Spinach...no caterpillar soup!

 

Week 17 (April 28, 2010) 

 

This week we were in the mood to try a new soup recipe, so Geoffrey chose a Lentil-Vegetable soup recipe. I noticed that Geoffrey had purchased about a million bags of spinach (ok, more like 2, but that is a lot of spinach!), so I inquired about how much actual spinach was needed-- 6 cups! Wow! Healthy recipe!

 

Geoffrey got the soup started and simmering on the stove.

Then he took out the spinach to start chopping it up.

Since Ting had blogged about a recent bug incident she had with packaged salad, I advised Geoffrey to inspect and wash the spinach before chopping it up. It was quiet in the kitchen for a bit and then Geoffrey asks me "Would you eat the spinach if I found a bug in it?" I replied "Huh? What do you mean, did you find a bug?" He hesitated to answer and finally said "Yes, I found a tiny caterpillar." What to do? We went back and forth trying to decide whether we should use the spinach or not. Not only was it a major ingredient of the recipe, but bagged spinach isn't cheap and most importantly I HATE wasting food. In the end, we decided to not include the spinach in the recipe. It was a very difficult decision, but both of us couldn't get past the thought of the bug in the spinach.

The soup came out delicious anyway, but it would have been nice to have the spinach in the soup. We'll definitely try this recipe again, with the spinach. 

Our rating for this recipe is 8.25 (Mayra: 8, Geoffrey: 8.5).

P.S. Geoffrey contemplated not telling me about the caterpillar (bad, bad, bad), but he said he didn't want to "torture" me by making me eat something that would gross me out. Plus, he said he probably wouldn't eat the spinach part and that I would notice and start asking questions. Well played, Mauer.

Filet Mignon and Chi-Chis

Week 16 (made up on April 24, 2010) 

As you've probably noticed, lately we've been "making-up" our Wednesday night dinners on the weekends. For some strange reason, Wednesdays are turning out to be our busiest night of the week! During this week I had dinner plans, which eventually turned into a few chi-chis (the DRINK people) for my friend Jennifer's birthday.

We decided to splurge a bit in honor of Geoff's multiple job offers (and by multiple offers, I mean 2).  I found a recipe for filet mignon on charred onions and zucchini with balsamic vinegar sauce. We went over to Whole Foods to pick out our fillet. This was our first time buying filet mignon, so we didn't know how much to buy. We ended up buying 2 fillets, weighing about 1.5 lbs @ $27/pound! Isn't that an insane amount of money?? Luckily, the rest of our ingredients, onions and zucchinis, were cheap, so it still came out pretty reasonable overall (and cheaper than at a restaurant).

We started by chopping the veggies.

 

Then moved on to the reduction sauce, which called for some red wine.Since you should cook with wine that you would drink, we naturally decided to use a Cuvaison Pinot Noir.

We bbq'd the filet and served it with mashies and garlic bread. I think we may have overcooked the meat, so it wasn't the best filet mignon I ever had, but I really liked the combination of onions, zucchini and balsamic vinegar sauce. We found that we bought waaaaaaay to much filet mignon, so next time we will buy half of what we bought. Overall, this was a super easy recipe and I definitely recommend it for a special occasion, just try not to overcook the meat!

Our rating for this recipe: 7.5 (Mayra 8; Geoffrey 7)

Happy Birthday (long pause)....to me!

Well, I am now officially in my 30's. What better way to celebrate but with a list of 31 things I am thankful for?

(In no particular order, except for #1)

1. Geoffrey: my love & best friend who puts up with all my many moods and crazy ideas and still loves me
2. Herbert, Herbs, Yves: closest things to "children" that I have
3. Family: mom, dad, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, in-laws, adopted family members (YKWYR)
4. Friends: MSTAG, UCSF friends, old friends, new friends, lost friends, epic friends
5. My mom's home cooking: the last meal I had in my 30th year was mole and rice made with love by mom
6. Dave Matthews Band: I've been to ~50 concerts so far, adding 2 more this summer
7. Chick Lit: easiest/fastest/cheapest way to escape reality
8. Mani/pedis: or any sort of pampering that includes relaxing music and scented lotions
9. Traveling: Near, far, land, sea, I will always be up for the adventure. Hoping to have one with the family this year.
10. My ongoing education: Be it from Cal, City college, my parents and other wiser people around me
11. Health: my health, Geoffrey's health, my family's health, my friends' health, Herbert's health
12. Potrero Hill, San Francisco: my residence of 6 years that includes an amazing view of SF and parking!
13. Sleeping in or staying in bed all day: no explanation needed
14. The Twilight Saga: reminded me of my teenage years when my biggest worry was doing my homework
15. Harry Potter books: What an imagination!
16. Champagne: I can never have enough yummy bubbles
17. Patisserie Philippe: my go to place for French Pastries in San Francisco
18. Madrid, Spain: if I could live anywhere in the world, it would be Madrid. Always.
19. Job (kinda): lucky to have one in this economy, has helped me meet good friends, pay off our credit cards, increase my savings and help my family
20. X-files: Seasons 1-7 as part of my bedtime routine (includes dreaming of David Duchovny)
21. Tennis: this is by far my favorite sport to play. Calms me down every time.
22. The Holidays: I find myself longing for the holiday season all year long and especially when I hear Louis Armstrong songs.
23. Football season: Snuggled up on the couch on Sundays with Geoffrey watching football--priceless.
24. Hand written letters: I recently went through my high school stuff and found letters and notes from my friends. Nothing like the feel of paper and recognizing someone's handwriting. I am going to try to write hand written letters more often.
25. French food, music, film, language: C'est magnifique!
26. Traditions: starting them, keeping them, passing them on.
27. 80's movies: amazingly taught me a lot about life and how to deal with it in a fun way. Awesome.
28. Cooking nights: being able to cook with Geoffrey and pick and choose ingredients that we like.
29. Celebrations: having lots to celebrate such as birthdays, engagements, weddings, babies, promotions, and just cause:)
30. CA produce: having an array of beautiful and delicious fruits and veggies from our wonderful, bankrupt state
31. My faith: believing in something bigger than me and this world and it keeping me in check sometimes;)

P.S. The quote is actually " Congratulations (long pause)...to me!", quoted by, you guessed it, Sandra Bullock!

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