Paul Snow

My dad recently made a comment about how from reading my blog, he thought all I did was cook and work. It's actually true, but more working, less cooking. So, I told him I'd post pictures of other fun things.

For instance, David and I recently made this snow man together. Correction: David was nice enough to make this snow man with me...Correction: I guilt-tripped David into making a snowman with me and he couldn't say no because I kept asking. In any case, as a thank-you for making Beouf Bourgignon, he agreed to pretend like we were 7 years old, and to make a snowman in the yard. It turned out to be more fun that we could imagine. The snowman turned out pretty cute, too.

Kids AND adults passing by all made a comment about how gigantic our snowman was.

What a face! The nose was a carrot that was supposed to go into our stew later that night. As I was chopping carrots, David came back from outside and informed me that the snow was perfect for snowman-buildling, at which point, I dropped everything, grabbed the carrot and ran outside.

Thus, our stew had one less carrot.

Coq Au Vin

I've made other things in the meantime, but I think the fact that I had extra mushrooms, another bag of pearl onions and some leftover wine pushed me over the edge to making another "something something in wine broth". The chicken was also on sale, but you can't blame me, because sometimes one just craves the aromatic mushrooms and onions all mixed together.

The meat I would say is just an accessory, but it was still pretty amazing and oh-so-moist!

The Beouf Bourgignon

I found myself with an empty kitchen, so I went to town! When it was just me and the kitchen, I decided it was finally time to attempt THE beouf bourgignon: a signature dish of French cuisine and synonymous with Julia Child (although only really to Americans). For example:

Me: “I finally made beouf bourgignon!”

Friend: *shock* “NO!!! Really? THE beouf Bourgignon?”

Me: “Yes!”

Friend: “Wow! Did you use Julia child’s recipe?”

See? I'm telling you it's almost like a reflex.

Instead of these short cut recipes that I had found (including one for the crock pot, though I was tempted), I decided that if I were going to make Le Beouf Bourgignon, I would make it right, and Julia Child would be my ticket to gaining temporary entrance to the Cordon Bleu.

So, there on a Saturday, her words guided me through 5 hours in the kitchen.

I used all four burners, took out all the stops, and even bought FRESH parsley. WOAH! I know, fresh herbs!

Le beouf bourgignon is a beef stew slow boiled in wine and stock, and flavored with fragrant mushrooms and topped with slow-cooked pearl onions.

I just want to say that it was a good thing I was alone because it was like a battle in the kitchen and at one point, I took the liberty of drinking some of the wine…Simply. Because. I. Needed. It. I would say that browning each piece of square meat on all 6 sides was the worst. I suffered many oil burns, my uncovered clothes may never be clean again, and I cried a few times from the onions. Again, I was glad that I was alone.

While cooking, I found myself opening the oven and pots from time to time just to get a whiff of the amazing smells coming out of the dishes. The dish lived up to its reputation, made up for the pain, and even the leftovers were fragrant and amazing. Why do French dishes have to be this way?

The next time I do this, I would increase the number of onions AND mushrooms. Because mushrooms in any form are always amazing, and because the onions just melted in your mouth and eating one made me greedy enough to consider hiding all of them for myself!

We finished dinner with some slow cooked potatoes (because Julia Child told me so and because the oven was on anyway), and our dessert was French mousse au chocolat.

Earrings for a friend

Japanese Curry

with potatoes, celery, carrots & chicken on rice!

Feta and Potato Gratin

Lentil & Garbonzo Soup

The other day, I made two of my friends a huge pot of lentil soup from a bag of dried lentils! As we figured, the dried lentils had probably been in the house for as long as they had lived there. From the beginning, the lentils claimed their territory in a cupboard too high for my reach. So perched atop KitchenLand, they have lived through 3 winters/summers, multiple moth attacks, high humidity, bitter freezing cold, and not one but two mouse infestations. No need to worry though--contrary to what this may sound like, they do not live in poverty (but JUST barely above it thanks to the Harvard graduate student stipend! And apparently, we’re getting a raise soon! $$KA-CHING$$ that’s the sound of our banks). Instead, this is all part of the normal package of living in an older house in Cambridge, or Boston, or MA, or really the whole North East for that matter, until you get into cockroach region, ewww…but I digress.

So back to the story, the dried lentils were joined by some dried garbonzo beans (yes, they are just as old as the lentils), and they soaked overnight. This BIG pot joined some celery, carrots, onions, garlic, tomato paste, curry powder in and even BIGGER pot, and they were stewed together with the help of not one, but two bay leaves. I thought this would take 1hr. Apparently there were too many lentils and waiting for them to boil to the point where they almost dissolved in your mouth took actually 3hrs. However, it was the perfect way to welcome a friend back to -20C Boston after a delayed flight and a car-stuck-in-ice incident.

Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries so thinking I’d have more time, I decided to go to bed and take a picture the next day. By the next day, there was only a clean pot and no more soup to take a photo of. David thought it was funny that I was more upset at not having had the chance to take a photo of it than at not actually getting to try to soup itself, but alas, I knew there was still more dried lentils.

I was worried they would get some sort of lentil overdose but apparently that doesn’t exist. Since there is no photo document, I will see if I can convince them to reflect on their soup eating experiences possibly in the form of a haiku, journal entry, or interpretive dance entitled “How the Soup Changed Me”. Stay tuned.

CORRECTION: When I turned on my camera, I found that in it's last attempt to stay alive....it managed to take one blurry picture.

Apple Apricot Tart

After all the hard work and backaches of climbing trees to get the best apples, I turned those apples into the most amazing apple tart we have had to date. The tart has slices of apple on top of puff pastry with a delicious apricot/butter/brown sugar glaze that is melted onto the tart half way through the baking process. The soft apples complimented the crispy thin pastry and the tartness of the apples offset the sweet glaze just perfectly.

Immediately after these photos were taken, half of the tart went missing...but I have my suspects.

Fallen Apples and Baby Pumpkins

Back in the Fall, we went apple picking.

I was determined to get the best apples out there until I got sad about all these apples that had fallen to the ground, unloved and uneaten. Luckily, I was convinced that they were all probably bruised and rotting, and that it was not a good idea to pay so much for rotten apples.

To make matters worse, on the way out, I felt bad for this baby pumpkin too tiny to catch other people's eye. Weighing in at just 3.23lb, we decided to take it home.

He made for a beautiful addition, buck-toothed and all.

Sharing is Caring

I don't know if you realized this, but we take our chocolate sharing VERY SERIOUSLY!
"Taste-testing" is important, and when they're Fauchon Chocolates direct from Paris, we do what we have to do.

Stir Fry Udon

The amazing brisket left me with amazing brisket sauce! What a winner! I reduced the sauce and did a stir fry udon noodle dish with spinach, enoki mushrooms, and chicken. If I had it, I would have added some tofu but D already thought I had gone overboard at the Korean grocery store, so something had to go. To be fair, I didn’t go overboard as much as I was just taking advantage of the GREAT deals. *wink wink. The produce is just SO cheap at this store that the WHOLE MEAL (plus enough for leftovers for two) cost less than $6! (Udon:$2.99; Mushroom:$0.79; Spinach:$0.69; chicken:~$1.00; sauce:Priceless). Great way to keep up the New Year's Resolution!

Everything took roughly 15 minutes. The slow part was actually reducing the sauce itself! Can you even imagine what I could have done if I had corn starch around? I mean what would I ever do with such time…oh wait, I can think of a few things.

Listen to me my friend, go make a brisket and let the string of amazingness guide you to this stir fry. Tasting this will make you want to repeat this process all over again.

Crocket!

Things have been rough. Not the kind of rough that I should really complain about, but rough in terms of the critical work time to personal time ratio. With a schedule of 8am to 8:30pm (which means home by 9pm), our cooking has taken a beating. I never knew how much cooking calmed me down and how wonderfully relaxing it was to sit down to a warm dinner until the days started to get short and cold again. The problem is, no matter how much I planned, coming home so tired and so late doesn’t leave many options for dinner, let alone the complex dinners that I dream of.

Being that one of my New Year’s resolutions is to save more money, I decided that cooking and thus having leftovers instead of buying for lunch would have to be reintroduced into my life.

I had heard bits and pieces about the magical “crock pot”, both from those that look down on it as a source of evil fitting perfectly into the fast-paced lifestyle of lazy Americans to those that revere it by dedicating blogs and whole books to recipes that would bring out the best in the slow cooker. So while buying pillowcases that were actually more expensive than the pillows themselves (story for another time), I gave into temptation (oops) and bought myself a $30 crock-pot. It was love at first sight, or first slow cooking.

The first thing I made was a brisket that cooked overnight. I knew that brisket was one of the tougher meats to cook but would also be magical if cooked right, so I thought the challenge fitting for my new companion. I must admit I was SO excited I almost was worried I would wake up to check on the brisket.

In the morning, I trimmed the excess fat and let it rest in the fridge throughout the day. That night, it was indeed like magic had happened. The brisket was soft and flavorful and I had a nice meal that kept me warm in the midst of a snow-covered city. So, alas, now I have become a believer who also sings praises about the crock-pot on her blog.

Good thing: I’m glad that I was kindly reminded that 5lbs of meat might be too much so I switched down to 2.5lbs of brisket.

Bad thing: I’m out of brisket and wish I had more. To compensate, I do have a lot of brisket sauce that’s just waiting to be turned into something great.

Above the clouds

A Neuron Cake

The Neuron is GFP positive, just the way they should be

Sunset

Weeping Willow

Chinese Brush Painting

Korean Dinner

I got casually reminded by a few of my friends that my blog has been a little neglected lately. I realize it's true but also had an impression that no one really read it so there was less guilt associated with letting the outdated pictures pile up...So, needless to say, I thank you all for reading and for giving me the little nudge that I needed.

I realized that a lot of things had happened which I failed to update you guys on, so I will start slowly..

We recently (not so recent, actually) had the job of hosting a Korean/Chinese fusion dinner for a few very important guests. Since the small pickled side dishes are a staple in every Korean meal and the source of judgment at any Korean restaurant, I started the "fermenting, pickling, marinating process" weeks in advance. As with most of these dishes, the time adds to the flavor and so for weeks, there were random bottles and jars and even TUBS of veggies "pickling" away in the fridge.
What's great is that these recipes are also handed down by word of mouth instead of well written recipes. So I called my mom and over the phone we came up with quite a few combinations and the best part was getting to "sample" them along the way.

Our spread was topped off with traditional Korean BBQ pork, Chinese dumplings, and scallions pancakes. Luckily, it was hit! Phew!!!