Cuban dinner

We were inspired by watching an episode of Bobby Flay and decided to make our own version of what he made. It was a variation of a Cuban sandwich and black beans & rice. For the black beans and rice, it was pretty standard (actually I cheated and used the recipe on the back of the can!). For the pork, start with 2 butterflied pork chops. Marinate them in a mixture of lime juice, orange juice, jalapeno, chopped fresh oregano, garlic, and canola oil (set aside some of the marinade...raw pork free, to use as a finishing sauce) for about 1 hour. When you're reading to cook, put slices of deli ham and swiss cheese and then close the pork chops (so it almost looks like a sandwich). Secure it with a couple toothpicks (or if you don't have any, pieces of skewers). Now this is where the Chase luck comes into play. Originally we planned on grilling these...but when we got outside we quickly realized that our grill was out of gas, so we broiled them instead. They turned out still delicious, but would've been even better with some of that smokey grill flavor. Before serving pork, take out the toothpicks and serve with a cup of rice and black beans! All we needed was a fresh mojito, but it was a school night, so coke zero was fine too.

Chicken mole enchiladas

For this recipe, we tried to replicate the recipe from Mema's Alaskan Tacos in Ybor. They have the best tacos and enchiladas I've ever had! For our version, we cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast in a slow cooker overnight in some chicken stock. When we were ready to start making dinner, we pulled apart the chicken to shread it and added it to a frying pan along with 1/2 cup of mole sauce (we cheated and bought some) along with a little bit of chicken stock to make the mole easier to stir in. Cook that for about 10 minutes until heated through. Meanwhile caramelize 1 large red onion. When the onion and chicken mole is ready to go, you can start assembling. For our enchiladas we put the chicken mole, onions, and crumbled goat cheese inside the tortilla until we had made 6 (leftovers!). We topped the enchiladas with the remaining mole/chicken stock sauce and baked for 15 minutes. When it came out of the oven, we topped it with some more goat cheese crumbles, sliced radish, and chopped cilantro. It turned out pretty well. Even Ryan, who is not a big Mexican food fan, liked it too.

The saga of the clams...

A couple Saturdays ago, in our quest to conserve money for our vacation and therefore not eating out, we decided we wanted to make linguini and clam sauce. I hate to toot my own horn, but I do make a killer clam sauce. So we went to Whole Foods to get the produce and the clams. Well they were out of clams, so we decided to still buy everything else and go to a seafood store/restaurant (Captain Brian's) instead to pick up some clams. Well, turns out they were out of them too. So as a last resort (no offense to Publix, but the one by us has terrible seafood, so we try to affoid it at all costs) we went to Publix...but they were out of them too! We were determined to make this for dinner, so we resorted to canned clams. And you know, it was almost as good!
For the sauce, begin by cooking 2 strips of bacon until cooked and then set aside and add at the very end. In the bacon fat, start by cooking 2 large shallots and 1 clove of garlic for about 5 minutes. Next add in 1/2 pint of cherry tomatoes halved. Cook for another 5 minutes. Add the juice of one lemon and 1/2 cup of champagne or sparkling wine. Cook for a couple minutes until the liquid has started to evaporate, then add two cans of chopped clams with their juices. Add however much dried red pepper flakes you like. Cook for about 10 more minutes until liquid has reduced in half. Put cooked pasta (spaghetti or linguini or whatever long pasta you like best) directly in the sauce and stir to combine. Finish with more lemon juice and fresh chopped parsley. Enjoy!
As a side dish, we had heirloom tomatoes with fresh mozzarella and basil topped with olive oil and balsamic vineagar.

Pita Pizzas

Now that basketball season has started and Ryan is busy with grad school, finding recipes that are quick, tasty, and somewhat healthy is really difficult. So I'm going to post a couple that we've made recently that I think fit all of those criteria.
The first is a real quick way to make pizza. Instead of pizza dough, we used whole-wheat/high fiber pitas. From there you can make it however you want! On mine, I put tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, ricotta, cherry tomatoes, and arugula. Ryan substituted the tomatoes and arugula for spicy Italian sausage. They both were really good! It'd also be good with herbed goat cheese and caramelized onions.

Upcoming travels

Ryan and I finally decided on our summer vacation...California! We'll be spending 3 nights in Petaluma in Sonoma County and 4 nights in San Francisco. Of course, with us, we're planning our activities around food! If anyone has any good restaurant suggestions, let us know. If we win the lottery we'll definitely go to French Laundry...otherwise, we might just have to drive by and dream about eating there!We can't wait. This trip (along with going to France or Ireland) has always been one of our dream vacations. I can't believe we're actually going to get to go!

Lettuce Wraps

Tonight for dinner, Ryan and I made lettuce wraps (trying to eat healthier!) with grass fed sirloin and rice.

For the sirloin, whisk together 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce, 2 tablespoons rice wine vineager, 1 cup sweet chili sauce, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, and the juice of one lime. Put the sirloin in a ziplock with 1/3rd of the sauce and marinade for 30 minutes (not any longer because the lime juice will start to cook the beef). Meanwhile, cook 1 cup of basmati rice in a rice cooker or on the stove. When the rice finishes cooking, stir in 1 tablespoon of rice wine vineagar and 1 tablespoon of butter. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat. Cook the sirloin 5 minutes on each side. After browning both sides, take steak out and put the rest of the sauce in the frying pan with 2 sliced scallions. Heat until boiling (will happen quickly). Slice steak and put back in sauce. Heat until steak is cooked to your liking.
Serve steak in a bowl with sauce, rice, scallions, lime wedges, and bibb or butter lettuce. If you're anything like us though, the wraps will quickly fall apart and you'll have to resort to using a fork! But it's just as tasty. Have a great week!

Homecooking..

So after all of our wonderful travels and all the awesome places we ate over my birthday weekend (Epicure, Columbia, Mosaic), it was nice to cook a homemade meal. My Nana bought me this incredible basket full of amazing cooking and ingredients (olive oils, sauces, pastas, rice, etc.). Using insipiration from some of those, we made bolognese with bison and ricotta. Using incredible, quality pasta helped make it a really good dinner (and leftover lunches for a few days!).
For the sauce, start by browing 1 pound of ground bison (available at Whole Foods) in a sauce pan in about a tablespoon of olive oil. Once meat is browned nicely, take out and set aside. Add 1 chopped sweet onion and cook until slightly caramelized. Add 2 minced cloves of garlic and salt/pepper. Once onions and garlic are cooked, add the bison back in. Add 1/2 bottle of dry red wine and cook for about 10 minutes or until it's reduced by about half. Add 2 cans of San Marzano crushed tomatoes, a bay leaf, and a tablespoon of dried Italian herbs. Bring to a boil and then reduced to low, put the lid on, and cook for a couple hours.
When you're ready to eat, cook the pasta until al dente. Serve sauce on top of pasta, with a scoop of ricotta cheese, grated fresh parmesan, and chopped Italian parsley. Keeps really well for a few days and makes for an awesome work lunch!

Thanks Nana for the gift!