using up stuff in the cabinets

I wanted to have Stephanie and Laura over for dinner, but my funds were low. So I looked though my cabinets and realized that there sure was a lot of random food in there and all I needed was a few ingredients and I got myself a nice ol' casserole that is sure to feed 4. I had some whole wheat veggie Armoniche ( crinkly cylindrical spiral pasta) that I never used because Demetrius is not a fan of whole wheat pasta, some cream of celery soup that Jill got for me to eat after I had my wisdom teeth out ( but cream soups on there own i find kind of gross), frozen peas, and a lot of leftover swiss cheese from a weight calculation snafu at the grocery store (the true catalyst for the dinner), a pretty solid base for an awesome casserole. We just went down the street to the local grocery store to grab a few supplemental ingredients. I got some chicken breast and some prosciutto for protein, and some fresh leaks for flavor. Putting everything together proved to be pretty quick and easy. I sliced then marinated the chicken in some garlic, white balsamic vinegar, olive oil, herbs de Provence, and a few other spices for a couple of hours just to keep the dish flavorful, I then sauteed the chicken in olive oil adding the sliced leeks. Once the chicken was browned I added the pasta, about two and half cups of swiss cheese, one can of cream of celery, cooked peas, and the prosciutto. Stirred it until the soup was warm and threw it in an oven safe dish covered it with layer of shredded swiss on top and baked it at 350 for about 30 minutes. The casserole came out lighter than I expected which was nice. The peas played off the proscuitto perfectly and the leek complimented the flavor nicely without overpowering. The only thing I would change is the pasta. I just found the whole wheat too mealy after baked. Maybe even a risotto would work. There is always next time.

did you know that gluttony is the gateway sin?

I learned this and many other fun facts at Ina and Jacob's Easter potluck brunch. I never realized my friends were all so creative in the kitchen. Every type of baked egg dish from strada's to quiches were well represented along with delicious pasteries and desserts. Ina was also stationed at the blender for a good part of the afternoon whipping up batches of her mother's peach mimosa's which were sweet and bubbly. I made an onion casserole, which is my grandmothers recipe. It is made from butter, onion, swiss cheese, cream, egg and ritz crackers, a yummy heart attack in a pan. I am going to ask for the rights (from my dad) to the recipe before I post it, it might be a secret Bono family thing. One thing that I am definitely stealing from this brunch is the amaretto strawberry shots. A really fun way to "do shots" without the unfortunate falling off the barstool, waking up with a headache, getting into fights with strangers type side effects. They only require light preparation and three ingredients: strawberries, amaretto and whipped cream. Just cut the top off of the strawberry and hollow out a small hole for the amaretto, top with whipped cream and enjoy.

i will never stop being a groupie

I have realized this now because this week has been filled with chances for my inner groupie to shine. Most times it was related to dance because Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has been in town and one of my best friends from high school has been dancing with them for the past 5 years, but...
My inner foodie came out on Friday night when I took my sister to Graham Elliot for her birthday dinner. It was only slightly selfish seeing as I have been dying to try GE since I read about Cheez-it Risotto. There is no way that is not delicious. We had a fantastic meal with great service all around. Our waitress was knowledgeable and not overbearing in anyway. We started with some cocktails while we decided on our dinner. Morgan started with the split pea bisque with a lavender marshmallow and I decided to try the crab risotto with spring onion, mascarpone cheese and fried basil. Morgan's bisque was great, the marshmallow gave it a great texture and the subtle lavender was refreshing. My risotto was really nice, I always love basil and mascarpone together, and the risotto was much lighter than I was expecting. We moved on to a bottle of Raptor Ridge Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley Oregon to go with our main courses. Morgan had the Colorado lamb, and I had the crispy sea bass. The pinot was fantastic, bright fruits and just enough acid to cut through Morgan's lamb. The lamb was served grilled on a bed of refried chickpeas with fava beans, dandelion greens and a pomegranate yogurt. My bass had fried pancetta, fidelhead ferns, braised artichoke and and orange puree. Super fresh and light and I always love fidelhead ferns. For desert we went with the deconstructed strawberry shortcake and the floral sorbet quartet (chamomile, jasmine, rose and hibiscus). The sorbet was AMAZING. I am still dreaming about the rose and Morg loved the chamomile.
The best part about the whole night was when my camera batteries died, for real. Our lovely waitress (whose name I either never got or the wine buzz erased ) sent someone over who offered to take our picture and give us a tour of the kitchen! It was crazy to have something like that happen completely unsolicited. It was exciting for me to see the inside of his kitchen, having worked in so many different styles of restaurant I like to compare and contrast. This kitchen reminded me of a combination of Barcelona restaurant in Columbus and L20. It was meticulous like Laurent Gras' kitchen, but there seemed to be more of a laid back kind of vibe. It was also cool that Graham Elliot introduced himself to us and asked how everything was and joked around for a bit. It is refreshing to see such a talented chef not taking himself too seriously. I wish I could afford to eat there more often, but it will be my go to special occasion spot from now on, I am definitely a Graham Elliot groupie.

sometimes obvious is delicious

Yesterday, being the first day off after a series of gut wrenching doubles, I laid in bed and drank coffee and read while Demetrius made me a delicious brunch. An hour or so after he got back from the bodega, I set down my book (naked - david sedaris) and ventured into the kitchen to see what was going on. I walk in and my heart sunk and my hungry stomach growled. Demetrius had gone overboard, he was marinating the bacon, using english muffins to make french toast, squeezing blood oranges for god knows what! See the thing is, I have never had marinated bacon, smoked is about as fancy as bacon can get, and english muffin french toast, that seems like a whole lot of pretentious europe and it seems that if it were good it would be as common to see on menus as brioche or challah.
Well I could not have been more wrong.
He marinated the bacon in red wine and herbs, which just tamed the salty over load that bacon can sometimes be. The french toast was fantastic, flavored with bourbon vanilla, nutmeg and blood orange topped with REAL MAPLE SYRUP (there is no substitution, imitation syrup is absolutely disgusting). Luckily I had a bottle of Rosé Prosecco in the fridge so we had some yummy mimosas as well. All in all I win, I ate a great meal and I did not have to lie to Demetrius about liking it.

Margaritas

Okay so we re-did fish taco night to try to make it better. My tacos came out basically the same, but Demetrius made a delicious mango beef fajita thing that came out awesome (but slightly overcooked). The real thing that I was trying to perfect was my margaritas. I followed the recipe for lemon sour that we use at my restaurant ( 2 parts lime juice to 1 part simple syrup and 1 part water). I bought 5 pounds of limes at Stanley's and still only came out with about a pitcher! Yikes, with the way my friends drink next time I am going to be juicing limes until my arm falls off. Honestly drinking margaritas while sitting on a patio is the best way to do it, but most of those places do not use their own mixes and I end up with a sour mix stomach ache. I have heard that Salud tequila bar has a really good margarita so I am going to have to check that out, and keep looking around town (luckily i have many kind friends who are willing to go on these research trips with me).

fish tacos (stop giggling)

Last Sunday I woke up to a beautiful and warm spring like day, so obviously I was dreaming of tequila. As is a custom in my kitchen I planned the meal around the libations, and fish tacos and fresh margaritas sounded like the perfect combination. Luckily I had no idea how to make either of these and decided to be completely stubborn and not look either up on the internet. I mean don't get me wrong, I can make a mean margarita, but in terms of making fresh sour I was clueless and don't even own a hand juicer (luckily i do own a boyfriend with strong hands). Regardless we made do and I bought orange peach mango juice to add to the mix. I didn't use grand marnier in the margaritas because I figured the juice would be enough (and i was being cheap) . Surprisingly the margaritas were not the best part of the night, the fish tacos came out pretty good.
I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew that I wanted a lot of bright veggies and fresh flavors. I bought green, red, yellow and orange bell peppers, red onion, and some frozen organic sweet corn. I also got about 2lbs of dover sole filets frozen from Trader Joes. I defrosted this and then marinated it in fresh oranges, white wine, a few dashes of cholula hot sauce, salt, pepper and a few other random spices.
I (laura) diced the bell peppers and red onion, and I boiled the corn to al dente and sauteed it all together for about ten minutes. I served it over corn tortillas with rice and black beans and a whole lot of condiments (white cheddar, guacamole, fresh salsa, sour cream, limes).
The meal itself was pretty easy to make, but depending on how much you do from scratch can be time consuming. My friend john is the sous chef at an upscale taqueria and he has promised to teach me how to make a variety of salsas and guacamoles from scratch.
I am making another version of this dinner tomorrow night for more people (last time there were only 8 or 9 of us who ate) and I am going to focus on making some really badass margaritas.

come on spring just get here already

The few warm days last week really spoiled me. I got excited for spring and summer in logan square. I love my 'hood, but in the winter I forget how much I enjoy just about anything other than my bed (my mom got me one of those memory foam thing - awesome!).
Friday Demetrius and I celebrated the ability to walk down the street in spring jackets by having lunch at Lula Cafe before I had to go in to work. I had one of the best sandwiches of my life, and that's saying a lot because I love sandwiches. It was braised beef shortrib with gréyure, tomato remoulade, arugula and a fried egg! It was served on a mini baguette with roasted redskin potatoes and a small mixed green salad. The sandwich was just about perfect, melty braised beef shortribs against the crusty bread. The only thing that I would have changed was the egg was fried overhard, to me a perfect fried egg is over medium, so that some of the drippy yolk can cover the sandwich. I got really accustomed to adding an egg to hamburgers or steak when I was in Europe, and I have never looked back. The sandwich was so filling that we probably should not have split a half order of the special french toast for dessert, but it just sounded soooo good. Brioche toast stuffed with rhubarb covered in a pistachio cremá - HEAVENLY! I have no regrets, even if I did feel like I was going to vomit for the first hour of work - totally worth it.

Other "springtime forays" included Polish Dinner hosted by Laura's polish cousins who were in town visiting. Yummy sausage and sauerkraut with choice of mustards. The only thing that made this spring like is that I was able to walk there and back in relative comfort. Danny and I also made a fun night out of going to the whirlaway lounge for drinks served to us by logan square's communal grandmother, and La Puebla for 24 hour mexican food served in a restaurant designed by the Golden Girls. Now all I need is for the trees along Kedzie to start blooming and I will be happy as a clam.