use real butter » 2007

archive for January 2007

food overload

Sunday, January 21st, 2007

love your citrus

We had rib eye steaks a few nights ago because I got lazy and didn’t want to cook an elaborate meal. In my effort to cut down on beef consumption, we split a one-pound rib eye between the two of us and ended up saving half of it for leftovers. I found it in the fridge while rummaging around for something to make for lunch today.

slice beef, set atop swiss on buttered bread

heat over medium flame until cheese melts

top with lettuce, tomatoes, and some pseudo cheese shop house dressing

It was snowing all morning and by the time we took our recycling to the dump, we noticed there was about 4 inches of accumulation. Jeremy shoveled the drive when we got back home and I told him we ought to take advantage of the snow. So we went out for a fast hour of xcountry skiing. It was divine and a nice cardio workout.

conditions were fast and sweet

After skiing, we drove down to Boulder to check out some (more) gear before heading over to Andrew and Nicole’s place for dinner. Beth was there too and we got to watch some of her video footage from her field work in the Galapagos! The seal pups were really cute, but I honestly wanted to try one of the red crabbies… perhaps with some drawn butter? We had a lot of fun and the dinner was fabulous.

andrew is a master of atmospheric science, pasta, and delicious pizza with pancetta

nicole prepares the mushroom ragu (ragout, if you are french)

beth can’t wait to dig into the creamy polenta

dessert was a hand-crafted tart courtesy of nicole

my slice of creamy, fruity goodness

posted in entertaining, fruit, general, lunch, sandwiches
take a nibble

some soup

Sunday, January 21st, 2007

kitchen tutorial: chicken coconut soup (thom kha kai)
Another favorite Thai recipe from last night is Thom Kha Kai. I usually make this with shitake mushrooms, but had the notion to grab a can of straw mushrooms at the Asian market to use instead.

you’ll need mushrooms, chicken broth, sliced ginger (or galangal), sliced lemon grass, fish sauce, lemon juice, chicken, coconut milk, tamarind concentrate, and chili garlic paste

heat the broth, juice, fish sauce, ginger, and lemon grass in a pot until boiling
add sliced chicken

let soup return to boil, add coconut milk
stir in a spoonful of chili garlic paste, then stir in a couple spoonfuls of tamarind paste

serve hot, garnish with cilantro (which I forgot to buy)

posted in asian, soup, spicy
2 nibbles

feeling good

Saturday, January 20th, 2007

My back is nearly 100% recovered! I even did a little rowing on the machine today before biking and it didn’t seem to aggravate my back at all. I firmly believe that my daily hour of intense cardio has helped my mending process (in addition to a lot of ice). Thanks everyone, for your various forms of advice.

kitchen tutorial: pad thai
I spent a couple of hours cooking in the kitchen tonight without any back trouble, so I know things are nearly back to normal. I made Thai food. Here’s one of the dishes:

soak rice noodles in water until pliable
salted turnip can be bought in any asian grocery store

minced garlic, chili powder, green onions, eggs, ground dried shrimp, tamarind concentrate, lime juice, salted turnips, rice noodles, bean sprouts, unsalted peanuts, fish sauce
sauté garlic in hot oil until golden

add noodles and fry until soft
combine fish sauce, lime juice, chili, shrimp, tamarind and pour over noodles

mix the noodles well and add turnip, half of the ground peanuts, half of the green onions, remove from pan
heat oil and pour in beaten eggs, when eggs are nearly cooked, flip the egg sheet

add the noodles and fold egg over noodles - remove to plate
sauté sprouts and remaining green onions

top with sprouts, onions, peanuts and serve

posted in asian
take a nibble