Pan-Roasted Chicken with Leeks

For my birthday last year, A got me a subscription to Food Network Magazine. It's awesome because now that we don't have cable, it's like watching Food Network at my own leisure!

A few days ago, we bought a cast iron skillet at Macy's (which A had to lug all around the mall but that's another story haha!) I decided to make this recipe as the first ever thing to cook with my cast iron skillet. After cooking it, I realized I need to lift weights or something... or maybe I could just lift my skillet over my head 20 times a day.

Back to the recipe, I didn't brown the chicken enough which is why my chicken doesn't look the nice deep brown that it does in their magazine:

It probably also helps that they have professional chefs, food stylists, and photographers. Sigh, when will my food look this awesome? Answer: Likely never.  *cries* Thanks for the moral support, inner voice.

So here's the recipe. It's really easy! I cooked the roux for a little too long and so it came out a bit too thick. Also, I think less flour and more chicken stock would make it taste better. 

A and I enjoyed it in the 100+ degree weather with some rice. What should I cook next in our cast iron?

Cold Soba Salad

I realized recently that I blog the things that I cook not to share recipes, but so I could remember what I cooked and what general ingredients I used. Why? Because there are those days when I can't think of anything to cook for dinner and I can just flip through my blog to see what I enjoyed/didn't enjoy. It's also nice to look at how I started out barely being able to make spaghetti to making up my own recipes.

This dish was something I just decided to cook because it was hot outside and I had a bunch of corn in my fridge. On a side note, I've recently discovered that fresh corn in the summer is delicious! I've roasted it in the oven, fried it on a pan, eaten it raw, and tried it in a handful of different recipes.  An easy one is just to cut the corn off the cob raw, add some diced red onions, avocado (slightly hard), lime, cilantro, s&p and enjoy with chips. So good! Another way I've had it is cooked in a pan with some diced onions, mixed with raw diced bell pepper, basil, some olive oil, vinegar, and s&p.  (Serve chilled)

Anyway, this past week I bought 5 ears of corn and I thought I'd roast it. But the weather was so hot, it was just sitting in my fridge. So I decided to make a cold noodle salad with it. Because it was kind of on the fly, I didn't really pay attention to how much of what I used. But you can just adjust according to your preferences.

Ingredients:

Soba noodles (cooked, then rinsed in cold water to chill)

2 Ears of Corn, raw (Just remove the husk and slice off the kernels. Use the back of your knife to scrape the creamy yummy goodness left on the cob)

1 Bunch of Cilantro, chopped

1/2 Red Bell Pepper, diced

1 Jalapeno, diced

1 Medium Carrot, julienned

1/4 Onion, diced into very small pieces

2-3 Stalks(?) of Green Onion

Toasted Sesame Seeds

For the Dressing:

Soy Sauce

Sugar

Sesame Oil

Olive Oil

Ginger Powder

2-3 Cloves of Garlic, minced

Vinegar

Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Sriracha

I honestly don't remember how much of what I used.  about 3 tbsp soy sauce, 1-2 tbsp sugar, 1-2 tbsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1 tsp vinegar, 1/2-1 tbsp sriracha

Mix it all together. Eat it. 

Yummy yummy, That's a Pizza Pie!

My nephew has this crazy Elmo toy that sings a song about making pizza... "Yummy yummy that's a pizza pie!" The pizza has eyes and a mouth and sings too. It's all very... loud and confusing.

Anyway, this pizza recipe is SO easy and so good! Why so easy? Because I don't make my own pizza dough. Although, I suppose I could, but who has the time? Plus, I'm afraid my pizza might grow eyes and a mouth and start singing with me. So if you're on a time crunch, this is a good go-to recipe that doesn't require much cooking.

Ingredients:
Heirloom Tomato, sliced (I'm sure any other tomato would be just as good)
Basil, julienned or torn into small pieces
Fresh Mozarella (I used ciliegine in water)
Garlic
Your choice of marinara/pizza sauce/pasta sauce. I used Mezzetta: Napa Valley Bistro's Creamy Vodka (which is not made in Napa Valley btw...)
Pizza dough (I used the one in the can that pops and gives you a heart attack)
Dried Italian Herbs
Salt
Pepper

Slice/grate the mozarella. Since I had ciliegine on hand, they're just too small to grate. So I sliced instead. Unroll the pizza dough and bake as indicated on the can. (Some require prebaking) Spread some pasta sauce onto the prebaked dough. Don't use too much or your pizza dough will be soggy. Next, do a layer of cheese, then a layer of tomatoes and garlic, then a little more cheese, and then top with basil and some Italian herbs, salt, and pepper. The cheese melts then spreads so you might want to go easy on it! Pop it in the oven and bake until the cheese melts.

Some variations: Use pesto sauce, or add pepperoni

Hummus = Whale?

Don't ask me why, but I used to think hummus was made out of whale.
"Would you like some hummus?"
"No thank you, I don't eat whale."
Not that I have a problem with people eating whale. (Gasp! You mean I don't care about Whale Wars? No, I don't.) I just thought it was like... blubber. Gross.

Anyway, sometime during/after my college years I discovered that hummus was, in fact, NOT whale. It's chick peas/garbanzo beans! And, it's delicious! This was an exciting discovery.

Anywho..... off the topic of my stupidity and on to the subject of making hummus. It's super easy to make as long as you have a food processor of some sort.

Ingredients:
1 can (15 oz) of Garbanzo beans
1-1.5 tbsp of Tahini
2-3 cloves of Garlic, minced
1/3 cup of Sundried Tomatoes, in oil
1.5 tbsp of Basil, julienned
1-1.5 tbsp lemon juice
Salt
Olive Oil

Pour the liquid from the can of garbanzo beans into a separate container. Process the beans, garlic, tahini, tomatoes, salt, and basil until smooth. If it's too thick, add some of the reserve liquid. Taste your hummus. Does it need more tomato taste? Add some more tomatoes, or some of the oil. Do you like more garlic? Add more!

The thing I love about this is that you can just add more or whatever to your liking and adjust to your own taste.  Oh, and if you just want plain hummus, take out the tomatoes and basil.

Pour the hummus into a shallow dish. Using the back of a spoon or something, make a shallow dip in the center of your hummus and pour in some olive oil. Top with paprika if you'd like.

Married Life

Every other day, Andrew comes home really late from either school or work. The other day I thought I'd have a little midnight meal waiting for him.

My mom used to make us omurice when we were kids. I could never get the rice out of the bowl perfectly. It always topples over. I suppose I could've tucked the edges of the egg underneath the rice but, as with most things, I didn't feel like it. ANYWAY...

Whenever you have some fried rice that you'd like to change up a bit, just beat an egg (I mixed mine with a little bit of milk to make it fluffy) and fry it on low heat until it's cooked through. Then pack a small bowl with your fried rice and upturn it onto a plate. Upturn. Upturn. Is that a word?  Cover the rice with the egg and voila! Omurice! :)

p.s. We finally got our silverware! So exciting. :) :) :)

p.p.s. I realize this post had nothing do with married life. HAHAHA... *insert crazy maniacal laugh here.*

A Dress

During the course of wedding planning I found it so easy to decide upon some things. For instance, the wedding colors: gray and yellow. I knew I wanted peonies. I knew we'd use craspedia. We never changed the flavor of our cake. Then there were those things that I could not decide upon.  This post will be about one of those things... the dress.

I had no clue what style of wedding dress I wanted. I just knew what I didn't want: beading. This turned out to be funny because the dress I ended up with had beading! But it also had a V-shaped back, a sweetheart neckline, and a belt that tied into a ribbon--all things that I loved.  I think in the end I realized that I just wanted to be comfortable and it wasn't so much THE dress but A dress. But it took like 1038403985 mind-changes to come to that realization.

So I decided to include all the dresses that I once loved in this blog post.

Here's dress 1. After trying on a bunch of princess-y over-the-top ball gown dresses that I specifically said I didn't want, I came across this one. I fell in love with the back (don't mind my tan) and with the vintage-y color. But then a few months later, I started hating the front.

So then I decided on dress #2. It had an old Hollywood type of feel to it. But then I kept staring at pictures of the back of it thinking, "Is my butt really that big??"

So then I went on to dress #3. It was so different from anything else I tried on. It had tulle! and little cut out leaves! It was so ethereal and fun... but then people began to question if it was too casual. So then I started to question if it was too casual.

Which brought me to dress #4. It was so ruffly and cake-y and girly! I was planning on changing the neckline to a sweetheart. I was all set. But then my sister mentioned it looked like a mummy... and then all I could think was mummy. Plus, the drop waist made my legs look super short.

So back to the drawing board. Then I came across this one. All tulle, sweetheart neckline, A-line to hide my short legs. I'm not sure what made me change my mind about this one. I think I was just really confused by this point. Also, I think the ladies at the store were THISCLOSE to banning me from wedding dresses for changing my mind every month. 

The dress I finally chose wasn't perfect. It didn't fit perfectly. I didn't love every detail about it... But, when the day came, I found that it really didn't matter. I was just happy to get married.

photography by Youkeun Oh Photography

 Here is our first look--my favorite moment of the day. Oh, and don't mind my abnormally obese, discolored arm and claw fingers in this picture.

Moral of the story? Not everything will be necessarily perfect when planning a wedding but, you'll find that what's most important overcomes all those other imperfections. 

untitled

I was cleaning and noticed my rag had a smiley face on it.

A and I laughed and laughed.

Just one of the many perks of having a best friend.