Banh Mi a la Mayra

Week 15 (made up on April 18, 2010)

Earlier this week I had an amazing sandwich from Kitchenette. It was called the dogpatch millionaire (Indian-inspired fried chicken sandwich with garam masala honey, spicy cabbage, coriander and lemon mayonnaise). It was divine! It sort of reminded me of Banh Mi, which is a Vietnamese sandwich filled with meat or tofu, pickled veggies, cilantro and fresh jalapeno (my favorite part). I've been craving it ever since and because today was a hot day in San Francisco (mid 70's!!!) and to avoid further turning our apartment into a sauna, I was inspired to make my own version of banh mi as my recipe this week.

I couldn't find a recipe that appealed to me on my usual recipe websites, so I decided to combine recipes. I wanted to bbq the meat, so I used the marinade from this Korean beef barbecue recipe. (Note: I didn't have mirin, so I substituted port). I realize that it may sound silly to use a Korean marinade for a Vietnamese sandwich and yes, I know that Korea and Vietnam are two different countries, but I found that the main components of the Vietnamese marinades were garlic, sugar and fish sauce and simply decided to use the Korean recipe because it didn't use fish sauce. Plus my friend Linda, who is Vietnamese, once told me that I could substitute soy sauce for fish sauce.

I wanted to pickle my own veggies, so I used the "slaw" portion of this banh mi recipe. It was surprisingly easy and very light tasting. (Note: I used rice vinegar instead of distilled white vinegar and onions instead of the daikon radish)

I toasted the french rolls and put the rest of the fixings on the sandwiches (chicken, mayo, pickled veggies, cilantro and jalapenos).

The sandwiches came out yummy and the chicken was very flavorful and juicy. I think I will try the marinade on beef next time.

Our rating for this recipe: 9.5 (Mayra: 9; Geoffrey: 10).

M&M

Week 14 (April 7, 2010)

Geoffrey was not really in the mood to cook this week so I suggested we try an easy, no-fuss recipe and instantly thought of my co-worker's meatloaf. Jennifer made this meatloaf for her Anti-Valentine's Day party and I thought it was very delicious, so I asked her for her recipe. It turns out that this yummy meatloaf comes from the back of the Lipton onion soup box! The recipe is called Souperior Meat Loaf and it is super easy to make and only requires 6 ingredients, five of which we already had on hand.

It took Geofffrey about five minutes to measure out ingredients and shape the meatloaf. He popped it in the oven...

 And an hour later it was ready!

He made our usual mashed potatoes to accompany the meatloaf and dinner was served. I think this meatloaf tastes great for breakfast, so we had our leftovers on Saturday morning with eggs. Yum!

Our rating for this recipe is 8 (Mayra: 9; Geoffrey:7)

Comfy Chicken Noodle Soup

Week 12 (March 31, 2010)

I wanted to make something quick this week and use up leftover ingredients from last week's Asian night so I found a recipe for Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup with Sesame and Green Onions.  Geoff was also starting to feel under the weather and SF was colder than usual, so this was an easy choice!

Geoff had purchased these ingredients last week (with the exception of the noodles), so they came in handy for this week's recipe.

I did the usual veggie chopping. Good rule of thumb for healthy cooking is to use colorful fruits/veggies. We find that most often we cook with greens (avocados, lettuce, cucumbers, broccoli, celery, cabbage, green onions, spinach),  whites (onions, garlic, potatoes) and red/orange colors (carrots, bell peppers, tomatoes, radicchio). For this recipe I added bean sprouts, since I love them but don't often get to eat them.

Note I did not use tahini or cilantro, mainly because I didn't have either on hand. I also didn't use the dry sherry because we were still on our "no alcohol" thing. The soup was easy to make and came out pretty good. Next time I will use less sesame seed oil (I didn't think it added much to the soup) and try not to omit too many ingredients.

Our score for this was 7.5 (Mayra 7; Geoffrey 8).

Noodles and Egg Rolls

Week 12 (March 24, 2010)
Featuring Special Contributing Writer Geoffrey Gonzalez, commentary by Mayra.

For today's meal, I decided to stick with another ethnic theme and tried my hand at a Cold Sesame Noodles with chicken and cucumber and Baked Egg Rolls recipe.  I think I'm trying to make healthier and lighter meals cause I know that my cooking will never be done before 8:30!  The recipe for the cold Noodle salad was pretty simple and full of flavor.  I don't think I've used Udon noodles before, but they cooked so fast, like 5 minutes!  Boiled those up, tossed them in the mixture of sesame oil, chile paste, rice vinegar, soy sauce, honey and fresh ginger and voila, the dish is 80% done.  I knew this recipe was going to be a challenge (not to make), but to make Mayra happy cause she's not a fan of cold noodles.  But nevertheless, I was hoping the flavoring would be showcased and that maybe, just maybe, it could win her over.  Ok, back to the recipe.  Noodles were done, tossed them in the fridge to cool off and all that was needed was to add some cucumbers, green onions and shredded chicken just before serving. (Comment: For the record, I like cold noodles, I just don't enjoy them soggy. Hmmmph!)

Then I starting preparing the egg rolls, well actually, I was already chopping up the veggies that would go in the egg rolls while the udon was boiling.  So, the egg rolls were pretty easy too cause it was only veggies I was putting in. The recipe called for ground turkey, but I decided to leave that out and make them vegetarian.

Veggies were prepped (carrots, celery, garlic, ginger, cabbage, onion, pepper and soy sauce) and the next step was to carefully spoon them into the egg roll wrappers, make them neat and pop 'em in the oven.  Nothing to it!  The recipe had a dip that I was suppose to make, but I got lazy and just decided to buy a sweet and sour dip (I think that was Mayra's favorite thing on the night, thanks...)
(Comment: Wow, someone is in a great mood today. Yes, I did enjoy the sweet and sour dip, it was actually a sweet chili sauce. But, I also enjoyed the baked egg rolls and Geoff did a good job rolling them into egg rolls, very professional!)

Yes, I know it takes a while to cook, and dinner probably wasn't done until close to 9, but I take my time in the kitchen because I'm constantly washing dishes so they don't pile up in the sink.  Cause who wants to wash dishes at like 11pm??? That's just crazy.  Wish we had a dishwasher, oh wait, we do...me.  (Comment: Shouldn't have lost all of those bets with me. And btw, washing dishes as you are cooking was my idea!)

Another success in my book.  Since Mayra was on the fence about this meal, I ended up eating all the leftovers for lunch and dinner the next day. So full!

If you do try this recipe, I would probably use less rice vinegar in the noodles and add the meat to the egg roll dish. (Comment: Yes, less vinegar on the noodles to keep them from being soggy would be doog<--good backwards.)

Our rating for these recipes were 7.25 (Mayra: 5; Geoffrey: 9.5).

Good eating,
Geoffrey

Until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard...

Week 11 (March 17, 2010)
We skipped this week's cooking night due to our trip down south.  Instead, I'm writing about our weekend in LA.

The plan was to go to LA to cheer Geoffrey's parents on as they ran the LA Marathon. We woke up at 6 am to drop off Romeo (59!) and Diana (57!) at Dodger Stadium.

We later caught up with them, signs in hand, between miles 10-11 (Hollywood Blvd, near Pantages Theater and Capital Records).

Then met them at miles 15-16 (Beverly Hills) and helped them refuel.

And finally, at miles 25-26.2 (Santa Monica Pier). It was a bit foggy and cold, which ultimately helped the runners.

It was an all day event, we even had time to grab breakfast with Ting, Chris, Matt, Allison and Grace in Santa Monica before meeting the in-laws at the finish line.

Both finished the marathon and beat their previous marathon time of 7 hours! Romeo's time was 6:44:52 and Diana's time was 6:45:56. We were very proud and excited to see them finish the race!

Afterward, we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant where Carlos from Desperate Housewives also happened to be dining. We also saw Mary Louis Parker, Tony Almeida from 24 and some other actor from one of Geoff's favorite Martin Lawrence movies, Bad Boys, that weekend. Just a typical weekend in LA.

Hello April!

March has been a brutal month for this household and I am ready to bid it adieu! Soon the alcohol fast will be over (which hasn't been too bad, actually), my mom is coming home from Mexico and I get to spend some much needed time with my family this weekend .

I am lagging with our cooking night postings, but they are coming. We only skipped one Wednesday cooking night this month, which I thought wasn't too bad.

 GOODBYE March!