You guys. I had a bad day. I was defeated by life. So I bought some red meat, and onions and fried me up some happy. There are definitely health benefits to steak but I wasn't thinking about being healthy that day. I was thinking about how I wanted to eat red meat until I collapsed into a food coma and forgot about when that man on the CTA stepped on my foot and then laughed at my outfit. Sometimes red meat is what you need.
Exactly, Gwynnie. Exactly.
Wait, what?
Anyway.
#23 Bistec Tagalog (Beef Steak)
Choice of libation: Vodka. Just...vodka.
Nope. Just vodka.
Choice of music: Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings Give the People What They Want
"Stranger to My Happiness" is one of their best songs to date. I am forever obsessed with her. And now, so will you be.
So yeah. Um. Cut up marinated steak. Fry it up.
Caramelize the onions.
Eat all of it, immediately, knowing that your entire place will smell like this meal for the next 24 hours. And that's okay.
And now that you have the strength of an army, you are no longer defeated by life.
stolen and adapted from my Dad's kitchen
1 lb. beef sirloin, thinly sliced
¼ cup soy sauce
3 small lemons or calamansi
½ tsp ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 large sweet onion, sliced into rings
3 tbsp cooking oil
salt to taste
Marinate beef in soy sauce, lemon (or calamansi), and ground black pepper for at least 1 hour. I always marinate overnight.
Heat the cooking oil in a pan then stir fry the onion rings until the texture becomes soft. Set aside
In the same pan where the onions were fried, fry the marinated beef (without the marinade) until color turns brown. Set aside.
(I accidentally did the beef first and then the onions because...vodka?)
Put-in the garlic then saute for a few minutes
Pour the marinade and bring to a boil.
Put in the fried beef and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add water if you need to...
Le weekend dernier le comité départemental de randonnée pédestre du cantal à formé une douzaine de licenciés de la FFRP au module de base du brevet d'animateur. C est dans le centre UCPA de la Communauté d'agglomération du bassin d'Aurillac de Lascelles que les randonneurs venant pour la majorité du Cantal mais aussi de la Dordogne et du bassin d'Arcachon se sont retrouvés. Le module de base constitue le premier niveau de formation au brevet fédéral qui en compte trois. La première journée était consacrée au travail sur table à la découverte de la carte de randonnée, et à la manipulation de la boussole. Le volet du cadre juridique de la pratique de la randonnée était abordé par le président du comité Pierre Wildemann. La journée du dimanche était l’occasion de mettre en pratique les connaissances acquises la veille. Deux groupes partaient sur le terrain cartes et boussoles à la main. Les stagiaires ont pu découvrir les paysages de la vallée de la Jordanne en montant sur les hauteurs vers le col de Berganty. Le pique nique réunissait les marcheurs à la Flandonnière. L'après-midi ramenait les stagiaires au centre pour un bilan de cette formation et sa validation. Certains des stagiaires se retrouveront à la fin du mois au Lioran pour acquérir le SA 1 correspondant au 2ème niveau du brevet d'animateur de randonnée.
Oh my friends, my friends forgive me, that I'm here and while you are gone, empty chairs at empty tables because I breathed on everyone with garlic breath.
- Kevin Boubil, Alain's hangry cousin
So we had a lot of potatoes, and while I enjoy many potato dishes, I actually just like them as a vessel for assorted dipping sauces. One such sauce I had been dreaming about forever and we just so happened to have all the ingredients in our fridge. Yeah, it's basically homemade mayonnaise with some stuff in it. But it's delicious. So you're welcome for the awesomeness of these flavors, or my apologies if you foolishly tried this on a date.
#21 and 22: Potato Wedges and Bacon Aioli
Choice of libation:
Kahlua + Crater Lake Hazelnut Espresso Vodka + Iced Coffee
In celebration of National Coffee Day (which I celebrate every day)...
Please note how Andie is judging me for day drinking.
Choice of music:
If this isn't on your autumn playlist, put it there now. I demand it. Her voice on every track of this album is as rich as the Crater Lake Hazelnut Espresso vodka I poured into my black coffee.
So the potatoes were just tossed with olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, parsley, salt and pepper and thrown into the oven for 45 minutes. But whatever about them. They were just the vessels.
The stars of this project: an entire head of garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, pulse in a blender...
While the motor is still going, gently pour in the egg yolks,
Oh yeah, at some point, I fried up 4 strips of bacon.
2 of those strips ended up in the dipping sauce :)
Fold it into the finished product.
Oh Aoili, you guys. THIS IS SO GOOD. Short of eating an entire clove of garlic, it may be the most garlicky thing I will ever have, but as long as those around me are okay with it, I am.
stolen and heavily adapted from Gourmet Magazine
3 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon minced garlic 4 1/2 lb large yellow-fleshed potatoes such as Yukon Gold 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Stir together oil and garlic in a large bowl. Peel potatoes and diagonally cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices, discarding ends. Toss slices with garlic oil, then arrange in 1 layer in a large shallow baking pan (1 inch deep) and sprinkle with kosher salt.
Roast potatoes in lower third of oven until undersides are golden brown and crisp, about 1 hour. Turn potatoes over with a metal spatula and roast until tender, about 15 minutes more.
Season potatoes with salt and transfer, crusted sides up, to a platter.
1 head of garlic 1 large egg yolk or 2 small egg yolks 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 4 slices of bacon, roughly chopped (or however many you don't accidentally eat before making aioli) 3 tablespoons olive oil
Mince and mash garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt using a large heavy knife. Whisk together yolk, lemon juice, and mustard in a bowl. Combine oils and add, a few drops at a time, to yolk mixture, whisking constantly, until all oil is incorporated and mixture is emulsified. (If mixture separates, stop adding oil and continue whisking until mixture comes together, then resume adding oil.)
Whisk in garlic paste and season with salt and pepper and bacon. If aïoli is too thick, whisk in 1 or 2 drops of water. Chill, covered, until ready to use.
Oh friends. These are dark times. In some sort of weird summer delirium, I challenged myself to do a stupid 7 day cleanse and fitness regime partially because I had meals of only smoked meats, cheese and wine for 2 straight weeks WHICH WAS AWESOME but also made me feel a little bit gross. And also because I wanted to see what happened when I gave up cheese, sugar, alcohol and grains, while working out twice a day. Six days in and I know the answer: I become a person who hates salads and mostly want to punch everyone I meet except I am too weak to do so.
This is what I used to be like...
Look at that girl: She's happy, she's social, she's indulging in the four food groups of sugar, cheese, booze and pasta.
But now...
I mean. Sure. Those cheekbones are amazing. But this shell of my former self is friendless, angry and physically frail.
On the upside, having a diet of only vegetables and proteins does make it easier to get through our large bags of produce from the Community Supported Agriculture program I mentioned the other week when I blogged about that awesome rhubarb vodka WHICH I CAN'T HAVE FOR ANOTHER TWO DAYS, DANG IT.
One week we were given lots of cucumbers and something like 4 heads of different kinds of lettuce.
WHAT?! WHO CAN EAT THAT MUCH LETTUCE BEFORE IT GOES BAD?
So I decided to do a google search: "What the crap do I do with all this lettuce?" Thanks to the internet and other people befuddled by the same problem, I found something other than "make lots of salad."
Recipes #18, 19 and 20: Salad Greens Pesto,
Homemade Tzatziki Dressing and Greek Chicken Salad
Choice of libation: No booze, so, you know. MY OWN TEARS. And stupid water.
Choice of music: Har Mar Superstar's Bye Bye 17. Oh. Everything about this makes me almost forget that I miss eating donuts. I feel like maybe I've posted about this album before, but it bears repeating. It is bluesy, Sam Cooke, summer and soul.
In honor of my current mental state, I'll go with this awesome track, "Don't Make Me Hit You."
But all of the songs on this album are a rocking good time.
So I know I've made pesto on this blog before, but actually the addition of olives makes this recipe even more bold than the other pesto from last year. My absolute favorite part of this recipe is, like all other sauces, you could just make a bunch and then freeze until needed, which when you have a bunch of lettuce that can go bad, is extremely helpful. I plan on adding this to shrimp or chicken then tossing lightly with pasta. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Pasta. AGHHH. TWO MORE DAYS.
Cucumbers do last a longer time, but we were given 5 or 6, and I remembered that tzatziki sauce requires a bunch of them and then I could pour it on all the stupid vegetables I had to eat for the next week. I'm usually too lazy to peel, seed and dice the cucumbers, but this recipe highly recommended it, especially to take out any bitterness, so I took an extra ten minutes.
Then I took my aggression out on it when asked to violently wring out the salted and diced cucumber. It may not have said violently. I may have hallucinated reading that.
TWO MORE DAYS.
This was actually a fabulous recipe which made a little more than a mason jar full of dressing. I ended up marinating chicken breast in the dressing over night so it soaked in all the delicious garlic, lemon, cucumber, dill flavors, then poured it onto a salad with olives, cucumber, red onion and, yeah, more lettuce.
The picture above was taken by someone else on the internet because I was too weak to remember to take a picture of the actual salad I made. Also it features feta cheese which sounds amazing but I'm not allowed to have for TWO MORE DAYS but you can and I bet it's delicious.
stolen from eating-made-easy.com
Salad Greens Pesto
2 heads of lettuce or 4 cups of salad greens, packed
2 small cloves garlic
¼ cup raw almonds
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup olives
¼ cup lemon juice (the juice of one large lemon)
¼ cup vegetable broth
¼ cup olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste
Grind the garlic and almonds in a food processor until finely chopped.
Scrape down, then add the greens, cheese, olive tapenade and lemon juice and blend until a paste forms.
Add the remaining liquid, keeping in mind that you may need more or less liquid depending on the consistency you're looking for.
Taste, then season with salt & pepper accordingly.
Serve on sandwiches, wraps, pizza, bagels, or mix with salad, roasted vegetables or pasta; or pour into an ice cube tray, freeze and save for later
stolen from mycaliforniakitchen.com
Easy Homemade Tzatziki
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
1 tsp kosher salt for cucumber, plus additional, to taste
7 oz Greek yogurt
1/2 clove garlic
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried dill
Freshly ground black pepper
Let cucumber sit in colander with a teaspoon of salt for at least 10 minutes. After 10 minutes has passed, wring cucumber dry in a cheesecloth or kitchen towel.
Place cucumber and all other ingredients in food processor and pulse until well-blended and no large cucumber chunks remain. Add additional salt, to taste.
stolen and heavily adapted from eatingwell.com
Greek chicken salad
6 cups chopped romaine lettuce
2 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken,
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
1/2 cup sliced ripe black olives
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
Marinate chicken in tzatziki dressing (enough to cover) for at least one hour.
Add lettuce, chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, olives and feta; toss to coat.
Don't worry, guys! I've been cooking this whole time, I just haven't been writing, so I'm doing some catch up now. In fact, the next few blog posts will be recipes in which I used items from the CSA (community supported agriculture) program we signed up for this summer. So, everyone celebrate!
This vintage Strawberry Shortcake party invitation isn't completely random. (And be thankful. I was going to awkwardly photoshop Jonathan Taylor Thomas's face on the cat, but I decided against it because it was terrifying me.) One of the first things we got in our CSA basket (well...CSA large plastic bag) was rhubarb! OH! The amazing things we could do with rhubarb! Pickle it! Make a pie from scratch! Make a sauce to put upon a beautiful lamb chop. Or. Wait a month for it to turn into the best vodka ever. YEAH. LET'S DO THAT.
Recipe #17: Rhubarb Vodka
Choice of libation: Ironically, not rhubarb vodka, as it hadn't been created in our kitchen yet. So just normal vodka. With some tonic. (We had to make sure the quality of the vodka we were using was up to par...)
Choice of music: Lupe Fiasco's album Tetsuo and Youth. At the time we were making this, the movie trailer for Creed was starting to circulate and the song "Prisoner 1 & 2" would not stop looping in my head, so I decided to listen to the whole thing. Really, Recommend. The entire album. It pulsates and drives in a really cool way and there's an amazing musicality to it. Here is the song that made me listen. Also. Michael B Jordan. So.
(The song starts at about 0:51 but go ahead and watch the whole thing because
THIS MOVIE IS GONNA BE AMAZING!)
Chopping up the rhubarb is the second hardest part to this recipe.
The hardest part is actually waiting an entire month to drink it.
WELL WORTH IT. BELIEVE ME. Summer in a glass. Tart and sweet.
stolen from www.thekitchn.com
1 1.75-liter bottle of vodka
4-5 sticks of red rhubarb (not green)
1/3-1/2 cup sugar
A large jar with lid
Cut the rhubarb into 1/2" to 1" chunks.
Add everything to the jar and mix well, either by shaking the jar (if it's drip-proof) or stirring with a long-handled spoon.
Store in a cool, dark place. Shake or stir the jar daily. (I danced with it sometimes (actually true).)
The vodka will be ready in a month. Strain out the rhubarb and give it a taste test.
I don't care that I just did a muffin recipe. We had bananas that were turning a shade that started to make me nervous and I didn't have the heart to throw them away. Also, I wanted the excuse to have chocolate for breakfast.
ALSO IT'S MY BIRTHDAY SO I DON'T CARE.
Recipe #16: Banana Bread Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins
Choice of libation: Coffee. With cream. And by "cream" I mean Bailey's.
Choice of music: Rhiannon Giddens is a current obsession of mine. She is the lead singer of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and she just dropped a solo album, "Tomorrow is My Turn." It is blues, gospel, folk and all heart. I can't stop listening. Here's my favorite track from it...
She's so good in concert. Get your tickets ASAP if she tours through...
Oh, you know. Just some calcium (butter) and protein (eggs). Super healthy.
(also an entire cup of granulated sugar)
But see? There's bananas, too!
And dark chocolate with all those antioxidants! Everybody:
"IT'S PRACTICALLY A SALAD!"
I couldn't find my loaf pan. So.
And of course I had to wait while these baked in the oven. I should mention not to make these on an empty stomach. Otherwise you will do what I did and pass the time by snacking on the rest of the chocolate chips in the bag.
You tell 'em, Ethel.
But after 35 excruciating minutes, this gooey deliciousness happened. So so easy and highly highly highly recommended. I promise you, you won't want anything else for breakfast. Except probably a nap after. I can't think of any better way to celebrate turning 25. Or whatever.
stolen from glitterinc.com
1 cup granulated sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
3 – 4 ripe bananas
1 tablespoon milk (any fat content)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ – 1 teaspoon salt (I stick with a ½.)
½ – 1 cup milk chocolate chips (depending on how chocolatey you want your bread)
1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter (or spray with baking spray) a 9 x 5 or 10 x 5 inch loaf pan (or a muffin tin!).
2. Cream the sugar and butter together in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4. Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears. Then toss in your chocolate chips and mix one more time.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour (32 minutes, if you used a muffin tin), until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (add ten minutes if the center still seems a bit raw). Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, flip over onto rack and cool completely before slicing.
Nope. Just vodka.
