Time Machine Night: Da Super Bowl

Da Super Bowl was Super Awesome.  Molly and I went superfeast on this one.  Lost in a sea of delusion  and excitement we prepared an insane spread despite only having three guests.

What went down

•   Wings (duh):   For da wings we turned to my childhood friends Max and Eli Sussman.  Despite the growing popularity of the name "Eli", whenever I see Eli we nonetheless continue to enjoy the novelty of having the same name and making others uncomfortable. Here is Max and Eli discussing their love of food. Max is the one who looks like he lives in Brooklyn because he does, and Eli is the one who looks like Michael Douglas in the movie "Falling Down."  

The recipe, available in their stupendous cookbook  involved marinating wings in a boatload of sriracha and buffalo type hot sauce (I used Crystal cause I'm no fool) along with lime zest and lime juice.  The recipe called for grilling, but it's Winter and I live in an apartment without a grill. So we turned to the trusty grill pan after 24 hours of marinating and did it up.  These were really great. The lime zest really added a nice zing and there was heat but not to the detriment of the sauce or chicken's flavor.  There are a few other recipes from these two fine Jews that we are looking forward to trying out. 

• Spreads: Here is where things start getting out of control:

• Blue cheese dip: sour cream, blue cheese, a bit of milk, pepper
• Midwestern Guacamole: We got this recipe from our friend Kelley who credits her mother with the recipe. Personally, I credit the genetic fabric of the Great Lakes with combining the great features of guacamole with dairy products.  The recipe calls for mixing 4 avocados with 8oz cream cheese, and a lime or lemon.  We subbed in non-fat yogurt for the cream cheese and used four huge avocados de hoy from our local Progresso Market Internacional.  Quite spectacular.
• Roasted Red Pepper & Garlic Dip: Home roasted red pepper and garlic w/ cream cheese. This was good, but I think cream cheese based dips is a bit much for me. I will use yogurt if we do this again.  
• Salsa: from a jar.
• Chips: Fritos Scoops (tastes like a middle school locker but somehow still delicious), Tostillos scoops, veggies, and our guest Kyle brought BLT flavored potato chips (sorry but gross, Kyle redeemed himself with a package of Reeses peanut butter cup cookies and by assuming the title of Lord of Catan during the second half).
• Drinks: Michelada: 2/3 beer (in our case modelo especial),1/3 clamato, tobasco to taste, and lime juice.  February or August, this drink is the most relaxing concoction that can be imbibed. 
• Dessert: Zack hooked us up with some brownie bites and frankly those Reeses cookies were all gone before what one could politely call dessert. 

Good times and most likely day after lower G.I. problems were had by all. 

Stay tuned for the tale of the unmade pizza.

Fish night: Mexican-inspired shrimp soup

Eli made another delish brothy Mark Bittman soup. He took the shells and heads off a pound of shrimp and used that to amp up a vegetable broth. Then we just sauteed up some shrimp, garlic, lime zest, and corn (frozen kernels from Trader Joes, not bad), cooked it in the broth, and put some lime juice and salt at the end. The whole thing was done in about 45 minutes and was really comforting and tasty.

This was a variation--I think the original recipe had ginger, lemongrass, and maybe some sesame oil instead of the corn and lime. I bet that would be good, too.

It was good this was a quick recipe because as soon as we were done eating we were off to Sixth and I Historic Synagogue to see Marc Maron live!

Sixth and I was built in the early twentieth century and so is one of the oldest synagogues in D.C. The congregation left for a new building in the 50's and sold the synagogue to Turner Memorial A.M.E. Church, which later moved out to Maryland. The building was advertised as for sale to turn into a nightclub but some historians and developers managed to save the building. Now, Sixth and I has all kinds of speakers, cultural programming, and Jewish stuff, too.

The space is beautiful (see ceiling picture to the right) and Marc Maron was awesome. The best part was when he was really thrown off by doing his show in a synagogue. The second best part was when he was really thrown off because he realized a 13-year old girl was in the audience. Check out his podcast--he told great stories about some good shows coming up.

Marc Maron

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.