Bulgur With Swiss Chard, Chickpeas and Feta

Monday, blech. An overcast, freezing, crowded bus Monday to boot. Luckily, things drastically improved when I got home. Cooking dinner with Evan turned into an impromptu dance party while we waited for this beauty of a meal to finish baking. I found this recipe in the NY Times “Recipes for Health” section.

Ingredients:

1 cup bulgur

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained

1/4 cup chopped dill

Salt and pepper

3 oz feta cheese, crumbled



Method:
Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the bulgur and salt to taste, reduce the heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes or until the water is absorbed. Remove from the heat and uncover. Place a clean dish towel over the pan, then replace the lid. Allow to sit undisturbed for 10 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 2-quart baking dish. Toss the cooked bulgur with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and spread in the baking dish in an even layer.

Add water to a steamer pot, and bring to a boil. Place the Swiss chard in the steamer (you can use a pasta pot with an insert for this), and steam until it wilts, about four to five minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water and squeeze out the excess water with your hands. Chop coarsely and transfer to a bowl.
Heat another tablespoon of the olive oil in a small frying pan. Add the garlic. Cook, stirring, just until fragrant and translucent, 30 seconds to a minute, and scrape into the bowl with the chard. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the chickpeas and dill. Season with salt and pepper, and toss together.

Lay the chard mixture over the bulgur. Top with the feta, and gently push the feta cheese down into this mixture. Bake 30 minutes or until sizzling. Serve hot.

I squeezed lemon juice on top and it was just right. To offset some of the health, a piece of chocolate cake was in order. I guess I’ve had worse Mondays.

Chocolate Squared Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream

Per tradition, I asked Evan’s roommate, Andy, to tell me what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. Request: chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. Since he was sweet enough to invite me to dinner with his mother and roommates, I put extra effort into making this cake great. I chose Ina Garten’s chocolate cake recipe (and added in chocolate chips) with real vanilla bean buttercream frosting.
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup good cocoa powder (I used Ghirardelli)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
1 cup chocolate chips

All the dry ingredients are sifted together.

I brewed some Dunkin Donuts coffee, and when added it makes the batter smell amazing.

It passed the lick test, a few times.


Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans (these are sticky cakes!).
Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With the mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Fold in the chocolate chips (if using). Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto cooling racks to cool completely.
The real test today was the buttercream icing. This isn’t your everyday icing. It took blood, sweat and tears…so to speak. The tears came from schlepping up to Friendship Heights in the snow and constant traffic to buy one vanilla bean. The sweat came from holding the pot of boiling sugar on it’s side for 10 minutes so the candy thermometer would read the correct temperature. Luckily, there was no actual blood. 

The ingredients and detailed (down to the minute) instructions for this frosting can be found on the link above.

When that process was over, I frosted her up. It was so light and fluffy, I’d never worked with anything quite like it.

The cake was well received, even after a very heavy Italian dinner. (Thank you Ms. Ross!)
Chocolate chips in the cake were a thumbs up. I don’t understand why they aren’t in more cakes? Why do cookies get all the fun?

Chorizo Mac & Cheese + Key Lime Cheesecake

I had the pleasure of cooking, eating and board gaming at Stephanie’s house last night. When I got to her apartment, we both threw on aprons and started making dinner. I loved getting to cook with a friend, it doesn’t happen very often! The entree we prepared was Stephanie’s mother’s Mac & Cheese and she substituted ground beef for soy chorizo. Unfortunately, I do not have the recipe, but I highly recommend adding soy chorizo to any mac & cheese – a healthier way to add tons of flavor, and I swear you can’t tell it’s not meat.

It was just as delicious when I had it again for lunch today.
In between dinner and dessert, we played The Settlers of Catan, which is a European board game Steph and Jeff love. I’m a little embarrassed, but let's just say I got IN-to it. I’m actually considering purchasing it off Amazon right this minute. It’s similar to Monopoly except that you build settlements and cities by accumulating resources, and essentially the biggest tycoon wins it all. And no, I didn’t win either game but that’s not what matters. We took a break to make dessert: Smitten Kitchen’s key lime cheesecake. We learned from this experience that cheesecakes are ridiculously easy to make, but waiting for them to bake and set is not. We broke the rules and sliced into it before it had cooled completely, making it on the pudding-ish side, but I was not too worried about that. It was scrumptious and tart and mmm.
This has motivated me to suck it up and go buy a spring form pan, why have I been so stubborn? That and a garlic press. It makes mincing garlic super quick AND fun. Steph, Jeff, Eva (meow) and I had a lovely evening. And I’m not just saying that because she hired me

Chicken Marinara + Thundersnow

I've had very mixed emotions about all of this snow. On one hand, it wreaks havoc on DC and everyone’s commute on Wednesday night – forcing me to walk a mile in the pouring snow with no hood and in cowboy boots. I didn’t think I was going to make it. But Thursday morning, it looked really beautiful AND I had a late start at work. So it wasn’t all bad.

Walking in the snow (when you have planned to walk in the snow) is one of my favorite things.
Everything looks so different!
And pure. Those white trees were amazing.

Last night, I threw together chicken marinara for dinner. Chicken is underrated for its difficulty to cook. I never know when it’s cooked through! Especially with chicken thighs, since it still looks darkish pink when it’s done. But besides minor anxiety that it wasn’t cooked all the way, dinner was yummy.

Ingredients:
4 chicken thigh pieces
1 cup bread crumbs (or crushed garlic croutons)
1-2 egg whites
Flour
4 tbsp olive oil
Marinara sauce
Mozzarella cheese

Dredge chicken pieces in flour, egg whites then bread crumbs. Heat olive oil in a deep skillet until a bread crumb sizzles when dropped into pan. Place chicken in oil for about 4 minutes a side, or until cooked through. Put chicken onto microwaveable serving dish, top with marinara sauce and mozzarella, then microwave for 20 seconds to melt cheese. Dig in!

CA inspired Chimichangas

That’s not exactly true. My mother was actually the inspiration for tonight’s chimichangas when I called her after work and said “I don’t know WHAT to make tonight” and she said “chimichangas?” Regardless, I am in a California state of mind. Evan and I are flying to Santa Barbara in less than one month! I have been wanting to go back and visit/show him my hometown for years, literally. A lovely family friend of ours offered to let us stay at her house, therefore making it reasonably affordable. A large part of my excitement is escaping this vicious cold weather. Since all year round Santa Barbara looks a lot like this:

When I lived in SB, I don’t remember being cold. January? What? Let’s go to the beach tomorrow!

My current forecast looks something like this:


I’m not bitter, I promise…I’ve just learned to appreciate a good thing.


In honor of our trip, I picked up some Coastal Wheat Sam Adams. The chimichangas are made with all of your basic Mexican dish ingredients:
-flour tortillas
-refried beans
-onion
-rice
-salsa
-cheddar cheese
-tomato
-lettuce
-sour cream


Fried up to crispy perfection.

Spread refried beans, sautéed onions, rice and cheese into the tortillas and fold all four corners in.
 
Heat 1/2 inch of oil in a deep skillet until very warm. Place in chimichangas and fry for about one minute per side, or until brown. Serve topped with tomato, lettuce, sour cream, salsa, etc.

It was almost like we were there! Now I have an exciting looking Tupperware bowl full of yummy leftovers for lunch New Bachelor tonight! Let’s hope Brad has enough sense to get rid of some of those crazy girls.

Tilapia with Salsa Verde

I’m finally getting back on the horse with cooking after having the flu for the past 5 days. I haven’t been that miserable since the last time I had the flu three years ago. Though, I managed to survive it without going to the doctor, just a lot of advil and TV watching on my computer.

Now that I can finally taste food again, I'm starting with the easiest fish recipe in the world.
 
Three ingredients are all you need. Salt and pepper the tilapia filets before placing them on individual pieces of tin foil. Layer with thinly sliced lemon and cover with salsa. Wrap the fish in the tin foil and bake at 400 for 20 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through.

The little pouches steam the fish in the salsa and make it super moist and flavorful. Along with my fish a la salsa, I baked a sweet potato (7 minutes in the microwave) and had it with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.


Fabulous.

Sweet Potato + Brie Mac & Cheese

This MLK day came at the perfect time. I was in much need of a GetMyLifeTogether day. The fridge was empty, clothes were piled, dust bunnies were chasing me around the house, the sink was full of dishes, and questionable stains had appeared on the floors. My roommate and I made a list and hit the grocery store, stocking up on food and cleaning supplies, then got down and dirty cleaning our apartment.

It was unfortunate when mid-mop the Swiffer broom snapped in half…especially after stocking up on wet and dry Swiffer pads. But that didn’t stop us. It’s a much happier place now.

To observe this holiday, I’m making sweet potato and brie mac and cheese, which I discovered on Healthy Food for Living.

~Sweet Potato + Brie Mac Cheese~

- 8 oz whole wheat pasta
- 1 cup sweet potato puree
- 1 cup milk
- 2 oz neufchatel or cream cheese
- 1 cup grated sharp cheddar
- 1/2 cup brie cheese (rind removed)
- pinch ground nutmeg
- salt & pepper

I couldn’t find sweet potato puree at the store so I baked a large sweet potato at 400 for an hour, then mashed it with a fork.

Cook pasta and drain, set aside. Whisk together sweet potato and milk over medium heat until simmering. Reduce heat and add cheese.


Stir until completely melted, and add nutmeg. Mix in pasta until combined and let sit for a minute to firm up sauce. Serve with a dusting of nutmeg, if desired.

Best Friend Weekend

My trip to Charlotte was wonderful, besides a couple hiccups like temporarily losing my phone, leaving my coat, and the obnoxious sake-bombers at our Japanese restaurant. (Don’t they realize they’re upsetting everyone?) 

We went out to a lot of cute places with yummy food and drink. Mimosas at lunch was a highlight.


Though we don’t talk or see each other everyday anymore, it all just falls back into place when we get back together.

I’m going to have to make these trips to Charlotte much more frequent, they’re so worth it!