Journeys

26 Saturday May 2012

Posted by in Beverages, North Carolina, Stateside Cuisine

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Today I have Carolina In My Mind. 

If you haven’t figured out by now, I listen to lots of music. I listen to music when I work, when I run or do yoga, in the car, on the train and when I just need to relax. It’s rubbed off on Miss A too. She sings constantly, and I do mean constantly. She sings everything from Adele to Ozzy Osbourne. I’m fairly certain she knows the words to more popular music than she does children songs (and she knows lots of those too).

Music for me defines certain moments in my life, represents different journeys and is often a direct extension of many of my inner most thoughts and feelings. Recently, Mike and I were able to venture on a little journey of our own. While the kids were off having a great time with Nana and Papa, Mike and I took a mid-week road trip to North Carolina.

Neither of us had ever stayed in the tar heel state before, and we were both looking forward to the drive and the destination. As we ambled our way around North Carolina we came across an area where we could access the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail is approximately 2,184 miles extending from Mount Katahdin, Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia. It passes through 14 different states and has been on my list of things to do since I was 18. While not hiking the AT on this particular trip, just standing on it gave me quite a thrill.

Eventually Mike and I wound up in Asheville, North Carolina at the Tupelo Honey Cafe. One glance at the menu and we knew we picked the perfect spot. While nearly everything on the menu looked fantastic, the first thing that grabbed my attention was the Rosemary Peach Lemonade. Rosemary in lemonade? I knew I had to give it a try and after one sip, I was blown away. The flavors are intense – peaches, lemons and of course, rosemary which brought such a refreshing crispness to the perfect summer drink. It instantly got my wheels spinning…how could I make this at home? I mean now that I had experienced this drink I knew I couldn’t wait until our next trip to North Carolina, especially not knowing when that would be!

Fortunately, in scanning my Cooking Light issue for the month of June I came across a recipe for Peach Lemonade. I took this as a sign, so today we bring you our first recipe from North Carolina, a nod to the Tupelo Honey Cafe, Rosemary Peach Lemonade. We started by making a simple syrup infused with rosemary.

The sugar is dissolved in water, and the syrup and left to simmer with the rosemary sprigs for 15 to 20 minutes. We then strained the syrup and discarded the rosemary, leaving the liquid to chill.

Next we began to prepare the peach juice. We combined peaches, water and sugar in a saucepan, brought it to a boil and then simmered it for five minutes.

We let the peaches stand for a few more minutes without any heat and then carefully poured the hot juice into the blender.

We removed the center of the blender, placed a towel over the lid and blended until smooth. We then poured the juice into a large bowl and placed it in the refrigerator to chill. In the meantime, Miss A took care of juicing the lemons. Put your muscles into it girl! Woo!

After a few hours, and preschool, it was time to strain the peach juice. We poured the juice through a sieve, pressing out the solids to extract as much juice as possible.

Then finally it was time to mix our three components, the peach juice, lemon juice and rosemary syrup. (The kitchen smelled fabulous by the way.)

We poured our rosemary peach lemonade over ice in glass which we lined with some red-colored sugar. The kids were super excited about that!

Miss A even asked in utter bewilderment, “I get to eat the sugar?” And Mr. N gave an “Oh, does that look good!”

After a few sips, the kids conferred with one another.

For Miss A, this was an instant hit. Four spoons.

Mr. N needed a bit more before rendering his vote. (He takes his critiques very seriously.)

And the final vote was, four spoons. Definitely four spoons.

The rosemary peach lemonade was a big hit with Mike and I as well. Four spoons each. I’m not sure that it tasted exactly like the Tupelo Honey Cafe’s version, but they are the experts after all. That said, it sure was fantastically refreshing, at least as good as my memory and certainly brought Carolina In My Mind.

And while I don’t have any immediate plans to tackle the AT, it’s certainly still on my list of things to do, and this refreshing drink will help to keep it in my sights. I wonder what music I’ll bring along for that journey! By the way, Mr. N says he’ll be joining me. Now that would be a journey of a lifetime! :)

For all those in the Northern Hemisphere, I hope you’re enjoying the first weekend of the summer season. I know we certainly are, afterall with these two,

it’s always a journey of some kind. Cheers!

Print this recipe: Rosemary Peach Lemonade

Let the Good Times Roll

22 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in Side Dish, Stateside Cuisine, Uncategorized

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It’s been a while since we featured a random recipe, so before we launch off to a new country and the next state in our rotation, we thought we’d share this gem of a salad. You see, we’ve been on something of a roll with goodness lately (Yep, I have a song for this one too.). In fact, the kids haven’t even complained about what’s on their plates in nearly two weeks.

While we will take some credit for a few of the recipes winning them over, several of you deserve the credit too. In the last two weeks we’ve enjoyed recipes from Raymund at Ang Sarap, Courtney at Misadventures in Cooking, Charles at Five Euro Food, Sawsan at Chef in Disguise, John at From the Bartolini Kitchens, and Mary at Inside a British Mum’s Kitchen.

I kid you not, the kids have eaten all of these meals, enjoyed them and asked for more. We even heard phrases like, “Can we eat this every night?” and “Mom, you’re the best cook in the world.” I’m really astounded at this latest turn of events, especially considering none of these have been dessert recipes. Now I have no doubt this streak will come to an end, but until then, we wanted to share this Southwest Farro Salad with you all.

As for the salad, it really couldn’t be any easier. We started with some farro, a grain similar to barley and also referred to as wheatberries or spelt depending on where it is grown and what type of grain is used.

We cooked our farro a day ahead of time and chilled it in the fridge.

In an effort to simplify dinner the next day, we also rinsed and drained our black beans and chopped our tomato, mango and cilantro a day ahead of time.

The following evening at dinner, we chopped up some avocado,

and whisked together our vinaigrette using lime zest and juice, cumin, salt and pepper and chipotle infused olive oil (courtesy of Kitchen Belleicious).

Finally we tossed the salad and vinaigrette and were ready to go.

We served the Southwest farro salad alongside Courtney’s Honey Lime Tilapia which we only modified slightly. First we tossed some freshly chopped cilantro in the breading which we composed of part whole wheat flour and part panko.

The whole meal comes together so easily and it’s full of powerful flavors and satisfying textures. The marinade for the fish is outstanding. It was an instant family hit, so much so, it reappeared on our table this week as part of a fish taco. Thank you Courtney!

As for the farro salad, it was a hit too. The chipotle olive oil brought a lot to the table and the sweetness of the tomatoes and mango balanced nicely with the lime and cumin. It was a 3 spoon dish for Mike and a 4 spoon dish for me (based in part on the ease of the recipe).

Mr. N and Miss A were also smitten with the farro salad. Mr. N even ate the tomatoes without a hint of displeasure. In fact, when he requested seconds I asked him if he knew there were tomatoes in the salad to which he said, “Huh. I guess they’re just good in this.”

Miss A also ate her farro salad. She especially enjoyed the black beans, avocado and mango, but just like her big brother even ate the tomatoes. Most surprising for Miss A though was the fact that she ate the grain, which is a pretty big deal being as how she despises rice. In other words, this salad actually rang in at 3 spoons from the kids, both of whom requested we have this meal again. I know I’m game!

Now let’s just hope the good times keep on rolling as we recreate a few North Carolina recipes and venture off to…(drumroll please)

Romania! Maria any suggestions? Cheers all! Have a great week and we’ll see you back on the weekend.

Print this recipe: Southwest Farro Salad

All Stuffed Up

18 Friday May 2012

Posted by in Breakfast, French Toast, Maine, Stateside Cuisine

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Stuffed up with goodness that is! Just you wait and see.

We’re back a bit early this week for two reasons. First and foremost to express our gratitude to Deborah over at Taste and Tell Blog for featuring Eat, Play, Love in this week’s Blogger Spotlight. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Deborah’s blog, it’s a wonderful and delicious little space in the blogosphere. Deborah is a blogging veteran, a pro. She creates simple and tasty recipes and shares them through an honest writing style and tantalizing photos. To say we were honored would be an understatement. Thank you Deborah!

Now for the second reason we’re posting today – Blueberry Stuffed French Toast. It’s our latest contender in the French Toast Tourney and if this doesn’t end up as one of the final four, well you can butter my buns and call me a biscuit. In other words, you may not want to wait for the winner next March. This one is a must try, at least in my book.

While I wasn’t planning on really cooking on Mother’s Day, French toast seemed like a great way to hang out with the kids and enjoy some deliciousness. Plus it’s French toast – it doesn’t get much easier. So to get started we crafted our own recipe based on ingredients we had on hand and what sounded good.

We started by mixing some mascarpone cheese with powdered sugar and some lemon zest.

You can bet Miss A was all over this part of the recipe. She just couldn’t help herself from sampling the stuffing. It is cheese and sugar after all.

Next she and Mike sliced the tops off of the buns and cut pockets through the center. We chose a white bread bun, but thick bread would work equally well. Miss A then helped to stuff the mascarpone mix into the pockets which lent itself to more taste testing.

While Mike and Miss A were busy stuffing, I worked on our toppings. First I grabbed some pecans, butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.

I toasted the pecans in the butter and then caramelized them in the sugar. Yum!

Next I whipped up some of our good ol’ Maine Blueberry Sauce. Next to our Kauai Granola this is probably one of our most often repeated recipes. We typically use Maine blueberries which we find frozen at the store, but regular blueberries would work just as well. I’m just partial to the Maine variety.

Once the sauce was cooling it was time to prepare the French toast.

Mr. N was on-deck for his expert whisking and dipping. For the batter he whisked together eggs, milk, vanilla and freshly grated nutmeg. He then soaked the stuffed bread in the egg mixture, coating it completely, as Miss A serenaded him through her “microphone.” On this particular day she was singing that 80′s classic, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – which she doesn’t merely sing, but belts out with a level of passion and soul that is sure to make Cyndi Lauper proud. It’s quite entertaining. Mr. N remained unphased, however, and focused on his task at hand.

And it was all over his hands!

Next it was onto the butter greased griddle with our freshly dipped French toast. We cooked the bread about 3 to 4 minutes per side, until it was golden brown and the cheese in the center was nice and warm.

Then it was time to dig in! We topped the blueberry stuffed French toast with the toasted, sugary pecans, blueberry sauce and a dollop of freshly whipped cream (into which we threw some lemon zest).

Needless to say, I thought this was darn, stinkin’ wonderful! It was definitely a 4 spoon French toast for me and so far, my leading contender. It was simply perfection for my taste buds. The blueberry and lemons – yum! The buttery pecans and whipped cream – oh my! Yes, I’m smitten with this one.

Miss A and Mr. N were quite pleased too. Mr. N had seconds and Miss A actually ate most of her serving. She’s a huge blueberry fan, much like her Pops was – I know he would have LOVED this. Each of the kids gave this 4 spoons too.

Mike, the biggest fan of blueberries in the house, didn’t give this 4 spoons though. I have to say, he is a harsh critic when it comes to his breakfast foods and has a really high bar for his 4 spoon ranking. He did enjoy the French toast immensely, but said he still wasn’t willing to give this one top marks. His system for ranking French toast seems almost as complicated to me as the RPI. No doubt French Toast Madness will be interesting.

So if you’re looking for a delicious, highly caloric, brunch recipe for the weekend, this one is a winner. It’s sure to leave you good and stuffed.

Many thanks again to Deborah! We’ll be back early next week to announce the next country on our culinary tour. Mike’s up to bat this round. And we’ll likely have a new state night to feature as well. Have a great weekend everyone. Cheers!

Print this recipe: Blueberry Stuffed French Toast
(Measurements are approximate as we did this on the fly.)

Buuz Cruuz

15 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in Uncategorized, Main Dish, Mongolia

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By Mike

I’ve been on one cruise in my life, to the Bahamas for my mom’s 50th birthday celebration, and it was indeed a booze cruise. My grandma announced at some point that “this is my second daiquiri, and I am looped!” And by “some point” I mean in the hour or so between the time we boarded and the time the ship left port.

Sadly, I’ll never take a cruise to Mongolia, as it’s landlocked in Central Asia, so our virtual cruise around the world will have to suffice. With that, we bring you Buuz, a Mongolian meat-filled dumpling typically comprised of ground mutton and very little seasoning. For our Buuz we went with ground beef and a touch of seasonings.

The first step is to make the dough to wrap the dumplings in, which simply involves kneading whole wheat flour with salt and water.

Meanwhile, mix the ground beef with salt, pepper, onion and garlic in the food processor.

Next the dough gets separated into into small balls.

These get rolled out and topped with the meat filling–just a dollop is plenty.

The dough was pretty easy to work with, and they folded right up into nice dumpling shapes.

The buuz can be steamed or fried, and we went with steamed, in part because it’s healthier and in part because we know how Kristy feels about deep-frying.

Once they’re done, you’re supposed to fan some air over them to give them a glossy appearance, and we served ours over asparagus.

The dumplings were good, but my initial reaction was that they needed a sauce. Ketchup is the recommended topping, and that’s actually a good match. The filling tastes much like meatloaf, which screams for ketchup in my humble opinion, but it just didn’t feel “Mongolian” to me. Perhaps its the Russian influence.

Everyone liked it, though Miss A took just a nibble at the dough and left it alone for most of dinner. The big hit for her was the asparagus, believe it or not. She ate three big stalks, much to the pleasant surprise of Kristy and I. Finally we got her to open up the dumpling and taste the meat, and taste it she did, sticking the whole thing in her mouth rather than the rabbit-size nibbles she was putting on the dough.

While everyone liked it, nobody loved it and it was a two-spoon meal all around. Miss A was right, the asparagus was better, and while I do enjoy perfectly done asparagus, I can’t give any more than two spoons to something that can’t beat a green vegetable.

Buuz concludes our virtual cruise to Mongolia, and while we didn’t get looped on this cruise, we sure enjoyed our trip.

Print this recipe: Buuz

To Everything There is a Season

12 Saturday May 2012

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“A time to be born, a time to die. A time to plant, a time to reap. A time to kill, a time to heal. A time to laugh, a time to weep.”

Before we wrap up our cooking tour of Mongolia we thought we’d share our latest gardening adventure – a first here at Eat, Play, Love. Now, I have to be up-front, I am not a gardener. I do not have a green thumb and I typically kill (albeit unintentionally) the heartiest of plants. So this year I figured I’d get the kids in on the action. Miss A after all has been a big help in teaching me not to kill yeast and to actually get a bread to rise. I’m hoping some of her natural ability rubs off on me here as well.

Miss A and I began our project by planting some seeds for sage, rosemary and lavender.

We started the seeds several weeks ago, intending to grow them inside for several weeks to avoid the risk of frost. We’ve had a very mild spring, but you just never know.

Miss A and I had a great time scooping dirt, tucking in the seeds and protecting them from the whipping winds we had that day.

She did assure me, “Don’t worry mommy. I’ll teach you how to grow plants.” And truthfully, I actually believe she will. It’s amazing what kids can teach you.

We carefully carried the plants inside and placed them on a stand near the sunniest window. It’s also the safest place where they are out-of-the-way of traffic. Or so we thought. A few weeks after planting our lovely little seeds, we got our first sprout. It was lavender and I was beyond excited – beaming with pride even. We actually got a seed to grow! Well, in the excitement of the moment the kids got a bit pushy with each other about who was going to stand nearest the sprouts and yep…the plants went down.

Dirt all over the carpet. The sprout nowhere to be seen. I was near tears as I silently scooped up the dirt and placed it back in the planters. The kids, expecting me to begin with a reprimand, were a bit taken aback by my silence. They instantly began with apologies, promises to buy more seeds and try again. They felt pretty bad. I cleaned everything up and said, well, we’ll just see what happens, but from now on only one person at a time can be near the seeds. The kids agreed.

So we kept up with the watering for several more weeks. I figured all hope was lost and that growing plants is just not in the cards for me. Then wouldn’t you know…we got a new sprout. And then two more sprouts. And now we’ve got sprouts in nearly every little compartment.

Now I know a few of the compartments are definitely sage. Four of the sage containers did not spill. As for the others, I have no idea what is sprouting up. It could be sage. It could be rosemary. Or it could be lavender. I really have no idea, but honestly I don’t care. We have sprouts!

The kids were so excited, and a bit relieved, that new life was sprouting up. Every day they check on the progress and announce with such pride and enthusiasm if a new plant has popped up.

Miss A, however, is not surprised, “I told you that I would help you grow plants mommy.”

She has since informed me that we will let them grow until they are ready and then we will eat them because she LOVES rosemary. Now the next part of the plan is to wait until the sprouts are a bit stronger, then Mr. N and I will transfer them to some larger pots and move them to our patio. If anyone has any good tips about transplanting, we’d love to hear them!

Now since it’s Mother’s Day weekend, I plan to be outside most of the day tomorrow cleaning up the flower beds, laying down mulch and playing with the kiddos in the backyard. I do not plan on cooking anything. Instead I plan on celebrating my babies and being grateful for the gift of being a mom.

My first baby, Mr. N several weeks old.

I tend to look at Mother’s Day differently now that I’m a mom. When I was a child it was of course the day to celebrate my own mom, shower her with gifts and hugs and spend the day with family. While I absolutely still celebrate my own mom and everything that she has done, and continues to do, for me; it’s now become more of a day of gratitude and reflection about my own motherhood.

Tiny Mr. N, my favorite boy in the whole wide world.

I don’t expect to be showered with gifts. The sweet little projects the kids bring home from school are more than enough. The amount of pride and excitement they have to share these with me is the best part of it all. I also don’t expect to be catered to throughout the day or get any kind of special attention. All I really want is a day of uninterrupted time with my husband and my kids. They are my gifts.

Pretty in pink. My favorite girl in the whole wide world.

I know my kids love me. I know my husband appreciates me. I don’t need a special day to be shown those things. I just want a day to relax and be grateful for all that I have, as it’s more than I could have ever hoped for.

Miss A was even a spunky baby!

I’ve been blessed with an amazing family and two downright, silly, loving, sometimes stubborn, and amazingly beautiful children. That is my happy Mother’s Day.

Now of course we will have to eat this weekend, and I’m thinking maybe we’ll try a new French toast recipe for breakfast tomorrow. You really can’t go wrong with that, at least in my book. So until next time, we’d like to share the links to a few recipes we whipped up last night for some friends. We started the evening with a version of Kay’s Strawberry Champagne Slushies. We served them a delicious bruschetta appetizer that was a twist on two other strawberry recipes – This one which we whipped up last summer, and this one from Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide. Delicious!

Mom and babies outside yoga this morning. Happy Mother’s Day!

We’ll be back early in the week to wrap up Mongolia. Have a great weekend and start to the week. And happy Mother’s Day to all the other mom’s out there – especially my mom.

Mongolia Rocks!

08 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in Main Dish, Mongolia

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Alright, who’s ready for some Mongolian main course meals? When we first started researching all we really knew of Mongolian food was that we’d eaten at BD’s Mongolian Grill and had heard of Mongolian Beef. Well, it turns out that the food served at the Mongolian Grill isn’t really Mongolian at all. In fact, here’s what Wikipedia has to say:

Although one such locale, BD’s Mongolian Grill, has opened even in Ulaanbaatar (ironically the first American chain to open in Mongolia), neither the ingredients nor the cooking method has anything in common with Mongolian cuisine. Rather, they are inspired by the Japanese teppanyaki.

And as for Mongolian Beef, well that has its origins in American Chinese cooking and is also not Mongolian. So we had to do some more digging. Mongolian diets rely heavily on meat – particularly from domesticated animals. As much as we try to keep true to the local traditions, we weren’t about to eat horse, yak or camel, so we opted for the next best thing – lamb, which is also a common meal. There are several ways to cook lamb, one we’ll explore later in the week, but by far the most interesting one to us was the traditional Mongolian Khorkhog (pronounced “horhog”). We knew that we had to give this a try.

We began the recipe with smooth rocks. Ocean rocks in our case. (It helps that we have a rock collector in the house. Thanks Mr. N!)

We got the rocks super hot by cooking them on the grill over really hot charcoal, a campfire would work as well.

While the rocks cooked for an hour, we readied our seasonings including onion, garlic, salt and pepper.

We then cut our lamb chops while leaving it attached to the bone.

After seasoning the lamb with the salt and pepper we headed out to check on the rocks. We placed the smaller, very hot rocks, in the base of our wok.

We then tossed the seasoned lamb chops over the rocks,

followed by our onions, garlic, lemons (which we added to the recipe for good measure) and a few more rocks.

Next we poured in some white wine, honey and water – enough to cover the meat.

We covered the wok, securing the lid tightly, and placed it on the grill.

The lamb steams in the wok for between an hour to two hours, depending on when the meat reaches the desired level of doneness. Ours steamed for about an hour and 45 minutes. Just look at the steam that was swirling around in there!

We served our lamb chops with some crusty French bread to sop up some of the broth created by the cooking process. You could also serve this over white rice if desired.

Now here’s how I expected things to go based on our past experiences with lamb, I figured Mr. N and Mike would love this. They have devoured our other lamb recipes. I also didn’t expect Miss A and I to be very keen on it as we’re not big into the strong flavor of lamb. Well, you can probably guess that things didn’t quite go as planned.

Mike and Mr. N were not overly impressed by the meal. Mr. N was more fascinated by the fact that his rocks had changed color. Most of them became dark black, except for the yellow rock which turned a deep red. Mike felt the texture was right on, it was cooked well, but a bit too bland. Mr. N felt the same way. It was 2-1/2 spoons for both of them. They did, however, really enjoy the broth with the bread. That wasn’t too bland.

Now I have to admit, while I was totally looking forward to cooking this meal (which almost didn’t happen with the thunderstorms we had nearly all day), I wasn’t very excited about eating lamb again. It usually is just too strong and funky of a flavor for me. The khorkhog actually surprised me though. I didn’t find the flavor to be overly funky (how’s that for a descriptor) and it was fall off the bone good. It earned a surprising 3 spoons from me.

So how about Miss A? She’s been rather picky as of late – well, excepting dessert recipes. Would you believe that Miss A doled out 602 spoons for this meal? Yep. She’s gotten a bit crazy with her spoons lately too. In all seriousness though, this one was a definite 4 spoon dish for her. She ate all of her lamb and some of mine! Who would have thought.

As for the rocks, well, we passed those around before the meal as is part of the Mongolian tradition. It is said to bring peace and reduce stress, and I have to say, it was very soothing. It also brought a bit of humor to the table as Miss A held her rock and said, “But it’s not soft yet. How am I supposed to eat it?” The three of us, especially Mr. N, got a pretty big kick out of that one.

So there you have our version of the Mongolian Khorkhog adapted for cooking at home. It was so much fun and an experience none of us will ever forget. I mean we certainly never expected to be grilling rocks and then tossing food over them. It was a great recipe to make with the kids, and actually very easy when it came down to it. Let’s just hope the next Mongolian recipe goes as smoothly. We’ll be back Saturday to share it with you.

In the meantime, if you would like to leave a comment (we love them!), and don’t want to receive emails every time someone else leaves a comment, don’t forget to uncheck the follow comments button that WordPress has now automatically checked for you. Have a great week!

B is for Boortsog That’s Good Enough for Me

05 Saturday May 2012

Posted by in Desserts, Mongolia

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Mr. N is in the driver’s seat for the next few weeks and he’s picked for us to cook some meals from Mongolia. I need to go back and look, but I believe that Mr. N has picked an Asian country more than half of the time. He loves Asian foods and if I had to guess, I would say that aside from pizza, it’s probably his favorite type of cuisine (followed by Italian). We laugh about Mr. N’s choice every time because Mike is dying to pick Thailand, but we don’t want to pick two countries from the same continent to follow each other, and Mike always picks after Mr. N. So this time, Mike has asked Mr. N if next pick they can make a deal. We’ll see how that holds up in a month or so.

Mongolia is a land-locked country in East and Central Asia, bordering Russia and China. As such, it is influenced by the foods of these two large neighbors. We usually save the dessert recipes for last, but we’re feeling rebellious this week. Woo! Okay, maybe it’s just that this happens to be a really easy recipe and it fit into our schedule, but rebellious just sounds more fun. So what is this Mongolian dessert recipe that we bring to you today? Boortsog – deep-fried cookies!

The recipe is a simple one. First, you melt the butter in a sauce pan and stir in some sugar, salt and milk until dissolved.

Next you pour the melted butter into a large mixing bowl with four cups of flour. Using your hands, you begin to form the dough into a ball. This process reminded me a lot of making a pie crust. The dough may need a bit of extra liquid to form into a smooth ball, so if necessary add six to eight tablespoons of water (or milk).

Once the dough is smooth it’s time to roll it out. Most boortsog is rolled rather thick – like to about 1-1/2-inches. We wanted a bit smaller portions so we rolled them to about 1/4″ to 1/2″ thickness.

Next it’s time to shape the cookies. Mr. N chose a dinosaur cookie cutter and Miss A picked the dragon-fly. They couldn’t wait to get to this part of the process. Miss A said it was just like playing with Play-Doh, only better because you could eat it. I did notice quite a few pinches of dough go missing.

Once the cookies are cut, it’s time to heat the oil. We used about 48 ounces of vegetable oil, filling our large stock pot to about 2 to 2-1/2 inches.

When the oil reaches 350F, turn the heat from medium to low and begin to fry the cookies in batches. (After experiencing a grease fire years ago – before I knew how to cook – we make sure to now use a thermometer and keep the baking soda handy.)

You’ll want to fry the cookies until they’re golden brown. Ours took about five minutes.

After you remove the cookies from the oil, you’ll want to place them on paper towels to drain and cool. Then it’s time to serve them up. Boortsog can be eaten at room temperature, but they are best warm.

I was worried about the shapes holding up in the oil, particularly the dinosaur with the thin neck and tail, but they did great. The cookies, or biscuits if you prefer, were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Mr. N and Miss A were about jumping out of their skin to try one of these. The cooling process was nearly the end of them, that is, until they decided to play with some of the leftover dough. I swear I had more of a mess to clean up after this recipe than I did with the deliberate tossing of peanut shells on the floor.

Fortunately, the wait was worth it. Especially for Miss A. She absolutely loved the boortsog, which we tried on their own first.

Mr. N thought they were a bit too bland for him; although he kept eating his cookie. He seemed kind of torn on his verdict.

After taking a bite, I understood what he meant. I wasn’t really sure how I felt about them with my initial taste, but the more bites I took, the more it grew on me.

Then we tried them with some raspberry preserves. Doesn’t that dinosaur just look like he wants the jelly?

The warm boortsog were delicious with the preserves. It definitely took these cookies up a notch. Mr. N agreed and came in with his final vote of 3 spoons. Miss A liked the cookies both ways and declared they were a definite 102 spoons. Hmm…looks like the dinosaur has gone extinct.

Perhaps it was a Cookie Monster.

I think a version with the letter B is in order Cookie. So how did Mike and I rank the boortsog? Well, they are a strong 3 spoon for us. Definitely tasty, but definitely unhealthy. They were kind of a cross between a deep-fried cookie and a deep-fried biscuit. Almost doughnut-like, but crunchier. As far as flour-laden cookies go though, these were better than others we’ve tried. And surprisingly they taste pretty good a day or two later too.

This weekend we’re going to embark on a real Mongolian cooking adventure. We’re all pretty excited about it actually. Wish us luck as this one is way out of the comfort zone and we’ll be back early next week to share the results. Cheers!

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My Old Kentucky Home

01 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in Kentucky, Main Dish, Stateside Cuisine

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Okay, so I’ve never actually had a home in Kentucky, but as a kid I was obsessed with all things Kentucky. I was convinced I was going to live there – on a horse farm of course – and I had plans to loyally attend the Derby every year. In fact as a kid, I was rather obsessed with the Derby too. I’d watch the race day coverage for hours and I’d make sure to get all the local newspapers from the weekend so that I could scrapbook the event.

Flash-forward 25 years and I’ve still yet to attend the actual Derby, and I have no desire to own or live on a horse farm, but the first Saturday of May still holds a special place in my heart – even if I don’t have time to sit down and watch the entire coverage. So you can imagine my smile when Mr. N picked Kentucky for our state night this week. Good timing. Now while I was tempted to make that bourbon sirloin steak again and call it a recipe from Kentucky, I didn’t think you all would buy it.

Instead we did some digging around for Derby Day recipes. That’s when we came across a recipe in Southern Living Magazine for Kentucky Hot Browns. We opted for the less caloric version and began by making the Parmesan cheese sauce. Ingredients include butter, flour, milk, Parm, salt, pepper and paprika. Feel free to add hot sauce if you like as well – we left it out for the kids’ sake.

We first melted the butter, whisked in the flour and then gradually added the milk. Once the sauce thickened, we added the Parmesan and seasonings. The sauce was nice and creamy.

Next we sliced up some multi-grain bread (Not homemade this time. We were going for speed for this weeknight recipe.) and topped it with slices of deli turkey.

Next we topped some slices (the ones for Mike and I) with caramelized onions and then poured the cheese sauce over top. I’ll admit the onions were a bit over-toasted. That’s what happens when you try to multi-task (read: answer three phone calls, snap some photos, have a three-year old tugging on your back pocket and a seven-year old still telling you jokes).

We toasted the cheese sauce topped hot browns in the broiler for about two or three minutes when the cheese sauce was browned and bubbly.

We then topped the open-faced sandwiches with tomatoes, bacon crumbles and an additional sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. (Yes, this is still the less caloric version.)

For the kids version, we left off the onion, hot sauce and tomatoes. We just knew those ingredients would not have gone over well. Unfortunately the hot brown was still not a favorite for Miss A. She took a lick of the cheese sauce and declared that she would not eat this again and that it was 1 spoon. She later ate the turkey and bacon crumbles.

Mr. N, however, was a big fan of the Kentucky Hot Brown. He even tried to convince Miss A that the cheese sauce isn’t great on its own, but when you eat it with the turkey, bread and bacon it’s really good. He came in with 3 spoons.

Mike and I fell somewhere in between the kids ratings. It was good, but not something we’d seek out again. We ended up at 2-1/2 and 2 spoons respectively, both agreeing that we’d prefer the Welsh Rarebit to this.

Now I do have to wonder if I’d like the more caloric version better. Still, I think I’d go rarebit again first. We’re going to have to find one more recipe from Kentucky before we wrap up this state adventure because I have a feeling Kentucky probably has some kickin’ desserts. At least I know Mike and I did when we stopped in at Jean Ferris on a recent weekend getaway to North Carolina. (Yes – we’ve got some North Carolina recipes coming up soon too.)

Have a great rest of the week and we’ll see you in a few days with Mr. N’s new international destination – Mongolia! Until then, I have to go brush up on this years horses so I can make my Derby pick.

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Heating Things Up

28 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by in Main Dish, Mozambique

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We’re back with our final recipe from Mozambique today. This one is brought to you by Mr. N. Aside from a little roasting and the skillet work toward the end of the recipe, he pretty much whipped up this meal on his own. It’s simple, it’s quick and oh yes, it’s very, very good. As we were reading about Mozambique foods and recipes we kept coming across dishes with a piri piri sauce. Piri piri is a type of African birds eye chili pepper commonly grown in Mozambique and it’s used as the basis of a spicy sauce for flavoring meats and seafood. I’m sure you can probably guess, we opted to go the seafood route and created our version of Piri Piri Shrimp adapted from an Aida Mollenkamp recipe on The Food Network.

We began our recipe with Serrano peppers which are a bit less intense than the birds eye chili peppers which we thought would be better for the kids.

We roasted the peppers in the oven set at 500F until they were blackened.

Next we gathered up the remaining ingredients for the piri piri sauce which included garlic, paprika, freshly squeezed lemon juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, parsley and cilantro.

Mr. N then tossed everything into the blender, including the roasted peppers from which we had removed the stems and seeds, and set it to puree.

You can see he was very serious about his work (and a bit hungry). Once the sauce was good and smooth he poured it over our raw, peeled and deveined shrimp.

This recipe is so simple that Mr. N began to tell jokes as he stirred the sauce with the shrimp. How many seconds are in a year? I’ll let you think about that one mom.

Twelve! January 2nd. February 2nd. March 2nd….Now, what do you get when you cross a Math teacher with an Art teacher?

A paint-by-number! Can you tell someone picked a joke book out at the school library today? It was quite the entertaining evening I tell you. Once the shrimp was thoroughly mixed with the piri piri sauce, we covered it and set in the fridge for an hour. You can marinate this for as little as 20 minutes or as long as 24 hours. Whatever works best.

While the shrimp marinated, we finally dug out the old rice cooker (after reading this post from Kelly over at Inspired Edibles we figured it was time to break this thing out again) and set that to steam our rice for dinner. And as we waited, the jokes kept right on going.

What’s your name?
Kristy.
Can you spell it for me?
K-R-I
Ha! Ha! Nope! You spell it I-T!

I have to admit, he got me on that one. After about an hour we were ready to get dinner on the table, so we heated up the cast iron skillet and tossed in the shrimp with the sauce. We cooked it for about five minutes, until the shrimp were cooked through and pink.

We served the piri piri shrimp over white rice and garnished it with cilantro and lemon wedges. We highly recommend using the lemon wedges as it adds a beautiful, crisp burst of freshness to the dish.

While we ate dinner, I threw Mr. N for a loop with this riddle: A man leaves home and makes a right, then a left, then another left and finally one last left. He returns home and finds two masked men. Who are they?

Mr. N continued to scarf down his shrimp as he thought about this one. In the meantime, Mike and I were raving over this dish. It was delicious. It was just the right amount of heat (read: spicy but not sweat inducing – unless you’re my dad) and full of flavor. The sauce seasoned the rice to perfection and the cilantro and lemon added a freshness to every bite. It was easily a 4 spoon meal for me. Mike thinks he still favors the shrimp Mozamibque (the green shrimp recipe) to this one, but also ended up giving it 4 spoons.

Mr. N was still working out the riddle as he threw out his 3 spoon rating. He thought it was slightly too spicy for his liking, but that it was really good. He even ended up eating Miss A’s as well. It was ultimately just too spicy for her. She did give it a good shot though, so I give her credit. She came in with a 2 spoon vote. She thought it was ok, but just too spicy. Instead she focused most (I say most because this was one of those nights that Miss A spent half of dinner screaming on the floor. This time because daddy set the table.) of her attention on eating an entire mango, a popular fruit in Mozambique by the way. 

Now in case you still haven’t figured out the answer to the riddle…The man comes home to find two masked men who are of course the catcher and the umpire. (Go Cubs!) Mr. N enjoyed that one. And speaking of Mr. N he’s next up for picking a country for our cooking around the world adventures. I’m pretty sure you can bet he’ll be heading back to Asia. He seems to really like the flavors over on that continent. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you early next week with new state night recipe. Cheers!

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Ok! Ok! Ok!

24 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Breakfast, Desserts, Oklahoma, Stateside Cuisine

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No, that’s not a rolling the eyes, placating “ok” which you might hear Mr. N mutter when it’s time for bed. Nope, that’s a cheer for Oklahoma! **Spoiler alert!** This is another good one from the Sooner State. To learn why Oklahoma is the Sooner State, check out this link from Sally, an OK resident over at the Bewitching Kitchen. See, don’t you feel smarter already?

So what could we possibly have found to top our Oklahoma Bourbon Steak Quesadillas with Peach Salsa? Well, the Made in Oklahoma site came through for us again, this time in the form of a bread pudding. A Citrus Raisin Bread Pudding to be exact.

This time, although tempted to use our Greenlandic cake recipe again, we opted to go for a sweet raisin bread in the bread machine. The result was a dense, crusty and sweet-smelling delicious raisin bread.

Now more often than not you’ll want to use a less fresh loaf of bread for bread pudding, but stick with us…we have a plan.

Miss A and Mike took care of breaking up the bread and tossing it into the greased baking dish.

Next Miss A poured some melted butter over the bread slices and tossed them to coat.

We then grabbed the rest of the pudding ingredients including half-and-half, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, skim milk, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.

You can guess who whisked it all together for us. Mike actually asked Miss A if he could whisk to which she replied, “Ugh. I’m the whisker. You’ve never whisked before.” Besides, she was having too much fun.

Finally we poured the batter over the bread which we then covered and placed in the fridge to sit overnight.

The next morning we preheated the oven to 350F and tossed the bread pudding in to bake. While the pudding was baking, we prepared the citrus sauce from sour cream, butter, sugar, orange juice and lemon zest.

First we melted the butter and the sour cream in a small sauce pan.

We then added the sugar, orange juice and lemon zest to the sauce pan, whisked it in and brought the mixture to a boil. We set that aside, keeping it warm as the pudding finished. The pudding took about an hour to get to the point that it was golden brown and puffy in the center.

But the wait, was well worth it. I have to say, I could hardly stand taking the pictures as I was so ready to dig into this goodness. Fortunately it lived up to my anticipation.

The bread was a good match with this dish – crusty enough to add the perfect amount of texture and dense enough to soak in the pudding flavors. It was easily a 4 spoon breakfast for me. Hands-down.

Mr. N too came in with a 4 spoon vote. He thought it tasted a bit like cinnamon rolls and was happy to eat a second serving.

Mike really enjoyed the bread pudding, but he hemmed and hawed over whether it was 4 spoon worthy. He’s a breakfast connoisseur and it has to be really out of this world to win over his heart. But with a drizzle of the citrus sauce…

He ultimately came in with the 4 spoon vote. I mean seriously, how could he not?! As for Miss A, well she liked it, just not as much as the rest of us. She was the only thing keeping this from becoming a coveted 4 spoon all-around winner. It was a 3 spoon breakfast for her.

I have to say, I think Oklahoma may be my favorite state so far. Last year, Colorado, was a four-spoon all-around winner for the peach buffalo steak and balsamic fingerlings, but I have to say, I think I’m going to crave Oklahoma’s dishes a bit more. I mean, I’m seriously still thinking about those steak quesadillas. So thank you Oklahoma! Yum!

We hope you’re all off to a great week. We’ll be back toward the end of the week with our final nod to Mozambique. Now, I’m going to go finish off the bread pudding. Nothing wrong with a little breakfast for dessert (or dessert for breakfast as it were).

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