Curried Yogurt Dip & Peanut Butter Cup Bark

Not the most obvious pairing, but they will be enjoyed separately. This morning when I was quickly flipping through Sara Foster’s cookbook looking for a recipe to bring to our work potluck tomorrow, I found this recipe for Curried Yogurt Dip with Fresh Cilantro. It sounded a bit strange but I had over half of the ingredients already, which is good enough reason as any to make a recipe.

This recipe seriously employed the use of my microplane grater, zest of a lime and grated ginger. The laundry list of ingredients as follows:
1/2 c whole milk yogurt (I used Greek yogurt)
4 scallions, chopped
1/2 Granny Smith apple, chopped
2 tbsp mango or apple chutney (I used apricot preserves)
2 tbsp cilantro, chopped
2 tbsp curry powder (I used 1)
1 tbsp grated peeled fresh ginger
1 tbsp honey
Zest and juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 c sour cream
S&P to taste

Combine everything except sour cream in a food processor or blender. Pour into bowl and mix in sour cream. Salt and pepper to taste. It may not look like much but it tastes AWESOME. I’m bringing this with sweet potato chips to dip into it.

I threw together my dinner of sliced honey wheat bread with almond butter and sliced bananas topped with remaining Greek yogurt, and a side salad.

Last item on the kitchen agenda was peanut butter cup bark. This didn’t really have a recipe, I just winged it from things I’d read online. I think it’s a winner. Melt a handful ~1/3 cup of white chocolate chips with two tablespoons peanut butter together in a bowl over boiling water. Set aside and repeat with 5 ounces milk chocolate. Chop up 8 mini peanut butter cups.

Pour out milk chocolate onto a pan covered with tin foil. Sprinkle chopped peanut butter cups over chocolate, and drizzle peanut butter white chocolate mixture on top. Put in refrigerator for 2 hours, then break into pieces.

The real thank you of the night goes out to my dishwasher, Evan. Without him, I’d be up to my nose in dishes right now.

Turkey Enchiladas

Tonight I agreed to make Evan a belated birthday dinner and to no ones surprise he wanted Mexican food. These turkey enchiladas were the perfect use of the leftover turkey he came back with. I found the recipe on Simply Recipes.
Mix together the chili powder, oregano, garlic powder, cumin, salt, flour (and ground cloves, but I left those out). In a pan, heat olive oil and add the spice mixture. Slowly mix in the chicken broth until the sauce is smooth.
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Chop up the onion, garlic, jalapeno and cilantro.

Sauté the onions, garlic and jalapeno until soft. Take it off the heat and grated Monterey jack cheese, chopped turkey, black beans, cilantro, and 1/2 a cup of the enchilada sauce.

Coat tortillas in sauce and assemble enchiladas. Cover with cheese and bake these for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

We topped these with sour cream and cilantro with a side of Spanish rice.

A bit time consuming but there are leftovers! Gotta love leftovers. Back to reality tomorrow, but it’s a short week before NYE

Banana Cake

Print this recipe (here)
The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was grab my Tartine cookbook and climb back into bed. The first recipe of the book is a five page, two day, step by step instructions on how to make croissants. I’ve decided I have to attempt them!

Reading Tartine got me in the mood for baking our banana cake that we’re serving for dessert tonight. This recipe we found online, titled “the best ever banana cake with cream cheese frosting.” They convinced me.
First, prep all ingredients, which includes mashing four ripe bananas.

Mix together the batter, alternate with buttermilk and flour mixture.

Add in mashed banana mixture.

Pour into two round cake pans and bake for an hour at 275 degrees.

After the cakes come out of the oven, put them directly into the freezer for 45 minutes to retain moisture. Meanwhile, mix together the cream cheese frosting.

We added toasted pecans instead of walnuts, because they’re just better.

Frost the cake.

Finally, pat nuts onto the side of the cake.

Tasted very similar to banana bread with delicious icing. Why did I make this the day before I leave?

A Very Foodie Christmas Eve

The tradition in our house for the past few years has been to open gifts on Christmas Eve night. Unfortunately, I had one more gift in the mail I was waiting on and it never showed But life goes on and I was still excited about giving my other gifts!
 
Since one goal of this trip was think about possible careers for me, Mom and I headed to Powell’s to look for “career guidance” books or tests. We couldn’t find anything that fit what we were looking for, so I decided I’d search online instead. Am I the only one who has no clue what they want to do when they grow up??

A Sur La Table was across the street and I couldn’t resist a peak. They had the most delicious looking ornaments I’ve ever seen! I came out of there with a microplane grater. I don’t know how I’ve lived without it for all this time.

For dinner tonight, the four of us went to Soluna, which was truly to die for. Plus it was fun to watch the chefs at work.

I ordered the pan roasted salmon that sat on top of goat cheese mashed potatoes and broccolini surrounded by a merlot butter and a walnut bread stick. For dessert, unfortunately it was inhaled before a picture was able to be taken, we split the chocolate croissant bread pudding topped with vanilla ice cream and crème anglaise. It should be illegal.

The most serendipitous part of the dinner was that our waitress was named China.  Crazy, I know!

Then home for presents! Stella even got to partake in the gift exchange.

I love all of my gifts, everyone seems to know me so well. Clearly, I have one interest. But how cool is this Top Chef jacket?!

Not to mention my wonderful cookbooks and black truffle salt.

Merry, merry Christmas!!

Bonneville Spa

My mom’s Christmas gift to me and my sister was a trip to the spa for massages.
Bonneville spa is an hour away and across the bridge in Washington state. We got there before lunch so we had time to relax in the sauna and hot tub before lunch.
 
Lunch for me was a chicken, brie, apple, tomato on croissant with gooseberry aioli and a side salad.
The rest of the afternoon was serious indulgence with a lavender bath and body wrap, followed by an 80 minute massage. Woo there is nothing like it. Merry Christmas to me!
On the drive home we were able to see the Bonneville Dam and the snowy mountains that run along the Columbia River, while we crossed The Bridge of the Gods to get back into Oregon.

Chocolate Hazelnut Bark

This recipe for hazelnut bark came from the one and only, Martha Stewart. She made it sound easy, as she does with most things, so we allotted a 30 minutes window for bark making from start to finish. The hiccup to our plan was that the skins of the hazelnuts were stubborn and would not let go. The process to remove the skins is first to bake them at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

Then fold them up into a towel for 5 minutes to steam. Followed by rolling them around under the towel to remove their skins.

A lot easier said than done, to say the least. After three rounds of baking, steaming and rolling, we had enough to make the bark. It called for the zest of one orange, an 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt, 2/3 cup chopped hazelnuts and 8 ounces semi sweet chocolate.
Melt the chocolate, mix in most of the hazelnuts and half of the zest. Pour onto a pan covered with tin foil. Top with salt, zest and nuts.
Afterwards, we all went to lunch at Pine State Biscuits (in honor of my pine state boyfriend’s birthday…and because it’s delicious).
I had the McIsley: fried chicken, pickles, whole grain mustard and honey on a biscuit.

Cheers!