As mentioned last time, BlindBaker and I are taking turns making bento for each other.  But that’s only Monday/Wednesdays, so what about the rest of the week?  On Mondays, I actually have class until 9pm, so I need to also bring dinner; Tuesdays, I “only” have class from 1-5, so I usually eat at home… but on Thursdays, I have class from 10-4, with only a 20 minute break from 12:50 – 1:10, during which time I have to walk from the western side of campus to the northeastern side, anyway.  Basically, I need to bring food to inhale, or I’ll starve.  So one Thursday, I brought the above bento.

Cut-up watermelon; dill potato salad; mini-bell peppers stuffed with roasted pine-nut hummus; honey-roasted turkey on whole wheat with dijonnaise and asiago cheese.

BlindBaker’s week came up, and I somehow only have a picture of the Monday bento – though the Wednesday bento was near-identical, so no big deal.  I’m sure she’ll pipe up to correct me if I’m wrong, or with recipes, but: capicola and artichokes on whole wheat bread; Cracker Barrel cheddar; baby carrots; roasted orange bell pepper stuffed with pesto orzo; Dutch apple crisp.  Yum!

Next week, back to my turn!

The BlindBaker received: kimchi bacon fried rice; sauteed green beans with garlic; mini bell pepper stuffed with hummus; kickin’ chicken with chicken breast (which I’ve never done before and probably won’t be again).  

I received the same, just shaped differently. 

And on Wednesday, two more bento!

Here’s my bento: instead of a mini bell pepper stuffed with hummus, I put some summer kimchi in there, leftovers. 

BlindBaker actually didn’t wind up eating this bento – I ate it for lunch on Thursday instead – but she got Sungold cherry tomatoes instead of a bell pepper as well. 

Now, recipes:

Kickin’ Chicken

two – three boneless/skinless chicken breasts (I usually use 4 thighs, but this time used 3 frozen chicken breasts from Target bc I had them)
BBQ sauce – either one you like, or homemade is good too obvs
crushed red pepper flakes
honey

Preheat oven or toaster oven to 350 degrees. 

Line a baking sheet with tin foil.  Lay the chicken pieces down and cover with bbq sauce, crushed red pepper flakes and a bit of honey.  Bake, turning once, for about an hour or a little longer (test the chicken for doneness).  When it’s done, while still warm, use two forks to “pull” the meat, then toss with the sauce that’s remaining on the sheet. 

Kimchi Bacon Fried Rice

5 strips of bacon, cut/snipped into small pieces
Diced onion
Minced garlic
Few cups of cold cooked rice
2 eggs, beaten well with a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar or so
A bit of kimchi, chopped up
Frozen veggies (I had some peas left from another dish I’d made, and I opened a package of corn)
Splash of soy sauce

In the bottom of a heavy skillet over very low heat, cook the bacon.  More fat is rendered this way; you can pour off some or most of it before you continue to the next steps, but I found for how much I made, I used all the fat.  Stir it occasionally as the fat renders, to prevent sticking and to redistribute. 

After the bacon looks all crunchy (this takes a long time, like 20 minutes or so), raise the flame, add the diced onion and minced garlic, stirring a little.  Cook until the onions are translucent; about 2-3 minutes. 

Add the cold rice, breaking it up if necessary, then let it turn a bit golden, “frying” it a bit.  Once that’s done, push everything out in a “ring” around the center, leaving a big empty spot in the center. 

Pour the beaten eggs into the empty spot.  After it sets a teensy bit, stir it within the center ring, and continue until you have very soft scrambled eggs, then stir the rice into it, mixing it all together into one big happy pot of food. 

Add the kimchi, tossing everything together, then add the frozen veggies.  Once the frozen veggies look not-frozen-anymore, add a splash of soy sauce just for color (though the kimchi probably added a lot of color already), then taste, adjust for seasoning, and then…

HAPPY EATING!!! 

***Kimchi is totally optional; if you can’t get kimchi or just don’t like it, that’s completely fine.  I don’t really eat much kimchi at all as I can’t eat much spicy food, but in the fried rice, the spice is really tamped down and becomes a background flavor.  It’s vinegary, and ever so slightly spicy in my version, which makes it a nice touch and counter-taste to the smoky, salty bacon.  I recommend trying this dish once and then deciding if you hate kimchi or not… yum! 

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Feisty Bento, fried rice, hummus, Recipe Fridays

A little oddly spaced, this Sunday Supper was during my spring break, so I thought I wouldn’t need a ton of leftovers to work me through the week – but then I realized I planned on staying home all week to work on stuff and actually needed to eat… 

First, I dyed eggs and then silly me, almost immediately made deviled eggs out of them just to munch on – I love these suckers. 

For the dinner portion, I made ribs, roasted broccoli, and the best damn creamed spinach you’ll ever eat in your entire life. 

Here’s a closer shot of the ribs… cooked over very low and slow heat for a lil while… falling off the bone delicious with an amazing homemade BBQ sauce.  SO. GOOD.  Of course, that was an individual portion, and I finished that in one meal. 

This is maybe the 2nd time I’ve ever tried to make creamed spinach, but this was heaven, transcendental, and I will share with you the method further down the page, I promise.  AMAZING.  I was so thrilled with it, I was bragging to everyone…

And when a few days later, I realized I still needed food, I braised short ribs and added pasta to the pot after I skimmed off the fat, and just… nomnomnom (that’s roasted brussels sprouts in the top left of the plate). 

Deviled eggs – hard boil eggs; slice in half and remove yolks.  Mix yolks with Thousand Island dressing, scoop back into hollow egg whites.  (I actually used Dijon mustard, diced celery, pickle relish, a bit of mayo, diced red bell peppers, and diced onions, a bit of lemon juice.  I mix it up according to what’s in my fridge.)
Ribs – roasted on a rack in the oven so the fat just dripped off; basted in a quickie homemade BBQ sauce as it cooked in a 200-250 degree oven, then smothered in the same sauce.  Nice!
Roasted broccoli - same as always; 425 degrees with whole cloves of peeled garlic, roasted till it all smells fragrant and delicious. 
Braised short ribs + pasta – some combination of this recipe and this recipe; after the short ribs had been properly braised for over 3 hours, I took them out and skimmed most of the fat out, very carefully.  Meanwhile I’d cooked a little less than a pound of rotelle and reserved a scoop of the pasta water… In a separate pot, I made a quick roux (heated butter, then added a bit of flour and cooked it together until it was just turning brown and smelling lovely), which I added to the pot of sauce, stirring it around as it heated through, then added the pasta, tossed it together, added the scoop of pasta water, and then shredded the short ribs into the pot.  Mix that all around together in the pot, and voila, you have something amazing and delicious in your pot.  Mmm.  Pot o’goodness. 
Roasted brussels sprouts – as before, 400 degrees with lardons, simple and delicious.  Roast till fragrant. 
Creamed spinach – Here is the capper!  The real wonder of the day!  I’ve been practicing my roux, bechamel, and I’ll be starting on other master sauces soon as well (I am reading Ma Vie en France; can you tell?), but this really pushed me over the edge and made me swoon.  I mean, you have to like garlic, but damn this is good stuff.

5 cloves of garlic
heavy cream
unsalted butter
flour (I used all purpose, but any kind is probably fine)
thawed box of chopped spinach

Melt butter in a saucepan.  Grate garlic into butter as it heats.  (Yes, that’s bolded cuz I consider it the ‘secret’ step.)  DO NOT BROWN THE GARLIC!!!  Add flour; cook the flour a bit until it’s been incorporated thoroughly into the butter.  Add heavy cream (more if you like your creamed spinach a lil creamy/soupy, less if you like it ‘tighter’); when it starts to form tiny lil bubbles, add the spinach in and stir until it’s mixed well.  If it’s a lil too ‘hard’ for you, add more cream as you go. 

OMG.  I’m not going to lie.  This is not delicately fragranced with garlic; this is in your face, slap you twice garlic flavor, with a creamy backdrop of spinach – packed with more garlic flavor.  WOW.  I love it.  I will make this repeatedly until the day I die, I am positive.  Awesome. 

I love these Super Supper Sundays for all that I am learning and practicing, and trying to expand my repertoire but also for perfecting things I already like to make and eat.  NOM! 

Happy eating!!!

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: BBQ, ribs, roasted broccoli

I mentioned a special project I’ve been working on, well, here it is: SUPER SUNDAY SUPPERS!!!  (Credit: TC for coming up with the name unwittingly)  Cook a huge blowout meal on Sunday, then eat the leftovers the rest of the week as I can.  I’ve been planning menus like crazy, trying to make them the perfect combination, and so far… so good. 

First up: pulled pork, cole slaw, salad to be healthy, dinner rolls, and roasted brussels sprouts with bacon.  Nommm?

Nommm.  Better shot for the brussels sprouts glory – because they were glorious. 

Complete with dessert!  I’ve made this for the blog before – strawberry love cake – but had to fix a few problems from last time (YEARS ago). 

Nommms! 

And of course, I re-badged the leftovers after I got tired of eating it the way it was. 

Pulled pork
Cole slaw
Roasted Brussels sprouts
Strawberry love cake
Pulled pork “green chile” stew

Pulled pork: I used a random crockpot recipe to make pulled pork the normal way, vinegary deliciousness.
Cole slaw: shredded cabbage; thinly sliced red onion; white vinegar; celery salt; fresh black pepper; lemon juice.  Toss and let sit in fridge till you’re ready to eat it (it wilts a little bit).
Roasted brussels sprouts: chopped in half (cuz I had big ones, but if you have small ones, by all means leave them whole); lardons of bacon; drizzled with olive oil, tossed, then roasted on a baking sheet for about 20 minutes.  So good and sweet.  LOVE!
Strawberry love cake: recipe as shown, but I chopped the strawberries up and incorporated them into the whipped cream instead of layering them separately.  Pretty damn awesome, if you ask me, and less messy, no squishing out of berries! 
Pulled pork ‘green chile’ stew:  I put green chile in quotes because I didn’t actually use green chiles.  I bought them, then just didn’t add them, because it was awesome enough as is. 

Sautee minced garlic, onions and carrots in the bottom of a pot. 
Add diced tomatoes, with juice, to ‘deglaze’. 
Add black beans. 
Add frozen veggies of your own choosing.
Add shredded cabbage (I had some on hand I wanted to use, but you can feel free to omit that ingredient). 
Add pulled pork and stir to incorporate. 

You can add some heat by adding crushed red pepper flakes, or hot sauce… I wound up eating huge bowlfuls of this, sometimes with sour cream dolloped on top as well.  It was so good… the delicious pork permeating through the broth, and just… amazing! 

Hope you enjoyed following along for Super Supper Sunday #1!!!

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cake, pulled pork, soup/stew

Having friends who love food is awesome, but having friends who love food and love to host is even more awesome!  I never run into friends randomly on the street, but recently had a night where I ran into two couples that I haven’t seen in a while.  EE and I caught up for a little bit (I was with HB, after our normal Friday routine), and mentioned how we hadn’t hung out in AGES.  She was meant to attend the pernil party, but timing didn’t work out as it were.  Boo.  So instead, J&J (aka Orzo and his gf, who had hosted the pernil party) kindly offered to host Labor Day Fake-BBQ!  (Fake because we all live in apartments.  Grilling isn’t always an option.) 

And my goodness, the spread was amazing!!!

Ribs!  J said she used Alton Brown’s recipe but didn’t mention which one.  I’m sure if you speak up though she might pop by and let us know

A lovely broccoli salad also made by J.  I loved this – crunchy, creamy, tangy from the onion, vinegary from the dressing, and meaty – from the BACON!!!  *swoon*  I believe it was her own recipe, but I’m sure you could throw together your own.  The broccoli was raw – I wonder how it’d be with the broccoli roasted ever so slightly, omg…!

Creamed spinach made by the male half of J&J, Orzo… I asked him what was in it and do you really want to know?  Cream cheese, heavy cream… spinach…  Mmm…

I arrived a bit late, but this was part of the fluffy angelfoodcake that J made.  She also made an almond scented whipped cream that turned good lemon angelfoodcake to transcendent. 

Apple pie, also from J(f).  I saw BF scarfing this down, so I’ll say it was a success…

My offering, baked mac & cheese, also using Alton Brown’s recipe, though I doubled it (by not quite doubling all the ingredients but macaroni).  I was scared by the amount of cheese I had to use… but the cheese sauce was pretty damn decadent.  I mean, I tasted a bit as I went, and mmm goodness… be still my clogging heart

The dirty upclose shot.  I think people liked it since they all kept raving about it.  Actually, I’m pretty sure they all liked it more than I did, since in the end, I thought it was only alright.

My first plate.  That’s a piece of fried chicken, Orzo’s secret recipe.  Was pretty damn good too – very moist and delicious.  And the plate says it all: I don’t need dessert.  Another piece of fried chicken was my dessert.  You know how I feel about sweets: nice, but not necessary. 

I totally forgot to take a picture of the cupcakes that EE brought – red velvet from Abou’s (I think that’s what she said?).  Yummy!!!  Tons of good food, good friends, great conversation, and fun games later in the night.  Hahaha… involving getting shot but so much fun!!! 

Happy eating~!  Many thanks, once again, to J&J for hosting!!!

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

The hype has died down, and it’s close enough to my office that there’s no reason not to go try Picnick, Smoked.  You may recall that I really detested Picnick when I went 2 years ago.  Maybe not.  But I did… but I LOVE BBQ, so whatever. 

As you can see by the above pic, there was no line when I went.  Why?  Because this was the Friday before Labor Day, and the Financial District was pretty empty.  The hype died down, the line was gone, and I could finally comfortably go – I’m sure I’ve mentioned a ton of times that I’m a huge brat, and don’t like waiting on lines.  Especially when it’s super sunny out and I have to stand in the sun… I’m not cut out for that.  (It actually creates health issues for me, but even minus the sun, I hate standing in line.  I embrace my brattiness.) 

I ordered the complete package meal deal – I forget what it’s called, Lil Piggy maybe? – drink, meat, side, and dessert, because I wanted dessert.  Will Goldfarb is known for desserts, and I’d enjoyed his panna cotta, so, why not?  I requested root beer, but the guy behind the counter – who I thought was Will, but then it wasn’t, and I was just confused – kind of young, hipster lookin’ guy who was REALLY nice – pulled out a “Creamy Red Birch Beer” – which I’d never seen before, so I snagged that one instead.  Yum!  It tasted like birch beer, but it was reddish in color. 

I’d planned on getting Kobe beef brisket, but they were out; then I wanted pulled pork, but the nice guy was all “We have beef ribs” (it’s a special, so there’s a $1 surcharge for the meal-deal) and I can’t resist ribs.  It was going to be a slow afternoon at work anyway.  Garlic bread on top…

MASSIVE pile of ribs underneath.  The fat is delicious, I don’t care what anyone says.  The only problem here is (and there are no further pics of the ribs, because once I started eating, that was it for pics) that the meat was tender… but slightly bland.  Salt was nowhere to be found, so I snagged some BBQ sauce, which was quite tangy and had a good kick, surprising my tongue.  Delicious… though finishing this whole lunch put me out of commission for the rest of the day.  Burp.  Yes, I ate the fat, or most of it. 

Creamy potato salad – pretty good, needed a little salt (which I didn’t have! They don’t put salt out on the tables!) but REALLY creamy.  Not for you if you don’t like mayo.

My dessert – I almost took the cookies, but the guy working the counter said I should try the apple tart, because he made it.  I obliged.  I could have sworn he said it was apples on top of almond praline, but I know fo’sho that’s not praline or not praline how I know it.  Whatever.  This tart was f*cking amazing.  OMFG.  The apples were delicious but the bottom, soft, slightly cakey, crumbly, and just… oh my, I want the recipe, even though I’ll never make it – I just want to find someone to make it for me.  Oh, Mr. Nice Guy working there…??? 

Beyond that… I actually returned a week later, intending to try the pulled pork, but they had Kobe beef brisket, so why the heck wouldn’t I get THAT?  Mmm!  I got another meal-deal because it was totally worth it. 

The housemade lemonade was super tart with a slight sweetness, really good… if you like lemonade and tart things.  I do (which is why I ordered it!). 

A better pic of the bread, since last time, I didn’t take one.  I liked the bread because it’s garlicky – but not overwhelming, and crispy, something nice to temper your tongue between bites of whatever. 

\

I opted for the cole slaw this time, which was really creamy.  Seriously, if you’re squeamish about mayo, pass on both the mayo-based sides, but this one in particular.  I mean, wow.  It almost got me… and I LOVE mayo. 

So, I went on a very rainy Friday afternoon – no line again, the week after Labor Day – not just because I didn’t bring my lunch that day, but because I’ve read before that smoked items are even better when it’s rainy out; something about the moisture and smoke really penetrating the items.  Yum.  You see that ring of fat?  I ate the fat.  YES I DID.  And it was smokey, salty, delicious. 

Here’s a pic with the BBQ sauce they gave me – almost not enough.  This sauce wasn’t quite as spicy as the week before, but still a nice kick to it that gave my tongue the tingles.  The meat was super tender - rainy day WIN!!! – but needed a bit of salt.  Sigh.  However, eaten with the fat and a slight dip of BBQ sauce… zomg so damn good I cry big fat tear of joy! 

And at $11 for the deal… so worth it, since the Kobe beef brisket by itself is $8.50 alone. 

My coworker had the pulled pork and really liked it, so next rainy day, I might go back for that…

Yvo says: I was wary of the hype and the crowds.  The hype and the crowds have died out, and luckily, I never saw any hype that said OMG BEST BBQ EVER cuz it’s not.  Location-wise, though, it’s only a few blocks from work, and it definitely fills part of the void of good food down here in the Financial District.  The prices are not prohibitively expensive, and it’s definitely tasty enough that I will return, and am welcoming them to the area with open arms.  Please don’t block me from getting my ‘cue when I want it, though – I will spork you
recommended

Picnick, Smoked
Wall Street & South Street
Mannahatta Park

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: trucks/carts