Flavors – Page 12 – Growing Up Savvy

Published February 7, 2013 by Nadya

A Mixed Green Romance

My sister and her family are visiting us this weekend. We’re excited to welcome some willing playmates for Sophia in return for delicious foods. I was browsing some of my favorite sites and cookbooks to generate a menu for the weekend. This process while fun, always leaves me hungry. I decided to which up a salad to curve my hunger and make sure I didn’t dip into the emergency chocolate and cookies stash. Feeling like a basic salad wasn’t going to do, hubby and I spruced it up with some homemade croutons.

That’s right, we are continuing our romance with the great culinary invention that is the salad. We’ve made quite a few these last few days…

Cookery Flavors

Published February 4, 2013 by Nadya

We’re a Team

You didn’t really believe me when I said I decided to indulge myself in making the most of salad ingredients, did you? Well, I am sticking to my guns on this one, Ok? Besides, hubby and I are a great team in the kitchen and out of it too! I assemble the mise en place and he finishes everything off with expert precision.

The latest installation of flavorful and healthful salads had romaine, kale, carrots, cucumbers and lightly roasted broccoli. Hubby whipped a basic vinaigrette and we were off to the races for lunch. It was light, crunchy, had a variety of textures and overall very satisfying.

Cookery Culinary Adventures Flavors Hubby Cooks

Published February 4, 2013 by Nadya

Delicious, That’s Pho Sure

It was ungodly cold here today, at least in my opinion. Furthermore, the cold and flu have been very aggressive. For me the cold + cold & flu = we stay in a LOT. In fact, even if it was warmer and the flu wasn’t wide-spread, we would still probably stay in for meals. It is expensive to go out and twice as difficult to go out with a toddler in tow. This has never stopped hubby and me from ensuring we widen our horizons with ethnic fare. The only dishes we abstain from cooking at home are sushi — everything else is fair game in our household. To date, we’ve made pho, carnitas, tacos, spring rolls, dumplings, mole and lots more.

This weekend, I craved Pho. It is a common, peasant food often enjoyed by families at home, but making it takes time. It took about 4 hours of inactive time and about 1 hour of active prep. Not only was it absolutely delicious, it filled our home with the most aromatic scent of star anise and cinnamon.

Charred onion and ginger, cinnamon, star anice, bay leaf and cloves – Broth Spices

The meat that cooks in your bowl once the soup is assembled

Onion, jalapeño, mint, basil and mung beans — Garnishes — onion, jalapeño, mint, basil, cilantro and mung beans

… and now … drumroll…

…

Cookery Culinary Adventures Flavors Hubby Cooks

Published February 1, 2013 by Nadya

A Kitchen Sink Salad

We all had the entire month of January to get healthy … and let’s all admit it, it didn’t happen. So here we go again: the salad lifestyle. It may seem daunting and not tasty, but I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve. The first one, which was today’s dinner, is what I called a Kitchen Sink Salad. That’s the type of salad I tend to make when I am trying to make some space in the fridge or ready the fridge for a new load of groceries. Take a look at this beauty:

I am sure your first reaction is that I dressed it with a creamy dressing … maybe a ranch. In fact, I dressed it with a homemade dressing made form 2% greek yogurt, mint and cucumber. That’s right, no additional oil and low fat. Given the healthfulness of the dressing, I could dress the salad a little more generously to up the luxury factor. Aside from the super dressing, the salad had kale, romaine, carrots, raw beets, and basil. It was soooo good!

Flavors

Published January 20, 2013 by Nadya

Family Matters

It seems that work deadlines have pinned both my husband and I to our desks at work and even at home. Hubby has been working 12+ hr days both yesterday and today. Together time, and more importantly children suffer the most when life-work balances are askew. We are fortunate to have had our parents’ helping hands this weekend. We don’t choose our family — we are born into it or join it. I consider myself very lucky in this case.

What’s more, there is a saying in russian that goes something like this: the food you cook is going to taste as good as the nature of the people you feed it to. Everything turned out so delicious this weekend — this must be further evidence that we lucked out with our family.

You must be wondering as to what I cooked. I wasn’t going to leave you wondering. The menu was simple. Hummus, Slow-roasted lamb shoulder with home fried potatoes. Double stuffed baked potatoes with italian turkey and herbs… and part skim mozzarella.

Cookery Culinary Adventures Flavors

Published January 14, 2013 by Nadya

Meatless Sundays

The cold weather months always make us crave warm, comforting foods. Often times, they are rich stews. I wanted to mix things up a bit and see if I can attain the same comfort with just veggies, some bread and top with a poached egg.

Cookery Flavors

Published December 9, 2012 by Nadya

Hanukkah With an Asian Twist

Today marks the first night of hannukah. We’re spending this holiday close to home and are forging our own traditions. It turned out to be a glorious day (weather-wise) and we took full advantage of it.

Of course latkes were mandatory, but who says you can’t pair them with a chicken and broccoli stir fry? That’s exactly what we did when I made our (some say famous) chicken stir fry.

Thankfully, there are quite a few more nights of Hanukkah which present the perfect opportunity to create more family traditions.

Cookery Flavors Life

Published December 3, 2012 by Nadya

Celebratory Dinner

We decided on a low-key, home-made dinner for hubby’s birthday. After a long discussion, he ordered some sort of a stew, mashed potatoes and Tiramisu. I happily obliged. Warning: there is no finished picture of the Tiramisu as we devoured it, and my mother’s AMAZING apple cake before snapping any pictures. I assure you, they both were delicious.

Manly beef…

Seared for MAXIMUM flavor…

Accompanied with mashed potatoes and sweet snap peas.

Chased with dessert…

Cookery Culinary Adventures Dessert Flavors Life

Published December 2, 2012 by Nadya

The B-I-G 3-0

Hubby turned 30 yesterday. The B-I-G 3-0 as I like to refer to it. In reality, it isn’t so big and we celebrated low-key with my in-laws which is just like we wanted. We did start the weekend early, with an indulgent (in calories) dinner at home with the baby and continued the celebrations into his actual day.

… anyway. Back to Friday’s indulgent dinner. Nothing is more indulgent than … well, butter and heavy cream and carbs. So, Cacio e Pepe which literally means Cheese and Pepper it was — with luscious fettuccine. To reign in the calories and health factor, we went with olive oil and we added a little bit of meyer lemon zest into the sauce and juice when finishing. We also added arugula for the health factor. The kitchen lit up with that delicate, zingy lemon fresh smell as the essential oils in the zest infused the butter. Mmmm… good.

… and …

Cookery Flavors Hubby Cooks

Published November 24, 2012 by Nadya

Thanksgiving Re-hash

The perfection of even the simplest menu can be elusive. We celebrated Thanksgiving with our families which included both our sides of the family. I was responsible for the stuffing (plain and turkey sausage and apple) and stuffed mushrooms while my mom took on sweet and mashed potatoes and provided the raw bird. The rest of the delicious dishes came from my mother-in-law and sister. My mother-in-law brought amazing the cranberry sauce, a carrot cake and turkey-shaped cookies. My sister brought a sumptuous green bean casserole, a honey cake and a chocolate pie-cake (amazing thing-a-ma-bob). But the simplest dish of them all can quickly turn into dry, mealy, flavor-less disaster which we successfully avoided this year.

The day before Thanksgiving, we brined the turkey in sugar, salt, sage, rosemary, garlic and thyme. The day of, I made an herb butter which i slathered under the turkey’s skin and we baked it, first at 500*F and then at 350*F. Here are the before and after:

I know that slathering in herb butter sounds… well… luxurious but you should do it right, or go home. Sophia tried the feast and definitely approved!

Cookery Flavors Hubby Cooks Tiny Tastebuds

Category: <span>Flavors</span>

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