the best lunches

The best lunches are spent with people you like!

Alone meals < With Friend Meals

Now that Steve and I are both on student schedules, lunches are the best mealtimes for us to meet up Tuesday-Thursday.

Arriving at his place is fun and unpredictable. Sometimes he has an adorable appetizer waiting for me.

 

These were absolutely delightful stacks of sliced banana, peanut butter, a shredded wheat piece, honey, yogurt, and a blueberry on top.

 

As for the main course, it typically involves rice, beans, and veggies cooked in some manner. And by usually I mean always. This particular day, those items went into tuna tacos. Odd but good. Particularly good with Cholula atop, and kale chips on the side.

The best pictures in Steve’s apartment are taken next to the glass door… but it means you get really intense carpet texture in your shots. Nonetheless, the food looks good.

 

And Steve’s latest obsession is oven-baked sweet potato fries (yum) with a condiment of mayonnaise mixed with sesame-oil-enriched Korean hot sauce. YUM YUM YUM!

True story: I may claim to love to cook but I think I actually hate it, because I am always soooooooooo grateful when Steve makes meals for me. And they are always soooooooooo delicious. And his kitchen is walled off from the rest of the apartment and I only wander in and out while he cooks which meaaaaaans… I don’t have to know how much butter he uses.

Friday I met up with my best friend Lydia for lunch. It was a fun if slightly woeful lunch, since Lydia’s skippin’ town to go up to the frigid North. Her boyfriend, and a buncha great opportunities are up there… but I will miiiiiiiiss herrrrrrr!

Anyway, we went to Sweetgreen, where they make you salads the size of babies. It was a beautifully sunny, if depressingly cold, day.

Let’s see if I can remember everything this contained:
- base of kale and baby spinach
- roasted broccoli
- roasted teeny cubes of sweet potato
- cherry tomatoes
- almonds
- baked falafel, which was kee-razy good. If any of you are fortunate enough to have tried the chickpea two ways at Cava, it tasted like that. Crispy outside, heavenly light and olive-oily innards.
- carrot-chile dressing

 

Came with their outrageously delicious whole grain bread. PERFECT bread (in my opinion): dense chewy crust, puffy bubbly slightly tanger center.

Hosted a farewell dinner for Lydia on Saturday. Didn’t feel like documenting with fun pictures (see “will misssssssssss herrrrrrrrrr”, above) but the meal was EXCELLENT.

- Steve’s pico de gallo
- homemade plantain chips (just so-so, didn’t use enough oil)
- kick-ass enchiladas: cooked up soy chorizo (Lydia’s a vegetarian… and it’s DELICIOUS) with some veggies (a little onion, lotsa mushrooms, green pepper) and browned everything all up. Then added diced sweet potatoes (!) and water and cooked down til tender. Meanwhile made this incredibly easy homemade enchilada sauce. For some reason I have always been intimidated by making enchilada sauce and was thisclose to buying a bottle at Trader Joe’s til I read the ingredient list, scoffed at the various sugar derivations and nasty oils and artificial whatsit, and decided to make it myself. REALLY easy, REALLY good. Anyway, so into my pan went whole wheat tortillas (too big, oops!) wrapped around that great filling with that great sauce and a whole buncha cheese on top (Steve was in charge of shredding!) Spectacularly delicious, actually
- Mark Bittman’s fruit crumble. Apples as the filling (used a mix of sweet, tart, and sweet-tart, per some authoritative article about baking with apples I read a million years ago). Used the citrus-herb variation of the topping, which involves large amounts of citrus zest, ground coriander and black pepper (!) along with a stick of butter. How could it not be glorious?

suffering cookies

Every year we hold a post-Christmas party for family, church friends, work friends, significant others, neighbors, random strangers… lots of people. This year that party proved Murphy’s Law.

Let’s start with these cookies, which have been dubbed “Heartache cookies”, “$60 Cookies”, and “Suffering cookies” at different intervals.

They are a great big pain in the ass!

It started with the Washington Post cookie special in the Food section. They do it every year. This year ALL the recipes looked like a pain in the ass. Weird ingredients, complicated methodologies, general sense of fussiness. However, my mom thought the Oaxacan Chocolate Cookies, from Jaleo, Jose Andres’ original restaurant in D.C., sounded sufficiently interesting that they were worth the fuss.

Well, let’s recount what happened:

- The recipe called for 2 teaspoons of mezcal. Mezcal, for those of you who do not know (as I did not until relatively recently), mezcal might be considered the Scotch of tequila. It’s agave liquor, aged. Wonderfully smoky and delicious. But we only needed 2 teaspoons. And the smallest amount the liquor store carried was a fifth. For $28.

- Then we needed 10 1/2 ounces of very high cacao percentage dark chocolate. My sister was kind enough to donate two chocolate bars she got for Christmas to the cause. We needed one more and opted to get Mexican chocolate, as the recipe called for. A bar of Taza chocolate (which is delicious, and direct trade, admittedly) was $9, without tax. Absurdly expensive ingredient #2. And let’s not forget the massive amount of butter going into this, too.

- The methodology was bizarre, and instructed the cookie maker (my mom, at this phase in the process) to quit using a mixer and fold, by hand, an enormous amount of flour into wet ingredients that were not all that wet and did not particularly care for that process. It took forever, and resulted in dough with the consistency of gravel.

- Then that gravel was supposed to be formed into logs. Yeah. Right. When my mom finally succeeded (seemingly) in forming one log, she wrapped it in wax paper and went to, per the recipe’s instructions, chill it in the fridge. When the log promptly collapsed, causing a very very large amount of dough to scatter all over the kitchen floor. Awe. some.

- Lest you think the suffering was complete, after the lengthy chilling time we then had to follow absurd instructions that involved baking for seven minutes, rotating sheets, baking another seven minutes, brushing the cookies with egg and salt (which I made the executive decision to change to sugar, spiked with salt to make flavors pop, because the cookies were barely sweet at all)

The cookies were good, but NOT WORTH THE SUFFERING.

   

Along with suffering cookies, however, I completed a fun and emotionally satisfying baking project: vasilopita. Also known as Saint Basil’s bread, it’s a Greek tradition: every New Years Day (which is the Saint’s Day of Saint Basil a major saint in the Greek Orthodox church) this bread is made. Inside is hidden a coin. Whoever gets the slice with that coin supposedly has good luck for a year.

This was a recipe from Flavors of Greece, truly the only Greek cookbook you will ever need. It has the perfect, Platonic (get it? get it?!) recipes for all of the Greek standards, as well as some creative unexpected recipes. This vasilopita was quiiiiiite decadent, with lotsa butter, honey, sugar, etc. But what gives it its signature va-va-va-voom is a flavorful combination of anise and orange. SO good.

Furthermore, we very sadly lost my dear great aunt Rose, very unexpectedly, a few weeks before I made this. She made delicious traditional Greek specialties, and her vasilopita was always gorgeous and tasty.

So this was also a bit of a tribute to her.

Also, it was ENORMOUS.

 

Also on the list of things made by me was gluten-free shortbread. Our choir director’s wife Betty, who sings soprano with me, has Celiac disease.. and her husband just got diagnosed too! Guys, is it contagious?! If so, I NEED TO STAY AWAY FROM THEM.

But at least I know how to make good gluten-free shortbread. This recipe, using all-purpose gf flour and rice flour, pleased everyone, including those of us who can (thank God) process gluten.

 

I wasn’t around these parts for Thanksgiving this year, but according to multiple sources, the White House recipe for thyme-roasted turkey, which my aunt Jeanie made for that holiday, was “the best turkey ever”.

So my sister nominated it for our party.

Hint: butter.

 

(Go Redskins! Or Seahawks?! Both Washingtons are in a certain sense my home! Eek!)

My sister also made bacon-wrapped dates. SO good.

 

And deviled eggs with caviar on top, which people ate in like thirty seconds.

ANOTHER Murphy’s law story: we had a container of caviar in the kitchen, which my mom said she had bought for deviled eggs in the past. But the not-too-distant past. But there was no expiration date.

So, we called the company, gave them the serial number on the jar, and they said the caviar didn’t expire until March 2013. Awesome. Oh, but… “We see there are some black spots in the caviar. Is that anything to worry about?” “… We’ll call you back.”

Well, fortunately they did, because it turns out that the kind of caviar we’d bought had been discontinued in 2011. Furthermore, the serial numbers apparently repeat (?!) in canned goods and as a result the jar could’ve been from 2003 or 2006. SO IT’S GOOD WE CHECKED HUH?

Let the record state, my family doesn’t buy caviar regularly. (Clearly!)

Also present at the party were dips: lotsa dips.

Our “secret family recipe” for artichoke dip (artichoke hearts from a can, mayo, garlic, and cheese), made by my mom. A white bean dip I made.

 

From the Greek store, labneh (white) and taramosalata (pink).

My favorite project, a new recipe. The Washington Post food section (attempting to redeem themselves in my eyes for those cookies? I’m sure) did a special section on vegetable pates. The carrot ginger pate caught my eye, as I anticipated great flavor and beautiful color. It delivered on both fronts. Make it! It’s a keeper!

The bacon wrapped dates and, in the other category of stuff-wrapped-in-meat, cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto.

More Murphy’s Law: my mom brought fruit salad to Christmas Eve. We went to H-Mart a few days prior, which can usually be counted on to have beautiful produce that’s exceedingly ripe. We got mangos, pineapple, and cantaloupe. And… Christmas Eve, none of it was ripe. The other stuff got used, but I figured out-of-season melon would be best served with something else.

It was good with the prosciutto. My grandma made that, back in the day.

Took ANOTHER trip to the delightful Red, White, and Bleu, my new favorite cheese shop, because my mother had bought the Groupon too!

This was a delicious selection that disappeared almost immediately.

Unpictured are the finished meats, but in addition to the turkey (which was good but not earth-shattering, in my opinion) we also had a ham. People went NUTS for the ham, which is funny since I spent a total of 20 seconds making the glaze for it (you’ll see why below)- dumped mustard, brown sugar, and cider vinegar in a bowl, tasted it, went “yeah okay”.

For making little sandwiches, we bought an assortment of rolls. They all looked similar, so you were playing “roll-ette” (HAHAHA!)

Anyway, here’s a photo conveying the general scene.

 

The reason there are fewer pictures, and perhaps they’re a bit blurred, was the state of UTTER CHAOS in our house prior to the party.

I have two words for you: plumbing emergency.

I’m not shedding details, but suffice it to say that while it wasn’t fun running out for a last minute emergency errand to buy scented candles, praying the plumber would be there by the time I returned, it was really nice getting out of a very stressful house.

Anyway. It all worked out. The cookies were good.

 

festivities!

There has been so much fun and joy and Christmas awesomeness in my past few weeks!

It began with gingerbread.

Someone in Superman pajamas making gingerbread.

 

We went to see Steve’s cousin Mickie  (Mickey? I can’t spell anyone’s name in this family, I’ve realized, as I’ve started writing this) and her kids Alison (Allison?) and Connor (Conor?). Baby Emily, the only one with a simply spelled name, is not pictured :)

The kids are SO MUCH FUN. Alison is 6 and Connor is… 3? 4? Not only are they adorable and well behaved, their family spent the past few years in England so they have ACCENTS!

Anyway, Mickie has been very very hospitable to Steve and I since she moved here, so I wanted to reciprocate. So I brought a big box of gingerbread men and frosting and red hots to beautify them. The kiddos jumped in!

I adore both of them- Alison is pretty much exactly like I was as a child- very into dressing up and performing. And she’s so smart! Alison is older and has her fine motor skills down a little more. Conor is young and excitable and yells everything. I think their personalities are represented nicely in their respective cookies.

Ended up with several beautiful plates. Each kiddo got one, and then the grownups ate the rest!

    

Steve and I decided to get a real Christmas tree for his apartment this year. He’d had an artificial tree in previous years (that as I recall he found in the hallway… or anyway, acquired it in a freegan way), but during his move, he ended up leaving a lot- a LOT- of stuff behind in his old cockroach infested apartment. It was better that way. But slightly tricky in that he didn’t have a couch for awhile… or a table.

Anyway, real trees were a good deal and smelled awesome and the profits from them were going to charity, so it was great.

AND because that tree sale was in Steve’s old neighborhood, we went to one of our favorite old haunts- Cafe Sazon! How I miss you, Cafe Sazon.

Got our old favorites- a cheese empanada for Steve (or Esteban, given the primary language spoken at Cafe Sazon) and an api morado, the most wonderful sweet, fruity, filling, festive purple corn drink for me.

 

They always go all out for the holidays (Halloween is hilarious) and assembled a gigantic animatronic village in their front window display. Complete with an animatronic village Ferris wheel. Loved it loved it!

 

The tree was beautiful and shapely. In lieu of having a dedicated tree skirt, we put it on Steve’s Sweden blanket.

 

We picked up a coupla ornaments at Goodwill- I opted for this angel/alien/moth…

… but I then had a LOT of fun making ornaments!

  

My favorites were these guys- made from toilet paper rolls!

The two projects we used were on Pinterest, which I just joined and I feel ambivalent about. One because it’s so cliche being a girl on Pinterest. Two because the second I joined the spam coming to my inbox multiplied EXPONENTIALLY. However, you may follow me if you like, at leleinthesky.

More holiday festivities. This past Saturday night found us at our friend Erica’s house. She and her husband Chris hosted a Christmas Vacation themed party. I wish I could’ve come up with some costume (why, why do I not own a blue leisure suit to play Uncle Eddie?!) but it was fun even without.

Best of all, Erica and Chris live in a REALLY fancy building, so we took a few minutes sitting by the fireplace in the lobby on our way out :)

And we had gotten all of the leftover cherry tomatoes from the party (!) because Erica and Chris both don’t like tomatoes (?!).

So Rudolph poses it was.

And so we reach Tuesday night, when Steve and I co-hosted a Chrismukkah party!

Surprise surprise, pretzels happened (actually, there was a special request from my girl Maya, the girl who doesn’t update her blog anymore so I won’t link!).

There is a charming difference between girl pretzels (rolled by myself/my mother/my sister) and boy pretzels (lovingly assembled by Steve with just a brief tutorial as I ran back and forth doing a billion other things).

The pepper-Parmesan variation, which I think is the MOST delicious! Told you I’d get a picture in daylight.

 

Public service announcement this holiday season: KNIFE SAFETY. GUYS. Whilst making one of my slightly older batches of pretzels into pretzel chips for dippers, my knife took a detour through the pretzel into my thumb. My nail bore the brunt of it but it still entailed applying pressure and holding my hand over my head for probably fifteen minutes, bleeding all over Steve’s apartment, frantically hunting the manly apartment and not finding any bandaids, putting together a Hail Mary bandage out of a paper towel with my apron string tied around it.

And then I had to get a nice holiday tetanus shot, so in addition to a sore thumb, I now have a sore arm.

Steve was super great and cleaned the ENTIRE APARTMENT. You know, I trashed it cooking, sprinkled it with my own blood, and then conveniently left for an hour and a half to go to the doctor (and, uh, buy Bandaids). Steve, you are really really great.

Steve’s other major project was cookin’ up a batch of GLUGG! Otherwise known as mulled wine.

Wine goes into a big pot with orange peel, cinnamon sticks, raisins, and almonds.

But the highlight, of course, is the sugar-brandy flambé that goes atop. Lotsa sugar! Lotsa brandy!

Pyro boy enjoyed watching the flames grow larger and larger.

So I had a little epiphany pre-party that was like, “I try to be a healthy eater most of the time and then any consideration of the nutrients or lack thereof in my food completely disappears when I have a party. Why do that?! I know healthy food can also be delicious. I am going to try to cultivate some balance at this party.”

And I think it was overall a smashing success.

I decided that I wanted a red and green color scheme for Christmas.

So there were red and green dips- my all time love muhammara and hummus given extra pep and deliciousness with roasted garlic and fresh basil.

There was a red and green apple pear salsa with cinnamon chips (regretfully a bit of a yawn).

And there were adorable red and green cheesy zucchini bites, selected based on the adorability of the recipe.

Cut zucchini into little hollowed out vessels, like so.

 

Fill with bleu cheese.

  

Annnnnnd just because cheese is a good idea during the holiday season- or always- add a little more, in the form of Parmesan livened up with herbs and pepper.

 

RED TOMATO HATS! Steve and I said that at the same time whilst making these.

  

And, you guessed it, a little more cheese for good luck. Missed the picture of the final product, as I was running around and ordered Steve to keep them from burning (no easy task given his oven). They were cute. More cute than delicious, but this time of year it’s fun to make cute stuff.

Now for the –ukkah portion of the Chrismukkah theme: LATKES!

I had been craving latkes when we first planned the party, which is partly how we opted for the theme. However, as the party grew closer I realized I’d never made latkes before and it all sounded a bit INVOLVED.

Fortunately, as I drove my sister home from the airport, she went, “… Yeah, I’m invited to Hannukah tonight at Jamie’s…” and we promptly rerouted the car and I went with her.

Hannukah was great fun and it also involved a LATKE TUTORIAL. These latkes are from an actual Jew, unlike me :) They are also very delicious and idiot proof.

The recipe:

1 large Russet potato (or 2 small)
1 small onion (or 1/2 a medium, 1/4 a large)
1 egg
Enough flour to give it an applesauce consistency

Blend ingredients in a food processor or blender. Fry in oil.

That’s IT. And it’s SO GOOD!

  

I spent a lot of the night running around (Steve’s apartment is nice but it’s basically humanly impossible to find his building, so I tend to just walk people in), and I was also gabbing with people I don’t get to see very much (my cousin and her boyfriend, my friend from chemistry class, a high school friend I hadn’t seen in a few years!), so there are few pictures.

But this one conveys the general splendor. Red and green, eh?!

 

In the dessert department (rear right), there were peanut butter kisses, a pumpkin pie my friend Lorraine was kind enough to bring, and rutabega carrot bread (which I need to post about- it’s a revelation!).

The funny thing, however, is that my main dessert project did not get served. This is funny for a number of reasons.

First, the party initially was also going to be hosted by Steve’s roommate Dan. I asked Dan his favorite kind of pie, and he said pumpkin. Then Dan bailed on the party (work commitment? Social anxiety? Who knows) and the pie was still on the menu. That’s okay.

Then I put together this beeyootiful crust for the pie. A personal recipe I made by compiling ideas from some of my favorite blogs- ground up pecans, oats, butter, sugar… everything nice!

 

Well, I put it in the oven and there was a RING OF FIRE around the edge. Ash. I screamed and cursed and kicked Steve’s oven (sorry, Steve).

Fine. I made more crust (by which I mean, threw random amounts of pecans, oats, butter, and sugar into the food processor and hoped for the best) and did a patch job around the outside.

The filling looked fabulous (I added coconut milk for fun and excitement purposes). There was WAY too much, but that was okay as I put the excess into mugs and made microwave pumpkin pudding pie for Steve and I as a midafternoon snack to keep up cooking energy.

I baked it. The crust burnt again, despite being tented.

And then IT DIDN’T EVEN GET SERVED. Oh, irony. The things I stress about.

Anyway, it’s beautiful… and it’s in my fridge.

 

The pie is lovely- though a little schizophrenic. The crust is this granola-y crumbly cookie-y thing and the filling tastes like a sweet version of Thai curry. An odd couple. Though we haven’t exactly been having to choke it down- both elements are yummy yummy.

Being an entire pie, a posting was in order.