Fresh Fruit Salad

Cell phone camera doesn't do it justice. Fresh strawberries, blueberries, oranges, and peaches. Yum!

Easter Pierogies

In the spirit of my Polish heritage I decided that this would be the year I would learn how to make pierogies. From scratch. I don't really know if pierogies are typical Polish Easter food, but I remember my grandmother used to make them for Eastertime. Martha Stewart featured a great how-to article on pierogies in her April magazine, and also did a step-by-step demonstration on her tv show last week. I plan to get my grandmother's recipe next, but figured I would start with Martha's since it was right under my nose, and since with the tv show I could literally watch her do it. I halved the recipe she had in the magazine, and made the dough, stirring it with a wooden spoon as I added the flour. Once I started kneading it, it required a lot more flour to get it to stop sticking to my hands and the counter. But eventually it became one lovely ball of dough.
I had cooked the cabbage the day before, squeezing out all the excess water. I don't have a meat grinder like Martha suggests, so I used a small hand blender to chop the cabbage. I added 4 oz cream cheese (remember, I halved her recipe), 2 T melted butter and salt and pepper.

After letting the dough sit for an hour, I rolled it out pretty thinly.Using a glass, I cut what I thought were 3-inch circles into the dough. These pierogies ended up a little smaller than I imagined, and I didn't stuff much filling in this first batch. I decided to try a slightly larger glass for the next batch, and I think it did the trick.

This dough is actually pretty amazing and stretchy. I realized that you can stuff a lot of filling in one small circle of dough, and stretch the dough around it to close. Batch by batch I dropped the little delicate dumplings into a pot of salted boiling water, and waited 2-3 minutes after they rose to the top before pulling them out. As per Martha's suggestion (or rather, her mother's suggestion) I melted butter and put a little on the platter before plating the dumplings, and then poured some melted butter on top of them too. I have a bunch left over for tomorrow, and I'm going to try sauteing them in a pan, like my grandmother used to do. Boiled and buttered is very tasty, but a little crispy brown goodness never hurt anyone either. I'm so glad this was a success, and I'm looking forward to making them again soon, this time with mashed potato filling, with mushroom filling, and with a sauerkraut filling, as opposed to the "sweet cabbage" filling I did this time. Pierogies are DE-lish!

Saturday breakfast

Okay, so maybe daily blogging was a bit ambitious. I am still gung-ho about making fresh food and trying to do my part to help in this Food Revolution that our country so desperately needs. This morning I decided to take a break from my usual oatmeal, and instead I cooked some bacon and hash brown potatoes with green peppers and onions. I recently discovered frozen hash brown potatoes (basically julienned potato matchsticks - is that redundant?) after watching Paula Deen make a quiche with a hash brown potato crust. They are so amazing and versatile. I know, Jamie Oliver would probably want me to start with fresh potatoes and cut them up into matchsticks, but I'm not quite there... yet. I sauteed chopped onions in a little olive oil, then added one chopped green pepper, and then added the potatoes and a little salt. I let them brown on the bottom, flipped them, then sprinkled the top with chili powder and paprika. This was a recipe taken from Williams Sonoma's Breakfast cookbook. It calls for red and green peppers but I only had green. It was actually pretty delicious. And a little bacon now and then is a good thing. Please excuse the small piece of bacon in the picture - I almost forgot to photograph the end result.

A Daily Fresh Creation

In the spirit of the Food Revolution, I'm aiming to create at least one fresh dish each day. Today it is a hearty grains salad. This was made from the hearty grains mix I bought at Trader Joe's. I cooked it according to the package, substituting EVOO for butter, and then added chopped green and red pepper (sweet), slivered almonds, dried cranberries, and a zucchini that I chopped, brushed with EVOO and broiled. The dressing is EVOO, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Jamie Oliver appeared today on the Rachel Ray show, and demonstrated the "evolution" of a salad. You can start with just a couple ingredients, and then by adding layer upon layer, you end up with several different possibilities for a healthy salad. The tomato salad Rachel showed us went from just tomatoes and basil to a protein-rich pasta dish with white beans and tuna. Here are recipes for his evolution potato salad and his evolution cucumber salad.

Food Revolution - Pass it on!

I've been a long time gone, but I'm back and ready to move into my next foray into the food world. I just signed Jamie Oliver's petition to promote the American Food Revolution, and you should too! Jamie just won the 2010 TED prize for his mission to create "a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity."
I plan to learn recipes from his new book, Food Revolution, and teach them to friends and possibly start up a cooking group in my community to spread the word about how easy, fun, affordable (compared to eating out) and healthy it is to cook at home. Please take a moment to sign the petition and to read more about Jamie's wish.

The Evening Star Cafe - What a Disappointment

My friend and I were out enjoying today's beautiful weather, and when we were stumped on a place for dinner, I suddenly remembered the Evening Star Cafe in Alexandria. I'd always wanted to try it, and I'd heard great things about it, and now I'm just not so sure why.

We got in before the dinner rush and sat in a booth - it's a small place with booths lining the left and right walls as you walk in, and there are about 7 tables cleverly arranged in the middle with bold blue chairs that look comfortable. Our server was less than friendly, but I tried to ignore it in my excitement for what was to come. We shared the Almond-Crusted Brie, which was good, although not what I had imagined. Instead of the usual sliced almonds on the outside of the baked brie, the almonds were crushed into crumbs, and the brie was fried in the almondcrumbs. It was served with sliced granny smith apple which provided a nice crisp contrast to the fried brie, and truffle honey, of which I only saw literally one drop. A more generous drizzle of the delicious honey would have been wonderful.
For my entree I had "Pan Seared Salmon Filet" with "Sprout & Bacon Hash, Fingerling Potatoes, Pernod Sauce, Fig Essence." It was...interesting. Well not really, but what are you supposed to say? The salmon was delicious and perfectly cooked, with a tasty crust from the saute pan. But there were just too many flavors in this dish. The salmon sat atop the bacon and brussels sprouts hash which was too salty. On top of the salmon was sliced fennel ? and sliced raw red onion. The pernod sauce was totally overpowered when mixed with the hash or the salmon. It was just too complicated, and therefore hard to enjoy any one simple flavor.

My co-diner had the only vegetarian entree, Truffle-Ricotta Ravioli in a cream sauce with English peas and mushrooms. It was tasty, the peas fresh and not mushy, the mushrooms almost overcooked but not, and the pasta was al dente. I couldn't taste any truffle though.

Maybe it was the lackluster service, or too many competing flavors in the salmon, but I won't be going back here any time soon. The ladies bathroom was interesting - just for one person, but when you open the door there's a wicker screen separating the toilet from the sink area (and the door) so you're semi-protected if someone accidentally barges in on you. Nice soap, nice towel dispenser.

Back after my hiatus

I took the last several months off from this blog to, well, practice piano and finish another recital. It's done, and now I hope to get back into the swing of things on the food front.

Sadly, I never wrote my review of the 4th and final restaurant I visited during Restaurant Week 2008: Butterfield 9. Suffice it to say that I loved it. From the hostess' friendly greeting to the minimalist, open and airy decor, to the food, it was just an enjoyable meal. For my main course I had the Duck Leg Confit Salad, with arugula, winter squash, caramelized shallot, and pomegranate (no I don't remember these things - I kept the menu) and it was just delicious. I loved the contrast that the pomegranate seeds provided. I'm looking forward to my next meal there, and I plan to write about it before it's forgotten.