Halloween Spectacular

Opting for the low-key All Hallows Eve, we gathered together for a simple dinner.. my part: spaghetti and meatballs. I was going to use bottled sauce, but on Amanda's suggestion, opted for a homemade version with canned tomatoes, garlic and basil. The recipe was inspired from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spaghetti-Sauce-III/Detail.aspx but was modified with meatballs instead of just cooked ground beef. I also added caramelized onions, sauteed zucchini, summer squash, and mushrooms instead of the canned mushrooms called for in the recipe.

I generally don't like my homemade sauce because it tastes very acidic-like.. like raw tomato. But this recipe calls for simmering the sauce for 1 hour (I actually simmered it for A LOT longer while waiting for everyone to show up)..which made that raw canned tomato taste disappear. The resulting sauce was.. well.. saucy, which is an excellent outcome in my book!

Add to this meal some glorious shrimp and cheese bread, garlic bread, and Gorgonzola and nut squash, we had a spectacular Halloween feast! To top it off, Tad brought pumpkin pie and Suee brought cupcakes-- spooky Howl-O-Ween Cupcakes (pictured above). The werewolf cupcakes were delicious!

And of course, to accompany, what better way to celebrate the fall season than pumpkin beer! I decided to find a bunch of varieties so that we could do a side-by-side comparison...

Alas we drank to much to tell! Bwahahahaha, Happy Halloween Indeed!

Apple Crisp

Fall- the air is chilly, the leaves are colorful, and the harvest season means natures bounty is plentiful this time of year. For Columbus Day Weekend, Potato and I took a journey into western VA, West Virgina, and Maryland. Along the way, we bought a 1/2 peck of apples and a giant pumpkin at a roadside farmstand in West Virginia. The leaves were very colorful and we passed several vineyards along the way-- but we didnt stop-- because we were busy looking for a camping spot before the sun went down! We resolved to go one a Northern VA/Maryland wine tasting tour, because all of the vineyards looked amazing! (If you're interested, we can make a day trip out there... you know where to find me)

The apples were so pungent they made the car smell appley all the way home...and I couldnt wait to eat them! 6 or 7 apples later (over a few days) I was looking for a change. So I made apple crisp! The apples were starting to get soft, so they werent as tasty to eat-- but you cant tell in the final apple crisp. I got the recipe from the food network (you can find it here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/neelys/apple-crisp-recipe/index.html).. I used red delicious apples..which is waaay off from the tart granny smith called for in the recipe... but it was still deliciously consumable!

French Onion Soup!

I have been craving french onion soup for a LONG time. You know how it is-- lusting over the recipe during those 10 minute internet breaks at work, falling asleep thinking about the caramelized onions and melted cheese, and even pondering different and new expressions that you might invent upon tasting such a delicious creation.. (Good God This Soup is Dancing on my Tongue Like Mario Lopez). Wait, you dont fantasize like that? Well anyway, my long drawn out dreams were always cruelly crushed like a clove of garlic before being simmered in olive oil and spinach. But I digest. It boils down to this (hehe I'm so punny), I lacked the requisite cooking vessels to prepare such a creation. You know- those cute bakable soup bowls with individual lids. So I would eventually close allrecipes.com or fall asleep unsatisfied with the status of my cookware collection. That is, until a visit to the Salvation Army store out in Sterling. There, sitting on a shelf between some abandoned nick-knacks and a collection of mis-matched beer steins, were a perfect set of two ceramic soup bowls! FOR A DOLLAR! I almost cried I was so excited!!

All my planning was not in vain-- I had the recipe stored (you can find it here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/French-Onion-Soup-I/Detail.aspx) and almost all of the ingredients on hand. A french baguette was all I needed, and this creation was a reality! I used swiss cheese, and caramelized the onions with a dash of freshly ground peppercorns. With wine and the rest of the baguette, the soup was everything I had hoped for and more.

Dragon Fruit

The Korean market is a magical place of hope and wonder: Behold, the DRAGON! errr.. fruit. The phytological history of the dragon fruit was concisely summed up by my nephew: A dragon visits and leaves the dragon fruit.

Ok so perhaps that is not the most scientific of explanations-- according to Wiki, the dragon fruit is a fruit from a cactus like plant, grown in tropical South-East Asian countries. After a quick tutorial on how to eat it (cut in half and scoop out the flesh with a spoon), we were ready to eat!

The crunchy black seeds gave the fleshy fruit a texture akin to the texture of kiwi, but the taste was different-- sweeter and plainer -- and delicious! It was expensive.. but definitely worth a try! I am willing to splurge on this fruit again. And until the day I can try it amidst its natural environs, I will have to be content with the glories of the Korean market.

Garden Salsa!

My tomato plant yielded its last two tomatoes- and what better way to celebrate the fresh harvest than in salsa!!

Garden Salsa

Tomato, finely diced (it helps if the tomato is not soft, but just ripe enough to be firm and bright red)

Onion, finely diced

Cucumber, diced

Cilantro

Salt to taste

Fresh salsa is one of my most favorite cooking ingredients.. I love to use it on breakfast burritos, quesadillas, as dressing for salad-- Potato even eats the fresh salsa on his hot dogs! (He swears this is one of the best ways to eat a hot dog)

Crab Pasta Salad

I got this recipe from all-recipes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pea-n-Crab-Pasta-Salad/Detail.aspx in an attempt to use some leftover imitation crab from an earlier sushi extravaganza. It was amazing. In the time it took to boil the pasta al dente (7-8 mins, according to the box of medium shells) I was able to get all the other ingredients together. Mix and enjoy! Potato is generally not a big fan of spinach or peas, but he ate them up with no complaints!!

Cooking Club: Thai Food!

September Cooking Club. The Menu: Tom Yum Soup and Chicken Satay to start, then Red Curry, Drunken Noodles, Thai Green Beans, and Pad Thai for the main entree, and to cap of the night: Mango Sticky Rice!!

The Tom Yum Soup featured Kaffir Lime Leaves and jumbo shrimp in a delightfully spicy blend that had some of our cooking club attendees crying! For the more sensitive pallets, Amanda (the creator of this fiery soup) suggested adding coconut milk to the broth. This was delicious! The Chicken Satay was marinated with turmeric, cumin, and other savory spices before being broiled and served hot with Thai peanut dipping sauce. The dish was very reminiscent of Indian spices, which might be due to the fact that Sundhu (chef for the satay) is, in fact, Indian.

The red curry was fantastic, with fresh snow peas and red peppers, and despite Lindsey's (chef) personal wishes: fresh broccoli. The curry wasn't very spicy, which was actually a welcome relief since we were still recovering from the soup! The thai green beans (chef: Allison) were seasoned in a divine sweet/savory sauce including (I believe) cashew butter and sesame oil. The overall flavor strongly hinted at peanut sauce.

For a dish that was proclaimed to be "an utter disaster," the Pad Thai was actually pretty good. Chef Julia used buckwheat noodles as a measure of desperation after failing to find pad thai rice noodles at the grocery store. The end result was a more casserole-like pad thai, but all the flavor was there so we were just as happy! The drunken noodles (my contribution) were not spicy at all, and the tofu was a bit vinegar/lime juicy (I guess the word I am looking for is tangy)-- but the dish gets plus points from me for the complex flavor attributed to the fish, oyster, soy, sauces and the rice vinegar. The recipe came from a food blog: http://www.desertmodernism.com/blog/2006/01/thai_drunken_noodles_pad_kee_m.php

I of course, rarely follow recipes with 100% accuracy.. and in this dish I added snow peas, thai eggplant, and one of those long yellow-green banana-pepper (but bigger) peppers. I loved the veggies.. and recommend adding some if you want to try the recipe.

Alas I did not take a picture of the mango sticky rice (chef: Sundhu)- by that time in the evening my stomach was full and my camera tucked away from the food carnage that ensued immediately after the photos were taken. Oh well, Shes just going to have to make it again! bwahahahahaha!

Archive Posting Begins

Many of you might have noticed the recent lack of posts-- never fear, I have not stopped cooking! Due to some computer issues, I was taking pictures and saving them to post later...well.. I just uploaded ALL of them: I have my work cut out for me! Hopefully I will be posting a few posts per day to slowly archive my recipes. Enjoy!

Harvest! and New Farmers Market

My bell pepper plant yielded a mighty harvest of 5 peppers yesterday...coupled with a few tomatoes from the vine (total harvest so far: 6 tomatoes), I had an amazing burrito with fresh garden salsa!

Also- There is a new farmers market in town, near the King Street Metro station, across from the Hilton in the small park demarcated by King Street and Diagonal Road. Wednesdays 3-7PM. I've had great luck with the produce from the market-- especially the collared greens (they lasted forever in the fridge!)

Sprouts!

I am trying my hand at home-made (is that the right word?) sprouts! After some internet research and a few phone calls to mom, I have come up with an action plan:

Day 1: Soak whole mung beans in water
Day 2: Rinse and drain soaked mung beans. Wrap in wet paper towel and set in a bowl in a warm dark place
Day 3: Observe, Rinse and wrap again in wet paper towel
Day 4: Observe, if sprouts are long enough, dry on paper towel and store in fridge in zip-lock baggie

Today is Day 3. Progress is steady, I have sprouts about 1/4 inch long (so still pretty small). So far no traces of mold or anything like that (which I am worried about in my 70 deg kitchen).. the sprouts are more puny than the mung bean sprouts you buy at the store, but my online reading suggests that this is because store-bought sprouts are grown in controlled temp environments with chemicals and gasses and other things that lil ol me won't (or can't) add to a bunch of beans in water.