkey.  Definitely worth bookmarking.  My only suggestion is to chop up the frozen peaches in a food processor so it gets a good puree going then the glaze will really stick to the turkey.  My hand chopped peaches still worked and ended up being good topping for the turkey slices.  Peter ended up loving the turkey, as did the in-laws and myself, so I'm definitely saving this and making it for years to come.  Reviews also say you can use other frozen fruits like apricots, pineapple, etc.

I broiled the turkey for the last 15 minutes, hence one really burnt half.

My next dish was one of my favorites - deviled eggs.  I can't go a Thanksgiving without it and it's so easy and quick to make.  The recipe I used is pretty basic, but I always add in real bacon bits.  Be sure to watch the amount of salt you add since the bacon itself is already salty.  That was my one mistake this time around.

I also can't go without yams.  I sound like a broken record now but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday so my must-have list is quite long.  My aunt makes the best yams but since I didn't have her recipe, I searched for something similar and I must admit that it's quite comparable!  Peter even became a fan of yams after I made this dish!

Starting a family (just me and Peter, that is) and finally hosting meals and dinners is a big milestone.  Hosting Thanksgiving is an even bigger deal and I'm happy to finally start saving these recipes that will soon become traditional Thanksgiving dishes during the holidays.  Happy Holidays, everyone!

(also pictured and made by my sister-in-law: corn, green beans, brussel sprouts (yum!!), stuffing, and cornbread.  also pictures and made by me but didn't make the cut: mashed potatoes and sweet mashed potatoes)

Some Southern Comfort

Well, I'm a Cali girl born and raised so I honestly don't know much about soul food or comfort food or anything in the South but our friends invited us over for brunch a few months ago and among the many dishes he served, one of them was Sausage and Biscuits.  I instantly fell in love and decided that I had to attempt this plate and so I did.  I have now made this dish twice which means this recipe is a keeper.  It takes about an hour to complete and doesn't require many additional ingredients aside from the typical spices that you should already be stocked with.  The two times that I have made this, I cheated and used pre-made biscuits that you pop into the oven for 10 minutes but I'll give them a shot from scratch some time soon.  The buttermilk biscuit recipe is also on the same page as the sausage and biscuits, so enjoy.  I must admit, this has been one of my most proudest and most delicious dishes so do give it a try!

Nachos and Lots of It

Sorry for the month long hiatus!  The last month was filled with a trip to Vegas, my birthday, Thanksgiving, then a trip to LA and Maui.  It was fun-filled indeed, but really didn't leave many nights to cook a meal.  Last night was nice to finally get back into my kitchen and whip up something nice.  Well, I pulled a fast one and just put together my usual steak salad.  It's our attempt to eat healthy after eating out so much lately.  Since it was nothing new, I do have a vault of old meals I've cooked and just haven't blogged about.  So with that said, I give you.....nacho night!!  This was a massive platter that could have easily fed 4 people.  Do note that the pretty guacamole was proudly homemade!  I've kept a recipe for a few years now so I don't remember where I got it from, but it's pretty standard and more importantly, really yummy.


Ingredients
3 avocados
1 lime
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup diced onions
3 tbsp chopped cilantro
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1 tsp minced garlic
1 pinch cayenne pepper (optional)


And you just mix it all together!

We Love to Brunch

With a 9 to 5 work schedule, it's hard to get a good sit-down breakfast or brunch during the work week which is why Peter and I love making brunch at home on the weekend.  This was is very basic but can you see how pretty those pancakes are?!!  Thanks to our $19 griddle from Black Friday last year, the pancakes turned out perfectly golden.  Also, that cup of coffee you see is a homemade latte from our espresso machine that I bought on woot several years ago.  It's still going strong!!

Burger Night

I have lost count of how many burger nights we've had.  It's so easy yet so delicious and everytime, it's something different.  In this photo, we have a thick slice of gouda with a fried egg and homemade french fries!  Other times, we've had grilled onions and/or grill mushrooms and just tonight, Peter came up with a kimchi burger.  The possibilities are endless!!

I love making fries.  These were cut by hand but we also have a potato slicer (dicer??) which I forgot to pull out.  Once deep fried in oil, I immediately add a handful of spices including the obvious salt and pepper, italian seasoning, seasoning salt and whatever else I feel like sprinkling on.

Oh, and we always, always have to be stocked with dill pickles (not pictured).

Five Spice Chicken and What Is a Star Anise

Five Spice Chicken is a dish I learned about through eating numerous times at a restaurant near work, Pho Garden.  Our team likes to caters from there because it comes in easy-to-serve plated portions and their Five Spice Chicken with Steamed Rice is a pretty popular choice.  On a whirl, I decided to Google the recipe and discovered it wasn't too hard.  The speed bump came when I had to search for tumeric and star anise because I had no idea what those ingredients were.  Tumeric is a ground yellow spice that you can actually find at Target and Star Anise looks like this...

Luckily, my mom had both so I did a little shopping in her kitchen and took those supplies home with me.  The rest of the recipe was pretty easy and straight-forward although I blame myself for a minor screw up.  The instructions said to add toasted star anise powder into the chicken which I completely missed so I threw the whole chunk into the mixture then to fix my mistake, I crumbled it up with a spoon and tossed in tiny bits of star anise.  Once we ate it, I realized this was a boo-boo because the bits stuck to the chicken when we grilled it so when you ate chicken, there was a chance you ate a star anise bit.  The taste is overwhelming.  The chicken itself was pretty good although I would reduce the amount of spices added.  The sodium notch was turned way high and it also makes for pretty smelly leftovers when you have to heat it up in the office kitchen!

To accompany the chicken, I found a simple and somewhat-tasty garlic noodle recipe to eat on the side.  I ended up substituting the sherry and rice wine for a teeny bit of Pinot Noir which seemed to work out okay.  Next time, I want a darker outcome like some garlic noodles I've seen and enjoyed in the past.  Overall, good experience and plenty of yummy (and easy) food.

Halloween Cake Pops

Don't be fooled - cake pops are simple and fun yet very time consuming!  I found some very helpful sites and videos that got me started but I actually had to start the previous night by making the cake, crushing it into tiny bits, mixing it with frosting, then letting it sit in the refrigerator.  On the day of my Halloween festivities, I started out by inserting the lollipop sticks and letting that sit awhile longer.  A few hours later, I melted a bag of white chocolate chips which melted with a layer of liquid on top so it clearly didn't work out too well.  Luckily, I also had my bag of milk chocolate chips that actually let me cover 29 cake pops.  Once dipped, the chocolate didn't turn out as smoothly as I had hoped, but I covered most of them up with sprinkles or cookies & cream bits anyway so it wasn't a big deal.  I do enjoy baking so I would definitely try this again for another fun "holiday" but I would also make the cake pops a little smaller because I actually had 3 pops that dropped from the stick since it was so big!!  I should also note that not only is this a pretty and aesthetically pleasing dessert, it's really yummy too!


Love from the Oven - step by step photos
How to Make Cake Pops - short video

Cheeeeeeeeese

Who says you can't have macaroni & cheese for dinner???  This easy recipe didn't require much outside of what we already had at home.  As long as you have things like boxed macaroni, breadcrumbs, and flour in your pantry, you should be pretty much set.  Oh and cheddar cheese too!  I even dug up some bacon that I cooked up, crumbled and added into the dish - I highly recommend it.

We had some garlic bread from a previous spaghetti night, toasted that baby up and voila!  The meal itself is pretty rich so you will definitely have leftovers but it's pretty greasy and oily.

Next time, I'm definitely going to try adding in some ham or crab/lobster meat

Kabobs & Friends

When you get home from work at 6 and you have friends over for dinner, you really need to just whip together a delicious yet quick meal.  On this night, the answer was kabobs.  Luckily, my husband was on call to slice and dice everything up including the eggplant, squash, white onions, mushrooms, and chicken then once I got home, I mixed it all together with some lemon and italian seasoning.  To cook it, I placed the kabobs in the oven for about 15 minutes to give it a head start, then I took it out and grilled in on my lovely Griddle.  Pretty, right?

The yummy sauce at the bottom of the photo is a Greek yogurt-based Tzatziki Sauce.  The main ingredients are plain yogurt, cucumber, and dillweed - pretty easy stuff.

Quiche

Well, I really couldn't think of a good title for this one.  A quiche sure does sound fancy, but it's so easy to make!  Mix together some spinach, random assortment of shredded cheeses, eggs, and mushrooms then pour it into a pie crust and voila!  You get this......

Tip - Be really patient and wait for the quiche to harden.  Leftovers are also really good and for 2, you'll have plenty of leftovers! 

Sushi in Japantown? Sure!

As residents of Japantown, we sure do love our share of sushi.  I remember returning from our pasta-filled Italian honeymoon and literally eating Japanese/Sushi 5 days in a row.  It was magical.  


Making sushi rolls was never something I truly cared for and especially now living in Japantown, it was easy to just walk across the street and grab a bite.  We wandered to a local Arts & Wine festival where we discovered the Maki Sushi Ki booth.  After viewing a quick live demo, we were easily sold that making sushi was a simple process and that we should embrace our love for it.  


And so the journey begins.  Our grocery trip totaled ~$25 which included sushi rice, sushi vinegar, seaweed, tuna, and salmon.  Already, that's about the price of a dinner for two at Kazoo down the street, but I had to consider that the rice and seaweed would last several meals.  Making the rolls was actually a lot of fun and easy as expected.  Since the fish stays raw, the only long process is cooking the rice and mixing and folding it over so it dries and cools completely.  To add, I was determined to make a special orange sauce to drizzle on top of my rolls and thank goodness I found an easy recipe with only 3 ingredients.  Even though it's time-consuming and expensive, it was a fun meal and definitely good team work with my husband.  


If you're ever interested in make rolls at home and don't care for those other sushi schemes with the messy bamboo mats, definitely check out this kit.  You can buy both a small and large sushi maker for $30 on their website.  Have fun!

Fiesta Friday

In honor of this happy Friday, I wanted to feature a recent taco night we had.  I love taco nights.  It's quick, it's easy, and it's delicious!  We also love Chipotle so we're always equipped with a bottle Tabasco Chipotle sauce.  Yes!

I also got a little experimental and made this with our scoop chips.  Great idea for an appetizer platter!  Excuse the dirty nails, blah.

This one time, in Seattle...

...I had a late night snack at a random hole-in-the-wall named Po Dogs.  Now I still can't remember if it was my level of intoxication that made me do it, but I ordered the PB Dog and I can easily say that the decision was a good one.  It was your classic hot dog topped with peanut butter, sliced banana and chopped peanuts.  All the flavors mixed so well together; I just wish I had more.  


The reason I write this post is because I was sitting at my hair salon about a month ago and going through the latest People magazine when I stumbled upon this page featuring 4 unique hot dogs, one of them being the one and only PB Dog from Po Dogs!!  I was so excited I knew I had to feature it on the blog and give them some well-deserved props.  So if you're ever in Seattle, check out Po Dogs near/in Capitol Hill and give one of their popular hot dogs a try!


Po Dogs Website


Yelp

To Be Italian...

If you didn't know, Peter and I went off to Italy for our honeymoon.  Our meals pretty much consisted of pizza or pasta and always a glass of wine.  Once we came back home, we decided to skip Italian food for a good while, but not just because we were sick of it, but because we knew it couldn't even compare.  The day came when we finally craved a simple pepperoni and mushroom pizza, also known as "salame e funghi" even though we copped out and actually used pepperoni and not salami.  


I knew I had to start out by making the crust from scratch.  In this case, I wanted a quick recipe that I wouldn't have to refrigerate for hours before adding the toppings.  It was indeed easy but noticed it was just too sticky but I guess it made the dough easy to spread and stay in its pie shape.  After that was in place, we added the sauce (Trader Joe's), cheese (just 1 pack of shredded Italian cheeses), sliced portobello mushroom, and pepperoni.

The recipe calls to bake it for 15-25 minutes although we let it sit and continue for at least 30 minutes.  End result: it was too soft and doughy and definitely not thin enough.  Next time, I might go for a recipe that doesn't require yeast and probably just go for a more complex recipe then go the whole refrigerate-for-4-hours route.  I do have to say that we toasted the leftovers the next day and it tasted way better, as if it was actually fully cooked this time.