Mmmmm, Dinner

(Not another ugly dinner!!!)

So, Veggie Curry, TJ Style. That is, of course, Trader Joe's Style.

I had an awesome massage tonight from Lisa, as in totally awesome, but it was pretty late when I got home. CJ doesn't eat at home on Wednesday, and I was hungry, so I just threw something together.

Half an onion, one zucchini, one green pepper, mushrooms, and pea pods sauteed for a couple minutes. Throw in a bottle of TJ's Curry Simmering Sauce and warm. Serve over TJ's brown rice. For 10 minutes, and a bottled sauce it was pretty good.

Labels: curry, trader joes, veggie

I guess this was last week. I'm a little slow getting the pics up.

As you can see, we have a four item dinner here. The steak, was half of a New York Strip. It was a new brand that our all natural and local meat market was selling. It was very plain. I don't think I would get it again.

CJ loved the Risotto. It was adapted from Barbara Kafka's Vegetable Love cookbook, an awesome cookbook. It was very basic, just the rice, tomatoes, stock, salt, and some basil, topped with some grated Parmesan cheese. It tasted a little plain to me, but CJ thought it tasted like lasagna. I will try to improve on this recipe for sure.

The bread was from the farmer's market. It was a hazelnut rye bread, and I thought it was wonderful.

The peas, in my opinion, were the star of the night. Also from Kafka's book, basic frozen peas, butter, mint, and lettuce sauteed together, basically. They were fresh and light and wonderfully minty. I think this is going to be a go to recipe around here.

Labels: bread, farmer's market, peas, risotto, steak

Dinner tonight, I barely remember.

I was having a bad day at work today. I was tired. When I got home, dinner was almost ready. The asparagus was steaming, the grill hot for the sausage and the polenta cooking. It was a perfect meal to come home to. Thanks CJ.

Later, we decided to go for a walk and get some ice cream at Crema Cafe. Tasty, tasty Crema Cafe. Well, we never made it to get our Sonny's Ice Cream. Instead, we found ourselves running away from gun shots, calling 911, giving a statement, and sitting in the back of a cop car, trying to ID some people, even though we told the cops we didn't get a good look at anyone's face. I'm sure CJ will have a better synopsis. Check with him.

But that polenta CJ made was good.

Labels: guns, ice cream, police

I can't find my camera cord, so I'm starting a new section, the Restaurant Review.

Tonight, The Craftsman!!!
CJ and I started with three artisan cheeses. Holy Crap, they were tasty. Two were raw cow milk cheeses. All three were incredibly complex, one even seemed to change 10 seconds after eating, 15 seconds later and 20 seconds later. They were amazing.

We eat at The Craftsman pretty often, and CJ got his usual, the Venison Burger. Because we both wanted what I got, we decided to split my entree and his.

The Venison Burger, like all their burgers, is great. The meat is mixed with bacon to keep it moist. It has a great mustard on it and comes with their great fries and ketchup.

I got the fish special of the day, and it was absolutely A-MAZ-ING. Truth be told, it was a tiny bit salty, but not enough to take away from its amazingness. It was walleye in a beer batter. The batter was so light and airy. I didn't know it was possible to have a beer batter be that light. The fish was incredibly fresh.

The fish came with sweet potato fries, which were normal sweet potato fries. Nothing very special there. It also came with a really fresh and tasty coleslaw. It was cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, and some odd greens, tossed with what seemed to be a simple white wine vinegar dressing. It was really fresh, which did a great job contrasting the salty and deep fried fist. There was also an aioli, which finished the whole package nicely.

It was by far the best Fish and Chips I have ever had. I think CJ would agree.

We then splurged and ordered dessert. We had a fantastic bread pudding. It was eggy and buttery and rich. There was an apricot sauce over it and we loved it

Drink-wise, CJ had a tangerine Old Fashioned and some other specialty drink that tasted like blueberry soda. I had a mojito and a Surly.

We have eaten many times at The Craftsman, but this was by far our best meal there (though the worst service we have had.)

Seriously tasty.

Labels: review

I travelled for six hours today to Kittson County for work. Two meals later, I've decided soup (non-Asian) outside of Minneapolis is much better than in the Metro.

We stopped about an hour outside of St. Paul and I got a bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup and a Tuna Melt. The melt was pretty good, but the soup was amazing. It was obviously home mode, it had thick noodles, an awesome broth, and huge chunks of chicken. It was TASTY. It was how I would want to make it.

Tonight, we went to the hotel restaurant. Actually, it has the same name, but is across the parking lot. I got the Walleye and a cup of the Tomato Soup. The Walleye was pan fried, fresh, and pretty dang good, but the soup was the shining star. I expected normal Cream of Tomato soup, but that is not what I got. There were VEGETABLES in it. There were chunks of tomato and onion and celery. Big chunks. While I would have put some basil in it, it was still very good.

So, I was tagged by Emily for a meme of 7 things you don't know about me, or something like that. Since it is Emily, I will comply. Since this is a food related blog, I'll keep it food themed.

1) I really like soup. It is my favorite food. I've been eating it a lot lately and I always enjoy it. I also really like cooking it, but haven't recently. That's more of a winter thing.
2) I've only had Foie Gras once, and I loved it. Everytime I go out to eat, I look for it, but it is so rare with all the "animal cruelty" crap.
3) Oh yeah, I used to be a vegetarian and believed all the "animal cruelty" crap. I actually still do. I was even a vegan at one time. I feel bad, but Foie Gras is pretty damn tasty.
4) Pizza, in my mind, is the most perfect food. Specifically, thin crust, super saucy, square cut pizza from Dulono's. Mmmmm, Pizza.
5) Milk. I love it. I rarely drink it. Years ago, while on Weight Watchers, I cut it out because there are lots of calories. Now, I've gained back all the weight, but I still don't drink the milk. Real healthy, right? Man, I could go for a glass of milk now.
6) Wasabi. I don't like it. It is one of the few foods that I don' t like. But I make myself eat it and I like it more and more all the time. I really do believe that most food is likable, you just need to make yourself like it, like beer and coffee.
7) I really want to learn to cook Indian food. But like lots of foods, CJ gets digestive problems with curries, so I never make it, because he won't eat it. It kind of makes me sad, but I enjoy cooking for him so much, that I just don't cook for myself that much.

Labels: hotel, meme, soup

I read recently that most Americans spend less then 15 minutes preparing dinner every night. I wonder if that includes the time in the car to pick up the takeout?

Well, tonight, we were faster than those 15 minutes.
(I had a hard time with the focus.)

FISH TACOS!!! Take some fish, we used Striped Bass, and season it, we used salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder. A tiny bit of olive oil in a hot pan and sear the fish on both sides, cooking through. Remove the skin if necessary. Make tacos out of it. Simple. Low-fat. Lots of vitamins and stuff.

Obviously, variations on Mexican is a staple in this house.

Labels: easy, fish, tacos

When asked to bring things to pot lucks and the like I have a couple go to EASY recipes. Bean Salad, Roasted Veggies and this:
I know there is some fancy name, but basically it is fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil cut up. Salt and pepper gets sprinkled on the top and it is drizzled with good balsamic vinegar. Serve with some crusty bread.

Labels: appetizer, easy, tomatoes

After a fire in my kitchen, while I was outside tending the grill (where the hotdogs also burnt), came this meal.

Hot Dogs and an Arugula Salad with Panchetta and Parm.

Labels: hot dogs, salad

I flew to Washington DC today, where I will be attending a conference most of this week. In a super awesome moment of inspiration, I decided I would save a little money and bring a can of Ravioli for dinner tonight. I just threw it in my suitcase, with a fork.

Well, if you have this moment of inspiration, stop yourself from doing it. The can had a pull top for easy access without a can opener.

The can EXPLODED in my luggage. It was all over my clothes, my files, and worst of all, my camera. It was a huge mess and took a good amount of time to clean up.

So, the hotel restaurant it was. I was tired and wasn't about to get my co-workers to go very far. Hotel food is always so bad, but I made good choices, so I got a decent dinner. I started with the soup of the day, a crab and vegetable soup. It was tomato based and not offensive in any way. I then had the Beef Carpaccio appetizer. It was very good. It had a sweet, thick balsamic vinegar on it that I found myself licking off the plate. If I would have been with fellow foodies, they would have understood, but I wasn't, so I had to control myself. It had a micro green salad, horseradish, and capers also. It was done very well.

Tomorrow I get conference food for breakfast and lunch, but I'm already scoping my dinner options.

Labels: exploding, hotel, travel

My new favorite cooking blog is Last Night's Dinner. She makes the greatest looking food almost every night. Tonight, I stole a recipe from her and changed it only the tiniest bit.It is Halibut with at Tomato, Leek and Fennel sauce type thing. It was good. It would have been better if I would have been willing to open a bottle of wine, but I've been drinking Mojitos pretty exclusively and will be out of town 5 of the next 6 days, so it would have been a waste. I subbed White Wine Vinegar, and there was just too much tart.

I over cooked the Halibut a tiny bit. I do well with fish like Salmon that you can eat rare, there is a lot less perfection needed there. But I don't know if you can eat Halibut rare, or medium rare. I need to use this fish more, because it is so tasty.

Oh, and I need to learn to plate things better, this is obvious.

Labels: fish, tomatoes