her baking & his cooking

His: Salad & Risotto

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:44:00 -0700

This was dinner a couple weeks ago! Omar came over and as usual we made a good ol’ home made meal.

Salad:

I used a mix of romaine and arugula but feel free to use whatever greens you’d like. I also layered some shallots, heirloom tomato, and radish. I also topped it with some smashed mozzarella.

Vinaigrette:

Blood Orange Olive Oil

Lemon Juice

Salt & Pepper

Easy.

Mushroom Risotto:

Risotto is one of those dishes that is always going to take a long time. It’s a sensitive and delicate dish. Not that it’s hard to make, you just can’t rush it. I cooked it in all the normal ingredients like white wine, garlic, added shiitake for texture and flavor. What I was really trying to perfect was the the soft boiled egg. I didn’t quite cook it properly on the first go-around but that’s no big. It was still awesome though!

‘Til the next dish!

her: simple strawberry cake

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:01:10 -0700

there is something so rustic and beautiful about a simple cake.

a little bit of butter, sugar, and flour. topped with fresh strawberries and a sprinkling of demerara sugar. bake.

remove from the oven. cool on a wire rack. whip up a batch of fresh whipped cream. chiffonade a few basil leaves.

make a cup of coffee.

enjoy the understated elegance.

recipe source: slightly adapted from martha stewart

her: meyer lemon & poppy seed buttermilk bundt cake

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:14:59 -0700

happy birthday cake for my littlest brother, franco noel! he is 15 years young, but has always been kind of an old soul. that’s what i love most about him.

cheers to 15, noel!

recipe source: slightly adapted from bon appetit/march 2013

notes:

i used meyer lemons instead of regular lemons
i added 2 tablespoons of poppy seeds to the batter
instead of glazing with the apricot/peach preserves, i went with a simple dusting of powdered sugar
the cake kept well, wrapped tightly in saran wrap, stored at room temperature for 5 days (cut slices as needed)

her: mini banana bread loaves

Fri, 10 May 2013 18:53:00 -0700

this recipe is a regular in our home. honestly, i use the same banana bread recipe, every single time. sometimes, i think i want to get fancy and add stuff (nuts, booze, dried fruit, chocolate chips) but the reality is, less is more. this banana bread doesn’t need anything fancy to make it amazing. it’s already amazing.

instead of a standard loaf, i made a few mini loaves. obviously, they’re even better in tiny loaf bread pans.

recipe source: simply recipes

ps. i follow the recipe suggestion and only use 3/4 cup of sugar.

pss. peony season, people! best. thing. ever.

his: roasted poblano pepper & homemade tortillas

Mon, 06 May 2013 08:44:00 -0700

It was Cinco de Mayo yesterday and we really had no intentions of “celebrating” because we have no ties to it. Most people don’t even know the significance of it (I do, btw). It’s just a good excuse for people to drink cervezas and eat tacos. Anywho, we were going to eat sushi but Jenn convinced me to do otherwise because I’m rarely home anymore to make her a delicious home made meal. So I did!

Stuffed Poblano:

Chorizo
Hominy
Black beans
Queso Fresco
Cilantro
Salt and Pepper
Chicharones

I roasted the poblano to give it a nice charred flavor and to take the skin off. I put the hominy, beans, and chorizo in a pan and cooked them together and then stuff the poblano. Quite simple really. Then I put it in the oven at 425 and baked it for about 15 minutes.

I also made home made tortillas!

So. Easy.

Tortillas:

Masa Harina
Water

4:3 ratio of masa to water. Mix until it’s all incorporated and pretty much the consistency of play-doh. Form into balls and them press it between two flat surfaces. Then heat on both sides in a pan and voila!

Cinco de Mayo Meal!

‘Til the next dish!

her: rosemary & chocolate olive oil cake

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 21:27:49 -0700

i didn’t really know what to expect when i made this cake… i was drawn to the flavors, but i wasn’t sure if it was going to be overwhelming or underwhemling or just not really my thing.

truth is? this cake is wonderful. it’s full of charm, a little savory and a little sweet. the perfect companion for an afternoon with cake and a vanilla americano.

i kind of want to be a rebel and spread a little bit of goat cheese on a slice and see what happens…. i’ll let you know how that works out next time.

recipe source: the vanilla bean blog via good to the grain

our: life, lately

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:11:26 -0700

the world’s smallest art gallery/anthem coffee
sunny seattle
bahn mi/tammy’s bakery
lazy nights
wedding dress shopping/the dress theory
we dream of sushi/shiro’s
art wall… in progress
snack time
no soup for you/infinite soups
hello, spring

His: Cauliflower Soup

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 23:32:33 -0700

Simplicity at its finest!

Cauliflower soup is super easy to make. Just boil or steam a couple of heads of cauliflower and a few cloves of garlic until extremely tender and then mash in the pot. Add about 2 quarts of chicken stock and purée with an emulsion blender or even in a regular blender until you get a nice, smooth, soupy consistency. Add a bit of heavy cream and give a good stir and voila! Season with salt and pepper. I topped mine off with fried garlic, purple cauliflower and romanesco broccoli.

‘Til the next dish!

His: Steak Tartaccio

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 00:19:30 -0800

So Met Market had a coupon for a buy one get one free dry aged steak so of course we got some!

This is what I made with a leftover one. I used it for the appetizer. It’s more of a carpaccio than anything. I quickly seared the steak on each side for about 45 seconds just to get a good flavor and still leaving the middle raw. Then I sliced it up suuuuuper thin and put in on a good sourdough baguette.

Oh and I made a quick relish from apples, shallots, and sage, tossed some olive oil, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, and a touch of brown sugar. I mixed it all up and then let it sit for about 30 minutes in the fridge. Plate it as such and voila!

MMM!!

‘Til the next dish!

her: salted brown butter chocolate chip cookies

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 09:49:00 -0800

longest name, ever. no big, these cookies are totally worth it. i’ve been making these cookies consistently for the last few months. i think the first time i made them was for thanksgiving and i probably make a new batch once a week. they’re paolo’s favorite cookie, that’s saying something, because we eat a lot of cookies. they have been christmas presents, dessert for dinner parties, just-because-it’s-wednesday cookies, breakfast, and everything in between.

i’m not sure who decided browning butter was a good idea, but that person deserves a big mouth kiss. it’s my favorite smell… so nutty and fragrant. i’ve said it before, but make sure you really keep an eye on the butter. it goes from amazing to nooooo good in zero point five seconds. and noooo good is really noooo good. burned butter=not anything close to as amazing as browned butter. you want those pretty little flecks of brown butter, after the foam clears, and you start to see it clear up with flecks at the bottom of the pan. that’s when it’s prime.

this recipe is from joy the baker’s cookbook. i use a large cookie scoop, omit the walnuts, add an extra 1/2 cup of chocolate chip cookies, and add a little bit of sea salt to the top of each cookie before baking. mmmmmm.

her: brinner

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 09:20:29 -0800

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.

her: vanilla bean bundt cake

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:26:11 -0800

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

His: Brunoised Relish

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 22:23:00 -0800

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

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:33:44 -0800

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!

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

her: Italian butter cookies

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 15:00:00 -0800

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.

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

His: Rosemary Zeppole

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 11:30:29 -0800

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

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 12:43:03 -0700

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

preheat the oven to 350F
in medium sized bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla extract
in a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt
in a small bowl, combine the baking soda and milk. add the baking soda and milk to the pumpkin mixture
add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and combine
fold in the mini chocolate chips
drop mini cookie scoops on a lined cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown

recipe source: allrecipes.com

our: life, lately

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 10:26:09 -0700

pumpkin spice latte with a pump of caramel
siracha popcorn. i mean really? no words.
her ba bar birthday lunch
happy 3rd birthday to tini!
fremont sunday market. open all year. rain or shine!
pumpkin ale & hard cider. thee best fall beer combo, ever.
lazy days. with ben & jerry. duh.
fall flowers
more treats for tini
revel brunch. treatyoself.

her: pumpkin and cinnamon cream cheese minis

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 12:29:08 -0700

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!

His: Bruschetta Turkey Burger

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:38:50 -0700

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!