We Like To Eat

When it looks like this outside all we want to do is eat.  Last Saturday-Tuesday we saw several inches of snow fall, melt, and then repeat the cycle all over again.  The valley doesn't see snow all that often so it really get everyone excited/anxious when the white stuff appears in the forecast.  I love snow.  Or at least snow like this.  We didn't need to drive anywhere so we hunkered down at the cottage and cooked.  It was pretty great.

Last weekend Cliff decided we should make a pretty magnificent breakfast.  We made Amish hashbrowns and an apple pancake.  We used the apple pancake recipe from our America's Test Kitchen cookbook.  It was super easy and really satisfying.  It called for a dusting of powdered sugar....but hey....I like powdered sugar so I figured a heavy dusting couldn't be all that bad (it wasn't).

 

Cliff made up the hashbrown recipe a few weeks ago but then checked online to see if anyone else made them that way and sure enough the Amish do.  We ate our breakfast at around 10:30 in the morning and seriously could not even think about food until about 7:30 that night. 

Last weekend I got to sip hot chocolate in front of the wood stove and watch the snow fall.  It was pretty amazing but I did learn that drinking a hot beverage in front of a very hot wood stove makes for a unexpectedly sweaty experience.

This week we also had a few hearty meals.  One day for lunch Cliff made hummus, I made tzatziki, and we pared them was curried potatoes and fancy tortillas made with "ancient grains".  The next day we had shredded cabbage salad with vinegar dressing, spiced black beans, tortilla chips, and Trader Joe's cheese and green chile tamales.  Side note: we have tried all three types of Trader Joe's tamales and while they all are pretty great the vegetarian variety is our favorite.  For dinner the past two nights we had homemade salmon cakes with fancy salad and sauteed spinach.  Tonight we thought to add Old Bay to the tasty, cornmeal coasted cakes and it was really good.   You should try it.  Everything we made was homemade except for the tortilla chips, ancient grain tortillas and the tamales.  I'm pretty proud.

I'm a little embarrassed to say this but within the span of seven nights we also made a hot fudge chocolate pudding cake, coconut banana cream pie, a chocolate pudding pie, and "light" oatmeal cookies.  We also made quite a few fruit smoothies (Greek yogurt is pretty amazing) so somehow I feel like it all balances out.

On Friday night our power was out so we couldn't open the fridge or use the oven.  What do you do when the lights go out and you are stir crazy?  Go to Red Robin of course!  I got a turkey burger with guacamole and bacon and Cliff got a burger with blue cheese and fried onion straws.  This outing made me realize that I need to try blue cheese some more.  I'm an adult and adults like fancy cheeses.  This may take a while.

Lastly, around Thanksgiving I read a book (written by an Emerson alum) who didn't eat out for two whole years while she lived in New York City.  The book made me feel more empowered about cooking and I generally chatted about the concept with anyone who would listed.  Brie (Cliff's cousin) ended up reading it too.  In the book the gal mentions the New York Times No Knead Bread recipe no less than 1,000 times.  Apparently it was a big deal back in 2006 (who knew?....well apparently Cliff did).  I wanted to try it but was nervous as I have never baked bread in my life.  Cliff bakes all sorts of bread and it is no big deal.  It is a big deal to me as I like for things to turn out perfect on a first try (realistic, right?).  Brie baked up a loaf in her toaster oven last week and challenged people to try the recipe as well.  Thanks Brie for the challenge to finally get my butt in gear.  I'm determined to be a legitimate cook!

 
The bread is super easy to make.  All you need is three ingredients, a little water, and time.  I got so excited about making it that I didn't think to plan out the timing of actually making the bread.  The recipe asks for about 12-18 hours for its first rise then two more before it goes into the oven.  No problem!  I should have counted out the hours before I decided to mix everything together at 11 a.m. yesterday.  I was not about to get up at 4 am (not a morning person) so our bread had an initial rise of about 22 hours.  Once again...no problem as the bread came out great!  I made a plain loaf just to see what we were working with and Cliff and I agree that we like our bread a little saltier.  With this said, we plan on making it more in the future with fun herbs and spices.

All of the cooking and baking this week has made me a happy camper!  Did you make anything tasty and exciting this week?