Homemade Fancy Shmancy

I know I've been posting a ton about our anniversary, but I have a lot to say :) Anyhow, for our actual day, we weren't able to go out to dinner because Little Man was fighting a very nasty cold. For that matter, fifteen days later, he still has said cold. Poor little guy. Thus, we made dinner and it was so much fun! My sister recommended a yummy strip steak with wine sauce and pink peppercorn butter from the February issue of Bon Appetit. It was delish and SO EASY. Along side it we had a parsnip and celery root puree - again, delish and easy! I love that we finally had a reason to bust our our china!

But the best part of the meal were the Choco Hoto Pots! My mom and sister make these babies all the time. I've never made them - what a mistake! I will be surprising the J Man with these more often! If you really want to impress someone, or want to say "I love you" in food, make these!! (I believe the original recipe comes from the ever-lovely Nigella Lawson.)

Choco Hoto Pots
Makes 4 (and I will include the measurements for 6 as well in parenthesis)

Ingredients
Butter for ramekins
3/4 cup (1 1/8 cup) semi sweet chocolate chips
1 stick (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 (3) large eggs
3/4 cup (1 1/8 cup) super fine sugar (I accidentally used your standard granulated sugar and couldn't tell a difference)
3 tablespoons (4 1/2 tablespoons) all purpose flour
1/2 cup (3/4 cup) semi sweet chocolate chips (I know this ingredient is in here twice, just keep reading)

Instructions

Place baking sheet in an oven preheated to 400*. Butter four 2/3 cup ramekins and set aside. Using the microwave or a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips and butter. Set aside to cool. In a separate bowl combine eggs, sugar and flour. Add cooled chocolate and mix until blended. Add the second serving of chocolate chips. Divide mixture evenly among ramekins and place on baking sheet. Bake until tops are shiny and cracked, about 20 minutes. (Make sure top cracks or it isn't done!) The chocolate beneath will be hot and gooey. Place ramekin on a small plate to serve. We like it with vanilla bean ice cream and sliced fresh strawberries!

Bon Appetit!

What a difference a year makes...

For our third anniversary, we decided to go to Harry's in downtown Little Apple. We don't have a wide selection of fancy shmancy restaurants to choose from in the Little Apple like we did in DC. And we certainly weren't ready to commit to a KC trip sans Little Man, so we stuck with what we know. Harry's is kind of an institution here in Manhattan and is known for great steaks. However, a girlfriend recommended the Hot Lobster Cilantro Martini as an app - I don't think I ever would have selected this off the menu as I'm not a huge lobby lobster fan. Um, it was AMAZING. Seriously. The lobby lobster is lightly battered and quick fried and then dunked in a buttery rum cilantro sauce - delish! And the waitress brought us extra bread to sop up all the yummy sauce. I wonder why I'm hanging on to those five extra pounds of baby weight. Hmmm....


So, at this point in our evening I had consumed a delicious Sidecar and was enjoying a lovely glass of proseco. And since I am still breast feeding, it really doesn't take much to make me a bit loopy...Enter my OB, NEAT! I loudly whispered to Jeremy that I thought it was my doctor which then created a rather awkward interaction with my doctor discussing dates without children. All I could think about was all of my late term OB visits. Super!


Here is a pic from our 2nd anniversary. We celebrated in style at the Blue Duck Tavern in DC - OMG. If you still live in DC and haven't been here, make reservations RIGHT NOW. And be sure to get the hand cut triple fries (they are fried three times in duck fat and are TO.DIE.FOR). You can sort of see them in the center of the table, they are served in a silver cup. And for an entree you must order the braised beef rib which is to the right. Fall off the bone deliciousness. And to finish, the apple pie. YUM.


For our first anniversary we went to the West End Bistro in DC - one of Eric Ripert's restaurants. It is an elegant take on traditional mid-atlatic/southern food. I had the above delectible dish: shrimp and cheese grits - amazing.


Oh, on the plate were the delish crab cake sliders. Man, I miss crab cakes. DC does crab cakes like no other. Sigh, I miss DC!


I thought it would be fun to end this little jaunt down memory lane with a pic from our wedding dinner - I had the John Dorry but I don't think I ate much of it!

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

So I'm not a huge "Family Guy" fan, but I will admit that I regularly sing the "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" song because a) I love peanut butter jelly time, and b) it is a catchy little tune...Anyfood, there is no better union than PB and J. While peanut butter is delicious on its own (do I use an apostrophy there? I never know), it is enhanced with the jelly (much like Jeremy being great on his own, but he is enhanced since he married me :) And, to take it a step further, while sandos are delish, adding sugar, butter, and eggs make it absolutely DIVINE. Peanut Butter Jelly Bars. 'Nough Said.

Peanut Butter Jelly Bars
from Barefoot Contessa at Home
Makes 24 bars

Ingredients
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing the pan
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups creamy peanut butter, such as Skippy (18 ounces) (okay, I've tried it with crunchy peanut butter and it does not work - the bars are WAY too dry and simply not enjoyable)
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cups raspberry jam or other jam (18 ounces)
2/3 cups salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 x 2 inch baking pan.

2. In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs and peanut butter and mix until well combined.

3. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined. (This is very important because if you over mix, it will cause the dough to be dry and dense.)

4. Spread two thirds of the dough in the prepared pan, using a knife to spread it evenly. Spread the jam evenly over the dough. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam. Don't worry if all the jam isn't covered; the dough will spread when it bakes. (Actually, in my experience, it does not spread when it bakes, so I would recommend making sure the globs are v. small and cover most of the jam...) Sprinkle with the chopped peanuts and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into small squares.

Bon Appetit!

I made these delightful treats for a friend who just had a baby. In order to actually get them made, I had to keep my Little Monkey entertained. Apparently his own toys no longer do the trick, but open up the cabinets and voila! Hours of entertainment!

Farmer's Market Envy

Hmm...me thinks I will not be seeing artichokes at my local farmer's market come April 24. On my recent trip to Cali, my sister took us to her farmer's market in Huntington Beach and we saw glorious fruit (fresh strawberries, tangerines, blood oranges, grapefruit, avocados) and delectable veggies (artichokes, beets, brussel sprouts, onions, cucumbers) and I had definite farmer's market envy. Not only does my farmer's market not begin until the end of April, I'm positive I won't be seeing any chokes, strawberries, avos or citrus fruit. Boo. But I will have copious amounts of corn. Eat your heart out Huntington Beach.

Owen got a little tired of hanging in the stroller, so Grandpa Bill gave him a lift and he was as happy as a clam! And please note that he was representing The D with his little beanie :)


Okay, so the best part of the market was the pork and cheese papusas! I ate mine so fast I forgot to take a picture. I bought dinner for my mom, sister and me for a total of $9 - sweet! Delish and budget friendly :) Um, my brother-in-law and dad had sausages, and one of them was wrapped in bacon - neat!

I wish I could have captured the sunset and Catalina Island in the background but I'm not too savy on my fancy camera. The sky was gorgeous and it was so clear you could see Catalina (for those of you not familiar with So Cal smog, a Catalina sighting is not as frequent as it should be!).

Anyhow, it is recipe time. My parents celebrated their 36th anniversary so my sister and I made them a celebratory dinner. We decided to pick up veggies at the farmer's market. The red and gold beets were beautiful so we decided on a beet salad. There is just something so earthy about fresh beets that you either love or hate. My dad LOVES beets, so this was an easy choice! My mom has this wonderful cookbook put out by the Placer County Farmer's Market that organizes recipes by what is available in the market on that date. And what do you know? For March 30: Roasted Beet Salad! So here it is an adaptation:

Ingredients

2 bunches of beets, roasted (there are many ways to roast beets, we tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted at 350 for an hour - they were way greasy. Another way is to place them in about 1/4" water at 350 for an hour - the water leaches out some of the vitamins, but they aren't nearly as greasy. Wait for them to cool, then peel and chop)
4 oz goat cheese
1/4 cup toasted, chopped walnuts
4 cups greens
1 avocado (not in the original, we added because we had a ton!)

Dressing:
This dressing comes from my Bride and Groom cookbook and it is a fave in our house - we use it all the time!

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp grainy mustard
1 tsp finely minced garlic
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp kosher slat
Freshly ground pepper
1 1/4 cups olive oil

Whisk together the vinegar, mustard, garlic, sugar, kosher slat and pepper to taste in a medium bowl. Drizzle in the olive oil, whisking to incorporate. Alternatively, combine all ingredients in a jar, cover tightly and shake until thoroughly blended. Adjust the seasoning to taste. the vinaigrette will keep, covered and refrigerated for up to 1 week.

Toss it all together but don't use all the dressing!

3 Years, 2 moves and 1 baby

Has it really already been three years (and a day)??? So are we really no longer newly weds? I guess that classification ended after the first year. Well, I for one still fell like a newly wed :) Maybe it is because the Army is kind enough to move us all over the place, thus every time we set up house I feel like we are newly married as I discover boxes of dishes I've not seen since the last move which kind of makes them feel like new. Anyhow, totally off topic.


I LOVE our wedding photos. I seriously never get tired of looking at them. I love how our photographers were able to take the simple surroundings and make amazing pics!


This is my favorite picture of Jeremy from our wedding day - he seems so calm and collected. He knows exactly what he is getting into and he is ready for it :) Were you J Man? Did you really know what you had bargained for??

This picture kind of cracks me up: we had already spent two hours before the wedding taking pictures, then we had the ceremony, and now the reception has started, and the crowd is waiting on us - but we are busy taking hot pictures. BTW: I was starving and was dying for a magnum of champagne...


So after moving from Tacoma to Washington, DC, a wedding, moving from Washington, DC to the Little Apple, we added this little precious gem to our family. Isn't he sweet?? Owen is the best thing Jeremy and I have ever done. This little man has rocked our world in an amazing way. Can't wait to see who he turns out to be!

The Avocado Incident

My Auntie Jo brought us a ginormous bag of avocados and grapefruit off of her trees while I was in Cali with Owen. My mom, sister and I went out for a bit and while we were gone, the Lads located said ginormous bag and did a little taste test. Well, Owen did a taste test while Will provided the samples.

Clearly he is a California boy, he loves his avocados!

Alas, since Owen is sporting a solitary tooth, no harm was done to the avocado...

Will got bored of doing all the work and left Owen to continue his culinary adventure with the native fruits of his mama's home town!