Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

First Patriots game of the season was last night, and Dan was giddy with excitement. Me? Not so much. As dreamy as Tom Brady is, my favorite part of watching football is the eating. Chips and dips...wings...pizza. Mmm, junk food!

I saw this recipe for pizza puffs on FoodGawker and knew right away that I was going to have to make them. The ingredients were all things I had laying around, the prep/cook time was short, and the recipe just looked/sounded really tasty. 

These puffs are seriously delightful, guys. They taste exactly like pizza, but fluffier. And, because they're bite-sized, they're extra easy to eat. You pop one in your mouth, chew, savor the deliciously cheesy flavor, and the next thing you know the whole plate is gone. Definitely a great addition to the list of appetizers/snacks that will help get me through football season.

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs (Adapted from the Kirbie's Cravings recipe)

Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup flour

- 3/4 cup milk

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 cup shredded cheese (I used Parmesan and Colby Jack)
- 1 large egg

- 1/2 cup green onions, chopped

- 1/3 cup pepperoni, chopped/diced

- Salt/pepper to taste

- Italian seasoning

Steps:
(1) Preheat oven to 400, and grease a mini-muffin pan.

(2) In a large bowl, mix everything but the Italian seasoning.
** You should get a batter that's slightly less thick than pancake batter.
(3) Scoop batter into the cups of the mini-muffin pan, about 2/3 full. Sprinkle some Italian seasoning on top of the batter in each cup.

(4) Bake 10-12 minutes.
(5) Serve warm with a side of marinara or pasta sauce.

For other great recipe ideas, click here.

Meatball Sub

Looks like Hurricane Irene is the new Snowpocalypse -- everything is closed, traffic has ground to a halt, and everyone is holed up in their homes. The only difference, I guess, is that we're actually prepared to battle the forces of nature this time around.  Maybe a little too prepared. BJ's was a mad house yesterday! I was just there to get some snacks, but it seemed like everyone else was stocking up on enough bottled water and dry foods to survive the Apocalypse. I almost caved in to the peer pressure and got some water myself, but I was on foot and couldn't possibly carry all that back home. Besides, the storm is only supposed to last a day or two, and I've got a full Brita, orange juice, Gatorade, and lots of soda.

Anyway, with the storm a' brewin' outside, all my weekend plans have been canceled, so there's nothing left for me to do but watch the Ghost Whisperer marathon on WeTV, terrorize the cats, and cook. The TV is on, my cats are currently in hiding, and it's just about time for dinner. Dan hasn't had much of an appetite lately, so I really want to make something yummy to tempt him into eating a full meal. Seems like kind of a perfect time to make some homemade meatball subs. What could be tastier than warm, crusty bread, gooey cheese, and juicy meatballs smothered in savory red sauce? Nothing at all, especially in this weather.

Hope you guys are having as much fun during the hurricane as I am!  In the meantime, stay dry, be safe, and I'll see everyone on Monday when this all blows over.

Meatball Sub

Ingredients:

- 1 lb beef

- 2 tbsp onion powder

- 1-1/2 tbsp salt (more if you like your food salty)
- 1 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
- 1 egg

- 1 container tomato sauce (I used Prego)

Steps:

(1) Preheat oven to 325.

(2) In a large bowl, combine all ingredients until well-mixed. The meat should be very malleable, and not sticky.
(3) Roll meat mixture into balls, 1-inch in diameter. Place balls on a greased pan. Don't crowd the pan, but you don't have to worry about these meatballs spreading, so you can line them closer than you would if you were working with cookie dough.
(4) Bake meatballs for about 8 minutes.
(5) While meatballs are baking, start heating the pasta sauce in a large sauce pan.
(6) Take the meatballs out of the oven and scoop them into the bubbling sauce. Leave the oven on.
(7) Cook meatballs in sauce for about 3 minutes. Turn stove off.
(8) Cut a 6-7 inch wedge off the end of a loaf of French bread. Slice length-wise without severing the loaf all the way in half.
(9) Line the bottom half with provolone cheese. Scoop about 4-5 meatballs into the middle, and top with more provolone.
(10) Place your sandwich onto a baking sheet and slide back in the oven. Bake for about 1 minute, or until the cheese is melted. Sprinkle with chopped or dried parsley.
(11) Eat immediately, with a lot of napkins on hand.

For other great recipes, click here, here or here.

Cayenne-Cinnamon Baby Back Ribs

Whoa, two posts in one day, what's going on??? Unemployment, that's what. No, I wasn't fired. And no, I wasn't laid off. My judicial clerkship ended yesterday. Can you believe how quickly a whole year passed? It's been over a year since I graduated law school, one year since I took the bar exam, and 8 months since I got sworn in as a brand spanking new attorney. Oh, how time flies...

So, what's next? Nothing just yet, but I'm looking. It's kind of scary to be moving forward without a concrete plan, but I'm pretty sure it'll be OK. I've got a solid resume with a lot of good work experience, there are plenty of legal job search directories out there, and I've got Dan + my parents rooting for me. In the meantime, I'm just going to be a job application-mailing, food-blogging machine.

Anyway, enough about me. Lets get back to the really important stuff -- ribs. Juicy, meaty, glazed ribs. Ribs that ooze fatty, salty, porky juices with every bite. Ribs that were rubbed, roasted, glazed, broiled, and ready to eat in under two hours. Ribs so good that between dinner last night and lunch today, all 6 pounds of them are gone.

This was my first time making ribs, and I was under a bit of a time crunch. Usually, stuff like this need to cook for several hours on low heat to get that lovely fall-off-the-bone quality. Unfortunately, I didn't have several hours. I didn't get home from work until after 6pm, and my guests were scheduled to arrive at 7:30. Luckily, the Steamy Kitchen blog had a rib recipe that involved cooking the meat at slightly higher heat for less time. 

Because I was cooking 6 pounds of meat instead of 3, I actually had to keep my ribs in the oven for a little longer than the recipe called for -- after one hour, some of the meat was still bloody. I probably should have cooked everything even longer than I ultimately did, because the meat didn't fall off the bone like it was supposed to. Still, the ribs were still very tasty, and my guests had no complaints. I think my friend Andrew ate over a pound of meat by himself! Awesome.

Recipe can be found here, courtesy of the Steamy Kitchen blog.
(Her pictures make these ribs look way more delicious than mine do...)


For other great recipes, click here or here.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

(All pictures in this post were taken by Alex Hsu.)

A few weeks ago, right after my Japanese-Style Strawberry Shortcake post, I got a message from my friend Alex asking if I would cook him delicious food for his birthday. He lives in Jersey City and I live in VA, so my first instinct was to say "Haha...good one...no." But, I'm a sucker for compliments about my cooking, and I like to feed people, so I told him I'd do it. I didn't think to run the idea by Dan until after I had already committed us to a road trip, but to his credit he just rolled his eyes and said "Guess I need to take some time off on Friday..."

When I asked Alex what he wanted for dinner, his response was "Meat. Lots of meat." Well. That's helpful. I knew he was inviting a bunch of people over, and I was pretty sure I wouldn't make it to Jersey City before 5pm, so my main concern was feeding a lot of people and being done with all the cooking by the time everyone showed up at 7pm. I knew right away that my sides would be chive-garlic mashed potatoes, baked mac n cheese, and roasted carrots -- they're easy to make, very filling, and I can pretty much put them on the stove and forget about them while I cook the main course. With those sides decided, it was pretty clear I was going to have to make fried chicken to accompany all those carbs. Alex was going to get a good ol' Southern-style birthday dinner.

Have I ever made fried chicken before this dinner? Nope. Is it a good idea to cook something totally new and unfamiliar for a lot of people on short notice? Not really. But hey, lets live on the edge a little. Fortunately, Alex's roommate bought all the ingredients a few days ahead of time, and our friend Andy was hanging around the apartment all day, so all I had to do was tell Andy to soak the chicken in buttermilk and we were good to go.  When Dan and I finally made it to the apartment, I got right to work on the chicken. I tossed together large amounts of flour, salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder for the breading, threw the buttermilk-soaked chicken directly into the dry mixture to coat, and pan-fried everything in very hot vegetable oil. I honestly didn't have high hopes, but the chicken turned out to be amazingly delicious. At least, the pieces that I didn't flip obsessively and actually cooked all the way through were delicious -- there were definitely some pieces that were kinda sorta really raw near the bone. Oops.

Thankfully, Alex ate the good pieces and was pretty happy with his meal. He had multiple helpings of everything, and that made me happy. But when he told me I should open my own fried chicken joint, I just laughed nervously and casually slid the under-cooked pieces away from his plate. What he doesn't know can't hurt him, right?

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Ingredients: (I sort of haphazardly threw ingredients into a bowl when I made my chicken, so these measurements are my best guesses for how much of everything I used.)

- 1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces (or, just a whole bunch of wings/legs/whatever)

- 3 cups buttermilk

- 2 cups flour

- 1/4 cup garlic salt

- 1/8 cup paprika

- Lots of salt and pepper (I like my food salty, so I used a lot of salt -- probably about 1/2 cup)

- Lots of vegetable oil (peanut oil would be great too)

Steps:

(1) In a large bowl, pour buttermilk over chicken and soak overnight, or at least a few hours.

(2) In a separate large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients until well-combined.
(3) Fill a wide, heavy-bottomed skillet about half-way full of oil. Heat until very hot -- if you flick flour into the oil, it should immediately sizzle/bubble up.
(4) Throw buttermilk-soaked chicken directly into the bowl containing the flour/seasoning, and toss to coat. Shake off excess breading, then slide the chicken into the bubbling oil.
** The chicken should be mostly covered, but it's fine to have some of it peaking out above the oil. The longer you fry, the less oil you'll have anyway, and you'll be flipping the pieces eventually.
(5) Cook chicken until golden-brown, about 8-10 minutes on each side. Don't overcrowd your skillet -- 3 to 4 pieces at a time is best.
** I would say it's better to over-cook than under-cook in this situation. Do NOT flip your chicken obsessively like I did. Just throw it in there, walk away for a while, then flip once and leave it alone again. The breading will keep the meat nice and juicy, so it's fine to cook the chicken longer. There's nothing grosser than biting into raw/bloody meat near the bone...
(6) Set cooked pieces aside on your serving plate -- don't use paper towels or your chicken will be soggy. Keep frying until all your chicken is done.
(7) Eat immediately with sides of your choice.
** I suggest buttery mashed potatoes, biscuits, greens, and creamy mac n' cheese.


For other great recipe ideas, click here.

Loco Moco

Two of my college friends got married in Hawaii recently. (I know. So jealous.) Sadly, I wasn't invited to the wedding -- ahem, Sonia -- but I've been facebook stalking the photo albums of the people who went, so it kind of feels like I was there too. Note to self: must go to Hawaii soon.

From what I can tell, when the wedding guests weren't watching the two love birds join in holy matrimony, they were stuffing their faces with yummy Hawaiian food. Everything looked delicious, but it was the pictures of loco moco that really had me drooling. Rice, gravy, hamburger, and a fried egg? I'm so there! 

The ingredients for loco mocos are simple, the recipe is straightforward, and I was chowing down on a delicious Hawaiian meal in less than 45 minutes. The only way I could have enjoyed this more is if I were eating it in Hawaii. Sigh. (Just kidding -- congratulations, Sonia and Kevin!)

Recipe can be found here, courtesy of the Jun-blog.
** Note: I thought plain ol' meat gravy would be too boring, so I made a cream-based mushroom gravy instead. Super delicious!

Hanbagu (Japanese Hamburger Steak)

So, my friend Spike and I have been having intense gchat conversations about what we can do with all the ground beef we've got on our hands.  We each saw family-sized packs of ground beef on sale at the grocery store a couple weeks ago and couldn't resist getting in on the deal. Seemed like a pretty idea at the time, but now we've each got 5 lbs of meat in the freezer. That is a lot of meat, guys.

I used up a little over a pound of the meat for stuffed burgers a few weeks ago, and Spike made both burgers and meatballs.  Not sure what he's going to do with the rest of his meat, but I have grand plans for kimchi fried rice, empanadas, and maybe sliders. Today, though, it's Japanese hamburger steaks topped with a runny egg for lunch. Delicious! 2.5lbs down, 2.5 more to go. Oy.

Hanbagu (Japanese Hamburger Steak)

Ingredients: (Makes 2 hamburg steaks)

- 1 lb ground beef

- 1/2 cup onions, diced and cooked until soft

- 1 tbsp garlic powder

- 1 tbsp salt + more for sprinkling

- 1 tsp crushed red pepper

- 1 cup panko bread crumbs

- 2 eggs.

Steps:

(1) In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Stir until well mixed.

(2) Divide meat mixture into two equal parts. Shape into patties.

(3) In a large pan, fry patties in olive oil until a nice crust forms on the outside -- about 2-3 minutes on each side. Place on plates and set aside.

(4) Cook two eggs sunny side up, and top each cooked patty with an egg. Sprinkle a dash of salt/pepper on the egg for flavor.

(5) Serve with some nice vegetable sides -- spinach, potatoes, carrots, etc.

Cheddar-Stuffed Jalapeno Burger

Dan was jonesing hard for Five Guy's  and Ray's Hell Burger this weekend. Who can blame him? They've got amazing burgers! But, getting to Five Guy's meant spending 30 minutes in intense local traffic, and Ray's Hell Burger is always packed to the gills on weekends, so neither option seemed particularly appealing.  We didn't want to give up burgers altogether though, so we decided to buy ground beef and make/grill our own. What a great idea that was! The smell of grilled burgers is such a nice, summery smell, isn't it? And, the homemade burgers were unbelievably yummy -- juicy and bursting with flavor. So good, in fact, that we ended up making them for dinner two nights in a row.

This picture doesn't do a good job of capturing how massive this burger was, but trust me...it was huge. Dan and I each ate half and felt completely stuffed. And just look at that crispy bacon, thick patty and oozing cheese. So. Good.

Cheddar-Stuffed Jalapeno Burger

Ingredients: (Makes one very large burger)

- 2/3 lb ground beef

- 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped into little pieces

- 1 handful of grated cheddar

- 1 tbsp onion powder

- 1 tbsp salt

Steps:

(1) In a large bowl, combined ground beef, chopped peppers, salt, and onion powder. Mix well, then divide into 2 portions of equal size.

(2) Take one portion of ground beef and shape it into a large patty, about 1/2 inch thick and 4 inches in diameter.

(3) Spoon grated cheese into the center of the patty, leaving about half an inch to 1 inch around the edges uncovered for sealing.

(4) Shape second patty into roughly the same size and shape as the first. Carefully lay it on top of the first patty, and press down on the edges to seal.

(5) Turn giant patty over and make sure there are no cracks in the meat. Shape to your satisfaction, then slap it on the grill!

(6) Grill on high for about 7 minutes, flipping after a couple minutes on each side.

(7) Serve on a large kaiser roll, with tomatoes, lettuce, and condiments of your choosing.

Skirt Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

I woke up this morning with a mean craving for steak. I'm probably low on iron or something. Unfortunately for me though, the cafeteria at work doesn't serve juicy ribeyes. Instead, I had to settle for a slightly soggy egg salad sandwich with bland tomatoes. Very sad, I know.

I really wanted steak though. Thought about it all day, in fact. So, I dragged Dan kicking and screaming to the grocery store after work to buy some. I know he hates running errands with me, but he had to pick me up from the metro anyway and since we were already in the car, why not keep on driving to Safeway? Plus, we spent a grand total of 15 minutes in the store and he got a delicious steak dinner out of the bargain, so...tough shit.

When we cook it ourselves, Dan and I rarely eat our steaks with any kind of sauce. We prefer to have it with just a little salt and pepper (OK, a lot of salt for me), and drenched in its own juices. But, Steamy Kitchen had a delicious looking post on steak with chimichurri sauce last week, and I really wanted to try it. I'd seen chimichurri-sauced meat options on menus before, but never got them because I didn't know what chimichurri was. Without an explanation of the ingredients, it sounded vaguely sinister and little too close to "chinchilla" for comfort. No rodent for me, thanks! If only restaurant menus had pictures as pretty as Steamy Kitchen's for every food item. Or, you know, if I spoke Spanish...

The steak, which was a thinner cut than I usually go for, turned out to be tender and juicy, with a pleasing iron-y tang that satisfied my craving in a big way. The chimichurri sauce was OK, but I didn't go wild for it. Maybe because it had red wine vinegar in it, and I don't like sour/tangy sauces. My taste in food runs more towards the sweet and salty. Dan, however, loves spice and tang, and he enjoyed his steak and chimichurri sauce mightily. 

Recipe can be found here, courtesy of the Steamy Kitchen blog.

Baked Taquitos al Pastor

There is so much al pastor in my fridge right now, I almost don't know what to do with it. Almost. I'm toying with the idea of combining it in some form with kimchi, but I haven't quite decided which direction to go with that yet. For now, I'll have to settle for taquitos. Why baked? Because I just spent the weekend gorging on steak and lobster and brownies, and I'm feeling a little guilty. Nothing about this recipe is healthy, per se, but surely baked is less sinful than deep-fried?

Recipe can be found here, courtesy of the Pink Parsley blog. 

Tacos al Pastor

Second semester sophomore year, Ana's Taqueria took over the space formerly occupied by a mediocre crepe shop inside the student center, and my life changed. Not in an altogether good way, mind you. On the one hand, I was over the moon because this place had the best Mexican food in Cambridge. On the other hand, I loved the food a little too much too often, and put on ten pounds that semester. Two grande burritos and/or quesidillas per day will do that, I guess. It took me the entire summer to run those pounds off, but looking back, it was totally worth it.

The next year, I toned down my Ana's consumption, but it was Dan's turn, as a newly minted college man, to discover the joys of an Ana's grande burrito with everything in it. I bought him his first burrito at Ana's, but it wasn't long before he was there by himself for lunch and dinner multiple times per week. Of course,  lucky bastard that he is, Dan did not gain a single pound. What a jerk.

You want to know what the best thing on Ana's menu was? The al pastor burrito. And the al pastor quesidilla...and the al pastor tacos. Seriously, the al pastor was amazing. I'd never even heard of "al pastor" before Ana's, but one bite of the fatty, savory-sweet pork and I was totally hooked. And of course, I eventually got Dan hooked. These days we regularly have al pastor cravings that cannot be satisfied, because apparently none of the Mexican places in the area make it, and if they do it doesn't taste right. So sad.

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I decided to go wild and make my own al pastor. I marinated a slab of pork shoulder in chili-pineapple sauce over night, covered it with slices of fresh pineapple, and stuck it in the oven for 2 hours. The result was a mound of massively delicious, juicy, fatty pork that had a hint of sweetness and some heat from all the chili peppers I used in the sauce. So good. Not quite the flavor of Ana's, but close enough. 

Recipe can be found here, courtesy of Closet Cooking.

** Note: Two of my favorite blogs, Crumbly Cookie and Confections of a Foodie Bride, said that pineapples contain an enzyme that breaks down meat faster than normal and causes it to become mushy if you marinate the meat too long. I didn't know that at the time, and marinated my pork shoulder in chili-pineapple sauce over night. I don't know if it's because I kept the shoulder intact, while they both cut their meat into slices before marinating, but my pork wasn't mushy at all. Just something to think about...

One year ago: Chocolate Fudge

Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic

Dan and I have a friend visiting from Hawaii this week, and he came over for dinner today. Originally, we were supposed to go out to eat but, (1) the weather stinks, (2) we've spent way too much money on restaurants lately, and (3) I stumbled across this recipe in my Gmail recipe archive and I just had to make it. 

Yeah, you read that title right. It's not a typo. There are FORTY cloves of garlic in this chicken dish. Forty! Forty deliciously fragrant cloves of garlic, slow-cooked until they melt in your mouth. Mmm. So. Good. Just don't make any romantic post-dinner plans. 

Kissing jokes aside, this dish is actually not overpoweringly garlicky. The cloves infuse the chicken and cooking broth with lots of flavor, but garlic is really not the main focus of the dish -- it's the chicken and the yummy broth. Seriously, this is a really great recipe. Even though I used a pack of drumsticks instead of butchering a whole chicken into several pieces, the meat turned out to be incredibly juicy and tender. And the broth...oh man. It was packed with flavor. Great for bread dipping. Or, you know, drinking through a straw. As for the garlic...well, who doesn't love roasted garlic? I think I ate about twenty cloves in a row, plain, before I realized that certain male individuals in my life may not appreciate the aftermath. Oops. Pucker up, sweetie!

Recipe can be found here, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen.

One year ago: Caramel Cookie Sandwiches with Ganache Filling

Shooter's Sandwich

So, miracle of miracles, this recipe was actually sent to me by Dan. Yeah. The man who thinks eating is a hassle and only sometimes gets excited for dinner if it involves dumplings and/or blueberry pie sent me a link to a sandwich. Must be one hell of a sandwich! Naturally, I had to check it out. 

OK, so what the hell is a "shooter's sandwich?" According to the article Dan sent me, it's apparently an English invention. It was originally created as a snack that a gentleman's cook would make the night before a hunt, to be eaten when the gentleman in question got hungry after a day of bloodthirsty entertainment. So, it's literally a sandwich for someone who shoots. Cool.

More specifically, the shooter's sandwich involves a hollowed out loaf of bread, lots of steak, and mushroom/shallots cooked in loads of butter. And it's delicious. Really really delicious. Steak is always wonderful, but when loaded with super buttery mushrooms and wrapped in crusty bread soaked through with meat/shroom juice...words fail me. Just try it. And if you happen to have dijon mustard on hand, use it. Trust me.

For the recipe and a wonderful slideshow of the step-by-step construction of this sandwich, click here.

One year ago: Bridal Shower Spread

Chicken Fried Steak

I haven't eaten (or thought about) chicken fried steak since I moved out of Texas, where everything is bigger, beefier, and more fried. I'm not a health nut or anything, but I generally try not to eat too many fried foods if I can help it. And chicken fried steak is...a slab of steak that is breaded, fried, and then smothered in gravy. Red meat AND fried? That's a heart attack on a plate if I've ever seen one. Still, the Pioneer Woman had a post on chicken fried steak last week and it just looked so yummy that I had to try it.

Chicken fried steak is so different from the way I usually eat steak. I like my steak to be thick and juicy, attached to a bone, and still bleeding. Chicken fried steak is...none of those things. The meat is pounded thin for tenderness, there's no bone, and it's cooked all the way through with no sign of blood. But you know what? It's absolutely delicious. The meat is not at all tough or dry despite being thoroughly cooked, and the combination of breading, meat and gravy is amazingly flavorful and melt-in-my-mouth delicious.

I want to say that I'll be good, and that this will just be a one-time treat, but...there are probably going to be a lot of chicken fried steaks in my life from now on. Damn you, Pioneer Woman!

Recipe can be food here, courtesy of the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond.

Chinese Dumplings (Jiao Zi)

Hey, remember when I said I was going to make jiaozi and baozi and tons of other Chinese goodies for the New Year? Well that didn't happen. I meant to do it, I really did! But  first I had to cook for my Superbowl party, then Valentine's Day snuck up on me, and I had to make tiramisu that one day -- before I knew it, it was March. Yikes! You know what they say about the best laid plans...

So, I promised Dan last night that I would finally make some dumplings for dinner. He was pretty pumped, because after eating all kinds of interesting things in China last summer (frogs, snake, congealed pig blood, etc.), he's really come to appreciate the straightforward deliciousness of the humble jiaozi. There was just one problem though: no pre-made, store-bought dumpling skins, and I was all out of wonton wrappers. Merde! That left me with two options: (1) disappoint Dan, who almost never craves anything and only gets excited about food when the stars align, or (2) make my own damn skins. Really, I only had the one option.

This was my first time making dumpling skins from scratch, but I wasn't too worried. I've watched my parents do it for years, and I've handled enough homemade skins in my lifetime to have a pretty good idea of what they're supposed to look and feel like. Plus, it's just flour and water, and really very straightforward once you get down to it. The only thing I had trouble with was rolling out the individual skins. They had a tendency to get really thin in the middle and stay thicker on the edges -- the exact opposite of what is desirable in a dumpling wrapper! It took a little practice, but after a couple skins I got the hang of it. Still, they were a little thicker than is ideal, because I was worried I'd make them too thin and they'd break apart while cooking.

As for the filling, I usually like to use ground pork, but for whatever reason my BJs, Safeway, and Shoppers almost never have it in stock. What's up with that?! Anyway, I wasn't happy about it, but I used the only thing I had on hand: ground chicken. Ground chicken and cabbage, actually. And you know what? It was great! If I hadn't made the dumplings myself, I would have never guessed the meat wasn't pork. Go figure.

Overall, not such a bad effort, if I must say so myself. Don't they look pretty legit? Not the prettiest dumplings in the world, but they basically look the way they're supposed to. And there's just something about seeing rows and rows of fat dumplings on a tray that really makes me happy. Probably because my parents only ever made homemade dumplings on special occasions, and I naturally associate dumplings with happy things. Not such a surprising association, since dumplings (when made correctly) are little packets of juicy, meaty deliciousness. I could probably eat a hundred of the things by myself!

Chinese Dumplings (Jiao Zi) With Chicken and Cabbage

Ingredients: (Makes about 20 dumplings)

(Wrappers)

- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cups water

(Filling)

- 1/2 lb ground chicken
- 1 cup Napa cabbage, shredded
- 1-1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp seasame oil
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- Salt/pepper to taste

Steps:

(1) Starting with the filling,  mix all the ingredients in a bowl until well combined. Set aside.
**I like to leave off on the salt/pepper until after all the other stuff is incorporated, because you don't want your dumplings to be too salty. A quick lick is a good taste test, and I've never yet gotten salmonella from doing it.

(2) For the wrappers, mix flour and water in a large bowl until the dough comes together.  If dough is still too dry and floury, slowly add more water a little bit at a time until it is smooth and pliable. Dough should not be sticky.

(3) Shape finished dough into a ball, then cut it in half with a knife.
(4) Roll each half into a long strip, about 1 to 1-1/2 inches in diameter.
(5) Slice strips into 1/2-inch pieces.
(6) Flatten each piece into circles, then roll them out on a floured surface with a rolling pin. It doesn't matter if the skins aren't perfect circles, just make sure to get the dough as thin as you can. The middle should be a little thicker so the filling doesn't fall through, but the edges should be thin.
(7) Spoon a generous portion of meat filling into the center of each wrapper, then fold the wrapper in half. Pinch the edges closed, then scallop the edges of the dumpling by folding the outer edge in an overlapping pattern. (Like an accordion -- see picture above for guidance)
(8) Once wrapped, dumplings can be boiled in a savory broth, or pan-fried. To pan-fry like I did this time, heat olive oil in a large skillet until hot, then place about 5-7 dumplings in the skillet to cook.
(9) Pour about 1/2 a cup of water into the hot pan (it will sizzle!), then put a lid on the skillet. Shake the skillet to so that the dumplings don't stick to the bottom, then allow dumplings to cook until the water has evaporated.
**The bottoms of the dumplings should be light brown and fried-looking, and the rest should be entirely opaque with a yellowish/brown tinge. If parts of the wrapper are still white or translucent, the dumpling is not cooked all the way.
(10) Enjoy plain or with soy sauce and vinegar.

Hotdog Sundaes

 

You know what the worst kind of day is? The worst kind of day is when you're hungry after a long day of doing absolutely nothing, and you shuffle over to the fridge for sustenance only to realize that your leftovers are unappetizing, you're not in the mood for pasta, and everything else that is cook-able is iced over in the freezer. Big time bummer.

So what can you do? Order out? A viable option, but that can get expensive. Go grocery shopping? No way, that would totally defeat the purpose of your lazy do-nothing day. Plus, it's cold out right now. That leaves you with option #3: rummage through your fridge/pantry, grab anything that catches your eye, throw it all together, and hope it's delicious. That's how Dan and I ended up eating hotdog sundaes for dinner last night.

 

Hotdog sundaes, you say? Disgusting! Unfathomable! HOW COULD YOU?! That's how I reacted the first time Karen told me about the special treat her mom used to make for her and her brothers. I pictured a standard sundae with bananas, ice cream, chopped up hotdog bits, and ketchup/mustard on top. Gross. Fortunately, Karen's mom is not a lunatic, and hotdog sundaes are not at all what I was imagining. For one thing, they're not meant to be a dessert. Thank god.  

In this delightfully-named concoction, hotdogs (in a bun) take the place of bananas, and scoops of ice cream are replaced with scoops of mashed potatoes. Shredded cheese is sprinkled on in place of jimmies, and gravy (if you're so inclined) is drizzled instead of fudge or caramel. The end result should look like a seriously loaded street dog. Yum!

Hotdog Sundaes (Courtesy of Karen)

When I made this last night for dinner, I didn't have hotdog buns, so I sliced up a baguette and slathered  the pieces with garlic and herb butter. And, in order to spread out my two remaining turkey sausages, I chopped them into small pieces and layered those on top of the bread. Topped off with buttery green onion mashed potatoes and cheese, then toasted in the oven, these were absolutely scrumptious. If I were to serve them as an appetizer (and I definitely will), I would have to reduce the proportions of each component a lot more, because even in last night's reduced form these sundaes were a huge mouthful -- two or three mouthfuls, actually.

Ingredients: (1 sundae)

- 1 hotdog or sausage, cooked

- 1 hotdog bun, buttered
- 1 cup mashed potatoes, cooked
- Shredded cheese for sprinkling
- Gravy, if desired.

Steps:
(1) Preheat oven to 350
(2) Fully cook hotdog/sausage. Place inside hotdog bun.
(3) Using an ice cream scoop, generously heap hotdog with mashed potatoes. I like homemade chunky mashed potatoes with butter, garlic, and green onions, but instant mashed potatoes are good too.
(4) Place sundae on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with as much cheese as desired.
(5) Toast in oven for about 5 minutes.
(6) Serve plain or with gravy.
** For appetizer-sized sundaes, you can either chop up all the buns/dogs into small pieces like Karen usually does, or go with the baguette-layering route like I did last night.

Kimchi Bokumbop (Kimchi Fried Rice)

Happy Lunar New Year, everyone! All last week I had grand plans to make jiao zi (dumplings) and dou sha bao (steamed buns with red bean paste) and other Chinese goodies, but somehow I never got around to it. Fortunately, the New Year is supposed to be celebrated for 15 days, so I've still got plenty of time to make everything.

In the meantime, I just had to satisfy my craving for kimchi fried rice. My friend Grace posted a picture of her husband cooking it for a midnight snack a few days ago, and I've had kimchi on the brain ever since. It's just so pungent and tangy and delicious! So good as a side, but possibly even better in fried-rice form. It's definitely way better comfort food than mac and cheese or ice cream. And, I just happened to have a small jar of very ripe (best if used by 12/10/10...but still tasty in February!) kimchi sitting in my fridge, waiting to be eaten.

Since Dan and I live together now, it's pretty rare for me to cook a meal just for myself, especially on  weekends. Everything I cook these days is tailored to both of our tastes. So, it was with some trepidation that I asked Dan how he felt about having kimchi fried rice for lunch today. I love kimchi, but he hated it the last time we went to a Korean BBQ restaurant, and has steadfastly refused to eat it again since. Fortunately for me, however, he has terrible long-term memory when it comes to stuff that he eats, so by the time I asked about lunch, he had already forgotten that he'd ever eaten kimchi, and was willing to give the fried rice a shot. 

The result? I'm going to remember this moment forever as a shining victory in my Dan-feeding adventures. He not only ate the rice, but pronounced it delicious and went back for seconds. Awesome.

For the recipe and quick explanation of kimchi fried rice, check out www.trifood.com. 

Smothered Pork Chops

Today was supposed to be a lazy day. I was going to meet a friend at a restaurant near work and let the pros take care of my dinner while Dan fended for himself at home. But then a thunder/snow storm set in and my dinner plans were cancelled as both my friend and I scurried out of our offices a couple hours early to avoid getting marooned at work when the city inevitably shut down. DC is incapable of dealing with snow and/or inclement weather in general.

But, for once the Metro didn't screw me, and I managed to get home by 4:30. Dan, however, remained stuck in traffic until midnight, his 30 minute commute having turned into an eight and a half hour nightmare of bumper to bumper traffic caused by countless cars abandoned in the middle of the highway and iced-over roads. Virginians apparently also suck at dealing with snow.

So, when dinner time rolled around I was home alone with the cat, hungry and bored. What could I make that would keep me occupied for a period of time yet not be a pain in the ass to cook, and taste delicious? Gotta go with my standby: pork chops! But with mushroom cream sauce this time.

I've never made this particular dish before, but I've made pork chops so many different ways that it wasn't too difficult to come up with something workable. There was no time to brine the chops, so I made do with direct seasoning instead. Then, the chops were pan seared on each side before getting tucked into the oven for about 15 minutes. The cream sauce was similarly simple: mushrooms sauteed with garlic, combined with heavy cream in the pan, and thickened with a little Parmesan.

Maybe it was the hunger, but...improvisation tastes good! The chops were juicy and flavorful, and the cream sauce was so delicious I actually licked the saucepan clean to get every last savory drop. Served with Caprese salad and a baked potato, these smothered chops were an amazingly satisfying meal.

Smothered Pork Chops

Ingredients:

- 2 pork chops, tenderized

- 1 tbsp olive oil

- 1 clove of garlic, minced

- 1/2 cup heavy cream

- 1 cup chopped mushrooms

- Salt and pepper for seasoning

Steps:
(1) Preheat oven to 425.
(2) Sprinkle both sides of the chops with salt and pepper, to taste.
(3) In a saucepan on medium heat, cook garlic in oil until fragrant.
(4) Add chops to the pan, cooking each side for about 1-2 minutes, until lightly brown.
(5) Remove chops to a lightly greased baking dish, and stick in the oven.
(6) Bake for 15 minutes.
(7) While waiting for the chops to finish up in the oven, start cooking mushrooms in the original saucepan. Add more oil, if necessary. (I just go with Pam)
(8) When mushrooms are brown and tender, add cream and Parmesan, whisking until the sauce thickens to the consistency you want. Season with salt to taste, then set aside.
(9) Pull chops out of the oven and onto heated plates. Smother with mushroom cream sauce. Sprinkle with chives or parsley.
(10) Enjoy!

Salsa Chicken

I woke up this morning and my brain immediately turned to dinner. For reasons I can't fathom, I really wanted to make a dish that involved baked chicken and salsa. Have I ever eaten this dish before? No. Have I ever seen it made? Nope. I guess I was just feeling kind of zesty.

A quick search on Google revealed that salsa + chicken is actually a real thing. Not to be confused with fiesta chicken, of course, which is far more complicated and involves more ingredients. Salsa chicken is literally just chicken smothered in salsa. Canned salsa. Oh yea, there's some fancy cooking going on in my kitchen.

When I told Dan what we were having for dinner he was very skeptical. "So...you just poured some salsa over the chicken and baked it?" "Well, yea. But the chicken breasts are seasoned!" Truth be told, I was pretty skeptical too. I don't even like salsa all that much! But, we were both very pleasantly surprised. The baked chicken breasts were unbelievably tender and juicy, and time in the oven took away some of the salsa's artificial zing and replaced it with a wonderfully smooth, tangy flavor that perfectly complemented the chicken. Delicious! I just wish I had some rice or corn to go with it.

Recipe courtesy of AllRecipes.com.

** I don't like taco seasoning, so I actually went with salt/pepper/garlic to flavor the chicken breasts. Personally, I think taco seasoning would have made the whole dish too zesty.

Glazed Pork Chops

My first kitchen adventures of the new year ended in complete disaster. Dan and I had just gotten back from a day of skiing, and I really wanted warm bread rolls and a steaming bowl of beef bourguignon for dinner. But, I was too tired and hungry to make a Julia Child-esque meal, so I decided to cut some corners and use one of the "fast and easy" bourguignon recipes I found online. Worst idea ever! It is impossible to make good beef bourguignon in less than an hour. Cannot be done. Should not be done. Trust me.

Naturally, I felt the need to make something delicious to erase the stink of failure hanging in the kitchen, ASAP. These pork chops were just the thing to do it. 

Everyone has a standby in the kitchen, the one thing they make well every single time. These glazed pork chops are mine. They are the only meal that I regularly cook for me and Dan, and my favorite go-to for when I want to impress dinner guests. I'm not sure how these chops have managed to escape my blog for this long, but I think it has something to do with the fact that they're so delicious that they're half-eaten before I even think to reach for my camera. I made these recently for my friends Rick and Jamie, but forgot to take pictures. Luckily, my friend Grace is visiting this week, so...yeah. Pork chops again.

I regret nothing. There's a reason I make this meal so much, and the reason is that these chops are delicious. Juicy, with a delicious, pleasantly sweet glaze that caramelizes on the grill. So good, especially if eaten with mashed potatoes and baked mac n' cheese (which will get a post soon).

Glazed Pork Chops

Ingredients:

- 4 pork chops, brined (some people like to brine over night...for those of us who are less organized in the kitchen, 1.5 hours before dinner is good too.)
- 2/3 cups brown sugar

- 2 tbsp salt

- 1 tsp cloves

- 1 tsp ground pepper

- 1 tbsp minced garlic (or, garlic powder if you're out of the real stuff)

Steps:

(1) Turn oven to "low broil."

(2) In a medium bowl, combine brown sugar, salt, cloves, garlic and pepper. Mix well.
(3) Pat pork chops dry, then rub thoroughly on all sides with dry mixture. Place in baking dish, and let rest for a few minutes.

(4) If using an indoor grill, turn it on to high. Cook chops on each side for about 2 minutes, until just slightly brown, and glaze has caramelized.
(5) Remove chops from grill and put back in the baking dish. Stick it in the oven to broil for about 10 minutes.
(6) Serve drizzled with own juices.

Stuffed Pork Chops with Gravy

Apparently Thursdays are now "pork chop" days, because this is two weeks running that we've eaten pork for dinner. What can I say, I'm unimaginative in my eating. Also, I still have a million pork chops in the freezer that need to get eaten. And I just love pork, period. It's like Anthony Bourdain once said on an episode of No Reservations -- "the pig is a noble and delicious animal." So true, Tony, so true.

I've never stuffed anything other than a chicken, and so I had to look up what it meant to "butterfly" a pork chop. Apparently it's just a fancy way of saying "stick a sharp knife into the side of a chop and cut a little pocket." So that's how you stuff a pork chop! I've always wondered. Seriously.

The recipe I found online called for stuffing the chops with a mixture of blue cheese/bacon/chives. That sounded too salty, even for me, so I went with a more traditional stuffing route. Bread cubes, melted butter, chicken stock, and onions. I used whole wheat bread, but I think corn bread or white bread would be tastier.

After stuffing, the chops get browned on both sides in a hot skillet, and then transferred to a greased pan for baking in the oven. Only 25 minutes, and you're digging into a piping hot pile of porky goodness. Time in the oven didn't dry the meat out at all, and the savory stuffing was a perfect compliment to the juicy, delicate chops. Delicious!

Stuffed Pork Chops with Gravy

Ingredients:

- 2 pork chops, butterflied

- 2 slices bread, chopped into cubes

- 1 tbsp butter, melted

- 1/4 cups chicken stock

- 1 tbsp diced onion

- Salt + pepper for seasoning
- 1 tbsp olive oil

- 1 tbsp minced garlic

Steps:

(1) Preheat oven to 325.

(2) In a small bowl, combine bread, butter, chicken stock, and diced onion until desired stuffing consistency is reached. Set aside.

(3) Season pork chops on both sides with salt and pepper to taste.

(4) Stuff each chop with heaping spoonfuls of stuffing.

(5) In a hot skillet, cook garlic in olive oil until fragrant. 

(6) Add pork chops and brown on both sides. Remove chops from skillet and place in greased pan. (Save oil/fat from skillet)

(7) Stick everything in the oven and cook for 25 minutes.

(8) Serve with favorite gravy.

Homemade Gravy

Ingredients:

- Leftover oil/fat from browning chops in the skillet.

- 1/2 cup chicken stock

- 1/2 cup heavy cream

- 2 tbsp flour

Steps:

(1) Heat skillet with leftover oil/fat from pork chops.

(2) Add chicken stock and heavy cream. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

(3) Keep stirring until liquid has noticeably reduced.

(4) Add flour, and stir until well mixed.

(5) Season to taste with salt/pepper.