Sloppy Joes (Thursday, April 29, 2010)

Ethan made Sloppy Joes on Martin's potato rolls tonight.

Piper's Kilt (Wednesday, April 28, 2010)

We had dinner at Piper's Kilt tonight.  It's a pub in our neighborhood, and apparently, they have "The Best Burgers in Inwood".  At least, that's what the sign says as you enter the restaurant.  We've only had burgers here, but they do have a variety of other dishes on their menu.  Maybe one day I'll try something else.

Spaghetti Carbonara (Tuesday, April 27, 2010)

Ethan made my favorite dish, spaghetti carbonara!  We ate almost a pound of pasta - there was only a tiny bit leftover...I could've easily kept eating but had to just stop myself before Ethan thought I turned into a pig ; )

Arugula

For dessert, I picked up some Magnolia's Bakery banana pudding.  My cousin Brandon mentioned that he's not a fan of bananas or pudding, but he LOVED this particular dessert at Magnolia's.  This was enough to intrigue me.  I had to try it and it was so incredibly good.  This is now my favorite dessert at Magnolia's - who knew I would like it as much as I do. 

Short Ribs Provençale (Monday April 27, 2010)

Tonight we had some grass-fed beef ribs we bought from New York Beef at our farmers' market. It was braised for 2 1/2 hours in a Provençale-style along with potatoes.  For dessert we had leftover strawberry-rhubarb cobbler.

Zucchini Rice Gratin (Sunday, April 25, 2010)

I haven't left the house all day - this is very rare for me and I wasn't even that productive at home either.  It's been a very cold and rainy gray day. One thing I did do was make dinner.  I wanted to make Ina Garten's pork loin recipe but strangely, none of the grocery stores within walking distance had it in stock yesterday.

We just watched the documentary, Food Inc, and I'm a little grossed out by meat right now (this won't last, I'm sure), but I will tell you that this is changing the way Ethan and I think about food and what we purchase in the future.  Another food show we've been watching is Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

Anyway, I made Zucchini Rice Gratin and a Shrimp Salad.  They didn't really go so great together, but were pretty good each on their own.

Zucchini Rice Gratin up close

For the Shrimp Salad, I made quite a few modifications.  I added some chili garlic paste as well as Sriracha sauce, I didn't add dill b/c I didn't have any, and I used one scallion instead of the red onion.

Shrimp Salad

Ethan made a delicious strawberry rhubarb cobbler for dessert - my favorite.  The strawberries were so good and fresh on their own.  I love that strawberries are in season right now. The rhurbarb came from our farmers' market.

Skate & Wheatberries (Saturday April 24, 2010)

This morning we picked up (among other things) some skate, ramps, and asparagus at the nearby farmers' market.

I fried the skate wings and made up a Provençal-style sauce out of the ramps (wild leeks), tomatoes, parsley, and capers. To go along with the fish, Janet made a wheatberry & sour cherry salad and I simmered some asparagus.

Flor de Mayo (Thursday, April 22, 2010)

This restaurant is a little gem in the Upper West Side.  It's inexpensive and their rotisserie chicken and Lomo Saltado are the BEST!  I forgot my camera tonight, but Ethan took some of these photos on his iphone.

We tried a new dish tonight, the Pork Adobo which was their daily special.  It was pretty good, although I don't know if I'd order it again.  The Lomo Saltado is a beef stir fry with french fries on top.  We ordered it with yellow rice and a side of sweet plantains.

Lomo Saltado

Pork Adobo

Sweet Plantains

Yellow Rice

Spaghetti (Wednesday April 21, 2010)

Ethan made a delicious spaghetti with garlic bruschetta and melon wrapped in prosciutto.  The pasta was whole wheat thin spaghetti.  I think the thin pasta made it harder to distinguish the grainier texture typical of most whole wheat pasta.  I'm excited to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Side of sauteed beet greens

Panzanella Salad with Melon wrapped with Prosciutto (Tuesday April 20, 2010)

This is one of my favorite salads, especially when Ethan bakes the bread from scratch.  It's filling and extra fresh with all the great veggies tossed together.

Melon wrapped in Prosciutto 

Guchujong pork (Monday 4/19/10)

We had pork that was marinated in guchujong, miso, malt syrup, garlic, ginger, sesame seed oil, and soy sauce. Our ban chan included oi (cucumber) kimchi and radish kimchi made by Janet's mom, jicima, napa cabbage kimchi, and gim (seaweed). 

I also made the dough for a batch of almost-no-knead bread... The dough has to sit for at least 12 hours, so it'll be baked tomorrow night.

Quinoa with Spring Vegetables and Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler (Sunday April 18 2010)

I modified the Spring Vegetable and Quinoa Pilaf recipe I found on epicurious.com.  I used red beets instead of the golden beets - you can tell right away by the photo.  I also threw in some shrimp to the dish as well.

I wanted to cook quinoa since we bought a gigantic bag of it at Costco the last time we were there, so you'll be seeing many more recipes using this seed (I guess it's technically a seed, not a grain).

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

Frankies 457 (Saturday April 17, 2010)

We ate at Frankies 457 in Brooklyn... Read Janet's post about it on her Out To Eat blog!

Lunch (Saturday April 17, 2010)

For lunch we had Bi Bim Naengmyeon noodles--which is a cold noodle in guchujang sauce. I pretty much love any dish that features guchujang (Korean spicy/sweet paste). The noodles were topped with asian pear, pickled radish, & sunflower sprouts.

We also had sigumchi namaul (spinach), kimchi, and some refrigerator radish pickles that I had made the day before.

The spinach & sunflower sprouts came from our local farmers' market.

Cachapas y Mas (Friday April 16, 2010)

We went to a local Venezuelan sandwich shop for dinner. Read Janet's posting about it on her Out To Eat blog!

Leftovers and Banchan (Thursday April 15, 2010)

We had a combination of leftovers with rice with a variety of kimchi.

Magnolia's Bakery: Chocolate Cheesecake Swirl 

Leftovers (Wednesday April 14, 2010)

We ate leftovers today.

Chickpea & Chicken Tagine (Tuesday April 13, 2010)

We had a pseudo-tagine based on a recent Mark Bittman recipe. We didn't have dried apricots on hand, so I substituted dried sour cherries and dried prunes.

Ippudo & ice cream (Sunday April 11, 2010)

We went to Ippudo with my sister cecilia and had bowls of ramen, pork buns, and tofu hot pot.

For dessert, ice cream:

Leftovers & okra & green beans (Saturday April 10, 2010)

We had leftover mac & cheese from yesterday along with steamed green beans

and okra roasted with Indian spices

For dessert we had strawberries

Macaroni and Cheese (Friday, April 9, 2010)

I was craving mac & cheese....Cecilia's (Ethan's sister) mac & cheese she made once while I was visiting Baltimore.  She used Ina Garten's recipe found on foodnetwork.com.  The interesting part of the recipe is that it calls for fresh tomato slices on top - make you feel like it's extra healthy ; )

I work near Grand Central, so on my way home, I thought I could just stop in the Grand Central Market and pick up the cheese but when I got there I realized they only had Murray's Cheese shop and the 12 ounces of Gruyere cheese the recipe called for would've cost over $30.  I already picked up 4 tomatoes at the market for $9, and thought that this was going to be a very expensive mac & cheese.  So instead, I picked up some cheese at our local market and we used cheddar & swiss.  It was still pretty good, but I still dream of the one Cecilia made.

Jamie Oliver's Smashed Chicken recipe (Thursday, April 8, 2010)

This recipe has become a staple go-to recipe for us and as simple as it is (ingredient-wise), it's so tasty and wonderful!

Roasted Artichoke with Thyme

Trader Joe's Apple Tart Tatin (I wouldn't buy this again. It wasn't bad, but after having Ethan's homemade Apple Tart Tatin, I'd rather have his again. Maybe he'll make this again soon - yay!)

Soon dubu Jigae (Wednesday, April 7, 2010)

Ethan's still not feeling well so he made some Soon dubu jigae from Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee's Eating Korean cookbook - I guess he really liked what he ordered at Seoul Garden on Saturday night.

Spaghetti (Tuesday, April 6, 2010)

Ethan made Spaghetti with a side of Brocoli tonight.

Lentil Soup (Monday, April 5, 2010)

Ethan's been feeling a bit under the weather so he made lentil soup.  He used the leftover bulgogi we had from making kimbap and he used sundried tomatoes instead of a canned tomatoes.  It was really good and perfectly comforting.

For dessert, my mom gave us some sweet sticky rice with pine nuts and dates.  I'm not sure exactly what it's called - but I know I like it ; )

Food my Grandmother gave us (Sunday, April 4, 2010)

My mother and Grandmother gave us some food to take back with us.  I was very excited about this.  It was great, since we got home at around 8pm, all we had to do was cook rice really quick and heat up the food.

Seoul Garden - Mom's 60th Birthday (Saturday, April 3, 2010)

Ethan and I drove to Ann Arbor for the weekend to celebrate my mother's 60th birthday - an eleven hour drive from Manhattan.  My brother Jason, flew in from Denver on Friday night and stayed until Tuesday morning.

We went out to dinner at a restaurant called Seoul Garden. It was a big crowd between my parents, grandparents, aunt & uncle, my cousin Beth and her two kids who flew in from San Francisco.  We've been here many times for family events and it's always pretty good...not NYC Korea-town good, but Ann Arbor good.  I ordered the Yook ge Jang (spicy beef broth, with shredded beef and mixed vegetables).  Ethan ordered the Soon du bu Jigae (soft tofu, and assorted seafood served in spicy broth).

A sample of the ban chan

Hae Mool Pa Jun (seafood and scallion pancake)

After dinner, Jason, Ethan and I stopped in a pub to watch the end of the MSU vs. Butler basketball game where I ordered some breadsticks...I guess I got hungry again.  

Right across the street there is a place called Cafe Luwak, that serves the Superman ice cream - my childhood favorite.  I only discovered this place because seriouseats.com did an article on this and was amazed that this is so close to my parents house and I had never been here before.   

Superman Ice Cream

Heavenly good!