{7 quick takes} vol. 42 Food

Jumping back into the game after a looooooong hiatus with the quickest of quick takes. About food. Because I'm hungry. Although blogging about food on a Friday in Lent doesn't seem quite right... increased penance, maybe?

And although I've been thinking about this post for a while and planning it out in my head (i.e., fantasizing about food), I've been spending all my spare computer moments launching my new project (if you're interested, you can read about it here and visit it here). So I wasn't totally on my game to make sure I had pictures of each recipe, which I'm sure violates some major blogging law.

As you can see, I'm more than a little bit obsessed with Smitten Kitchen right now. I make no apologies.

So here are seven of my current favorites in the kitchen:

--- 1 ---

Okonomiyaki

Japanese cabbage & vegetable pancakes--delightful as a side dish, but absolute perfection for breakfast with a fried egg on top.

--- 2 ---

Roasted broccoli

I can't even put into words how much I love broccoli roasted in the oven. Toss with a little olive oil, spread it out on a baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and pepper (or whatever you would like), and throw it in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 450 (make sure it gets crispy--that's the key).

--- 3 ---

Tequila-lime slaw with cilantro

Loosely based off this recipe here. I don't really measure, so it turns out a little different each time. The fresh cilantro is worth the work, and if you don't have tequila then a splash of vinegar works just as well. If you use both red and green cabbage and add some carrot (I use a vegetable peeler to get long strips) then it is quite visually stunning as well as delicious. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture the last time I made it!

--- 4 ---

Spaghetti pie 

Plain spaghetti noodles with nothing but parmesan cheese has always been one of my favorite things. This made me feel very grown up and accomplished, while still basically enjoying one of my favorite comfort foods. I used spinach (chopped, fresh) instead of broccoli rabe because I don't think I've ever even seen it at the store. It was everything I dreamed it would be (especially with broccoli on the side).

--- 5 ---

Peanut-lime chicken with noodles

I spent a three week "study abroad" (hey! let's get three credit hours for being tourists!) in Vietnam my senior year of college. It was incredible. So was the food. Oh my goodness the food. This reminds me a bit of that trip. Don't skip on the mint.

--- 6 ---

Naan

Bread is one of my love languages. This one is simple and satisfying. We use it for wraps (usually with barbeque) and then put honey on it for dessert. And then peanut butter on it in the morning for breakfast. I always make a double batch for us because if there are no leftovers I'll probably cry. But I just cook it on a hot griddle--I haven't tried the open flame technique.

--- 7 ---

Farro with tomato and basil

I had never even heard of farro (it's a variety of wheat) until I stumbled across this recipe on--you guessed it--Smitten Kitchen. I made it for the first time last summer when I actually had basil that I had grown in my own garden to put on top (all of you with chickens and ginormous gardens and stuff can just be quiet and let me bask in my tiny little agricultural accomplishments, mmkay?). I promptly fell in love. It wasn't quite enough for a main course for us, but we love it as a hearty side dish. I saute the onions first, because I had a bad experience once with some other recipe where everything was supposed to cook together and the onions came out super crunchy. And I'm very sparing with the crushed red pepper flakes because I'm a wimp. But I make up for it with extra basil and parmesan.

So there you go, seven quick current favorites. And now I'm hungrier than when I started. Dang it.

Linking up with Kelly for Seven Quick Takes!

A Boy and His Tiger

Our handsome Michael Alexander turned the big 0-4 last month.

How convenient--I found a box full of my childhood books on his birthday. He spent at least 45 minutes going through the entire pile. Happy birthday, my little bookworm!

His birthday requests were ice cream, ice cream cake, and corn on the cob. We convinced him to add hamburgers to the menu and spread out the ice cream treats over multiple nights.

A family trip to Coldstone the day after his birthday

My parents visited us for a week in late January, so we postponed Michael's birthday party a week so they could be there for it. I've never felt like entertaining was really my thing, but the party was a huge success, if I do say so myself.

The cousins went on a short treasure hunt. The prize? Glow sticks!

I had so much fun making Michael's ice cream cakes. I used this recipe as a starting point and improvised from there (with my go-to chocolate wafer cookies, of course).

If any treasure is better than glow sticks, it's ice cream cake!

Michael agreed!

For the kiddos: chocolate and vanilla ice cream, with chocolate wafer crumb crust, a crushed Kit Kat layer in the middle, and whipped cream. The Kit Kats were a delicious choice, but ruined any chance of picture-perfect slicing. I don't think the kids minded.

For the grown-ups: chocolate and coffee ice cream, with chocolate wafer crumb layers, whipped cream, and chocolate drizzle.

For the record, we did not actually need two cakes, even with 17 people (I have a deathly fear of running out of dessert at birthday parties... no idea why). But we thoroughly enjoyed the leftovers!

We are thoroughly enjoying our big boy. Michael loves reading as much as ever, and I have high hopes of him reading to the rest of us in the very near future. He's very interested in spelling--he is constantly stringing together letters and asking what they spell. Unfortunately his spelling words rarely contain vowels... "What does x-f-l spell? How about t-s-d-r-l-m?" And whenever Alex and I spell out words to avoid a riot, Michael always tries to join in: Alex: "I think the boys could have an s-h-o-w after dinner, what do you think? M: "How about a h-o-a-w?"

Calvin and Hobbes is still one of his favorite things, which prompted Cici to get him a stuffed tiger for Christmas. Michael promptly christened his new friend Hobbes, of course, and he takes him everywhere around the house.

I'm not always sure Hobbes is such a good influence on Michael...

We love you our handsome, clever, hilarious Michael Alexander. I think 4 is going to be a great year :)

Mystery Ingredient Monday on a Thursday with a Theme... aka Deliciousness

Okay... are you ready for this?

So today's Theme Thursday is askew.  And I was wondering... how do I take a picture of my entire life right now?  'Cause I kind of feel like it's all askew.  But figuring out a single picture which would cleverly portray the ways in which I feel my like is a bit askew was taking too much time and effort, due in large part to aforementioned askewedness.  Askewity?  Whatevs.

So, I chucked that idea.  Moving along to dinner preparations, Alex and I made calzones, and Alex asked his dad for his super secret super amazing pizza sauce recipe.  Okay, so it's not necessarily super secret, but it's the type of recipe that never gets written down with any measurements or proportions, so that essentially amounts to secret in my book.

And guess what?  The pizza sauce has mustard in it.  (We're coming back to "askew," I promise).  Now, I didn't make any attempt at this week's Mystery Ingredient Monday mustard challenge because I don't like mustard.  And, askewity.  So when I saw that the pizza sauce had mustard in it I was soooo excited.  Yes, I know it's not Monday.  But the link-up is still open, and as far as I'm concerned that is essentially an invitation for late submissions.

So, I present to you mustard, askew, and deliciousness, all in one evening.

Look how he's holding the mustard bottle all askew--I didn't even tell him to do that!

Mmm...mustard (not).  So, the ingredients for the amazing pizza sauce (posted with permission, I promise) are:

• 1 large can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 medium can of Italian stewed tomatoes
• 1 small can of Italian tomato paste
• basil
• oregano
• Italian seasoning
• Worcestershire sauce
• yellow mustard
• fennel seed
• chopped garlic
• onion flakes

You'll have to figure out proportions on your own, I'm afraid.  I was in the garden picking basil while Alex got his instructions.  Sorry!  All I know is if you skimp on the oregano it will be too sweet.  And don't be stingy with the Worcestershire sauce either.

Also askew: Crane men and their sipping of Worcestershire sauce.  He is seriously taking a swig, not just posing.  A skewed taste if ever I've seen one.  Gross.

The end product (with sauce ever so precariously askew):  calzone recipe from last year's birthday present of The Best-Ever Good of Bread , with personalized fillings (mine had pepperoni, Italian sausage, green and red peppers, onion, mushrooms, Italian cheese blend, and fresh basil, topped with a rosemary garlic spice mix... are you hungry yet?).  I was so proud of myself--the calzone recipe was in the bread machine section of my book, and it turned out great made by hand.  The conversion wasn't actually all that much of an accomplishment--you just need to come up with the order of ingredients and steps yourself, which is pretty standard across bread recipes.  I was thrilled with how it turned out.  The crust was very light and slightly crisp and had a delicious olive oil taste.  The pizza sauce was the perfect accompaniment (not gonna lie--I can't taste the mustard which is probably why I like it).

So there you have it, folks: link-up-mash-up-deliciousness.  Check out the other (timelier) uses of mustard at Jessica's and the rest of the Theme Thursday gang at Cari's!

Mystery Ingredient Monday--Mint

Yes, it is Tuesday.  Be nice.

Alex and I are kind of Iron Chef and Chopped junkies, so you can imagine how excited I was when I learned about the Mystery Ingredient Monday link-up being hosted by A Clan's Tale, Housewifespice, and The Bazin Chronicles.

This week's mystery ingredient was mint.  I love mint.  I was tempted to head to the store to buy some mint chocolate chip ice cream (and maybe even splurge on Haagen-Dazs because it was my birthday week) and call it good, but I figured I should probably do something that required more than popping off a lid and grabbing a spoon.  My next thought was mojitos, because if anything is better than mint + chocolate it is mint + rum.  But I was feeling like a bit of an over achiever and decided I needed to step out of my comfort zone and find a savory mint dish (and I'm so glad I did, because Tasha's mojitos look way better than mine would have been).

Snow and stir-fry

This is what it looked like outside today:

(Yes, those sad little green things at the bottom are Thursday's tulips.)

And this is how I feel about it*:

Die, winter, die

*Even after I remind myself to be grateful for the moisture, regardless of the state in which it arrives, and to be grateful I don't live in North Dakota.

On a yummier note, I was feeling kind of left out reading about the delicious meals in Dubuque and Lincoln, so I decided to jump in with tonight's dinner: my take on Pampered Chef's 30 minute Korean Beef Bowl:

The beef is sliced very thin and marinated in oil, vinegar, soy sauce, pepper,sliced green onions, and garlic powder, then stir-fried with broccoli, carrots, and bean sprouts.  Serve over chow mein noodles (or rice noodles, or soba noodles, or rice, or nothing) and enjoy!

Comfort food

Last night I made pot roast and baking powder biscuits for dinner. One of my favorite things in the whole world is cooking a beef roast in the crockpot and having that amazing smell fill up the house all day long.  And  baking powder biscuits were one of the first things I learned to make on my own - right up there with pancakes (from scratch, of course).  Last night's variety included cheese, garlic powder, and a dash of oregano - an improvement on the recipe since I learned it at 10.

Both of my boys were big fans of the meal.  The ultimate compliment was Alex eating it without any hot sauce - and those Crane boys love their hot sauce.  Michael sat patiently with us in his high chair at the table while we enjoyed a leisurely dinner - and he expressed his enthusiasm for the menu by scarfing down bits of everything - carrots, potatoes, meat and biscuits.  He hasn't quite mastered the pincer-grasp yet - and the small pieces were very hard to pick up - but if you hold a piece of food in front of his face he'll open his mouth wide like a little bird, and when that fails he'll reach out and pull your hand to his mouth until he gets the food.  It's quite adorable.

We love our comfort food.

Food!

After several days of Michael putting absolutely everything into his mouth, drooling up a storm, thinking a raw carrot stick is the best toy available, and desperately wanting to hold and chew on whatever we happen to be holding, we started introducing solids.  Michael LOVES food!  After almost two months of sampling solids his favorites appear to be butternut squash, bananas, and steak (not necessarily in that order).

Michael gets his first taste of "solid" food -
bananas mashed up and thinned out with breast milk

avocado aftermath

carrot face

one of our favorite baby-gadgets: the amazing mesh teether,
currently featuring a frozen puree of apricots and prunes

our first taste of meat: a bit chunk of steak to chew on
- it was a HUGE hit

we LOVE butternut squash!