Crepes with Honey Yogurt and Mixed Berries

I’d waited long enough to tackle the crepe. My obsession with crepes started when I purchased a strawberry, banana and nutella crepe from a guy in a stand (we fondly refer to as the Crepe Man) in Eastern Market. I found this recipe on Poor Girl Eats Well and adapted it to the groceries in my fridge. Evan <3’s BoGo (buy one get one) deals, which left me with two cartons of strawberries to work with.

Crepe ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
3/4 c nonfat milk
1 T butter, melted
1 T sugar
powdered sugar (for dusting)
cooking spray

These crepes are so easy and you don’t need a crepe pan, as I had previously believed. Just pour the batter to cover the greased pan, and flip with a spatula when one side is cooked. I stuffed it with plain Greek mixed with honey, strawberries and blueberries. They’re the perfect hybrid between pancake and omelet. Swap out the sugar for a little salt and fill with savory ingredients. I’m planning on a smoked salmon, cream cheese and dill version soon.

A wide mouth tuna sandwich preceded the crepes. Another PGEW recipe – love her. This tuna salad had toasted almonds, dried cranberries, red onion, honey mustard and Greek yogurt.

Scallion Pesto Pasta

I need to thank my friend Tonya for turning me onto Poor Girl Eats Well, where I found this recipe. Though the pesto was a tad too onion-y for me (you actually had to actively fight back tears while eating it), it was cheap and easy! I bookmarked many of her recipes like the red quinoa pudding and the cranberry-almond tuna salad sandwiches. Living cheaply needs to be taken seriously as I save up for the car I need to buy sooner or later. Unfortunately, it’s probably sooner. Anyway, you can find the recipe to the scallion pesto here. Perhaps if the scallions were briefly roasted to take the raw sting out of them, the pesto would be less strong. I’m planning to use the rest on some baked chicken.

I bet more parmesan would have gone a long way.

In addition to the pesto, I added sautéed onion, tomatoes and peas. On the side, a pretzel baguette with evoo and balsamic.
Dessert: diced champagne mango and strawberries with honey.

An American Sunday

* My favorite part of DC might be all of the tulips, they’re everywhere!

I hope the summer is filled with more nights like last night. For dinner a group of us grilled out at Evan’s house. The menu was grilled chicken with honey mustard barbecue sauce, grilled corn, roasted garlic potatoes and pineapple. It was perfect weather and the food was delicious. The corn on the cob was my favorite.
This was the technique Evan used:
- remove husk
- butter, salt and pepper the cobs
- wrap in tin foil and place on the grill
- grill for 20-25 minutes, rotating 4 times
- remove tin foil and grill directly for additional 5-10 minutes
They turned out perfectly.
How American is a cookout?
On the way back to my house we planned to grab ice cream. Somehow the trip turned into an evening walk around the monuments. We promised ourselves that we would do something DC’ish like this once a week during the summer. You only live here once – most likely – so you might as well make the high rent worth your while.

It sounds silly, but it was actually a really inspiring night.

The monuments and capitol looked stunning, lit from beneath and standing out against the city in the background. 


The moon was huge!


The Lincoln Memorial was bringing back tons of memories of my birthday weekend last July when my friends kidnapped me at 2 am, threw me into a cab and didn’t tell me where we were going. Stopped for ice cream on the way (not the most obvious of late night foods but it was July, so it worked) then ended up at the Lincoln memorial. So fun.
(Image below)


Still, nothing beats the White House.

And today is Evan and my 3 years of dating anniversary!

Quinoa with Mangoes, Apricots and Walnuts

After a day of snacking on baked goods, cookies, candy, and cafeteria pizza at work (why do I have no self control?) my day took a turn for the healthier! I forced (after multiple back and forth conversations with myself) to go to the gym, then picked up dinner supplies at WF. I adapted dinner from a recipe I read in this month’s Food & Wine, Red
Rice and Quinoa Salad with Orange and Pistachios…I think mine was superior

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, diced
juice from half an orange
juice from half a lemon
zest from half an orange
dried apricots, chopped
champagne mango, diced
walnuts, chopped
green onion, sliced
salt and pepper
arugula

Boil a pot of water, add quinoa. Cover and let simmer for 12 minutes. Let cool. In a skillet, heat olive oil before adding diced onion. Let cook until brown, about 8-10 minutes. Let cool then add to quinoa. Combine remaining ingredients (except arugula) in a large bowl with the quinoa and onions. Serve over a bed of arugula.

With this healthy salad, I made Dijon Panko Crusted Salmon. I got the recipe for the salmon from Annies Eats, which has the full recipe. It’s basically just salmon brushed with dijon mustard, topped with panko, lemon zest, salt, pepper (and I added cayenne) then baked at 425 for about 10 minutes. Really flavorful with a good crunch.

Goat Cheese, Spinach, Spicy Italian Sausage Pizza & Cooked Kale

Sound familiar? I am not one to waste leftovers. So in an effort to make dinner with them, after starring blankly into space in the food section at Target, I grabbed Naan bread. The rest of my random loot was a binder, carrot face wash (sounded cool), and gum. Since I was left with over a pound of kale, I looked up a quick recipe to cook them down. Through this recipe I discovered what a magical marriage goat cheese and marinara sauce are. (Why did I doubt this?) So much so, that I had spaghetti with goat cheese on top the next night.

(Evan got the sausage one, I kept mine mostly veggie)
Cooked kale:
1 lb kale
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chicken stock or water
salt and pepper
red pepper flakes
red wine vinegar

Heat the garlic in olive oil until fragrant. Add chicken stock and kale. Mix around then cover with lid to steam for a few minutes. Remove lid and stop cooking when it reaches desired texture, then season with pepper flakes and vinegar.

Pizza:
1 piece of naan bread
marinara sauce
goat cheese
spicy Italian sausage
spinach
basil
parmesan

*Cook sausage before you put it on the pizza. Bake pizza at 400 for about 10 minutes.

Spicy Sausage, Kale & Goat Cheese Gratin

Monday (actually, Tuesday) night dinner was at our apartment this week so I took the opportunity to make this recipe my mom had sent me. It takes a little bit of elbow grease but it’s a luxurious product. Everyone went back for seconds, so I think they would agree with me. To go with the entre, I made roasted garlic potatoes, Caroline brought the wine, Caitrin and Lauren made Asian slaw and Mary Scott and Kat made key lime pie.
I’m a wee bit upset that there are no leftovers, but I’m stuck with a bunch of kale so that’ll be my next project.

The panko, parmesan and basil crust on top was definitely my favorite part.


Soon I won’t be able to make anything this heavy and luxurious for a while when the weather warms up but on (hopefully!) the last cold day of spring it was perfect.

Ingredients:

2 T. olive oil

1 lb fresh spicy Italian sausage (casings removed)

1/3 cup dry, white wine

2 bunches Lacinato kale (also called dinosaur or Tuscan) stemmed and cut into 1 inch

wide strips

½ cup (1 stick) butter

1/3 cup flour

2 cups milk

5-6 oz goat cheese

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan

1 cup Panko bread crumbs

2 T minced fresh basil

3 T melted butter

Preheat oven to 350
In a large heavy bottom sauté pan heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Break up and brown the sausage for about 5 minutes. Add the wine and cook a couple minutes until it reduces then lower heat to medium. Stir in kale one handful at a time. Cook the kale stirring it in with the sausage until it begins to wilt and turn bright green. Add all of it and remove from heat—do not overcook the kale.

In a large saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour to form a roux. Slowly add the milk whisking constantly to get rid of any lumps. Bring the mixture to a simmer whisking frequently—reduce heat to a gentle simmer for 10 minutes. Crumble the goat cheese into the sauce—whisk until smooth. Taste—and if it needs a few shakes of crushed red pepper flakes—add a bit. Pour over the kale mixture and stir well. Spoon the mixture into a shallow 2-quart baking dish.

In a medium bowl combine the melted butter/bread crumbs/parmesan/fresh minced basil. Spread this topping evenly over the kale mix. Bake the gratin until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbling—about 30 minutes. Cool for about 4 minutes before eating.

(Recipe adapted from Noelle Carter—printed in the Oregonian)

Chicken Nachos and DC Adventures

I took full advantage of this spring Sunday. First stop was the Palisades farmer’s market, which is a lot smaller than the Dupont Circle market but with better vendors.

There’s a lot less produce but a lot more prepared foods like chocolates, cheeses, breads, bakery items, and THE BEST BELGIAN WAFFLE STAND. The stand also has paella and turnovers. 

I’m obsessed with it. I wouldn’t shut up about it. These waffles are made on the spot for each order and are doughy and hot with crystalized sugar bits inside the waffle so it’s amazing without any toppings. Just another reason I <3 the Palisades.


Afterwards, Evan and I decided to finally visit the DC Zoo. It’s a magical place (and like most things in DC, would have been even better without the crowds). This little guy greeted us as we walked in.

I must say my favorite animal that I saw – and maybe even of all time – is the Orangutan.

They’re so human-like, it’s great. Sometimes I worry that they get self conscious from having everyone stare at them all the time. Then there were the spooning lizards.

The agile chameleon.

The biggest turtles I’ve EVER seen.

This sweet little monkey who was chomping on a snack and watching everyone very intently.

My second favorite animal, the Gorilla.

They were looking a little bored.

A small mammal with serious personality. I think he was posing for pictures.

We made our way out through the Asia section, where we saw three elephant buddies. They kept huddling up like they were on a football team. Quite precious.
It was a good day in the District. It’s nice when you can get out and take advantage of where you live, so today was a success.
For dinner I made an oldie goldie recipe that I started making in college. Shredded chicken nachos. They never disappoint.

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken breast, cooked and shredded
tortilla chips
1/2 can black beans
1/2 can yellow corn
cheddar cheese, grated
avocado, chopped
salsa
green onions
lime

Preheat oven to 400. Squeeze lime juice over shredded chicken. Arrange chips (so the scoops face upwards!) on a sheet pan covered with tin foil, cover with cheese, chicken, beans and corn. Bake for 7-10 minutes, until cheese is melted. Top with remaining ingredients.

On the side, we had delicious and cheap pineapple. Some people fear buying pineapples because they seem tough to cut. Here are some simple directions for cutting up a pineapple:

Chop off the top, the bottom and the sides of the pineapple.

Cut it into fourths, then remove the hard inner core. Slice lengthwise and cut into cubes.