Easter Dinner

A friend of mine and I decided that we wanted to try cooking Easter dinner together, as a practice run for when we have to cook Easter dinner for our future families.  The menu consisted of ham, cheesy potatoes (also known as funeral potatoes, which seemed the wrong name to use for Easter dinner) and homemade rolls.  We started with the ham because it was to cook the longest.  We had a bone-in shank ham weighing about 10 pounds, which is a lot of ham (the ham was free, we weren't in a position to complain).  I'd gotten a new roasting pan a few months ago and so we decided to cook the ham in my roasting pan, basting it with brown sugar and honey for the last 30 minutes of it's cooking time.  Needless to say, much to our surprise, the ham turned out really well.  Here's a picture:

Next were the rolls because they needed time to rise.  The recipe my friend had used lecithin, which was a first for me.  We used rapidrise yeast because that's what I had on hand and before we knew it, the dough had quadrupled in size!  Here's a picture:

At first we worried that we'd done something wrong but we decided to bake a batch and see how it went.  The rolls turned out well and tasted really good.  We brushed them with a little butter after they came out, to enhance the flavor:

The final step was to make the cheesy potatoes, which I love with ham.  Here's the final product (after cooking them twice as long as the recipe called for because my oven can't keep a steady temperature):

For this being my first Easter dinner without my mom's help, it turned out better than expected.  I learned some things long the way (be careful when using rapidrise yeast) but think that this is the start of a great Easter tradition.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Jam

As I'd mentioned in one of my previous posts, I'm not a baker and, despite my many attempts to become one, have never really developed the skill.  I've decided to try once again to see if I can bake something and saw this peanut butter cookies with jam recipe and tried it.  The recipe called for blackberry jam but all I had on hand was grape, so I went with it.  It doesn't make too many cookies (I got 9 out of my batch) but the cookies are amazingly chewy and soft, which I loved.  Here's a picture of the final product:

I still don't consider myself a baker but the fact that I could make these cookies was a small miracle.  I'll be trying more recipes in the future, let's hope they turn out as well as these cookies did.

Penne with Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese

Ever since I learned how to make butternut squash lasagna, I've always been on the lookout for great recipes that use roasted butternut squash.  Thankfully, Giada De Laurentiis came to the rescue with her very easy but really tasty penne with butternut squash and goat cheese recipe.  I've never used cheese as the only part of a sauce with pasta but the goat cheese, when it combines with the pasta and the squash, really makes a great sauce.  Here's a picture of the squash and onions after I roasted them:

And the final product:

 This recipe is great and will definitely get added to my regular rotation.

Weekend Roadtrip to LA

I recently went on a roadtrip to LA with some friends and got to see family, friends and try some new restaurants.  The first restaurant we ate at was Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in Hollywood.  I've heard a lot of people talk about this place and how good it was but I'd never tried it.  I can now say I've eaten there and the waffles are tasty!

Here's a picture of my waffle plate (the "Natalie's Special" is just two waffles, I was scared to try the chicken):

People who know me well know that I don't usually eat a lot but I finished my entire plate!  The waffles have a slight cinnamon taste and are light and fluffy, which is unusual for a waffle.  I washed my Natalie Special down with one of Roscoe's specialty drinks, the Sunset.  It's a combination of fresh squeezed lemonade and fruit punch.  Here's a picture:

Needless to say, I'm now a Roscoe's fan and will plan to visit next time I'm in southern California.

I also got a chance to visit Santa Monica and ate brunch at a great cafe, which was recommended to me, called The Rose Cafe & Market.  I ordered the veggie quiche:

The quiche had asparagus, leek, oven-dried tomato & fontina cheese and was served with an arugula salad.  I love quiche and this one was very good - I think I might try and re-create it at home when I feel like taking on a cooking project.  I'd definitely recommend the Rose Cafe to anyone looking for a good place to eat in Santa Monica.  They also had a bakery with some amazing-looking desserts, next time I'll try one of those.

All in all it was a great weekend - great weather, great food, great family, and great friends.

Wagyu beef

While watching an episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Travel Channel, I learned something new about Kobe beef.  I always thought that Kobe beef was a breed of cattle named after the region in Japan where they're raised and get their muscles massaged and sake added to their diet to improve the taste.  Turns out that information is only partly correct - Kobe beef actually comes from several breeds of wagyu cattle who are raised not only in Kobe but also in various parts of Australia and New Zealand (and in a hybrid form, the US).  For more information than you probably care to know, here's the wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagyu_beef.

I must admit that I've never had the pleasure of eating kobe beef in it's steak format (as it was probably intended to be eaten), instead I had it once in a trendy restaurant in the form of sliders (tiny hamburgers that seem to be all the rage now).  Needless to say, the amount of Kobe/wagyu beef I got was minimal and so I don't feel like I really got to experience the full benefit of it.  It is on my list of things to try eventually only now I know that I can also look for wagyu on the menu.

Mijita Cocina Mexicana

This past weekend I went into San Francisco to see a friend from Chicago who was in town visiting.  We wanted to meet up for lunch and I wanted to take him somewhere that was unique to San Francisco, which ended up being the Ferry Building (aptly named since people commute to/from San Francisco by ferry and this is the terminal where the ferry's come/go).  One of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco is at the Ferry Building and is called The Slanted Door, which serves amazingly fresh, clean Vietnamese food.  When I'm at the Ferry Building I usually opt for Slanted Door takeout but thought that since I had a guest, we'd try something new. After walking around the amazing outdoor farmer's market for awhile, we'd worked up an appetite and were ready to eat.  We landed at Mijita which has a small menu with tacos, enchiladas and various side dishes.  I ordered a carnitas (pork) taco with a side of guacamole and chips.

The carnitas taco came topped with a spicy, tangy salsa verde and the pork was fall-off-the-bone tender.  It was a little tough to eat but tasty.  The guacamole was fresh and the chips were homemade, fried-to-order.  All in all, I would say that it was a good meal but a tad overpriced for the portion size.  Guess I'm just not used to city prices.

Chocolate Raspberry Bars with White Chocolate and Almonds

People who know me well know that I'm a terrible baker.  Even though I'm a fairly logical person and you'd think that the exactness of baking would be a perfect fit for me, I continue to struggle with anything that requires turning on an oven and mixing wet and dry ingredients.  Needless to say, when I do find a baking recipe that I can actually manage, I embrace it and hold on for life.  This past weekend I was invited to a friend's house for lunch after church so I volunteered to bring dessert.  I knew that I had to make something good since she's also a foodie and likes to cook and so I decided on Giada De Laurentiis' Chocolate Raspberry Bars with White Chocolate and Almonds (a recipe that involves baking but one that I can actually make).  The name sounds fancier than it really is because it's basically just brownie mix with some sort of fruit jam layered into the brownie batter that's then cooked and drizzled with white chocolate and almond slivers on the top.  Still, I've made the recipe a couple of times before and it never fails to impress so I knew it was the perfect thing to bring.

Here's a picture of the brownie batter with the layered fruit jam (in this case, grape jam):

 

I basically just mixed the brownie batter according to the recipe and then poured the jam in lines after it had cooled.  I then ran a knife through the lines from left to right to create the pattern.

Here's what the brownies look like after they're baked:

 

It's kind of cool how the jam leaves deep pockets in the brownie mix as it cooks but doesn't sink to the bottom.

Here's the homemade double broiler I made to melt the white chocolate for the top:

 

I learned the hard way when I first attempted this recipe that white chocolate chips have a lot more milk solids in them than regular milk chocolate chips so you really have to use low heat and stir it a lot to get it to melt properly.  The first time I tried melting white chocolate the heat was too high and I didn't stir often enough and it turned into a hard mess of unmeltable goo.  Needless to say, I got it right this time because here's a picture of the final product:

I took the brownies to lunch and people enjoyed them.  Now that I've mastered that recipe, I've decided to try something a little harder - Giada's Peanut Butter Cookies with Blackberry Jam recipe.  Stay tuned for an update on how it goes, maybe I'll become a baker after all...