Between the wedding, the food orgy of Thanksgiving, and Matt getting three square meals a day at a weekend-long conference, I haven't yet had the chance to cook a giant piece of meat. But when I do, this so-simple-this-can't-be-right Carnitas recipe is tops on my list.
Seriously, there are three ingredients and one of them is water!
(photo by Jennifer Causey)
Citron Green tea from Harney and Sons. I love their little tins and that triangle shaped sachet. Does anyone know where I can find empty sachets in this shape so I can fill them with my own tea blends?
Slice has rounded up a list of some of the best pizzas across the state of Michigan. I'm happy to see some of my favorites represented. And, not that you asked, but here's my top 3 list.
I'm also excited about a new pizza spot opening up in downtown Ann Arbor, which will feature not one but two wood fired ovens and is going a little more upscale than most of the offerings around here (Tomatoes Apizza rules but it's in a freaking strip mall). A friend of ours is the chef there and Matt got a sneak peek a few weeks ago of the space in progress, pictured above.
I had a grapefruit hanging around for a few weeks and wasn't sure what to do with it, so I settled on this Martha Stewart recipe for grapefruit soda syrup and it's a winner. I did tweak it a bit because I only had one grapefruit and I used half the sugar and water, plus the juice of an entire Meyer lemon, but it still turned out quite nicely. Here's the recipe with my alterations.
Put the sugar, water, zest, juices and salt in a pot and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Steep for one hour. Strain. Pour a little bit of syrup over ice cubes (start with a little and then add more as needed if you want the drink to be sweeter) and add seltzer. Stir.
The great thing about a syrup like this is that you can make your drink as sweet or not-sweet as you like. Matt added just a spash of syrup to his glass of seltzer, while I poured a more substantial ratio. I can't wait to try this with a splash of Hendricks! It might also be good mixed into some hot or iced green tea.
(Image via Martha)
I am SO making this. Thanks to the Slice blog for reviewing the recipe on their site and bringing it out into the open from behind CI's paywall.
We received a gift of a Cooks Illustrated subscription for one year and while I love how nerdy and well researched and comprehensive the magazine is, I often felt too intimidated to try anything. Maybe it was the lack of photos. Or the dense blocks of text. Or the fact that the recipes have been tested so many times that you feel like you have to follow it exactly to the letter or else what's the point. One of the only recipes we did make was their deep dish pizza recipe (are you noticing a theme here?) and it was, indeed, magical.
Also, this week, Slice made me nostalgic when they reviewed one of my favorite Boston-area pizzerias, Cambridge 1 in Harvard Square. We lived in Boston when it first opened and went there alot. It's one of those last-meal places. As in, "Before we move out of Boston, we have to go to Cambridge one for one last meal." I think a friend of mine even went out with one of the owners/managers, but don't quote me on that.
I whine all the time about how Ann Arbor is missing a fun little pizza joint with high quality ingredients, a short menu of pizza and salad and wine, and great ambiance. I daydream about opening a restaurant like this all this time. I would paint the walls honeysuckle and stalk thriftstores for great deals on bentwood chairs and wooden farm tables.
There are rumors of a new place with potential opening downtown in a few months. I'll keep you posted.
(photo from Slice)
No, I'm not going completely vegan, but I definitely want to incorporate more meat-free and cheese-free meals into my routine. Recently, I even made an effort to eat only vegan lunches during the work week. That lasted for...exactly one work week.
My problem was that, while I can usually whip up something perfectly satisfying at home with a fully stocked fridge and pantry, something about stuffing leftovers in a Tupperware and schlepping it to work makes anything (vegan or non-vegan) seem alot less appetizing. You can't have a little sprinkle of herbs at the end, or eat lots of varied items - soup here, salad here, roasted veggies, bread and dip. I ride the bus. I carry my lunch in my purse. If it doesn't fit into a single plastic container, it's not gonna work.
So I turned to the Internet for some inspiration for vegan ideas and I found them at the Kitchn, which was literally hosting a week of vegan only recipes last week. I love that site so much, it's so full of great info (in the posts and in the comments) that is totally compatible with how real working people with budgets cook.
Matt and I made this vegan mushroom risotto over the weekend and were floored by the outcome. Frankly, I didn't realize vegan food could taste rich, but this did. It's loaded with savory mushroom flavor and would be great on it's own, paired with a sauteed green, which was what we did, or served as a breakfast dish with toast and poached egg on top. (We made the recipe essentially exactly as listed except we used half the amount of balsamic.)
The other vegan recipe we tested out with great succes was this smashed chickpea salad from Smitten Kitchen which I served over lettuce and cucumbers instead of sandwich style, as in the original recipe. Try both recipes, let me know what you think! And share if you have a great vegan recipe that would work well for lunches.
(photo via the kitchn. I really want to post more of my own food shots here but it's usually too dark or, if the recipe is one that is good enough for me to want to share here, I'm usually to excited to eat to think about getting a camera out)
I'm a fan of chicken sausages. What's not to like? Granted I'm much more of a savory person than a sweets person. I'll gladly take a piece of cheese or a taco over a cupcake. Still, chicken sausages have alot going for them. You get all the salty meaty goodness of traditional sausage in your pizza/pasta/hot dog bun without the high levels of fat and sodium from pork. It's a win all around.
Matt thinks differently. He says, and I quote, "If God wanted chickens to be made into sausages, he would have made them pigs." End quote.
So where do you stand on this defining question of our time? Chicken sausage: yay or nay?
Never! Between our weekly farm share, backyard planters, and occasional donations from coworkers, my tomato bounty runneth over.
I remember hating raw tomatoes when I was younger. I thought they were slimy (I told you I have food texture issues) and wet and disgusting. Then sometime in college I started tolerating them on sandwiches. But it was when I moved to Boston and started shopping at the Davis Square Farmer's Market that I had my tomato epiphany.
Farmer's market tomatoes are worlds away from the Mexico/California/Chile-born specimens in most grocery stores. Farmer's market tomatoes are not slimy. They're complex and colorful, with a hint of sweetness. Since canning makes me nervous (I don't mess with botulism) my favorite way to preserve them is to make a quick sauce with the addition of a few cloves of garlic, and then pop it in the freezer. in small containers. At this point, I've amassed an impressive frozen stash that will see me through a few winter months of pasta and pizza.
This slow roasted recipe was a winner as well.
Farewell, tomatophobe. Hello, tomatophile.
