Category: <span>Culinary Adventures</span>

Published February 4, 2013 by

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
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
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…

…

..

.

Pho assembled
Pho

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Cookery Culinary Adventures Flavors Hubby Cooks

Published January 20, 2013 by

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.

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Cookery Culinary Adventures Flavors

Published December 3, 2012 by

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…

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Cookery Culinary Adventures Dessert Flavors Life

Published November 17, 2012 by

Romance for Three

These past two weeks, in fact, these past two months have been very hectic. That also explains a “writer’s block” that this blog has suffered from. Hubby’s has had a ridiculous work schedule and I’ve been busy taking care of the baby while he’s bringing home the bacon so to speak. I work also, but manage a much more respectable schedule — at least for now.

I couldn’t wait until yesterday (Friday, at last). We acquired groceries, the house was clean and were both very ready for the weekend. Whole Foods was running a rediculously great sale on New York Strip Steak and so we picked up a single steak, haricot verts and russian fingerling potatoes. We didn’t want to go out, since dinner out with a 13-month old is hardly enjoyable, and we didn’t have a babysitter, so we had dinner at home: Romance for Three.

Hubby whipped out his Shichirin grill and made a perfect steak. I drizzled olive oil, garlic and salt over the haricot verts and boiled the potatoes to be dressed later. While the potatoes are not an homage to my homeland, we did prepare them in a typical russian style: dressed in sour cream, garlic and dill.

And now, the ultimate key to a flawless romantic dinner for … three: feed thy child before you eat and ensure plenty of nibbles (i.e., cheerios, kix, cookies… etc) to play with.

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Cookery Culinary Adventures Hubby Cooks

Published November 15, 2012 by

Cooking for the Season

I recently discovered that cooking or doing anything for that matter is simply impossible if you’re also the chief caretaker of an active toddler. Our dinners and lunches have gotten progressively simpler, easier to make and healthier. The latter is due to the lack of time in preparing any sauce or anything else too fattening. Chicken, chicken, more chicken. Did someone say chicken? Of course even chicken can be spruced up and made into something special. To me, there are only two special chicken dishes: sous which is something my mother makes and homemade chicken soup.

I made this dish recently … it took a long time, but it was a lazy weekend. First, a whole chicken went into a giant pot to make chicken stock along with parsnips, onion, parsley and celery. Then, two chicken breasts were roasted whole in the oven with salt and olive oil to be shredded and added to the stock. Lastly, onion, garlic, celery, carrot and potato were sauteed lightly along with shiitake mushrooms to form the base of the soup. Mmm good! I finished off with petit peas for color and added green.

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Cookery Culinary Adventures

Published November 12, 2012 by

Lego Cake

The summer and fall were busy seasons in our family as they were peppered with many children’s birthday celebrations. Although tiring to commute up north to Pennsylvania and Delaware, it is always great to see family and watch kids play together. This past Saturday marked the last of the children’s birthdays; It was my nephew’s 9th birthday and I had offered to make his cake. My sister and brother-in-law accepted my offer and gave me free reign on the theme. Their sole request was that the cake be any flavor other than chocolate. Begrudgingly, I agreed. I mean c’mon, how can you not want a chocolate birthday cake?!

Regardless, a roasted apple spice cake with cream cheese (and butter) frosting was baked with love and adorned with fondant legos. It was a hit with the kids and sophisticated enough for the adults despite the aqua blue icing. Maybe next year, I’ll make Sophia’s cake…

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Culinary Adventures Dessert

Published October 17, 2012 by

Tea Party

We planned a nice celebration what with Sophia turning one. Although not exceptionally girly, I decided that a little tea party was in order to toast her with our family and friends. We sent out proper invitations and planned to serve tea sandwiches, scones and the likes. The day finally came last Saturday. All in all, after recuperating from the exhaustion of prepping and the hard work of celebrating, we’ve got pictures to look back on.

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Cookery Culinary Adventures Dessert Flavors FriendsFamily Hubby Cooks Life Mom's Cooking Moments

Published October 1, 2012 by

A New York Minute

When in doubt… always check the urban dictionary. Hubby and I got away this past weekend; away from the cooking, cleaning, the baby and just away on our own. My parents agreed to watch Sophia over Friday night and we headed to the Big Apple for some needed R&R. We headed just as Sophia was going down for her morning nap and came back right after her afternoon nap the following day (Saturday). Looking back, the getaway felt like it lasted a New York Minute as we made the most of it cramming it with either rest or adventure. It was so short in fact, that we took no pictures and just decided to be in the moment rather than capturing the moment.

Hubby planned the majority of the destinations based on some of my requests. There was of course the much needed shopping in SoHo, a visit to a few galleries and a dinner out. First things first, I really enjoyed Apothecary NK and Jacques Torres Chocolate and a small Saturday new designer’s market in the Village. I also loved the Forbes Galleries which had a lovely Walter Stuempfig exhibit. Incidentally, the artist was born in Philadelphia and painted several landscapes that we recognized. We visited the Strand which was amazing; We spent a fair bit of time there mostly salivating over rare and out of print books that had that [amazing, old and worn, read many times by many hands] smell. Hubby was especially eyeing this book (a 1st edition copy) though after me asking him about it, he passionately maintains that he does not want it.

Our time in the city went by too fast. We didn’t even have enough time to see a play. This trip was a perfect reminder that we should go out more often, enjoy life and remember that children are happier when parents are satisfied and feel self-fulfilled even if it means a night away from mom and dad. Our New York Minute was just short enough to allow us to witness our daughter’s first steps.

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Culinary Adventures Life Travel

Published June 28, 2012 by

It’s Summer, Let’s Party (Part IV)

Saturday has come and gone and it was pretty much a whirlwind. We hosted our family for a BBQ which came together quiet nicely. If you recall, I had put together an ambitious (with having a 8 month old at home) menu and was myself surprised that I was able to execute every single item on it and even add a summer corn and jalapeno succotash to boot.

The strategy I had was simple: I was not going to work past Sophia’s bedtime on Friday and instead relax and unwind so that I could get up early on Saturday and finish things up. I also focused on making dishes that were easiest, kept the best overnight and most fun to make first. I will say that our family was great. My mother-in-law came on Friday afternoon and took Sophia off my hands and my parents came Saturday early afternoon and helped clean up afterwards. We spent Sunday loafing and puttering.

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Cookery Culinary Adventures FriendsFamily Hubby Cooks Life

Published June 21, 2012 by

It’s Summer, Let’s Party (Part III)

It is official, the husband has reviewed my menu for the family BBQ and said it is “a bit ambitious”. That’s good — I like a challenge. Here is how I plan on spreading out the cooking to make sure that I don’t cook late into the night on Friday AND am able to enjoy Saturday morning and the party in the afternoon.

Friday:

  1. Bake chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies
  2. Cook strawberry and rhubarb blondes
  3. Bake cupcakes
  4. Cut the pineapple for the grilling
  5. Make vanilla ice cream for grilled pineapple
  6. Make court-bouillon and cook shrimp
  7. Make cocktail sauce
  8. Make hummus
  9. Cut veggies and make dip
  10. Make truffled mushroom mac & cheese
  11. Marinate chicken two ways (in yoghurt and spices and in olive oil and herbs de provence)

Saturday:

  1. Grill pineapple
  2. Grill chicken and sausage
  3. Make guacamole
  4. Prep and grill vegetables
  5. Prep and roast asparagus
  6. Prep and roast potatoes (two ways)
  7. Prep and grill veggie burgers
  8. Serve everything

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Cookery Culinary Adventures General