February 22, 2012

Fish Tacos This Weekend? Tonight?

Some foods just seem festive and fun.  There are dinners that we’ve found we frequently order out, but rarely make at home.  But why not?  Few things that restaurants do are beyond the reach of home cooks, (unless you’re frequently dining at Per Se, or Noma, or Le Bernardin, or…), and whatever you can get out, you can customize at home once you’ve gotten the hang of it.  Not to mention, cooking at home is much more frugal.  Now you’ve got the best of both worlds!

Fish tacos is a meal that falls into the ‘Eat Out But Usually Not In’ category for us (don’t worry – we’re not going to start using the EOBUNI acronym).  We’ve had it before and posted a recipe to 2ff, but each time I remember we can cook it at home, I’m somewhat surprised, and always happy about it.  It’s a night that feels like we’re eating out, but we’re at our own comfortable table, eating food that’s better for us and cheaper than eating at a restaurant.

You could look forward to this fun adventure within your own kitchen this weekend, or maybe, you could let fish tacos add festivity to the middle of week – why not make them tonight?

Recipe: Fish Tacos

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February 21, 2012

Fat Tuesday: Bourbon Ice Cream

Of course the day after we post about eating healthy and making salad happens to be Fat Tuesday. Well, we’re sure as heck not posting a healthy recipe on Fat Tuesday…it just wouldn’t be right.  With our family’s New Orleans roots, we’re often talking about cajun/creole cuisine, and today is a day to embrace it.  Mardi Gras should always be dedicated to rich, fun recipes, especially those inspired by the South.

So today, we’re posting Bourbon Ice Cream… the most delicious, southern, happy-tasting ice cream ever. It pairs perfectly with Pecan Pie, which we posted back in 2010…This time, we made homemade pie crust for the pie and put a big scoop of this ice cream on top before serving.

So, it may not be the healthiest recipe ever, but even if you’re trying to pull it together and eat better in February, we encourage you to take today off.  We are!

Recipe: Bourbon Ice Cream

P.S. - If you’re engaged, we highly recommend registering for an ice cream maker, and if you’re invited to a wedding, we highly recommend buying the bride and groom an ice cream maker – because while it may seem strange, it makes this recipe possible…and who wouldn’t be happy about that?!

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February 20, 2012

Spinach Salad with Seared Tuna

Sometimes you eat too much. It’s a fact of life.

Sometimes you eat too much for 246 days in a row. That’s sort of where we are.

And whenever we feel like big, lazy lumps, we usually don’t crave salad. But, everyone knows salad is healthy, and a good way to get nutrients without overeating. So, we keep challenging ourselves to come up with salads that don’t bore us – salads that actually sound appetizing when we’re thinking about the ingredients before we buy them – salads that actually manage to excite us.

This salad is just that kind of salad – the exciting kind. It’s sort of asian-inspired, with the tuna and the cilantro, so we made a sesame/soy vinaigrette. The plums added a bright, fruity flavor, and eating fresh spinach just makes you feel healthy and smart…not like a big, lazy lump.

Bottom line – we’ll return to this recipe next time we overindulge. Which will probably be soon…

Recipe: Spinach Salad with Seared Tuna

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February 19, 2012

Parsnip Puree

You know we love good mashed potatoes. You also know we recently complained about our pants being a little snug and that we blamed mashed potatoes. Even though the white bed of fluffy goodness in the picture below looks a lot like mashed potatoes, it’s a much healthier way to have the creamy, delicious taste of potatoes without totally overindulging. That’s because it’s a parsnip puree.

Parsnips look like white carrots, and when you combine them with a turnip, and prepare them like mashed potatoes, the result is a deceivingly healthy side dish. We’ve posted many, many times about our love of seared scallops, so we won’t tell you about that again here, but the parsnip puree was the perfect accompaniment to seared scallops with wilted spinach. We definitely urge you to substitue this parsnip puree anytime you want the rich flavor and texture of mashed potatoes without all of the guilt.

 

Recipe: Parsnip Puree

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February 18, 2012

Bright and Comforting Bisque for a Cold, Gray Day

It still hasn’t gotten terribly cold here in Atlanta.  Our usual repertoire of hearty, warming winter favorites has been replaced by seared tuna and spinach salads.  Granted, part of this is healthy eating, but part of this is also due to seasonal eating desires, which has as much to do with the calendar as it does with the weather.

The other day, though, we were inspired to make soup.  Not necessarily because it was cold outside (like it is today and supposed to be tomorrow), but because we had just had the lunch of the year.  Our friends Drew and Nancy took us to their favorite Chinese restaurant in Atlanta, Northern China Eatery.  Drew says the food comes close to his home-town cooking from North China, and so we had to give it a try.  Eggplant with garlic sauce, greens and crab sauce, an egg/crepe/pastry roll, a HUGE hot pot, and pork buns took us through a tour of the best of the best of Chinese cooking.  It was an incredible three hour lunch, and we enjoyed every minute and every bite.

We were also stuffed.  Our original plan was to cook a big dinner for that night, but that obviously wasn’t going to happen.  I had wanted to cook soup for the first course, and instead of being the first course, we each had one small bowl of this great bisque for our entire meal.  And still felt full.

Recipe: Roasted Red Pepper Bisque

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February 17, 2012

Mom’s Sausage Balls

If we’re friends on Facebook, you’re probably sick of this news… but, today there was a “Crock-Off” at work – a cooking competition requiring the use of a crock-pot. There were 6 different categories: Appetizer, Soup, Chili, Side, Main Dish and Dessert. Any employee who wanted to enter was welcome – there were only two rules: Make your dish in a crockpot, and show up on time to set-up/plug in on Friday, February 17.

Even though both Wednesday and Thursday nights I had work events, I decided that I couldn’t let a cooking competition come and go without entering. I’m a little competitive…and when I say a little, I mean a lot. Even though our crock-pot is entirely underutilized, and we have only one recipe that uses it, I threw my name in the hat.

This was followed by a mild panic attack, caused by the fact that even though our one crock-pot recipe (chili) won an honorable mention in a neighborhood competition in 2008,  it definitely could not compete against the dishes of my talented coworkers. So, as I often do in stressful situations, I consulted my mother.

Her sausage balls are a regular hit at their annual Christmas party – people joke about coming to the party for the sausage balls alone. My siblings and I would always suggest she make an extra batch, “just in case,” knowing full well that we’d happily eat leftover sausage balls for a solid week after the party. She doesn’t make the sausage balls in a crock-pot, but we both figured it would work reasonably well – after all, once they’re cooked, they just need to stay warm.

Well – long story short, I entered, somehow got placed in the “Main Dish” category (thinking I’d certainly lose), and not only did the sausage balls beat another meatball dish in the category, they beat pork carnitas AND red beans & rice. The sausage balls won… and I was a very happy camper with a full belly. I won a whopping $13, mardi gras beads and a bikini t-shirt, pictures of which are all over Facebook.

I can’t take all of the credit, though. Gardner helped me alter the recipe, adding a bit more spice and heat. We’ve posted both the original and the altered recipes at the link below. Enjoy! and Thanks, Mom!

Looks like a (blurry) winner.

Recipe: Sausage Balls

Oh! and here’s a picture of me with the other category winners…

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February 16, 2012

Skate Grenobloise

You’ve seen us use this same recipe with tilapia, but skate takes it to a whole new level of deliciousness.

Skate really freaked me out at first – not only does it look funny, it’s the wing of a stingray… and that’s weird.

As he usually does when I’m hesitant, Gardner encouraged me to be brave and try a bite. I did, and when I eventually stopped thinking about the aquarium long enough to actually taste it, I was very happy.

It’s fun to be brave with food – it doesn’t always lead you to your new favorite dish, but it always expands your mind and makes you feel a little bolder and a little more fun.

Recipe: Skate Grenobloise

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