Honey Mustard Chicken

I've mentioned in past posts that I have mixed feelings about mustard. Tony, on the other hand, really loves mustard. In fact, he loves spicy mustard. During our aforementioned scouring of the internet to find good recipes for us to try to keep us from fighting about dinner, we came across a recipe for honey mustard chicken. I love chicken and he loves mustard, so we thought it might be a good one to try.

Let me just say that this recipe is definitely a hit. The only thing that I did differently was to omit the rosemary sprigs in the baking process, which I only did because I didn't have any on hand. The chicken and it's sauce would probably be even tastier with the infusion of rosemary. The honey gives it a natural sweetness which isn't cloying and provides a nice balance to the tang of the mustard. The coarsely ground mustard adds an element of texture, and the onion and garlic base really add some wonderful flavor.

I cooked my chicken in a 9 x 13 casserole dish which I covered with foil for the first 20 minutes of baking, as required by the recipe. The cooking process keeps the chicken tender and the extra step of basting helps to keep it from drying out. Overall, this dish was a really wonderful combination of flavor and texture. I was initially a little bit worried about there not being enough sauce for the chicken, but there was plenty. In fact, you can see in the picture that there was more than enough sauce to be had.

I paired the chicken with sauteed green beans and potatoes. I tossed the green beans in olive oil and garlic powder before sauteing them. The potatoes I tossed in olive oil with salt, pepper, and minced garlic and baked along with the chicken. I kept them in for the same amount of time as the chicken, and they turned out perfectly.

I think this recipe was a really nice balance for us. We both really enjoyed it for our different reasons. The greatest triumph here was that there wasn't any part of the meal that Tony was opposed to. It was a really delicious recipe that I didn't have to spend any time modifying to suit his tastes, and that's a pretty big win for me. We will definitely be making this again.

Fried Rice and Catching Up

Sunday used to be a work day for me. Since I have switched schedules, Sunday is back to being a relaxed day for me. This morning, since I didn't wake up in time to go to church, I made some coffee and decided to get down to business with catching up on blogging. I think it bears noting that I'm still enjoying the spoils of my earlier kitchen endeavors. And since it's Sunday, rather than having the usual kale smoothie for my morning, I opted to enjoy the fruits of my labors and chose my bread with some apricot preserves and yogurt with honey. It's become apparent that the effort is worth it when the results are so enjoyable, but, to be fair, neither of those projects were really that much effort. (Because I'm lazy! Are we seeing this theme yet?)

I've found that keeping up with the blogging when Tony and I have been trying so many new things is sometimes a little difficult with the schedule I keep. For a while there, he and I were in a bit of a food rut. We got sick of all the things we'd been making that were just cheap and easy fixes. All of it had culminated in a large fight, a night of Taco Bell, and a scouring of Pinterest together to find recipes we both agreed on to have a meal plan in place. Really, we should have been doing that anyway to keep our budget in line. Food boredom just happened to be the thing that motivated us to do it more than money. The point is all of it has resulted in a great deal of food I want to write about and not enough time do it. I try to blog in bursts and schedule them out or take my days off--like today--to catch up.

That said, I made fried rice on Friday. Tony really enjoys fried rice. Sometimes when we go out for Asian food, he simply orders chicken fried rice. It's such a simple dish that it's sort of a no-brainer to make it at home. The great thing about it is that it's a perfect day-after food. It can be made to use up left-over rice when you just don't feel like putting in that much effort. If you're like me, you can also do the rice the lazy way and use minute rice, which produces the same food in less time and effort. It may not be quite as tasty as regular rice, but it speaks to the laziness that lives in my soul. (If you're wondering, I comfort myself with the knowledge that, lazy as I am, I do still take the time to cook for myself and Tony. It's more than I can say for some of my peers who don't even really know how to care for themselves.)

I find that the difference between a delicious fried rice and mediocre one is in the oil. Sesame oil produces the best flavor. It has a nutiness to it that just adds tremendously to the rice. I find that fried rice that hasn't been made with sesame or peanut oil often has a blander flavor.

The fried rice we had on Friday was a joint effort. Tony had pre-made the minute rice and chopped the vegetables when I got home, so all I had to do was assemble and cook. We included the following:

• Four servings of minute rice according to the package (we buy off-brand because we are lazy and cheap!)
• 1/2 cup chopped onion 
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped carrot (we approximated the veggies because we're also too lazy to accurately measure)
• 1 6 ounce package precooked Tyson oven roasted chicken chunks
• freshly grated ginger to taste
• soy sauce to taste
• 1 egg
• 1-2 green onions.

I coated the pan with sesame oil, sauteed the vegetables first, and added the ginger and chicken chunks just until the chicken warmed up. Then, I added the rice and soy sauce, adding a little bit more sesame oil and evenly distributing the oil and soy sauce. Once it was all a uniform color, I added the egg. I mixed it all around until the egg was fully cooked and pieces of it were visible in the rice. I garnished it with the green onion. I drizzled a little more sesame oil on top of mine, and that was that! We had dinner.

I find that this a really great dinner for nights when intensive cooking is not called for. I had no desire to spend the majority of my day in the kitchen Friday night. So we made something quick and ate in the living room while watching gardening and cooking shows on Hulu. Secretly, Tony and I are really in our 60s, we just live in the bodies of a 32 year-old and a 28 year-old, respectively. Occasionally, we have nights like Friday where this is incredibly evident to both of us, and Friday was one of those nights. At least we had some good food.

Yogurt the Easy Way

Recently, I found a recipe on Pinterest that detailed how to make yogurt at home. Since I spend a great deal of money on Greek yogurt, I thought perhaps this might be a fun little project. I enjoy yogurt, but here's the caveat to my relationship with it: I really only like yogurt when it's thicker and creamier. My challenge with making my own yogurt was to make sure that it would be thick enough for me to actually like it. Sundry challenge to making my yogurt was that I'm super lazy. Like, seriously, really very lazy. It's almost embarrassing how lazy I am.

The process of making one's own yogurt really is just a process of heat and some time--as a lazy chef, I'm inclined to like it already. The nice part about a food like yogurt is that the bacteria really do all of the work for you. You just have to set up an environment for them that gives them the things that they want. I looked for methods that made that easy for me, and I found a technique using a crock pot to make yogurt that seemed perfect.

 I'm a busy person, and I do like to have a little time left in my day to enjoy a book or a movie with Tony. When I'm on the hunt for a recipe or technique, I like to rifle through various YouTube videos looking for something that's easy and appealing. When I can actually see the process, I can decide if it's for me or not. I used this recipe, which I found simple and user-friendly.

The start of the process--milk in  the crock pot.

Basically, you pour your milk into the crock pot and let it heat up to 180 degrees. It seriously could not have been simpler. I was a little surprised that it took as long as it did to heat up, and it did built up a skin that had to be skimmed off. For the most part, though, this really didn't take any effort on my part. I checked the temperature every now and again, and when it was up to temp, I turned it off. I let it cool back down to 115 degrees, added my store bought yogurt, placed the lid back on, wrapped it in a towel, and put it in the oven for overnight storage. It was pretty much as simple a process as it could be. When it was done, I spooned the yogurt into a paper towel placed over a strainer to give it a thicker consistency, placed the strainer over a bowl in the fridge, and let time take it's course.

After sitting for around ten hours, this is what it looked like. Yogurt!

I made my yogurt plain because I thought it would be nice to have the freedom to use it as a substitute for sour cream if I wanted to. However, given this recipe, it would be incredibly easy to add flavoring. It was so much better than store-bought alternatives than I ever could have imagined. It had a more pure, milk-like flavor. Because I took the time to drain out a lot of the whey, it was creamy and not as tangy as regular yogurt. (That's a big part of why I like Greek yogurt over traditional yogurt. It has a much milder flavor.) My crock pot yogurt was perfection with a little bit of honey, and I have a feeling that almond slivers would make it even more enjoyable since I love a little crunch with the smoothness of yogurt.

I purchased these jars specifically for yogurt storage.

I stored the yogurt in some 8 ounce Ball jars I bought. I also set aside a starter for my next batch. If I keep it up, I'll never have to buy store bought yogurt again, which would be just fine with me.

Yogurt and honey, a delicious combination!

This process was an incredible success. The texture and flavor of the yogurt I made were far more enjoyable than the yogurt that I've bought over the years. It's almost enough to make me wonder why anyone even bothers with store bought when making your own is so simple. If there's any project that I would encourage people to try of the kitchen projects I've done so far, it's definitely making homemade yogurt. The work was minimal and the product was of a superior quality considering what little work was put in. I will definitely be doing this again.

Crustless Quiche and Brussels Sprouts

Wednesday and Thursday are my days off from work, so those are the days that I like to spend experimenting in the kitchen. I spend a lot of my down time looking at new ideas on Pinterest. I'm always looking for a freezer meal to make my life simpler or a super quick dinner I can throw together after a ten hour shift at work. Wednesday was my experiment day this week.

I suppose it was a little less of an experiment for me and more of an experiment for Tony. He had never had a quiche before, and they make such easy and affordable meals that they were always a go-to recipe for when we were growing up. In fact, I don't think that I ever truly appreciated my mother's Quiche Lorraine until I was an adult. Quiche is great because it's just an egg pie with various and sundry other ingredients. It's a great way to use up extra ingredients like ham from a major holiday--Easter ham, anyone?

The recipe I used was one I saw several years ago on NPR's website, found here. I'd made it before pretty much exactly as the recipe recommended with great success. Since Tony has some different tastes, I modified this just a little bit. I left out the cheese for obvious reasons and omitted the nutmeg because I didn't have any. I used a 10 ounce package of spinach instead of 16 ounces. I also added two extra pieces of bacon into the mix since there was no cheese and less spinach than the recipe called for. The lovely thing about quiche is that it gives you the leeway to make any modifications without ruining the general flavor that you're looking for.

I also made a quick saute of Brussels sprouts with balsamic and bacon. I only had frozen Brussels sprouts, but I wanted Tony to try them a different way because he told me that he doesn't like the way they taste. He had said that about asparagus, and I was able to change his mind about that. I wanted to be able to repeat that. Ideally, I'd have made this with fresh Brussels sprouts that I'd oven roasted before sauteing them with the balsamic and bacon, but it wasn't going to work out that way last night. And, to be honest, I just kind of wanted Brussels sprouts.

So I threw the bacon in the pan. I'd cut it into about one inch pieces with scissors, and just lightly sauteed it until it was done. It wasn't crispy. It was at that slightly rubbery stage. At that point, I added the steamed Brussels sprouts and the balsamic vinegar. I let that all cook together until the balsamic had been turned into a little bit of a glaze and had been absorbed. It had a lovely flavor, but the texture left a little to be desired because those frozen steamed Brussels sprouts can tend to be a little mushy. Tony liked the flavor, but he agreed that the texture wasn't great. It's good to know that he enjoyed the taste because now we can repeat it with fresh Brussels sprouts that we can buy from the farmer's market.

Between making bread and making dinner last night, I threw some cookies into the oven. They're just the usual Tollhouse recipe, but that's great for me--it's printed on the bag, so I'll never lose it. I made about half of the batch last night, and I froze the rest. I froze them in the appropriately sized scoops on a cookie sheet and then transferred them to a freezer bag. That way, when Tony and I decide we have a craving for something sweet, we can just make a few cookies rather than revisiting last night. (Last night, I made about a two dozen cookies, and we ate them all before the night was over.) Perhaps just making enough will help us practice moderation.

So last night, we had quiche, Brussels sprouts, homemade bread, and cookies for dessert. Tony really enjoyed the quiche. The only thing I might do differently is look for smaller pans so that we can make two. One for him and one for me with cheese since I did really miss the flavor that the cheese adds to the quiche. I think I'll be experimenting with making more quiche in the near future. It's pretty simple and fairly cheap to produce, and it makes a nice dinner. There are plenty of left-overs, which makes my life easier. I'd call yesterday's kitchen experiments a success, which makes up for the fact that dinner tonight will be leftovers since I have a horrible headache and a lack of motivation. I'll make up for it on Friday.

Yeast Bread

Bread is incredibly intimidating to me--not the eating of bread, of course, but the baking of bread. I confessed my fear of yeast in my post about beer bread. Yet, despite my love of being able to store-buy all the bread I want, I wanted this blog to be about trying new things and cooking things I love for the people that I love. Tony's food love has always been bread. (I'm pretty sure that if Tony had to choose between me and bread, I would need to be afraid.) So it only seems like a natural progression that I should begin making bread.

There are two things about making my own bread that I always found intimidating. First, the yeast. The process of not killing the yeast seems like a delicate balance. The water should be warm, but not too warm. It should bloom, but not too much. It just seems like such a tenuous stasis to maintain. Second, the kneading. Over-kneading can cause the bread to be tough and inedible. It just seems to me as though there are so many ways to screw it up.

Somehow, I came to the conclusion that making Tony feel special by making him fresh bread was more important than letting my fear keep me from trying something new. Love makes you do crazy things--like experimenting with yeast. I should confess that I still did this a little bit of the lazy way. I decided that since I have the serious, professional series KitchenAid, that I might as well use that to my advantage. I found a bread recipe that allowed me to use my mixer without really requiring me to do any kneading. You can find the recipe that I used here.

I was actually a little bit surprised at how hands-off this recipe really was. It was just a matter of making sure that I stayed on track with my time. I used the KitchenAid as recommended in the recipe and watched diligently for the ten minute mark to make sure that I wasn't  going to be over-kneading. The recipe mentions that you may need to add some extra flour, and sure enough, I did. I probably added about a quarter of a cup, and that was just the perfect amount.

This recipe called for a double rising process. So it rose initially, and then it was punched down, separated into two loaves, and rose again. Then, I baked it.

I was a little bit nervous because the rising processes didn't seem to create as much of a rise for me as it did for the blogger that I got this recipe from. I suppose I just figured that the worst that could happen was that I screwed it up, and that was pretty much what I was expecting from making bread anyways. The good news is that I proved myself wrong and ended up making some really delicious bread!

The bread ended up being a really moist and spongy bread. It was a little bit sweet since it's made with honey and coconut oil. It was easy to cut, and though it looks dark brown on the outside, it did not develop a crunchy crust. It was heavenly with a little bit of butter, and Tony and I ate it with dinner. Tony actually said that it's one of the top three breads he's ever eaten, which is high praise from the King of Carbs.

This experience really changed my mind about making bread at home. It turned out really wonderfully, and it wasn't a difficult recipe to follow. I'm not saying that I'm going to embark on a three day croissant-making endeavor or anything, but I'm not afraid to use yeast anymore. Tony has expressed an interest in making baguettes, and I think I'm finally ready to try that with him.

Healthy Breakfast Smoothie

I hate morning. I literally hate it. I have a hard time getting out of bed, motivating myself to put on makeup or even clothes. I don't even have the strength to make coffee. I do, however, understand the importance of eating breakfast. And the problem with my current morning routine is that it involves going to a gas station to buy coffee and purchasing something crappy and terrible for breakfast while I'm there because I'm hungry. Yes, I am aware that I fail as a responsible adult and at making good life choices.

Right now, I'm trying to focus on the things that I can do to try to make my life a little easier. I don't think that I can ever make myself a morning person, but I can try to find breakfast solutions that will make my life go a little more smoothly (see what I did there?). I ended up taking my search to Pinterest again because who doesn't use Pinterest to solve their domestic conundrums? It's like an index of everyone's best ideas. As lazy as I think I am, there's always someone on Pinterest who's lazier and got the job done in three less steps than I was willing to max out at.

I was intrigued by the idea of overnight breakfasts, and I've been looking at freezer presets for my week to try to make my life easier after ten hour days at work. Of course, in my search, I stumbled upon an idea of presetting green smoothies in freezer baggies, then just adding them to a blender with the rest of the ingredients that couldn't be frozen. It's brilliant!

So here's what the baggies contain:

• 1 T almonds
• 1 T chia seeds (bought in bulk at Whole Foods--we priced them other ways, but this was the smartest way to go)
• 1/4 cup quick oats
• generous handful of frozen fruit (my baggies alternate. I bought frozen peaches and strawberries and bananas. I just threw them in each so that I'd have a mixture and a little bit of variety. It's whatever you like. Just having the fruit is the important part.)
• a large handful of kale from which stems have been removed

In the morning, I remove the baggie, stuff it into my single serving blender, and add a scoop of protein powder and a cup of vanilla soy milk.

It's not exactly pretty, but I was actually really surprised at how delicious it was. Mine is a little brown-looking because the only protein powder that we had was chocolate flavored. Had I known that before going shopping, I'd have purchased a different protein powder. Tony got this powder as a Christmas gift, but he hasn't really been using it. So now it's more or less a matter of just using it until it's gone so that I can buy something that isn't pre-flavored. I did taste the smoothie before adding the protein powder, and it was still really delicious.

It's the flavor of the almonds that comes through the strongest, which I found really surprising. I've been drinking this for the last two morning, and it's been good both times. The first time, the fruit was banana, which gave the smoothie great flavor and texture. This morning, it was a peach smoothie, which was good too. The kale is almost non-existent in the flavor profile, which is good because, up until this point, I haven't much cared for kale.

There are two things I've discovered along the way so far. First, chia seeds can get stuck in your teeth. And when chia seeds meet moisture, they develop this odd, slimy exterior. It's not so fun to discover this for the first time in your own mouth. Second, frozen peaches do not blend particularly well. I'm contemplating my next round not being quite so inclusive of the peaches. I'm not really impressed with their contribution to the smoothie process.

I have two major goals this year: become more frugal so all my extra money can go to paying off debt and saving for a house and get more comfortable in the kitchen to help accomplish the first goal. Obviously, I want to be more kind to my body, but that's more of a subgoal at this point than a main goal. I want to tie that subgoal to the second main goal. These smoothies fit in to all three. This is a cheaper breakfast than stopping at a gas station. It's more nutritionally significant because it's full of fiber and healthy calories. These will also help me cut down on my caffeine intake. It was something Tony and I could do together because he helped me set up two weeks worth of baggies and prep them for freezer readiness. I'm really hoping that I can find more projects that will be as rewarding as this one. I'm really excited to see how I'll feel in two weeks after having consumed these for a while.

Turkey Burgers

Recipes and I are sometimes friends. I say sometimes because I can tend to be a little editorial with the recipes that I'm using, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. I have common sense about it. I don't omit or modify any recipes I'm baking with because we all know that that can devolve into disaster waaaay too quickly. But when it comes to just creating a dinner, I pretty much just do what I want and let the recipe serve as a general guideline. When cooking for Tony, this is kind of a necessity because there are so many things that he just doesn't like.

In my recent search for recipes to keep our kitchen interesting, I've been looking at methods just as much as I have recipes. If it's something that I can take a general idea of and modify to my own tastes or purposes, I give it a try just based on that method. It was using this technique that I created last night's turkey burgers. They consisted of the following ingredients:

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1/2 a medium-sized onion, chopped
• approx. 1/4 cup basil, chopped
• 1 egg
• Italian breadcrumbs, added until correct texture achieved
• garlic powder
• salt and pepper

I just kind of threw the ingredients together in a bowl, mixed until it was the texture I wanted, and the formed them into patties. 

I wish that I had a grill and could have grilled these. Since I didn't, I just made due with pan frying them in a little bit of olive oil. They were still good this way, but I feel like they might have been better if I could have even just thrown them on George Foreman grill or something. Alas, we do not have one (Generous benefactor round two?). I feel like despite this shortcoming, they turned out really great.

They had a really wonderful texture. They stayed moist and didn't dry out, even despite the pan frying. The flavor of the basil paired really well with the turkey, and it came through really strongly even with all of the other flavors happening there. It surprised Tony, and he almost didn't recognize it in there because it was so unexpected that he couldn't place it. The only thing I would do differently is to use a food chopper to get the onion chopped a little more finely. It added spectacular flavor that we definitely wouldn't want to lose, but the pieces were still a little big (as you can see in the picture of the burger patties) so it detracted a little bit from the texture. 

This was the first time we've experimented with mixing and pattying out own turkey burgers, but it's an experience I think we'll be repeating. The results were positive. It's a healthier alternative to eating processed burgers from a chain or even using ground beef which can be a lot more fatty. Since it was relatively inexpensive to produce, we will be adding this to our dinner rotation.

Leek Soup, Beer Bread, and Deviled Eggs

Wednesday was my day off, and I wanted to cook. I felt like making easy things and using some ingredients before they went bad. I don't really think there's a great deal of continuity to the food that I made, but it was food. Since this is a blog about food, I figure it works. I don't know that there's a great deal of pride on my part in what I made, but it was something to do.

First, let me just say that this blog has had me scouring Pinterest to find interesting recipes. Tony and I have a tendency to be bored pretty easily by food. In my search to find interesting recipes for our dinner routine, I've also realized that I need to probably step up my game if I'm interested in writing about what I make. Tony has a deep and abiding love of bread, but I've been historically been afraid of making bread that involves yeast. The rising and punching down and kneading process is pretty intimidating to me. I plan to branch out and try making something new next time I have a day off. For now, I'm sticking to my comfort zone.

In light of the fact that I'm a big yeast wuss, I decided to try making beer bread that I found a recipe for online. The recipe was fairly simple, and we had some beer that's been in our fridge since we moved in (calm down, we've only been here for six months) that we were probably never going to drink. It was really easy to make, and it turned out to be a really good bread. It was sweet and the outside was just a little bit crunchy, while the inside was still moist and soft. I still have two cans of beer left in my fridge that will probably also end up as bread, and it's probably the best future I could give them at this point.

I found myself really craving deviled eggs, so I made some of those Wednesday as well. This is what I mean when I say that there's no continuity with the foods I made. Those eggs had nothing to do with the dinner I created. I just wanted them, so I made them for myself. Maybe it's just the time of year. This is the first year that I find myself without Easter plans, and we always have deviled eggs for Easter. As deviled eggs go, these were simple. I only made them with mayo and mustard, no relish. In fact, I have never really seen the perk of adding relish to deviled eggs, and I don't ever plan to start.

They tasted better than they looked.

For dinner, I decided to get rid of the leeks that had been just waiting in the fridge. If you haven't put two and two together yet from the forgotten beer and previous posts, our fridge tends to be the place that left-overs go to die. I had almost forgotten that I had bought leeks to make leek soup, so I was a little bit surprised that they were still in usable condition. Either I have a really great fridge or modern science has done amazing things to leeks. I prefer to attribute it to the fridge because I don't really want to know what kind of chemicals are required to keep produce from spoiling indefinitely.

My leek soup consisted of chicken broth and leeks. I boiled the leeks in the broth until soft and pureed them together. This turned out, somehow, to be a harrowing experience. I discovered in the process that my blender's base piece has a giant crack and is leaking all over the place. I managed to get the soup taken care of, but I lost some soup along the way. As it turns out, I'm in the market for a new blender. Any generous benefactors out there? (Is anyone even reading this?)

I almost forgot to take the picture before the bowl was empty!

Leek soup is a really good soup for a light meal. It's not too heavy, and yet it manages to be satisfying. The soup had that light onion flavor that only leeks have. It doesn't overpower, like onion itself often can. Much as I love a good French onion soup, it can be a little intense and it's definitely not for everyone. Leek soup is like French onion lite. It tastes fresher and brighter.

It's pretty clear that I'm no Martha Stewart. There was no connection with my dishes on Wednesday. It's probably good that these endeavors are restricted to the internet and my tiny apartment kitchen because otherwise some TV chef would be screaming in my face about my inadequacies. That said, I was satisfied with everything I produced, and that's really the main idea in cooking for oneself, isn't it?

Chicken Piccata Revisited

Tony's mother and stepfather came over on Monday. It had been a while since he'd seen them--the last time they came over was when I made the Dijon pork roast in January--and since his mom likes to maximize her time with him, we invited them to stay for dinner. We'd planned to make chicken piccata again, so we just made more of the chicken this time. Luckily, I had pulled out the whole bag of chicken from the freezer already on the assumption that I'd make a portion of it for piccata, put the rest in the fridge for the next day, and use the rest for Tuesday's dinner. Tuesday we just had something else instead (in fact, that's a long story for my next blog).

This time, I managed to take a picture!

Unlike the last time his parents came over, they really liked this dinner. Marcus, Tony's stepfather, would probably be satisfied with eating just about anything that we'd give him. Pam, Tony's mother, is not so easy. Tony comes by his picky ways honestly because he gets them from his mother. Last time, when they came over for our pork roast, she said the meat was too tough. Needless to say, when I entertain, I put a great deal of effort into the food that I prepare. It was a big blow to hear that. This time, dinner was enjoyed by all parties, so this was much more of a success.

We paired the piccata with asparagus and salads to make sure everyone would have enough to eat. Pam had never had capers before, and she found them really enjoyable. It was really rewarding to watch people dip spoons into the serving dish to douse their chicken with more sauce and capers. Pam had also never eaten asparagus that she actually liked before because it usually tastes like dirt to her, but she was fond of the way I prepared it. My asparagus was coated in olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder, oven roasted, and then tossed in lemon juice and Parmesan. I thought that pairing the lemony asparagus with the lemon in the piccata would work really well together and it did. All in all, my Monday night dinner was a success.

I will say the most amusing part of the whole process actually happened at work for me the next day. I had told my coworkers that his parents were coming for dinner. The next day, I was telling my coworker, Brandon, that I'd made piccata. His response was, "So, you made dinner? Because you worked." I nodded and Brandon said, "My wife sits at home all day, and she doesn't make dinner. You work a ten hour day, go home, make dinner for him and his parents. I just can't."

That's right. I'm amazing. Be jealous of Tony.

Pork Chops and Dijon

Before we begin, a confession: I had every intention of writing this last night. Somewhere along the way, my brain died. I got a paragraph written before I finally accepted the fact that the rough day I had yesterday slaughtered my creativity. To be fair, it was the kind of work day I dread. I'm a customer service representative for an insurance company, and to say that the level to which people do not understand the services that they pay for is astounding would be the understatement of the year. I have a rare opportunity to educate people into being better consumers, but sometimes it comes at the price of all of my patience being spent by the time I walk in the door, drop my purse, and greet my dog. So now, coffee and breakfast in hand (Yes, it's avocado toast. Yes, I am a one-trick breakfast pony. Judge me now.), let's begin

One of the most fabulous combinations on planet earth is Dijon mustard and pork. Dijon mustard has been one of my father's favorite compliments for pork roasts for a long time. We had a great deal of memorable Sunday pork roasts that began their short lives as Dijon mustard, herbs, and several delightful hours roasting away. Dijon and pork have history for me, so it's surprising that it's taken me this long to utilize it in cooking. In fact, I had not even purchased Dijon mustard as an adult until earlier this year!

Here's the thing about my relationship with mustard: I don't always love it. I like certain kinds of mustard in moderation and on certain foods, but the tanginess can often make my tongue hurt a little bit. As you can imagine, this makes me somewhat picky about the when, what, and how of my mustard consumption. Before you ask, yellow mustard is always in my fridge, and I do include it on the usual mustard-bearing foods (hamburgers, hot dogs, tuna salad--if you believe in the New York way, which is the right way, just to be clear). I just tend to prefer that it be used sparingly. Some mustard combinations make no sense to me at all. (Pretzels? Really? No. A soft pretzel begs for cheese, you heathens.)

That said, I made a successful pork roast back in January that was Dijon glazed, so I thought that last night for dinner, I'd repeat the process but with pork chops. I wanted to have the flavor combination that comes with rosemary, Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, garlic powder, pepper, and parsley again, but I didn't want to make a whole pork roast. It's just not practical for us to make large roasts since our fridge is a veritable left-over oubliette. So I opted to experiment a little bit and just use my mustard mixture on pork chops which I then cooked over medium-high heat in a pan. There wasn't really any measuring--a lot of my experimentation with foods is more intuitive. I threw together a mixture of the aforementioned ingredients, tasted it, liked it, used it.

The results where actually really good. The mustard mixture ended up looking slightly lumpy from the heat in the pan, but it tasted wonderful. The interesting thing about this mixture is that the vinegar tends to keep the meet from firming up in the way a pork chop normally would when pan-frying, so the texture ends up being just a little softer. I'm actually quite fond of it because one of the things I look forward to in a meal is a variety of textures. 

We had our pork chops with boxed rosemary herb potatoes, similar to au gratin style boxed mix, and salad. Like I said, by the time I got home yesterday, my creativity had been sapped from me. We're lucky I manage to feed myself at all on days like the one I had yesterday. I will say that coming home after a long day and spending a little time in the kitchen creating something does help to take some of the stresses of the day away. It was nice to unwind by creating something that I could enjoy. This is what I understand about Julie Powell and Gabrielle Hamilton. This solace that can be found in cooking. It's good.

Kumato Tomatoes and Simple Creations

The simple things in life are always the best, aren't they? A night of doing nothing with the people you love. A cherished moment of peaceful silence. Standing in the warm rain. The same is true, in my opinion, of food. Complicated recipes and ingredients that I can't even pronounce have no business in my kitchen. I have a busy life, and I just don't have time for things like that. I'm a big fan of fresh veggies and fruit because if I don't have to cook it, it saves me time. (Yeah. That's right. Laziness as a motivation for healthy eating. You heard it here first.)

The really great thing about my relationship with Tony is that we motivate each other to try new things. He eats new things, I cook new things. It's kind of a win-win scenario. Since Tony's a little picky, it can be hit or miss. Recently, we had a miss.

Let me explain. Tony dislikes tomatoes. I feel like this is a terrible thing because tomatoes are one of my favorite foods. Sometimes, I like to just eat sliced tomato with salt and pepper. Tony's jihad on all of the foods I like can make it tough for me to cook (I repeat: HE DOESN'T EVEN LIKE CHEESE!), so I recently got him to try tomatoes again. He'd only ever tried one variety, so I thought maybe if we tried it again with a different variety, he could change his mind.

I chose Kumato tomatoes. I'd had them at a dinner party a few years ago, and I loved them. They had such a unique flavor. I remember being really impressed about them. Being such a tomato fan, I was eager to find a way to use them in my repertoire, but they can be expensive so I was never really able to justify to myself their purchase. Until now. So I'm not entirely sure if choosing Kumato tomatoes was for Tony's benefit or for mine, but either way they were going to be consumed.

He was nervous when he got a look at them, but to be fair, Kumato tomatoes do look a little unconventional for tomatoes. They've got this sort of green/red/purple hue. The packaging for the tomatoes that I purchased describes them as brown, but I don't know that I'd say they're brown. The thing I like about them is that they're a little bit sweeter than your average tomato. They have this extra little dimension of flavor. The thing about some kinds of tomatoes is that they can be quite bland if you have them on the off-season--or even during the regular season, if we're being honest. Kumatos are still really flavorful because they're just a more flavorful variety of tomato.

The way that I served Tony Kumato tomatoes was in bearing the principle of simple foods often being best in mind. He only like mozzarella cheese, but he's only had the shredded kind. So I thought we might try killing two taste birds with one stone, and I made him a Kumato caprese to go with the frozen skillet pasta meal we were having for dinner. (Don't judge me! We are busy, lazy people, dammit!)

It was your standard, run-of-the-mill caprese salad. Fresh mozzarella that I sliced and layered with slices of tomato and basil. I then drizzled on some olive oil and balsamic and added just a dash of salt and pepper.

He didn't care for the caprese, but I'm happy to report that it wasn't because of the tomatoes. He seemed a little bit surprised that he didn't hate the tomatoes, actually. The downfall of my foray into the world of caprese with Tony is that he didn't like the fresh mozzarella (he prefers the dried out, shredded, terrible variety), and he doesn't care for balsamic vinegar (which I didn't know). The sweetness of the Kumato tomato was what he really enjoyed. It adds an element to caprese that's really pleasant because it meshes well with the other flavors.

While it didn't work out this time, the simple act of having a meal with the man I love was really what I enjoyed about this experience. It's that kind of simplicity that I think people need more of. Or maybe that's just me. It's definitely that kind of simplicity that I need more of. And, to make a case for simplicity in food, I'm going to just leave this picture of my avocado toast right here...

Multigrain toast, avocado, Kumato tomato, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Trying New Things

Perhaps this blog might unintentionally turn into a series of posts about all of the foods that I force my boyfriend to try. I know that I said that I wanted to write about cooking, but I find myself really impressed at the amount of things that I've gotten Tony to try. And when I say that, what I mean is that I'm surprised at the level of trust he's placed in me when it comes to food, and I'm proud of how he continues to pursue new experiences. The fact that he gives me credit for playing a role in his recent food adventures makes me feel pretty good about things.

That said, I was pretty sure that I was never going to able to get Tony to try sushi, and the fact that he did marks such a momentous occasion for me that I felt it simply had to be cataloged in the annals of history (or, you know, this blog).

We were having a frank discussion about trying new foods, and he made a comment that he's been really loving trying new things and how glad he is that I've encouraged him to do so. As the conversation evolved, sushi emerged as a topic. I pointed out that he's been so interested in trying new things that maybe he should give sushi a try. He could be surprised. He's been surprised so far, right? So when he agreed, I naturally assumed that it was to pacify me because the tone of his agreement was not exactly the kind of tone that encourages one to have faith in the agreement.

Much to my surprise, he actually tried sushi when we went out for lunch a few days ago. We had selected a fusion restaurant in our area that we both really enjoy, Zing. (If you're in the South Bend/Mishawaka area, I highly suggest Zing. Their ads and menus are full of comical grammatical errors, but their food is some of the best Asian fusion I've ever had.) While selecting appetizers, I suggested sushi. He apprehensively agreed. To be frank, I was surprised we even got that far.

We selected tuna maki. He had asked me how raw tuna tasted a few days before during our sushi discussion, so we opted to remove his curiosity and replace it with experience. I truly believe that he had been expecting it to taste like decaying flesh because the look of surprise on his face after he put it in his mouth was riveting. He said, "It doesn't have a lot of flavor."

Tony's meal: Yaki soba.

He had spent so much time expecting it to be disgusting that the overarching blandness of it was a huge shock to him. The thing about sushi is that it tastes like the fish itself. If the fish is good quality, the rawness of it isn't going to have a great deal of flavor to it. It gives you a way to enjoy the fish for itself. (It also means that you really have to have the freshest of fish because old fish makes for some horrifying sushi.) For me, the texture of sushi is also part of the enjoyment of the dish. It has such a unique mouth feel that nothing else has ever really been able to match or compare to it.

My meal: coconut prawn

He only ate one piece, but I still consider it a victory. We had a great meal together. He tried something new, and I got to show him, once again, that he can place his culinary trust in me and my opinions. I must have done something right because he's suggested we have sushi for dinner tonight, and who am I to disagree?