recipes

STEAK, ASPARAGUS, AND CHIMICHURRI PASTA

4 cloves garlic

1 bunch Italian parsley

1 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon salt

Blend the above ingredients in your food processor (or blender).

1 pound rigatoni pasta

1 pound skirt steak

1 teaspoon salt

1 thick bunch of asparagus

Boil the pasta in salted water. Either grill the steak and asparagus on your grill or cook in a cast iron skillet inside. Slice both into bite size pieces.

Toss the chimichurri (I only used about half), pasta, steak, and asparagus. Serve hot!

PULLED PORK SLIDERS

Try this recipe! Things able to be left in the oven for hours are the best! You can socialize right up until dinner then just pull the pork out of the oven to assemble.

1 yellow onion

24 ounce Dr. Pepper

1 5-7 pound pork shoulder/butt

1 small can Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce

3 tablespoons brown sugar

lots of salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Slice onion into wedges and lay out on bottom of Dutch oven. I poured some bacon grease from breakfast over the onions but no worries if you do not have any lying around. Generously salt and pepper your pork roast then set in on top of your onions. Pour the can of pepper with their sauce over the pork then pour the Dr. Pepper over that (only fill to about an inch and half below the rim of the Dutch oven). Mix the brown sugar into the juice. Place lid tightly on pot and place in the oven. Turn the pot once or twice over the 6 hours to ensure even cooking. Check the pork after 6 hours- meat should be falling off the bone, super tender. Scoop up a cup of the juice and pour over the meat.

Assembly:

Buns, Chimichurri, Pork

Spread a generous amount of Chimichurri on the bottom of your buns. Use a fork to shred the pork and place a heaping portion over the chimichurri then top with bun.

S’MORES CUPCAKES

1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs

5 tablespoons butter, melted

Brownie mix

Jumbo marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners. Mix graham cracker crumbs and butter well then distribute evenly between the muffin tins (makes 12). Press down firmly with the back of a spoon. Next mix your brownies according to the directions on the box (real fancy and homemade, I know). Distribute evenly on top of your graham cracker crusts (about 2 tablespoons per cupcake- just eat the rest of the brownie batter). Bake for about 30 minutes. Take cupcakes out and turn your oven to broil. Smash a marshmallow with your fingers and place one on the top of each brownie. Place cupcakes under the broiler (Note: get down on the floor and watch your cupcakes through the oven window with the oven light on- the mallows brown very quickly (only takes about 10 seconds or less even) and you do not want them to burn! Plus it is kind of great to watch them puff and brown so quickly and beautifully. Take your cupcakes out and serve hot! I preferred to remove them from the cupcake wrappers before serving so that you can see all three layers of s’more.

this IS how i relax

We have been looking forward to Lamar for several weeks now. Those days of falling asleep on syllabi by night and filling out Scantrons with my tightly clenched appropriately #2 pencil by day are now over (praise God) and we are able to relax…whatever that means to each of us. I like to cook. Others like to eat. A weekend in Lamar with some of my oldest friends facilitated this harmony quite easily. The menu consisted of recipes I have been compiling over the past few weeks on study breaks, hoping to test out on some kind taste buds (family and friends offer the best of these mouths, so forgiving but more honest with you than most). We arrived at our bay house on Friday night so I quickly whipped up some steak and asparagus rigatoni with chimichurri sauce and some grilled baguette (which Spencer pointed out was burned- toasted, I corrected him, toasted). As somewhat of a novice at this blogging thing, I forgot to take a picture until there were only about 5 noodles left (which makes for a less aesthetically pleasing photograph than I had previously hoped). Saturday brought more mouths to feed (my favorite form of relaxing!). I prepared some Sangria (recipe refined over a study abroad summer in Spain during Baylor years) and some light lunch (based on my favorite flavor combination of feta, spinach, green onions, garlic and pine nuts). While my friends noshed, I put dinner in the oven since it had to cook for 6 hours. Pulled pork in Dr. Pepper and Adobo chilis with a cilantro jalapeno pesto on whole-wheat buns (dreamt up in my mind to be sliders but the Victoria HEB offered no such option). I imagined cheesy rosemary potatoes and some roasted lemony broccoli (with more feta and pinenuts!) would pair beautifully. Cupcakes seem to be the fru-fru dessert of the year, so to follow the fad I played with the old time classic s’more combo of graham, chocolate, and mallow. Turned out to be quite the success, allowing us each to collapse in post-meal comas- girls lounged on couches chatting in one room and boys in the TV room supporting the Mavs.

Disclaimer before my document attempted at food-blogging: all photos are taken with my digital underwater camera that we received as a wedding gift. Yep, UNDERWATER camera. How often do we dine underwater? Not enough, apparently.

Many a scenario in our current lives as students calls for the cooking and sharing of a good meal. Just finished a week of tests? Roasted vegetable orzo. Up past 1 a.m. studying? Browned butter brownies. Been in the Rice library too long? Anything off tastespotting.com (essentially a food porn site displaying all the goods other bloggers are cooking/baking…instead of studying). Also, despite my nerdy type A personality that would easily peg me as a left brain dominant person, my creative mind prompts me to self proclaim a right brain status…and food is the venue through which I indulge this cathartic part. So here begins the blog that I will hopefully keep up somewhat regularly in order to affirm myself that medical school has not killed me yet.