I keep a blog about cooking and I really haven't contributed to it much myself. I will be addressing my recipe to these delicious quesadillas very soon. In the meantime, just imagine the sizzle of butter meeting the delicious flour tortilla.
Corey is an experimental chef. He is fast and furious with a creative approach. You will say to him, "What if we make spaghetti and meatballs for dinner?" His response will be, "Sure, that sounds good." About five minutes later you'll hear, "What if I take the meatballs, but them on a sub, smother them with your tomato sauce, cover it with mozzarella cheese and broil it in the oven?" He likes to take things "to the next level." This is something that makes planning a meal difficult, as you'll never how he'll re-create your dish but it makes a random Sunday afternoon when you think you have nothing to eat a true pleasure.
This was one of those Sundays. Corey escaped to the kitchen and came back twenty minutes later with these BBQ tofu sandwiches that blew my socks off. I wish I could tell you how he does it and I swear I will get him to tell me but the tofu was perfectly fried (and then baked for a little while). We dressed the sandwiches in a little mayo, extra BBQ sauce and red onion. The tofu tasted meaty and had a wonderful initial crunch with a soft center. They were heaven and one day I promise to share Corey's tofu frying tricks.
This is my Grandmama's recipe, in her very own handwriting. As you can see, I have adapted it a bit as the times they are a changin.' But you can clearly see where my love of cheese and butter comes from. I wish you could have met this woman, she was a tour de force.
I bought this waffle iron last week and I can safely say we are still becoming friends. I was enchanted by the shape of the waffles and can see an edible Valentine headed Corey's way.
But, I am having a hard time getting the proper color and crispness (crispiness?) on my waffles. I am also experimenting with many different recipes to see which one I like best. If you have any suggestions on how to make a crispy waffle, please sound off. I can tell you that I love a waffle chock full of vanilla and cinnamon, lightly coated in butter and smothered in maple syrup. Too bad all I have to eat this morning is a measly piece of wheat toast...
Monday was a rough day at work - long, tedious and full of unexpected set-backs. So you can imagine my intense glee when I walked into my kitchen and Corey was standing in front of a myriad of pots and pans. He was busy preparing a batch of enchiladas. He and I went through a phase last spring where we made enchiladas almost weekly with different fillings each time. We tried sweet potatoes, avocado, black beans, chicken and many combinations of the above. I was excited to see what Corey would be doing with this hearty dish this time around. He settled on Spanish rice and black beans cooked with jalapeno peppers as a filling. The rice was cooked with onions, garlic and a whole lot of spices including such winners as cumin and red chili powder. Then, he topped them with Trader Jose's enchilada sauce, covered the dish with sharp cheddar and monterey jack cheese, baked them at 350 for 30 minutes and we dined like royalty.
Rules for a Sunday supper: simple, satisfying and tasty. Must pair well with TV on DVD or Masterpiece Theater (if you're getting a late start).
This week: salmon with pesto, whole wheat pasta and peas. It fit the bill perfectly.
Another thing I really miss about Seattle is Vietnamese food. It seems that there just isn't as much to go around in Atlanta. That's why I got really excited when Corey and I decided to try out Saigon Cafe on North Decatur Rd and Clairmont. The place was busy on a Wednesday night which we both took as a very good sign. I saw some of my favorites on the menu and promptly ordered salad rolls for the table. They were a disappointment. All I could taste was bean sprouts and the rolls were not served with peanut sauce as I prefer but with plum sauce straight out of a bottle. On to the the main course. I was ready to really enjoy something delicious after two days of saltines and ginger ale. Corey and I both ordered bun - a big bowl full of vermicelli noodles, grilled meat (usually pork), salad fixings and if you're lucky, an egg roll. Saigon Cafe's bun came with all of the trimmings and looked awesome (as you can see) but lacked flavor once again. The meat was also quite fatty and made my stomach ache a little. Corey and I left feeling defeated, with our sights set on Buford Highway, Atlanta's Asian cuisine mecca. We won't take the easy way out; we learned our lesson.
First, let me begin by saying that I have not cooked at all this week due to a rocky start. I made a very healthy dinner on Sunday night (cue queasy stomach) of twice-baked sweet potatoes and sauteed greens. I even recorded it for posterity with a picture. But something went terribly wrong and that night, an ugly stomach virus hit. I won't disgust you with the gruesome details, but I made Corey delete the pictures from the camera and throw out the evil leftovers and here we are - no posts about food made in my kitchen.
But I still want to share with you something that I really, really miss about Seattle. We lived a block away from Top Pot Doughnuts & Coffee and just to really sweeten an already good deal, our beloved roommate Sonya worked there (and still does). This made for a lot of doughnuts in our life. A lot of deep fried, glazed, powdered or iced dough...and my life (and waistline) has never been the same. Don't get me wrong, one can find a good doughnut in Atlanta. But nothing will ever be the same again. I can look near and far but I will never find a raspberry iced chocolate cake doughnut, an apple fritter the size of my head, seasonally prepared pumpkin cake doughnuts, cinnamon sugar rings that are as fluffy as a feather pillow...Believe me, one of the first stops we're making in Seattle is Top Pot. And I will eat all...of...the...doughnuts...even if I have to pry the last chocolate-sprinkled-cake from a poor child's hand.
This meal is another backbone to my gastronomic existence. Every week, Corey and I drive over to my parents house for a night of take-out from our tried and true favorite, La Fonda Latina. La Fonda is a Cuban Atlanta chain that serves some of the most reliably delicious food I can think of. Their meat and fish is perpetually grilled to a perfect crisp, their guacamole always has a hint of lime and a healthy dose of cilantro and their black beans are consistently slow-cooked and well-spiced. It is a pleasure to eat such satisfying food with some of my favorite people.
Tomorrow, we'll gather around my parents table with La Fonda on our plates to wish my cousin Isabel a happy journey. She's headed to Paris for a semester abroad. I am so excited for her! I know she will have a wonderful time and we will all be happy to see her again this May.
This is my aunt Sally. She is also known by many as Sarah and to few as Sadie. Sally is a culinary inspiration. She puts so much of her love, beauty and creativity into her food. Sally has the knack that her mother did of being able to go into a kitchen and throw something together in a snap but she also has an adventurous spirit that makes every dish truly unique. I love the way she cooks because it makes me think of her: vibrant, always fun and never dull.
Yep, new camera=new posts. I figured the best way to begin (again) is to show you the backbone of this whole operation, the essence of my cuisine, the recipe that won Corey's heart, the most comforting of comfort food, the most perfect dish you or I will ever eat.
Baked Cheese Grits.
Now, this is one of those recipes that I know without any consultation to a recipe or cookbook. And I think the one piece of advice I can give you is this: this dish is better the second time around. If you can stand it - make them the night before, par-bake them for about 20 minutes and then stick them in your fridge. The next morning, finish baking and voila - you will have a perfectly fluffy, cheesy, garlicky dish that can stand all by itself for breakfast, lunch or dinner. However, these are also a wonderful side dish to anything from scrambled eggs to steak. Without further ado, here is my interpretation of baked cheese grits:
- Make grits according to package (I always make enough for 6 people - it fills a casserole dish)
*tips to making good grits - salt the water, just like you would for pasta, when you add the grits to the boiling water, stir constantly for the first two minutes so there aren't any lumps, then stir once every couple of minutes
- Grate about 2 cups of really good, sharp cheddar or use one whole bag of the pre-shredded kind (i like a lot of cheese)
- Use half a stick of butter or as much as you think you can handle
chop up two to three cloves of garlic
- Add all of these ingredients while the grits are steaming hot and stir
*let them sit for a few minutes and then add two eggs (you don't want the eggs to cook)
- Stir in the eggs
- Put into a casserole dish and top with bread crumbs
- Bake at 375 for about 30-45 minutes until bubbly
That's it! Simple, right? Try it this weekend and let me know how it turns out.
