The best steak I ever had

Having people over is always a little daunting. You have to come up with a menu that everyone likes, that you want to make, that most parts are easily completed before guests arrive, and of course, a menu that makes you look like the best cook on Earth.

I was invited to Jim’s house for dinner one night (my friend Sam’s, dad) for steak dinner. It was a chilly spring night and steak sounded good, but I didn’t really give it a second thought. We all contributed a side dish, so there were TONS of mouthwatering delights: cheesy potatoes with crunchy corn flakes baked on top, a tabouli-esque salad, my pear and gorgonzola green salad, and the piece de resistance: it appeared to be a blackened, almost to the point of being charred, hunk of meat juicing all over my plate creating a bath for the rest of the side dishes. It almost angered me that this piece of meat was ruining the rest of my meal, so I decided to eat it first to get rid of it.

WOW. 

Hands down the best piece of meat I have ever put in my mouth. It was crispy on the outside, perfectly flavored, juicy on the inside, everything and more anyone ever wanted in a steak and I was enjoying it for FREE. Conversation came to a halt as each person devoured their meal.

So, as I began to create the menu for a recent dinner party at my house, all I could think about was that steak. I had to make it. I needed the recipe. I called Jim, asked if I could have the recipe and let him know it would be published on this blog.

“Nope,” he said, “I can’t give it to you, it’s a secret.”

WHOA.

I have never been denied a recipe. You can even find Niemen Marcus cookies online or the recipe for Mario Batali’s famous gelato in his book.

The only way he would budge is if the recipe wasn’t published. So, I’m happy to say I am the proud owner of the best-steak-I-ever-had recipe (it’s in my head, I can make it for you for a small fee). I made it that night for Dan and his brother and his brother’s fiancé. We all sat in silence as we devoured every last bite. Not a single leftover.

I did make a nice Wheatberry salad I can give you, but sorry, no best-steak-I-ever-had for you!

Farro Salad with Asparagus, snap peas and Feta

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups semi-pearled faro (I used semi-pearled barley…you have to cook it for about an hour to soften it)

12 ounces asparagus, trimmed, cut into 1 1/2-inch lengths

1 8-ounce package sugar snap peas

12 ounces grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup chopped red onion

6 tablespoons chopped fresh dill (I used flat leaf parsley instead)

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup Sherry wine vinegar

1 7-ounce package feta cheese, crumbled

Preparation

Cook faro according to package directions in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until just tender. Drain. Transfer to large bowl, cool.

Meanwhile, cook asparagus and sugar snap peas in another saucepan of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Drain. Add to farro with tomatoes, onion, and dill. Whisk oil and vinegar in small bowl. Season dressing with salt and pepper. Add dressing and feta to salad; toss to coat and serve.

Sushi on boats = People on pots

This weekend was brutal.

After an afternoon of shopping downtown for wedding attire for the upcoming Brett + Erin extravaganza in Hawaii (I can’t wait!!!), we were tired, hungry and increasingly indecisive. Then we happily stumbled across Sushi Boat, a little sushi joint downtown where they’ve swapped out the usual conveyor belt for little wooden boats floating on a moat that circles the sushi chefs. Fast forward a few hours later, we kick off our shoes on the front step of the house and find ourselves racing each other to the bathroom.

Please note: we highly UN-Recommend Sushi Boat. Please do not eat there. We realize those cute little wooden boats and carefully crafted sushi rolls are so enticing and after a long day of shopping the whole idea of watching your food float right to your plate is so tempting, but DO NOT be lured.

In the spirit of optimism, we had our very first sickness together, so cute! And what a bonding experience it was. We’ll leave the story at how this weekend we had absolutely no need for those cute little Japanese toilet seat warmers you can get at Uwajimaya, our seat was H-O-T-T, hot!
And, just like any Saturday night, cooking was in order. We proudly present, the BRAT diet date night:

You don’t even need a recipe for this delightful mix of Bananas-Rice-Applesauce-and-Toast. Please feel free to combine this simple, four ingredient diet as you wish.

Sadly, we are both still enjoying steaming bowls of rice for lunch as I write this. Five days and counting.

Italian Week

As you may have heard on Facebook, I can’t get the car out of the garage. It’s super tight, barely enough room for the two cars and you have to get in and out of ours on the passenger side! The actual door to the garage barely fits the car so you must be precise as you back up around the randomly-place pole (can’t we take it out??! It’s only ONE of the main support beams), the three garbage cans (in San Francisco you have to recycle, use your food compost bin, and then you get a teeny tiny garbage can), a sink hole with a drain in the bottom of it right in the middle of the garage where you don’t want to accelerate because then you hit the wall and of course the neighbor’s car.

Well, my first backing-the-car-out of the garage was orchestrated by my lovely boyfriend telling me which way to turn the wheel, and watched by a full audience as the neighbors gasped in horror half-wishing I would hurry up so they could get their car out and go to work and half-wishing I would just get out of the car. The pressure was on! I didn’t hit the other car, but I also didn’t get the car out. I couldn’t get it straightened out enough to fit through the little garage door! UGH. (fingers are crossed that our car is magically replaced with a Mini!)

Bottom line: I’m carless, as in without car, no wheels.

It turns out being carless is just fine in this city by the bay. About a week ago, as I was walking home from pilates, and I discovered a local Italian deli. I mean, the real deal. Homemade meatballs, triangles of aged parmesan, fresh Italian breads and pastas, and in-house cured meats! YUM! So, if I could get the car out of the garage I may not have found this delicious little gem of amazing Italian treats! Needless to say, I may have made Italian for dinner one night too many for the boyfriend. But, overly engorged on Italian delights aside, I think the boyfriend is liking having  a fantastic dinner (almost) every night (if I do say so myself).

The first recipe is mostly provided by Lucca Ravioli, my new favorite Italian deli, but maybe you can find a local deli of your own?

Taglioni and Meatballs
1 pound fresh pasta (our fave is angel hair, so I got fresh taglioni – thin, long, egg pasta)
2 packages of homemade meatballs from Lucca (8 meatballs)
1 large can Trader Joe’s Marinara
Basil (I used the frozen cubes from TJ’s, so convenient)
2 cloves garlic
½ of a large yellow onion

I sautéed the onion in olive oil then added the garlic and basil and poured the can of marinara from Tj’s and the meatballs into the pot and let it all simmer together for about an hour. Then, when we got back from Ikea famished (and never wanting to see another piece of moderately priced furniture for small spaces) I boiled some water, cooked the pasta to al dente and served with a green salad and crispy basil, garlic and parmesan toast on fresh Italian loaf. So good!

The second recipe was sooo delicious and fun to make:

Prosciutto, basil and caramelized onion pizza

So I cheated a little and bought most of these ingredients from Trader Joe’s, but the essence of Italian-ness was inspired by Lucca’s (it’s kinda pricey in there). I had to have Dan back out the car for me, the TJ's is not within walking distance!

1 package dough from TJ’s
Olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, mashed
½ yellow onion, caramelized
1 package thinly sliced prosciutto
1 package fresh basil leaves
1 package shredded mozzarella
1 bag of arugula

Follow the directions closely on the package of the dough and make sure you let it rest for 20 minutes as you prep the rest of the ingredients. I made the pizza on a floured cutting board and then haphazardly transferred it to a flaming hot pizza stone heated in the oven. I don’t recommend this process, but you have to heat the stone before using it and I don’t have one of those giant wood spatula things they have for brick pizza ovens! (let me know if you have a better idea).
To caramelize the onions, just warm olive oil in a pan and sauté the sliced onion pieces on low for about 15 minutes…the key is low and slow!

After the dough is rolled out/stretched and on a floured surface, paint it with a mixture of olive oil and smashed garlic. Then top the pizza as you see fit. We started with basil, then onions, then mozzarella and prosciutto on top. When the pizza comes out of the oven, sprinkle on the fresh arugula and serve with a side salad. It’s a little salty because of the prosciutto, but sooo tasty!

(I realize this second pic is not very clear or bright, but I just wanted you to note the angle of the knife block in the background...He hasn't changed it back in a couple of days! I'm winning!)

P.S. The boyfriend just waited in line at the crazy, but entertaining, transportation office to get us a parking pass so we can keep the car on the street and avoid the garage all together. He's the sweetest!!

The table arrived…and hundreds of other boxes too!

Just a mere 83 days ago, the move to San Francisco was but a sparkle in our eyes and here we are unpacking boxes, hanging art, and cleaning floors, all to make a San Francisco walk-up into a home…together.

You know how you walk through an empty apartment thinking, I’ll put my mirror there, oh and my gigantic toaster-for-two would be perfect on that end of the counter. Well, let the negotiating begin because moving in together is a much more complicated ball of wax full of you-can-put-that-there-if-I-get-to-keep-this bargaining.

Our pile of much-missed items arrived on Friday in a full-day fiasco of begging people not to park in front of our house. The moving truck was hours late after one of the movers conveniently sprained his ankle just in time for the 4th of July holiday weekend, we wish him a rapid 3-day weekend recovery. The next three days were spent tearing into boxes, finding our long lost treasures, not finding others (like the elusive piece of glass for the bar top), and creating a dining-room-sized pile of paper and packing products – we’re accepting a $5 admission to play in it (all proceeds will go toward getting rid of it!).

Together we spent countless hours arranging furniture, measuring twice and hammering in nails once (Dan’s #1 rule), organizing the kitchen and attempting to fit our 12 appliances into cabinets (that’s right, we can make toast for six all while baking bread, blending a margarita, stewing meat in the Crockpot, mixing a cake, grinding coffee AND brewing it three ways!), and we’ve only come up with two points of contention: the angle of the knife block on the kitchen counter (which mysteriously keeps changing throughout the day), and the “girl” sheets on the bed must go. That’s all we’ve got. And, really, we’ve come to a consensus on the second one, so, one, one point of contention. WE WIN!

Second order of business, after unpacking, is always eating, so for our first meal in our apartment we made quesadillas, and our second meal was a famous Dan egg scramble, but the third meal in our very own jointly moved- into-together apartment was Sesame Shrimp and Couscous Salad from Cooking Light online.

It was fun having my sous chef back, and fun cooking in our kitchen. Not his kitchen or my kitchen, but our kitchen. A couple notes: the salad was a little dry, so we mixed up a little extra olive oil, sesame oil and, rice vinegar and poured it over the top. We substituted a couple items, in parentheses below.

Sesame Shrimp-and-Couscous Salad

YIELD: 4 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)

Ingredients:
3 1/4 cups water, divided
1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup uncooked couscous (we used whole wheat)
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
2 teaspoons vegetable oil (we used olive oil)
1 1/2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced romaine lettuce
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
3/4 cup frozen green peas, thawed (we used edamame)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons finely chopped unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts

Preparation:
Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add shrimp; cook 3 minutes or until done. Drain and rinse with cold water; cut shrimp in half. Bring 1 1/4 cups water to a boil in saucepan; gradually stir in couscous. Remove from heat; cover and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork; cool.

Combine vinegar, vegetable oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, and garlic in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk. Add shrimp, couscous, lettuce, bell pepper, peas, and cilantro; toss well. Sprinkle with peanuts.

We’re taking the table with us

You know how for just a moment a thought flutters through your head and you kind of remember having it, but not totally consciously and then suddenly you’re doing the thing you were just ever so slightly considering?

In January, I visited college friends in San Francisco. We took a road trip to Napa and spent the day tasting wines we could never afford and eating the most amazing sandwiches, cheeses and chocolates from the best deli I’ve EVER been to…I can’t remember what it’s called, but maybe I can find out and re-post. When I got back to Seattle I was abuzz with San Francisco stories, the trip had renewed my love for that city on the bay once again. For a moment Dan and I had a teeny tiny twinge of San Francisco moving potential. Little did I know that just a mere five months later we would be moving to San Francisco! Happily, we’ll be taking the table for two with us.
 

To commemorate moving to a new city, apartment searching, moving-in together, selling half of my furniture and building a new life in an amazingly beautiful and diverse city, we did what all humans do: we made dinner! Stay tuned for moving updates and mishaps that only a move can bring.

Zucchini Ribbon Fettuccine
Ingredients:
4-5 zucchini (depending on the size)
2-3 yellow squash (the kind that look like a yellow zucchini)
2 garlic cloves
1 lb. of fresh fettuccini
Parmesan cheese
Olive oil
 

Use a julienne or a vegetable peeler to make ribbons of zucchini and  yellow squash and gather them into a pile. Pour a couple tablespoons of olive oil into a warm pan and sauté the garlic until it is a little translucent. Add salt and pepper and the vegetable ribbons (you could also use carrots). Toss the veggies with the garlic using tongs to ensure all of them are cooked through. You do not need to brown the ribbons or wait until they’re a pile of mushy green and yellow goo, just warm them through and make sure they’ve taken on enough olive oil and garlic. Always salt and pepper a zucchini while cooking to make sure it doesn’t come out tasting like nothing.
 

Boil water in a large pot and cook the fettuccine according to the package directions.
 

Toss the Fettuccine with the veggies in a large bowl, sprinkle on some parmesan and olive oil and enjoy (immediately, this dish cools off pretty quick). The hardest part about this dish is making the ribbons and the timing of all of the ingredients...I may still need to work on this myself!

This photo is not great, but the meal is simple, fast and delicious...I really need to work on my food photography!!

Pancake Sunday!

It’s yet another dreary Seattle day, complete with rain, low, gray clouds and that cold wetness you just can’t shake. Perfect for pancakes!!

Yesterday I joined the year 2011: I now have in my possession, my very own, brand-spankin’ new 4G iPhone! YAYAYAY! So this morning, I didn’t even have to leave my warm cozy bed to find a recipe for mouthwatering pancakes. I scrolled through the epicurious app called “epi” and spotted one that seemed interesting – Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes – perfect! Or so I thought.

I had already mixed the eggs and milk together when I figured out the jar filled with what I thought was buckwheat was actually bran…so I doctored up the recipe a little to create the most melt-in-your mouth Bran-oatmeal Blueberry pancakes you’ve ever tasted! The wafting scent of cinnamon and warm blueberries even woke the sleepiest of boyfriends.

Home really is the happiest place on earth on rainy Sunday mornings.

Bran-oatmeal Blueberry Pancakes

½ cup bran flakes

½ cup oatmeal

½ tsp cinnamon

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp sugar

½ tsp salt

½ stick cold, unsalted butter, cut into bits

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 ½ cups blueberries

In a food processor, blend together the flour, bran and oatmeal, the baking powder, the sugar, the cinnamon, and the salt, add the butter and blend the mixture until it resembles fine meal.

In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, vanilla and milk, add the flour mixture and, if you have some vanilla yogurt a couple of tablespoons just for a chewy kick. Whisk the batter until well combined and let it stand for 5 minutes before adding the blueberries. The batter will be watery.

These pancakes are very crepe-like in consistency – eggy and chewy and not super fluffy. So if a heavy, cakey, fluffy pancake is what you’re looking for this is not your cake. I’m usually a cakey pancake girl, but I must say a nice, light crepe-like pancake was quite tasty this morning.

Preheat the oven to 200°F. Heat a griddle over moderate heat until it is hot enough to make drops of water scatter over its surface and brush it with the oil. Spoon the batter onto the griddle to form 3-inch rounds and cook the pancakes for 1 to 2 minutes on each side, or until they are golden. Transfer the pancakes as they are cooked to a heatproof platter and keep them warm in the oven. Serve the pancakes with warmed syrup or your favorite raspberry jam.

Again, I forgot to take a picture before we had both gobbled it up!

For the original recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Blueberry-Buckwheat-Pancakes-12295#ixzz1GWgrJ6e9

Sunset magazine is for cool people

It's a little known fact that I'm an avid subscriber to Sunset magazine. I know, I might as well get six cats and hang out in a blue fleece robe all day eating cheese crunchies from TJ's and crafting my own Valentines. WHOA. Minus the cats, the rest is scarily true.

Anyway,  I recently noticed that my favorite little recipe section is actually a reader-submitted recipe column and the submitter gets 100 smackers. New mission for me: create a recipe to submit!!

Last week, after a whirlwind adventure together in Las Vegas, Dan traveled from Timbuktu and back for just a few short hours before hopping on yet another plane for a bachelor party. A homemade dinner was definitely in order. So, Thursday night I made a Sunset magazine reader-submitted recipe for Spinach salad with Quinoa (Dan's new favorite grain) and serve it with my very own creation of Panko-parmesan encrusted halibut recipe. It was tasty!!! But, I'm not sure it was 100 doll hairs tasty, so try it out and let me know.

Citrus, Quinoa and Spinach Salad

½ cup Quinoa

Zest and juice of ½ lemon

1 ½ tbsp. olive oil

½ tsp red chile flakes

¼ tsp kosher salt

Pinch of pepper

6 oz baby spinach

¼ cup sliced green onions

¼ cup feta, crumbled

Cook quinoa according to package directions. Meanwhile, wisk together zest, juice, oil, chile flakes, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add spinach and onions. Mix in warm quinoa and sprinkle top of salad with feta.

Panko-Parmesan Halibut

2 – 6 oz pieces of halibut

1 cup of milk

1 cup of panko bread crumbs

4 tbs shredded parmesan

Lemon pepper and salt to taste

Combine the panko, parmesan (as much as you want) and lemon pepper and salt to taste (remember parmesan is salty, so don’t add too much). Dip the fish pieces in a bowl of milk and then dredge through the Panko mixture until well coated. The panko will seem like it’s all falling off, but once it is pan-fried in olive oil it will stick nicely. Add about 2 tbs of olive oil to a warm pan and fry on medium heat for about 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Repeat for each piece of fish. Enjoy!

 We forgot to take a picture before we started eating - it was THAT good!