Wildcard night! Pasta night! Seafood night!

It has been three days since our last post. We have had three dinners.

Monday night: Roast pork with buttered cabbage and farro
Roast pork = DELICIOUS. On Sunday night, I (molly) marinated the roast in a mix of apple cider vinegar, red and white onions, lots of garlic, cumin, and salt and pepper. Then on Monday, Eli roasted it in a 300 degree oven for about an hour and a half. It was so, so yummy.
Funny story about this dish--on two different occasions when we have made it, the roasting dish exploded into a zillion pieces in the oven. The first time this happened was on our last night in Minneapolis and then it happened again when Eli made this dish for his Spanish school in Guatemala that spring. I think the culprit was adding cold water or liquid to the roasting pan after it was really hot. Beware.

Tuesday night: Pasta with sauce, grilled chicken breast tenderloin, and sauteed zucchini with lemon
I worked late (cuz, you know, this happened), so this was a pretty simple dinner. I am not going to tell you how we made this, I am sure you have made this dinner for yourself before.

Wednesday night: Poached salmon with vegetables and barley


Eli went to the little groceria and picked up some excellent salmon. We need to learn the Spanish words for all the seafood that they sell there, although pointing works pretty well. Then he poached it in some broth along with onions, celery, and carrots (and lemon juice, see action shot of squeezing the lemon at left). This is why Mark Bittman is so good -- it was a super simple dish, didn't take that long to make, but was extremely delicious.

For some weird reason we have gotten into making wine spritzers out of cheap wine and seltzer (and an ice cube, obvi), so that happened.
Most importantly--Eli got his Bourbon Trail t-shirt! And they even sent back his Bourbon Trail passport! Our trip to Kentucky last winter was one of my most favorite vacations and I am so glad we now have a t-shirt to commemorate it. My passport is in some box somewhere in my parents house; one day I will find it, send it in, and get my own t-shirt.

Wild Card Night: Shaksuka

As a teenager, I was consistently disgusted by the idea of shaksuka; and Israeli dish of eggs cooked in tomato sauce. But I had to rethink my outlook on tomoato sauce based egg dishes after becoming an addict of eggs diablo at the Madison Sourdough Company in Madison,WI. 

So we just followed this recipe, and made this:

It may not look purrty, but it was wonderful with pita bread and some veggies on the side. Fullness:1, Leftovers:0. 

Chicken Night: The Mysterious Case of "Hard Chicken"

In our current neighborhood here in D.C. we are dependent and lucky to be doing most of our shopping at El Progresso International Grocery (or something like that), a presumably El Salvadorian market with above all an excellent and petite meat counter. On a recent evening, I approached the always friendly staff at El Progesso to buy a chicken for a simple dinner of baked chicken pieces. After asking for a chicken, I was faced with a question no one had ever asked. "Hard or soft chicken?"  The butcher explained that the yellow toned chickens were softer than the white ones. But, I had been told yeas ago that white chickens are better than yellow chickens. Without analyzing the situation too closely, I went for the white "hard" chicken. Then he cut it up into lil' pieces with a band saw. It was awesome.

Once home, I briefly marinated the chicken in a paste of garlic, paprika  a pinch of cumin, and  lime juice and baked it up. Not thrown by our previous orzo disaster, Molly made an incredibly good farro salad from smitten kitchen with roast squash, pepitas, feta, and quick-pickled red onion. It came out wonderful, very rich and light at the same time.

Dinner was finished off with fresh tortillas, the fat homemade Central American kind that are basically just wonderful and comforting in any climate, and especially in the deep cold we are all experiencing this Winter.

Supprise! Hard chicken is really hard. Molly's hand quickly bounced back as her tiny arm couldnot overcome the strength of this little ole' hard chicken. The meat was tasty, but damn, was getting to it hard. Next time, soft chicken for sure.

The night was topped off with our first game of Settlers of Catan as Husband and Wife.  We entered as equal simple settlers, but only I left as the Lord of Catan!

Pasta Night: Baked orzo with eggplant and mozzarella (but keep reading for the replacement dinner involving Eggos)

An epic failure! I should have known that a baked pasta dish where you don't have to pre-cook the pasta was a disaster in the making. But I trusted Smitten Kitchen and tried out this recipe for pasta night: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2012/09/baked-orzo-with-eggplant-and-mozzarella/   

The pictures on her blog are beautiful. Stretchy cheese, toasty roasty eggplant, fresh herbs. But somehow, my dish ended up with all of the orzo in weird gluey clumps and some of it still uncooked and crispy. The bites with lemon zest were reminiscent of cleaning products and the bites without were super bland. Eli bravely ate his whole dish and even said he would take some for lunch tomorrow. I gave up pretty quickly.

BUT THEN we made second dinner and it was the best! Eli made a fried egg and sauteed a chicken sausage from Trader Joes (the best). If you look closely at the picture, you will see that the egg is heart-shaped. 

And then we put it on Eggos with barbecue sauce. And that, my friends, was a good dinner. 

Fish Night: Catfish & Greens

This week Molly and I are experimenting with making mediocre food that's not all that good for eating.

We started on Monday with this meal of catfish, greens, and leftover-rice. The greens were actually awesome, because greens are always awesome. Here's how it all went down.

I stated with the greens, sauteed and then simmered for about half an hour in all this good stuff=======>







I have never met a simmered collared green with vinegar that I did not like. [Score: no leftovers]

Now the catfish was another story. The attempt: simple sauteed catfish to serve with our leftover rice. The result; a surprisingly bland and greasy bite. [Score: edible]

That plate was kinda purrty.

Fish Night: Poached Salmon

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday is just all right for a big ole dinner.

Side numero uno: Brown Rice With Mushrooms

Take all that stuff (onions, garlic, white mushrooms, porchini rehydrated in broth) and saute it in olive oil. Add rice. Add broth used for the porchini. Cook like rice.

Side dos: chop salad- chop cucumber, tomato, radish, and parsley.

Side tres: green beans- stem 'em.

The main event: salmon poached in three buck chuck (blanco), onion, garlic, and parsley, 

Two Weeks Matrimony = Buffalo Two Ways

Enjoying a bright and sunny lazy Saturday in our nation's capitol, M'lady & I celebrated our second week of marriage (and the end of my cold) with a four mile walk to the national mall. Apparently there is some hubbub of some sort relating to Monday's inauguration. In addition to enjoying copious flags, fences, and t-shirt vendors, we made our way to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

The Museum had all kinds of performances by indigenous groups that were enjoyed. More importantly, the museum also had what its staff rightfully described as the best cafeteria in any Smithsonian institution. Overwhelmed by multiple stations representing different regions's native peoples' cuisine, and swarmed by mobs of viciously hungry tourists, and thwarted by an empty soup vat,we finally made our way to a couple stations. I wish I could tell you what culture the food represented, but given the wave of sensory information within that cafeteria, it's a miracle that we are not still there deciding what to get -  searching for the registers.

I enjoyed a really wonderful pulled buffalo sandwich that came with a side of wonderfully not sweet slaw which quickly found its way onto my sandwich (a la Memphis BBQ). Molly had a buffalo chili that was tasty even if not remarkable. She also had a succotash (not too sure what that means) made of fava beans, some other kind of bean and very fresh corn. It was fresh and delightful. A good time was had.

Legumes Night: Chili non carne

My college roommate, Emily, introduced me to The Hold Steady, symbolic logic, and the great state of Maine, but probably one of her best lessons was how to make a great chili. When the Patriots made the Super Bowl in 2004, she pulled together a party in our crummy dorm lounge and made a delicious meal.

This chili's for you, Em. 

Also, we had a pomelo, to prevent scurvy.

Pasta Night: Bowties w/ Caluliflower & Broccoli

With Eli & Molly wearing grumpy pants drenched in flem, chores, and mounting assignments at work, a simple dinner was in order.

Steam or blanch the veggies, then saute with a touch of olive oil, garlic. Season with a pinch of paprika and fresh lemon juice. Meanwhile, cook pasta.

Combine and...

Chicken Night: Chicken en Aluminum

Chicken baked with shredded carrot, zucchini, sliced tomatoes, oil and vinegar. Another Bittman inspiration.
Step 1:

Step 2:
At 450 for 30 minutesish

Then,

Wild Card Night

Pork chops!! Football!! BBQ sauce!

Fish Night

Tonight's dinner: spicy broiled shrimp and roasted eggplant-tomato salad.

6 days of marriage--check. Time to eat some shrimp! Tonight's recipes come from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything. You want them for yourself? Go buy a copy of the book (or visit your local library, duh). 

Special shout-out to James V. for recommending the spicy shrimp in our guest(cook)book. His note caught our eye and demanded us to make the dish. 

Step one--last night, Molly salted 2 big eggplants and roasted them up with a bunch of "cocktail tomatoes." Not really clear what that means, but they were the best looking ones at the Safeway so there you go. Tonight, I reheated all that and mashed it up with some lemon and chopped parsley. I was hoping to have this with a crusty loaf of bread but the baguettes had crossed from crusty to super stale. This weekend I hope to find a good bread spot.

Step two--when we were exploring our new neighborhood the other night, we noticed a delicious-looking fish counter at one of the El Salvadorian markets. So Eli stopped on his way home and bought a bunch of shrimp (sin cabeza, thank goodness). He semi-carefully deveined them and then mixed them up in a paste of oil, lemon, garlic, cayenne, salt and pepper. Fortuitously, our furnished apartment came with a nice grill pan so he threw the shrimps in there for a few minutes, and that's dinner! 

Speaking of shrimp, true or false: Eli wanted to use the theme song from Forest Gump for the processional.