her baking & his cooking

she bakes. he cooks. we eat.

her: brinner

it’s no big secret around these parts that i don’t do a lot of cooking. baking? obviously.  cooking? uhnotsomuch.  it’s not really my thing. there too many options. too many things you can change.  so much ambiguity.  i like baking because there is a process.  a system.  it makes sense for my type A brain.  

but, paolo works until almost 11 most nights… and well, if you know me. that’s waaaaay too late for dinner (and past my bedtime if we’re being honest).  i was getting a little tired of cereal and pre-packaged trader joes meals so, i started making breakfast sandwiches for dinner.  brinner, people! it’s thee shiiiet. 

listen. my over easy egg game is HOT FIIIYYYAAAA.  do you see that egg? it’s magnificent!  the white is all the way cooked through.  the egg yolk is still runny and buttery.  topped with a little sea salt, fresh cracked pepper, and red pepper flakes.  i told paolo to watch out.  i’m steppin’ up my game.  

the key to making an egg like this is low heat, it takes about 5 minutes after the pan has warmed up.  toss in a little bit of butter, crack the egg, and then let it do the work. 

dinner=english muffin with a slice of munster cheese, a slice of prosciutto, over easy egg, and half an avocado.  

<3

her: vanilla bean bundt cake

hi friends!  so, i know it’s been a while, but we have a good reason. we’re engaged!  we’re looking at a september wedding, so we only have a few months for planning, which means that we’re already in the swing of things.  

ceremony. reception. wedding dress shopping. talking to caterers. flowers. flights. hotels. so. much. to. do.  

we’re hoping to have most of the big things finalized in the next couple of weeks, please keep your fingers crossed for us! 

back to cake-last weekend my auntie meling was in town from saipan and we celebrated her birthday.  she doesn’t love super sweet things so i thought this vanilla bean bundt cake was perfect.  i finished off the cake with pile of the prettiest raspberries and a sprig of mint (but didn’t get a pic-sorry).  

side note: i actually ended up baking two of these cakes.  so, maybe drinking red wine and baking cake doesn’t totallllly go together.  because the first cake was missing a stick of butter. whoops. 

this is definitely one of my favorite recipes.  it will be a staple in our home for brunch and long weekends! 

recipe source: sweetapolita

<3

His: Brunoised Relish

First, forgive me for my horrible photo skills. I am unlike like lady who is really awesome with phone photography so hopefully it still looks appealing. (just joking. hello, new photo.)

As you may or may not know, I’m in culinary school at Seattle Central Community College and it’s my first quarter so we’re learning basic things and one of those basics is knife skills.

I created this dish because I wanted to work on my Brunoise cut which is 1/8x1/8x1/8 inch. It’s a pretty tedious cut but it’s one I need to know. I did that to a pear and a red onion and made a 

Pear and Red Onion Relish:

1/2 cup brunoise pear

1/2 cup brunoise red onion

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

pinch of dried parsley

drizzle of olive oil

salt and pepper 

I made a really small cut because I knew that I was only going to make a quick pickle so a smaller cut means less time to sit and soak up the liquid.

From there I made

Potato and Crab cake:

1 russet potato

1 container of crab claw meat

parmesan cheese

S&P

1/4 cup green onion

Boil and mash potato with skin on. Mix everything together. Form and dip into an egg wash and then panko and fry that baby up!

Underneath is a

Cauliflower Pureè:

1 head of cauliflower

1 tbsp butter

1/4 cup cream

Salt

White pepper

Cut and Boil the Cauliflower until extremely tender. Stick a fork into the stalk and it shouldn’t even stick to it. Drain and let drain for a minute or two to get rid of all the water. Once drained, place back into pan and mash. Mix in butter, cream, salt and pepper. Give a quick mix and then pureè with hand blender.

I drizzled some Harissa Infused Olive Oil around the edge for some kick. Harissa is a Tunisian pepper.

And that’s it! That easy! All because I needed to practice my knife skills (which I need to work on)

‘Til the next dish!

our: life, lately

happy 2013! we are officially seattleites and trying to get settled into our new place. hope your holidays were magical… we’ll be back soon! 

  1. packing with mr. burgundy
  2. hazel wasn’t a big fan of moving
  3. our new little corner of the world
  4. happy 4th birthday party to our favorite little monster!
  5. wrapping presents
  6. baking chocolate chip cookies
  7. pieces of home
  8. kimchi bloody mary @ revel 
  9. 1/1/13
  10. le rêve bakery & cafe  (down the street from our place!)

her: Italian butter cookies

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it looks like p forgot about the rest of our italian brunch from a few weeks back.  i’m sure he’ll post everything else soon enough.  it’s been a little crazy lately.  p just started a new job (yay! for met market) and he got into culinary school (double yay!) which means that we’re moving (not so yay) and trying to find a new place in the middle of the holiday season (again not so yay) so don’t mind the awkward silence that’s happening around here.  once we get back in our groove, i promise it’ll be worth it.  

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anyways… technically, according to anne burrell-who rocks my socks-these have a fancy name, tarallucci.  best i can tell is that tarallucci can really mean any sort of italian cookie and they can be either sweet or savory. these aren’t very sweet, but they are nice and buttery.  yummm.  they are also supposed to be piped into the most beautiful little circles with a star tip but, i’ve made this recipe twice with no luck in the piping department. the dough is always too thick, so i decided to improvise, rolled out the dough and used a ravioli cutter to get a fun shape.  they still turned out amazing and they are really simple to make (minus the piping catastrophe).  

if you make these and you are able to pipe the dough, please tell me all your secrets! 

hope ya’ll are having a wonderful winter season.  

ps. happy birthday to my dad! 

recipe source: anne burrell, cook like a rock star 

<3

His: Rosemary Zeppole

MMMMMM!!!!! Omar came over the other day for brunch. Jenn suggested that it have an Italian theme…and that’s exactly what we did! These are super delish AND super light!

I’m going to post everything I made in 3 parts as there were 3 dishes.

We’ll start with dessert. 

Zeppoles are basically the Italian version of a beignet and they’re super easy to make.

1/2 cup water

stick of butter

1/4 cup sugar

Rosemary sprig

Rosemary leaves chopped

Put all those ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, take out the Rosemary sprig and add 1 cup of flour. Remove from heat. It should form and ball. Once it does, add 4 eggs one at a time and beat with an electric mixer. It will become a loose type mixture. That’s it!

Fill a pot with some vegie oil about 2 inches and heat to medium heat and fry those bad boys up about a tablespoon at a time. Dust with Powdered sugar and voila!! 

*I added some fig jam in the batter as well and it gave it a nice sweetness to it. 

‘Til the next dish!!

her: pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

i’m a big halloween fan.  usually, i get all dressed up. so does the dog. and we pass out candy.  this year, we didn’t have any trick or treaters and i just was feeling kinda meh about the whole thing. so, i baked cookies. and then i ate a bunch. and then. like always, i felt better. emotional eating? possibly. but IJDGAF. 

pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

  • 1 cup pumpkin puree 
  • 1 cup sugar
  •  1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon 
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon milk 
  • 1 cup mini chocolate chips 
  1. preheat the oven to  350F
  2. in medium sized bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla extract
  3. in a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt
  4. in a small bowl, combine the baking soda and milk.  add the baking soda and milk to the pumpkin mixture
  5. add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and combine
  6. fold in the mini chocolate chips
  7. drop mini cookie scoops on a lined cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown
recipe source: allrecipes.com

<3

her: pumpkin and cinnamon cream cheese minis

if you’re tired of pumpkin already. then i don’t think we can be friends anymore… so you can stop reading.  i’m not even *close* to being over pumpkin.

i almost had a meltdown at fred meyer the other day bc coffee-mate decided that they done with pumpkin creamer and they’ve moved on to peppermint mocha. UMMMM HELLLLER coffee-mate?! it’s still OCTOBER!!! bring back my pumpkin. creamer rant, over.

these minis are a direct result of swooning over a pic from my sweet & saucy last year.  their cupcakes are so cute and tall and luscious looking. and, they’re genius.  adding a little bit of cinnamon to the cream cheese frosting is fabulousness. a whole different level of deliciousness. i used my fav pumpkin cupcake recipe, dressed up the cream cheese frosting a bit with cinnamon, and drizzled them with a little bit of the left over caramel from the caramel apple minis.  

i still have pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and pumpkin muffins on the agenda for this season. 

cheers!

<3

His: Bruschetta Turkey Burger

This is like the equivalent of when you put peanut butter and chocolate together. Yup. It’s that awesome. If you think about it, this is just your basic burger…but better. 

1. Turkey. It’s healthier for you.

2. Same ingredients (sorta), except stepped up a couple notches.

3. Great buns.

The Turkey:

1lb of turkey

Small bunch of oregano leaves

S&P

Mix together and then form them to the size of the bun. No need to worry about them shrinking too much. Low fat. How to fix the “low fat”…pan fry! Thats right. In some good ol’ butter.

*Tip* If you put olive oil in the pan first and then butter it’ll help prevent the butter from burning.

Medium high heat. Fry on one side until there’s a nice crispy crust and then flip. One flip. Immediately following the flip, top with a slice of fresh mozz and let it melt as the other side is crisping. Juices should run clear when done.

Bruschetta:

Grape or Cherry tomatoes cut in half and then in half again

Garlic. Fresh. Minced.

Basil. 

Shallots. Sautéed.

Mix previous ingredients in bowl and lightly coat with olive oil.

Sprinkle with S&P

Toast and butter bun. Place patty on bottom half. Top with bruschetta. Place top half of bun on. Take a photo. Then eat.

It’s that easy!

‘Til the next dish!