you know, its just christmas

Phew, we survived Christmas. I must apologize for forgetting to snap a few pictures of our Christmas day feast, as I know it would have incited jealousy amongst you. Prepare yourselves for the mouthwatering description at least:

birthday cake. from walmart. (good thing my mother shares a birthday with baby Jesus)

fritos. with cheese. (well some sort of orange liquid product, which was actually less than 2% cheese according to the label)

Let me explain. We spent this christmas holiday out at my Aunt Susie's new lake house in Livingston. The heavily wooded area offered great retreat from our daily life in the big city and the sloping lawn down to the lake provided plenty of wide open space for football, sprinting dogs (7 in total), and nice scenery when eyes looked up from a good book. Along comes Christmas day, with its wind and showers, to knock the power right out. The turkey in the oven did not stand a chance. In lieu of getting real creative with the raw bird (turkey sushi? turkey ceviche?), we opted to dig straight into mom's birthday cake, purchased locally (from the  booming Walmart), with a side of Fritos and "cheese" dip. Needless to say, we all chose not to overindulge this Christmas. My little brother texted me a picture of the hot pocket and Gardettos he picked up at a gas station on his way home with the caption "Christmas lunch."

I felt a bit unfazed by this minor blooper to be honest. I am fairly certain that while fun and oh-so-tasty, we just made up this whole stuff-your-face type tradition in the first place. I doubt Mary and Joseph even had a convenient store nearby to go pick up some Slim Jims that first Christmas.  Truth is, our family was together, content, and in celebration of many a blessing regardless of the circumstances. That is about all the Christmas I need. 

With that said, I certainly plan to overindulge this New Years. A dinner fit to feed 10, that only husBen and I + one other couple will be eating, promises a fine way to move into 2013. I hardly ever make New Year's Resolutions (and certainly never ones involving food restrictions), but for those looking to start the year off healthy, I thought I should offer up a recipe for my favorite salad...with pictures/recipes of much richer food to come shortly thereafter!

if you are going to eat a salad...

2 garlic cloves, minced

8 green onions, chopped

2 large avocados, diced

2/3 cu grapeseed oil

1/3 cu Riesling Vinegar (if I'm out I just use white wine vinegar)

1 T Dijon Mustard

2 t salt

1 t pepper

1/4 cu grated Parmesan cheese

2 T grated Romano cheese (if I'm out I just use extra Parmesan)

2 heads Romaine lettuce, torn and dried

Combine garlic, green onions and avocados in a large bowl and mix well.  Combine grape seed oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, Parmesan and Romano in a small separate bowl and whisk well.  Add dressing to the green onion mixture and toss.  Place the Romaine on top (do not mix!).  Chill covered for 6-8 hours.  Toss just before serving. I usually garnish with homemade ciabatta croutons...because if you are going to eat a salad, you deserve those.

its (nearly) christmas!

With Christmas only 2 days away, my mouth has already begun to water and my stomach preemptively feels full. Bring on the overindulgence. Bring on the concentrated family time. Bring on the warm moments. Bring it all on. 

Christmas fuels itself on our anticipation. This is both good and bad, sometimes too misdirected to make  Christmas feel anything but hyped up. But truly, think of the quality of anticipation we should be feeling: this season is pregnant with our very salvation!! Imagine how excited a new mother is just days before she gives birth, full of hope for her future most consuming little love. Sure, she is probably a bit anxious, but in the truest and most humbled way, with the very neural electricity of her desires coursing through her whole body, enough to make her just jittery at the very thought of the impending event. Right here, right now, we are on the brink of commemorating such a birth. I want my Christmas to buzz with that anticipation, of gratitude and joy over Christ's birthday. This is a big deal people. 

I feel excited. For the break most tangibly, but for the idea of Christmas too. I want to keep proper perspective of this gift of Christ, a baby, the insanity of God's love for us most poignantly on my mind over the next few days and see how that shapes my Christmas. I hope the food coma will not dampen this intentionality. We shall see....

Brussels Sprouts

1 ½ pounds Brussels sprouts

3 tablespoons good olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon kosher salt, + more to serve

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

6 pieces of bacon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Trim the Brussels sprouts: cut off the ends and pull off any yellow outer leaves. Toss them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar. Transfer to a cookie sheet and roast for 30 to 40 minutes, until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Shake the pan from time to time to brown the sprouts evenly.

While those are roasting, fry the bacon in the biggest heavy skillet you own. Remove from grease and chop roughly. When Brussels sprouts are done roasting, reheat up your bacon grease til it popping hot, then dump in your sprouts and flash fry, adding back in your chopped bacon as well. Stir gently so that all of the sprouts will be evenly crisped (this flash fry should only take a few minutes since your grease should be very hot!). Sprinkle a bit of Kosher salt over your finished sprouts and serve warm.

pizza

I recently discovered that huBen has the Justin Bieber Christmas album on his iTunes....so I decided to start using it as his wake up call, you know, start the day off in the Christmas spirit. I think he is ready for this study season to end!

Here's a little recipe for a pizza I made a few weeks ago...because this week, we are relying more on the neighborhood pizza delivery boy.

homemade pizza

1 cup warm water


1 tablespoon honey


I heaping tablespoon dry yeast


2.5 cups of flour


1 teaspoon salt


4 tablespoons of olive oil


2 tablespoons of corn meal for sprinkling on the stone/baking tray

Mix water, honey and yeast in a bowl
 and let it do its thing for 5-10 minutes.  Add flour, salt and oil
 and work the dough together with a big wooden spoon. Transfer to a big oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise in a draft-free place at room temperature for 1 hour. Punch down the risen dough and allow to rise for 1 more hour.

Preheat oven with pizza stone inside to 500 degrees. Remove from oven once heated, promptly sprinkle with corn meal, and turn out dough onto hot stone, working it flat with your fingers to reach the corners of the stone (might help if you stretch the dough a bit in your hands before you plop it onto the searing hot stone).

Quickly top with sauce, cheese and toppings of your choice. Place stone back in the oven (for about 10 minutes or until your cheese is nicely melted. Enjoy!

I used:

Sauce (I mixed canned san marzano tomatoes and barbeque sauce in a 1:1 ratio)

Mozzarella cheese and cheddar cheese

Caramelized shallots

Cherry tomatoes

Meat pulled from 8 ribs, chopped up

the uniform of december

One of my favorite things about December is how much time Ben and I spend simultaneously in our sweat pants...our home uniform if you will. This season of our lives (okay, our entire lives thus far) has presented us Decembers full of exams and the real need to spend entire days in our sweatpants. This tradition seems so much sweeter to me now, with a husband and good dog at my side, although we still have to occassionally test our sanity by joining in the real world (sometimes this means me going to my surgery rotation, and sometimes it means us breathing outside air one time a day to go throw the football in the street). Ahhhh, December.

Ben has two more finals, Monday and Wednesday next week, and I have my surgery exam next Friday. Needless to say, we are in lockdown mode over here....which unfortunately also means we are wasting plenty of time perusing facebook, espn, and just about any other site on the world wide web that begs to distract us. In the search for some perfect gifts I plan to give in a week or so (the sweat of each December), I found these gems, that you must just please indulge me in sharing: 

acres of land on Mars for you to own...and settle?

personalized stuffed dolls...just scary really

a gallon jug of Tobasco, because
that wouldn't hurt at all

BEAR COAT FROM WORKAHOLICS...
OKAY WAIT, I WOULD ACTUALLY BUY THIS

1700 too many eye shadows colors

no comment. this is just weird and gross
and raises too many questions about
how we have all been using our towels all along

Ben and I opted to do "stockings" this year as our gift to each other. We set a price limit that mandated some creativity. Hopefully not as much creativity as evidenced above, but I am excited to see how this goes! 

And finally I must admit: I do appreciate Christmas for the family, the food, and most importantly the remembrance of Jesus' birth. But more of this sincere gratitude later, as this night of studying gift searching has worn me out...

overindulge, yes please

Well let the indulgences begin…

December always feels like this to me: overstuffed, oversaturated, and overrated. I must apologize in advance for that last modifier, but you see, Christmas is just not my favorite holiday. I seem to get anxiety every single year, without fail, for reasons I want to believe are simply intrinsic to my nature (surely not everyone feels like this, or we would have communally toned down on this holiday already).  My neutrality is not even well founded—I simply obsess over finding the perfect gift that will warm my loved ones right to the soul… so my angst and efforts towards this desired effect are most certainly thwarted by the mere fact that there probably is no perfect gift, and heck, that is not even what Christmas is about in the first place!

So, dear Lord baby Jesus, please be my focus and satisfy me entirely this Christmas…

On a lighter note, we seem to be eating pretty well already, per usual for December. We had the second best meal of our entire lives (the Herb Farm in Seattle, WA coming in 1^st) this past week at the Pass, a new restaurant with a fixed 5 or 8 course menu and the promise of a good experience in every capacity.

Feel free to salivate over the menu:

SNACKS: salmon/foie gras ‘ol fashioned/ Nasturtium Soup

TRUFFLES: Kaeshi Egg

RAW: Nori Bucatini/Tofu/ Pickled vegetables

BEEF: tar tar/ yolk/ marrow brioche

BREAD: French (onion soup) Toast/ onion variations

SHORT RIB: beef shortribs/au poivre/purslane/bone marrow vinaigrette

VEGETABLES: squash cake/ white chocolate/Dippin’ Dots

CHEESE: macarons

PETITE FOURS

  

These were just the courses listed on the menu. The owners—men also very involved in the cooking/plating/serving of the dishes—came up with a few extras to really wow our palate. I was no less than blown away. I only captured a few of the courses with my iPhone, as somewhere in between the cocktail pairing that Ben ordered, and the wine pairing that our dinner companions ordered, I was too wrapped up in the experience of the evening to remember to document along the way. 

The Pass also has a restaurant within its very same walls called Provisions that serves a more approachable menu if you are not ready to make the commitment to a four hour dinner and major dent in your wallet. I also highly recommend this half of the experience, as the food and ambiance are again laudable! 

http://passandprovisions.com/

gingersnap chocolate chip cookies

Myra and Tay (aka mom and dada) came to visit us on Sunday as a special treat. They harbor a considerable amount more energy than Ben and I, so these little visits always find us experiencing our very own city a little more widely. After church, we found the Phoenician Market downtown, a lunch destination which called for us to sprint across a parade (seemingly commemorating a Mayan holiday of some sort). Phoenician market offers a “Whole Foods” type set-up with prepared foods and other menu items, all of Greek/Mediterranean flair. I must say I loved it! My ideal type of meal is one full of tasters, of small plates that we can all share, all stick our forks into for just one or two little bites (obviously best shared with family or very close friends whose germs do not scare you).

spanokopita, greek salad, dolmitas,
homemade string cheese, zaatar sandwiches,
tabouli, tzatziki, etc...you know, just the basics

With the men still lingering in conversation after lunch, my mom and I quickly slipped away to peruse the grocery store part of Phoenicia market, full of imported meats, cheeses, and a million other un-name-ables.  She picked up honeys and jams and I picked up blocks of feta and spices. I somehow ended up with some “Date Molasses,” in quotes because these were truly the only English words on the otherwise Lebanese (?) import. I have been wanting to make some gingersnaps because it is, after all, December, so this molasses stepped right up to meet my needs.

These gingersnaps fit my craving exactly: chewy, chocolaty, and full of spice! HusBen seemed thrown off with the chocolate (he apparently prefers the traditional gingersnap), but hey! It's 80 degrees outside! What is traditional about this December!?

study snack of the highest caliber...i am on #5 for the day

Gingersnap chocolate chip cookies

For the Cookies:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 large egg

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup unsulphered molasses

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 ¼ cup dark chocolate chunks (or you can use semi sweet chocolate chips or whatever kind of chocolate you like)

For the Cinnamon-Sugar Coating for Rolling:

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, blend together melted butter and sugars. Add egg, molasses, oil, and vanilla and beat to combine. In another large bowl, add all dry ingredients (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt, cornstarch, baking soda, and flour) and whisk to combine. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and beat only until combined (don’t overdo it!). Fold in the chocolate. Cover the mixing bowl tightly with saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F, line two baking trays with non-stick baking mats or parchment paper, or just use cooking spray. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix well.

Form small handfuls of dough and roll each ball through the sugar mixture before placing on the baking tray. Bake for 8 minutes then remove from the oven (and remove off the hot tray!). Allow 5 minutes to cool before chowing down.

Adapted from http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/11/molasses-triple-chocolate-cookies.html

man mac

In a previous life, I was the sweetheart of a fraternity (Ben’s fraternity to be exact). This privilege was a responsibility in disguise, somewhat like I would imagine motherhood to be like.  My basic responsibilities seemed easy: feed hungry boys, find dates for members, sew on a few buttons here and there. Once I even rode in the Baylor homecoming parade as their representative (a hilarity in itself and the closest to pageantry I will ever willingly taste). Looking back, I really wish I had expended more effort in this role, as who often gets the chance to weekly meet with 40 some odd boys and share a few words or establish a few memories?

I suppose I married the most important frat boy in that bunch (who is hardly frat at all) and he still seems to remember this “man mac” that I would occasionally bring to their meetings…

oh so cheesy

crunchy meaty topping

HusBen, dinner's ready!

Man Mac

Ingredients

2 shallots, peeled

4 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon olive oil

6 pieces bacon (reserve bacon fat)

1 ½ cups chopped brisket

2 tablespoons flour

3 cups heavy cream

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese

2 cups shredded chedder cheese

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 pound penne pasta cooked

1 cup Panko bread crumbs

3 tbsp. melted butter

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place shallots and garlic in a small aluminum foil pouch and drizzle with olive oil. Roast 20 to 30 minutes or until tender. Remove from foil and chop. Meanwhile, cook bacon until crispy in a large pot. Remove bacon, chop, and reserve bacon fat. Add roasted shallot and garlic into pot with bacon fat and saute for 1 minute. Add flour and stir for 1 minute. Whisk in heavy cream, milk and thyme. Reduce by a third (simmer on medium heat for 10’ish minutes). Stir in cheeses until melted, creamy and thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and gently stir in pasta. Place in a 9X13 glass dish (casserole type). In a small bowl, mix together diced bacon and brisket, bread crumbs, butter and parsley. Top Mac n Cheese with Panko mixture and bake uncovered at same heat until bubbling and lightly browned on top, 20 to 25 minutes.

pumpkin pie

Well hello folks. I apologize for my absence, but let me explain. I am on my surgery rotation and these people work an absurd amount of hours every single day. Sunday to Sunday, at all hours of the day and night. My favorite question to ask this rare breed in the OR is "what would you be if you were not a surgeon?" Generally, normal people answer pretty quickly when I pose this question, because surely we have all thought of what we might be if we were not on our current trajectory...but the surgeons I have been around lately pause an uncomfortably long time before answering. It is like they have never thought any other career could possibly supplant their current one. They LOVE what they do. 

Guess what dear readers? I kind of love it too I think.  

Despite the long hours and sometimes tedious call schedule, I think I love surgery. I am still somewhat hesitant to say I have found my calling in life, but it seems like it is all I want to talk about when I open my mouth lately. I feel a serious passion brewing and it is rather exciting! We will see....

On a less consequential note: Thanksgiving finally gave me two days off in a row and an opportunity to cook a little. Mrs. Patti assigned me the pumpkin pie. Ina Garten (the Barefoot Contessa) recently came out with a new cookbook so I knew exactly which recipe I wanted to try. The crust is tender. The filling is so well spiced. And the whipped cream is dammmn good (yes, that expletive is a necessary modifier here, just so you know I am serious). 

Ina Garten’s Pumpkin Pie

Filling

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin purée (not pie filling)

½ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

¼ cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons grated orange zest

3 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup heavy cream

½ cup whole milk

2 tablespoons dark rum

Rum Whipped Cream (recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Line an 11-inch pie pan with the unbaked pie crust and place it on a sheet pan. Line the crust with parchment paper. Fill the paper threequarters full with the beans and bake the crust for 15 minutes, until the edges start to brown. Remove the beans and paper (save the beans for another time), prick the crust all over with the tines of a fork, and bake for another 5 minutes.

Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, orange zest, eggs, cream, milk, and rum. Pour the filling into the baked pie shell.

Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, until the filling is just set in the middle and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool completely. Serve with the rum whipped cream.

Rum Whipped Cream

Serves 8 to 10

A dollop of mascarpone or crème fraîche in whipped cream stabilizes it so you can make it in advance and store it in the fridge without it separating.

1 cup cold heavy cream

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon mascarpone

1 tablespoon good dark rum

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place the cream in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the sugar, mascarpone, rum, and vanilla and beat on medium-high until it forms soft peaks. Serve with the pumpkin pie.

NOTE: If you overwhip the cream and it looks curdled, just add a little more cream and whip it until it forms soft peaks.

Perfect Pie Crust

Makes two (9- to 11-inch ) crusts

There are a few tricks to making perfect pie crust. First, the butter, shortening, and water need to be ice cold. When you roll out the dough, you want to see bits of butter throughout. Second, allow the dough to relax in the fridge for at least thirty minutes before rolling it out. And third, don’t stretch the dough at all when you ease it into the pan. Perfect pie crust every time!

12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) very cold unsalted butter

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

¹⁄³ cup very cold Crisco

½ cup ice water

Cut the butter in --inch dice and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture. Place the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball. Dump out onto a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Cut the dough in half. Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle at least 1 inch larger than the pie pan, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough so it doesn’t stick to the board. (You should see bits of butter in the dough.) Fold the dough in half, ease it into the pie pan without stretching at all, and unfold to fit the pan. With a small sharp paring knife, cut the dough 1 inch larger around than the pan. Fold the edge under and crimp the edge with either your fingers or the tines of a fork.