imafoodblog.com

Well, nowhere really.

My head just has not really been in food blog land as of late.

I have been spending a lot of free time at the gym. Nick, who used to have to harass me about getting off my butt and going to the gym, actually said to me last night that it was annoying how much time I spend there and that I need to go less! I will take that under advisement honey.

I have also been enjoying some free time shopping. I have apparently decided to singlehandedly stimulate our economy by spending all my money on clothing and shoes.

We have also had some exciting news from our family and friends recently:

One of our closest friends Dianna just got engaged to her adorable Italian boyfriend while on a trip in Italy. I couldn’t be more excited for her and for their wedding, which will most likely be in Italy!! Yay!

Nick and I also learned that we will soon become an Aunt and Uncle, so we are definitely excited about that as well. However, I don’t think that a new baby will help curb my shopping addiciton

And of course, I have been cooking. I have actually made the last 3 Craving Ellie in My Belly recipes, but just did not have the energy to take a decent picture and write a post. I feel like a bit of a slacker, so here is my attempt at redemption:

Chicken Chop Suey - this was a great choice by our one and only Healthy Hostess, Ali. I did think that the flavor of this was very similar to a lot of Ellie’s other Asian inspired recipes, but it was definitely tasty and filling. I loved the crispy baked wontons!

Tuscan Vegetable Soup - I can’t rave enough about this soup and I have to thank Pam of Lobster and Fishsticks for choosing it. It is so hearty and filled with yummy veggies. I loved that the broth has just a hint of redness from the tomatoes, and I also simmered mine with a parmigianno rind which gave it tons of flavor. I always keep my leftover cheese rinds in the fridge for things like this. I made this on Saturday night after it had literally been raining in DC nonstop for days, and it was so perfect.

And this week’s pick was Chicken & Mushroom Quesadilla and was chosen by Marthe of Culinary Delights. I have actually made these before, and they were really good. So this time I changed it up a bit, mainly to use up some stuff I already had in the fridge/freezer. I stuffed them with some leftover roasted veggies that I had on hand from roasted veggie lasagna I made the night before. I sauteed up some extra mushrooms to add to that, and I added some cooked shredded turkey to Nick’s that I had in the freezer. Topped with a generous helping of reduced fat colby/jack cheese mix, these were sooooo good, and easy. Although, I had a good laugh at Ellie’s suggested serving size of a half a quesadilla! Nick and I both had our own whole one, and it was a perfect dinner portion for me.

I also made the Allspice Crumb Muffins, which was a Tuesdays with Dorie pick a week or so ago. This was chosen by one of my Craving Ellie girls, Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table. I was so happy that she chose these because I have been eyeing them for quite a while. And I will pretty much try any muffin recipe under the sun. These got two thumbs up from me. I made some with and some without the buttery crumble topping, and both versions were delicious. I loved the surprising flavor of the allspice, this was a nice change up for me as far as muffins go. Great pick Kayte!

I am really going to try to get back into posting and reading all your blogs regularly, since it is something that I truly enjoy doing!

Later.

This weeks Craving Ellie in My Belly is Chicken Sate with a Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce. It was chosen by the hilariously funny Cathy of The Tortefeasor. It can be found at the aforementioned Food Network link or on page 54-55 of The Food You Crave. This is in the appetizer section of the book, but I decided to make it into dinner portions and serve it with some rice.

This recipe starts with marinating the chicken in a mixture of chicken stock, lite coconut milk, soy sauce, shallot, garlic, fish sauce, brown sugar, lime zest, and ginger. I marinated my chicken for about 8 hours instead of the 1 hour Ellie suggests. The chicken was very flavorful on it’s own and my favorite part was the flecks of lime zest that stuck to the chicken from the marinade.

I enjoyed skewering the chicken but I only got about 6 skewers instead of 8. I guess I over stuffed my skewers, but it really did not matter since it was just the two of us. I did only use 1 pound of chicken breast and I felt like it was a generous amount of chicken for dinner. I couldn’t finish it all. However, Nick, who increasingly complains that he is always so hungry finished all of his and the rest of mine.

The peanut sauce was very good, similar to but definitely not the same as the sauce from the lime peanut noodles that we made a few weeks ago. The dipping sauce was made from peanut butter (I used up the rest of my homemade PB ), chicken broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, lime juice, garlic, chili flakes, red curry paste, and shallot. I think I liked this sauce better, and I was pleased to see that Nick enjoyed it as well. I was worried that this would end up being a pizza night because he is not a big fan of peanut sauces or sauces in general on his chicken. However, to my pleasant surprise he not only tolerated but sincerely liked the sauce. I left out the red pepper flakes because I don’t really like any heat in my food. Though I did think the sauce still had a bit of a kick from the green curry paste (the store was out of red curry paste - but they smell the same to me - very strong and kind of gross).

Instead of tossing the leftover coconut milk I decided to make some rice with it. I combined 1 cup of light coconut milk, 1 cup of water, 1 cup of uncooked basmati rice, 1/4 tsp of grated fresh ginger, and a splash of lime juice. Just cook it up like you would normally cook rice, this took about 15 - 20 minutes. The rice was very creamy and it definitely retained flavor from the coconut milk. Though I could not taste the ginger or lime at all, so if I make this again, I would increase both.

Overall this was a very tasty dinner and I would absolutely make this chicken and the dipping sauce again.

I don’t eat a lot of salads. In order for me to enjoy a salad, it has to have lots of good stuff in it. I can’t stand the thought of eating a plate of lettuce with some vinegar and oil on it with a stray cucumber here and there.

However, when you start adding things like grilled flank steak to a salad, I am interested. And this salad was really good. The steak is marinated in a mixture of lime juice, soy sauce, canola oil, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, and red curry paste or chili garlic sauce. Yum!!! I was really impressed with this marinade and will definitely use it again.

For the salad part of this salad I used a spring greens mix and then added sliced shallots, basil, and some shaved parmigianno cheese for garnish. When you make the marinade the recipe says to reserve about half as a salad dressing. We thought we may not have enough dressing left over so I added some more lime juice, and that really mellowed out the dressing a little and it gave the salad a wonderful light flavor.

This was an awesome Craving Ellie in My Belly pick by Jen B.. You can find the recipe for this salad at the Food Network or on page 107 of The Food you Crave by Elie Krieger.

(Look at how perfectly my fabulous boyfriend grilled the steak while I was on my way home from a late night at work):

This week’s Craving Ellie in My Belly is stuffed turkey burgers, chosen by the lovely Peggy of Pantry Revisited. These were good, not my favorite, but they were good. Lean ground turkey is stuffed with mozzarella cheese, roasted red peppers, and I added jalapenos as well. To stuff them, you create 8 small patties, flatten them, place your stuffing on top of one, and then top it with another patty and pinch the edges closed. This is pretty easy as long as you don’t over stuff the burgers.

I don’t really like to make turkey burgers because I am always worried that they will not be cooked through, and then I end up over cooking them and that’s gross. I also find that ground turkey gets so dry, so to combat that I used half ground turkey breast and half ground thigh meat. This gave the burger a nice flavor and helped it from totally drying out while my neurosis over cooked these burgers.

The recipe is pretty simple and Ellie barely calls for any seasoning of the meat. Just some salt and pepper once the patties are formed. I luv ya Ellie, but come one, this turkey needs some flavor. It just so happened that the night I made these, Nick came home with a package of Emeril products from FoodBuzz. So I added some of Emeril’s original essence into the meat as well as some Worcestershire sauce. I am not really into Emeril, but I enjoyed his essence, which is just salt, paprika, black pepper, granulated garlic, spices (hmmm?), and onion powder. We also topped our burgers with some of Emeril’s kicked up horseradish mustard. Thanks Emeril and FoodBuzz!

So, we have eaten these burgers twice. I made a full recipe of 4 burgers and froze 2 of them for another night. When I made the second set of burgers, I flattened them so that they would cook quicker and then I served them on some flat naan bread that I had in the house. I also topped each burger with a slice of Monterey Jack cheese. This was really good, and I liked the burgers better served this way versus a regular thick fat burger on a roll. (I like my big thick burgers to be made of fattening juicy red meat) I really enjoyed the bites with the roasted red pepper. I think if I make these again, I would chop up the red pepper into small pieces and mix it into the meat instead of stuffing them. We ate this with a simple salad and some baked potato chips. This was a great and super easy dinner. Thanks for a great pick Peggy!

Perfection. Some people would be surprised to find out that within a 100 mile radius (or less) of most major cities one can find the absolute highest quality produce and meats, for the best prices around, directly from the farm. The above picture is a testament to the craftsmanship of what a small, local producer is capable of providing: perfection.

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Think about the best orange chicken you have ever had from a Chinese restaurant. Okay? This orange glazed chicken is ten times better than that. I promise you.

It is lighter, fresher, and sweeter in a less artificial way. I found this recipe via Nick at Macheesmo. I believe he based it on an America’s Test Kitchen recipe, which explains why this is unbelievably delicious.

Nick used chicken breasts for this, but I used bone in chicken thighs, and I served it with some Chinese stir fry cabbage. We all loved this dish and it has definitely earned a spot in the dinner rotation. You should make it. Soon.

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Jambalaya is not something that I would normally choose to make on my own. I generally don’t like food that is overly spicy and I definitely associate hot and spicy with creole food.

However, this week’s Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe Jambalaya with Shrimp and Ham was absolutely delicious. I honestly don’t know how close to an authentic jambalaya it truly is, but we both really enjoyed it and I will be making it again for sure.

This jambalaya was pretty simple to make. There is minimal chopping, just some onions, garlic, and red & green peppers. The spice blend of paprika (I used smoked because that’s all I had), oregano, thyme, and cayenne pepper give a lot of flavor, with a bay leaf or 2 added in for good measure. I doubled all the spices except the cayenne pepper since I read some Food Network reviews that said this was a little bland. This worked out well because the flavor was great and the amount of spice was perfect for me. (I could still taste the food but my nose was running a bit while eating it)

Instead of ham I used 2 chicken sausages that I had in the freezer and I used a pound of fresh tiger shrimp. To cook the sausage I poached it until fully cooked, rested it for about 10 minutes, then sliced it and put the slices under the broiler until they were brown and crispy. All that meat and seafood added a lot of chunky heartiness to the bowl. I also used fire roasted crushed tomatoes instead of diced because I like a smoother tomato texture in things like this.

My bowl was chock full of tasty sausage, shrimp, veggies, and perfectly cooked rice (one of my favorite foods). I love a healthy meal that is hearty like this. It is great to eat something that is good for you and be so satisfied afterwards. This was even great as lunch leftovers a few days later.

This yummy jambalaya was picked by Anonymous New York. Check out her blog and the other Craving Ellie ladies to see what they thought of this.

You can find Ellie Krieger’s recipe here or on page 236 of The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life.

I was not introduced to real barbecue until a few short years ago. I think the first true pork bbq sandwich I ever had was on my first trip the the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Truth be told, I was not that impressed. I think it was the ridonculously vinegary sauce. I love a sweet and tangy BBQ sauce, but whatever I had was not enough sweet and too much tang.

Anyway, last year, Nick decided that it would be a good idea to build a smoker. Needless to say, we had many months of great summer BBQ’s with a variety of smoked foods, including multiple pork butts. So this is what really ignited and cemented my love of smoked food and true barbecue.

Unfortunately, pork butt is not a lean cut of meat. In fact, part of the reason why the pulled pork is so good is because slow cooking it upwards of 10 hours allows all the fat to melt into the meat, making it extra tender and flavorful. So when I saw Ellie Krieger make some delicious looking pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches I knew I had give them a try. Could I satiate my cravings for good barbecue in a healthy way. Barbecue purists would say no, but I say yes.

Ellie uses a store bought rotisserie chicken and a quick homemade barbecue sauce. I added some homemade coleslaw to them and served them on some homemade rolls. This was unbelievably good. They can’t compete with a real pulled pork sandwich, but they are a great easy weeknight healthy alternative. I will be making these again and again.

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This past Sunday the imfoodblog.com staff was treated to an extra-special outing to Cochon555 at the Mandarin Oriental hotel here in Washington DC (with special thanks going out to our friends at www.foodbuzz.com!)

Cochon555 is a culinary competition to raise awareness for heritage breed pork between 5 chefs, each given 5 whole heritage breed pigs (oh and 5 vineyards). All our regular readers know that we love our pork, so we were all extremely excited to have the chance to attend.

The chefs/restaurants participating were:

• Brian McBride of Blue Duck Tavern
• R.J. Cooper of Vidalia
• Nicholas Stefanelli of Mio
• Jamie Leeds of Commonwealth Gastropub &
• John Manolatos of Cashion’s Eat Place

How do five of DC’s finest chefs prepare five whole hogs? Jump with me to find out!

(Here’s a hint: Deliciously)

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Have you ever had Kobe beef? The real deal, straight from Japan, beer drinking, Sake massaged KOBE BEEF? If you answered “yes” to this question, you’ll have no problem with this one:

“If someone is giving me $250 to create a fabulous meal from starting ingredients of my choice, what should I make?”

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