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!!!