Sunday, December 30, 2012

Rosemary Root Vegetable Soup/Rosemary's Baby

I BROUGHT THE SNOW TO MASSACHUSETTS

I also still don't know how to spell Massachusetts, despite living here for almost 7 months. Thank goodness for spell check.

It was really cold and snowy here so all I did was cook. All day long. Alongside this homemade soup and bread in this entry, I also made pasta, pesto, muffins, salad, and salad dressing - all from scratch. Yes, even the pasta. It was the perfect way to spend the day. Watching Rosemary's Baby was the perfect way to end it. I wish every day was Saturday.

The recipe for the bread came from this awesome book called Ratio, which I would highly recommend for any aspiring baker. It gives you the basic ratios for the main ingredients in staple foods such as bread, pasta, and even sausage. You can then add things as you wish and pretty much end up with something delicious. It reads more like a book than a cookbook, with long detailed explanations behind the methodology of each recipe. So far, it gave me the best damned bread I've ever had. It was a great gift from a great person :)

Get it!


Recipe: Rosemary Root Vegetable Soup


Friday, December 28, 2012

Stuffed Acorn Squash/The Hobbit Part 1

It's the first new movie review!

I don't have much to say here. Being home has been awesome, but I have eaten TERRIBLY. Expect some healthy stuff coming up these next few weeks. I hope everyone's had a great holiday!

Recipe: Stuffed Acorn Squash

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Home for the Holidays/NYT Cookies/Christmas Vacation

Special holiday edition!

Typically my rule is that the movie I review has to be a movie I haven't seen before. I've changed the rules so that I can do one throwback movie of the month. Last month it was Jaws, and now this month it will be Christmas Vacation.

I'm home in Michigan for the holidays, and I baked these cookies with my brother Ethan, my sister Caitlin, and her boyfriend Jake. They are all pretty stellar people.



Caitlin happily cutting chocolate 
Jake looking fly.
Ethan looking weird.


There has been a lot of buzz behind these chocolate chip cookies, so I feel like it's time to give them a try. The original recipe is found here. I know it may seem like a lot of chocolate, but somehow it works. We ended up having to use two different kinds (not the fancy discs like the article) because we didn't have enough of one kind. We also just used all purpose flour instead of a mixture of bread and cake. I hope that didn't affect the recipe too much.

Recipe: New York Times (kinda) Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Sweet Potato Burritos/The Magnificent Seven

Hoping to get back on track here. I couldn't decide whether to post the sweet potato burritos or the vegan chorizo soup I made. I think I took a better picture of the burrito so that's what made it.

The holidays have kind of taken over my life, but hopefully this will be the start of the regular posts again. This weekend I will have a post from my home state, Michigan!

I used a soy chorizo "sausage" that I got from the local grocery store here. I only used half of the package because I wanted more of a flavoring than chunks of fake meat. You can use a full package, the real stuff, whatever you want! If you're looking for a good soy substitute, the Trader Joe's brand is my faaavorite. It's also inexpensive and much healthier than it's meaty counterpart.

I also really like spicy things so I used two jalapenos, with seeds. To take it down a notch you can de-seed, use one, or completely omit the peppers. It's up to you!

The burritos have lots of strange things in them because that's what I had. I'm not really aiming for authenticity here.

I served this alongside some Boston lettuce and broccoli salad with pickled watermelon radishes. The radishes were beautiful. To pickle, just combine some rice vinegar and sugar and soak the radishes and an onion in a jar overnight. The color is really something.


They're cute and look like watermelons!
 Anyways, back to those BURRITOS.

Recipe: Sweet Potato Black Bean Chorizo Burritos


Friday, December 14, 2012

Homemade Hot Dog Buns with Beet Sauerkraut/Far Away, So Close!

So if you're looking for traditional fluffy hot dog buns, you should probably follow the original recipe posted here. I decided to go my own route and make them whole wheat. I also substituted yogurt for butter. I probably did something wrong because they just didn't rise. They kind of had a hard pretzel-like quality to them. I thought they held up to the beet sauerkraut quite nicely, but they did not turn out like they should have. Oh well, one of these days I'll learn how to bake. 

Also, another beet recipe. One of these days I'm going to run out of ideas. I actually just got a HUGE bag of them in the farm exchange, and I'm really struggling to come up with some good recipes. Suggestions welcome. 

Lastly, I used turkey dogs because they were an impulse buy and have been sitting in my freezer for weeks. They were actually really delicious, although I can't really remember the last time I had a real hot dog. You can use whatever you want, but I would recommend a more plain frank to let the flavor of the sauerkraut shine through.

Recipe: Turkey Dogs with Homemade Hot Dog Buns and Beet Sauerkraut.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Bacon Chocolate Pecan Bars/Unforgiven

Sorry about this post being late! I was supposed to write it on Tuesday evening, but we got a surprise email from our landlord about the house being appraised. Soooo I guess it was time to get the couch out of the stairway that has been there for 3 months? Maybe?

It's more stuck than it looks.
After about 5 hours of sawing and putting holes in the wall, we gave up (it was midnight on a work evening). Guess where the couch is now...

I don't really want to talk about it.

Anyways, the post is late. SORRY GUYS.

Today's recipe is not healthy. I think you can probably guess that from the title. You really shouldn't eat these. As a matter of fact, you probably just shouldn't read this entry. Unless you want to make lots of friends friends. Or move up in your job. If you bring them to work you'll probably be promoted. That is, if they make it out of the house...

The recipe was concocted for a celebration of "Hamover" - a pork party. I wanted to make something special instead of your run of the mill pig dish. After some extensive searching, I found this recipe from this lady called The Beeroness. I love a good chocolate pecan pie, so I threw some dark chocolate in there as well. It was a good choice.

What do you do with the leftover bacon? Cover it in brown sugar, bake it, and call it "candied bacon". Duh. It melts in your mouth. Also a big hit at the sausage fest.

Recipe: Unforgivably Unhealthy Bacon Chocolate Beer Shortbread Pecan Bars

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Special Guests and Tuna Steaks/Jaws

Japanese food galore! I guess I'm on a kick.

I got really excited when some friends contacted me to be guest contributors to the blog. I was happy about being able to hang with some cool kids for the night, but I was also really stoked that people took an interest! If anybody else in MA wants to be included in pretty much the hottest blog around, let me know. Recommendations of movie/food pairings are also taken into consideration.

Special guest Mario!
Special guest Maggie!


Also, a lot of the food from this entry was reused from the last one. The tuna recipe was inspired by this. The tuna was purchased from a fishmonger in Inman Square and HOLYCOW it was good. Jiro would be proud.

Recipe: Tuna Steaks with Leftover Rice and more Spicy Miso Soup