christmas dinner

This Christmas, my parents and I decided to have dinner just the 3 of us. Cooking a Christmas dinner for only 3 people without going overboard is hard, and I think we have enough food to feed my family for the next two weeks. I had lots of fun cooking it because it was the Thanksgiving dinner I never got to make. But next year, I'm demanding an all seafood feast for dinner.

Oh god, ok. So last year when Neal and I made Thanksgiving dinner, we hadn't tied up the one of the brine bags, and during the tragic 5 seconds that we looked away from it, 2 gallons of liquid spilled all over my tiny apartment floor. The worst part is that my floor was at a slight angle, so it all went rushing like a salty river of doom right under the radiator. But it was still the night before, so we managed to get more vegetable stock from the gas station (thanks Shell) and make a delicious turkey. I thought this would the worst thing to ever happen, but I was wrong because the same thing happened this year, except on Christmas morning when there are no stores open. I was lifting the brine bag with the turkey out of the sink and into the cooler, but the stupid bag was ripped and turkey popped right out of the bottom. All the brine went down the drain. So after some tears (a lot, actually) and freaking out, I just did a plain salt water brine with some brown sugar and cayenne and let the turkey brine for only 4 hours instead of 10. It turned out really moist and perfect...a Christmas miracle, or something like that, right?

My mom's "creative" plating of prosciutto wrapped asparagus

Bacon wrapped green beans (really loving the meat wrapped vegetables this year)

Garlic mashed potatoes with cream cheese and chives

 Mushrooms with thyme

 Balsamic brussell sprouts and shallots

Acorn squash with butter, brown sugar, walnuts, and cranberries

I also made gravy with the pan drippings (mmm) and an orange-cranberry sauce.

German

My best friend has started dating a German (hi Milly), and he's visiting for Christmas. The day he flew in, he made us all this tasty German food!! I don't really know what German food is...and I think he was too tired to explain anything to me. So this is my best guess at what it all is:

Thin pancakes made with clarified butter

 The pancakes get cut up into noodle-y strips and this vegetable broth gets poured over them, SO GOOD!!!! I thought the pancakes were going to be used for a dessert type food, but this was a good savory surprise.

Dumplings!

I'm not sure how he made these...I know there's bread chunks, flour, parsley, and onions

Cooking

This beef gets covered in some sort of gravy, but I have no clue what was in it. It was sort of sweet, I think, and not the flavor that I was expecting, but again, really really good. 

yum

home

It's good to be home. The fridge is always really full and has everything I want to eat, and if it doesn't, my mom or dad will buy it.  Last night I asked my dad why we didn't have bacon, and when I woke up this morning, there was a package in the fridge. Yes, I am an only child.

eating all the eggs

I'm leaving for Seattle again tomorrow! I still have a lot of food to eat. I tried to not buy anything for the past week and a half and only live on pita, but I kept buying little items because I was scared I would get hungry. I have a lot of eggs I need to eat and I don't know if those will last the whole month I'm gone. So I made egg salad and then I also put in the black beans and corn I had left over. Then some feta on top. I liked it...less mayo next time though.

lemon poppyseed donut

From Dough

Rye

 So, I've been interning at Pace Editions for a few months now, and I really dig it. It gives me some sense of purpose while I uselessly flop around like a fish looking for a "real job."  Plus, I think it's the coolest place ever and I'm lucky that I get to work there. REALLY. I'm not just saying that because maybe, maybe, maybe one of them will read this. Printmaking is so great, and it makes me happy (and sort of freaked out) to be around people who are making prints and are so good at it too. Maybe if some generous stranger gives me my weight in gold, I won't have to get a job and I can intern there forever. Anyway, today we went to lunch at Rye House.

 Everyone said the burger was good, so that's what I got. They were right. Kathy says she only eats about one burger a year and this is the one burger. I don't understand why she only eats one burger a year. I think I've eaten enough burgers this year alone to last Kathy for the rest of her life and then some. The only weird thing that I have to say about this burger is that the patty is really cute. It looks like a cartoon burger, all round and fat. I just wanted to poke my finger through it, and that's a good thing.

Cheese envy

I didn't get cheese on my burger. For once, I decided to listen to the lactose intolerant voice in my head. The burger was so delicious enough on its own, but I still regret not getting cheese. Or bacon. This is Justin's burger and he got both. This is always the smart choice and the right choice.

Way to go with the burger toppings

Then there was dessert

And more dessert...This is apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream. I love warm desserts with ice cream. I would have stuck my face in it if it was bigger and I wasn't sharing it with people I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of. And also if I wasn't in public and not 5 years old.

trashy taco

When we made tacos, Jeremy bought over some things to make a trashy surprise snack. Then it got even trashier. I really love trashy food, like a lot. I think it's so much fun to make food that's really terrible for you. It tastes so good, but then it immediately makes you feel like dying. I haven't made anything this bad in a really really long time. I think my body is still in recovery and I feel sort of gross about it, but I have no shame.

 

Bacon wrapped tater tots

Yeah, I went there. It was beautiful.

tacos!

I had a lot taco ingredients but no plans to make tacos, but then I realized I REALLY wanted tacos. So I had Molly and Jeremy over for taco time and it was really good. I gave some chicken drumsticks a bath in lime, garlic, and cilantro and let it sit in the fridge for a while. I would have rather used a different part of the chicken but I already had the drumsticks. Then once they were nearly all cooked, I chopped up all the meat off the bone and let it cook some more in all the juices. We also had a surprise snack, but I think it needs its own post.

 Lime chicken taco with some black beans and corn, cheese, tomatoes, cilantro, olives, guacamole, greek yogurt, and salsa verde

Ready to be eaten

THE STUFF (minus the chicken)

I like using plain greek yogurt better than sour cream

Chicken hanging out in the fridge

tuna salad

 

Tuna with olive oil, lemon juice, celery seed, and mustard all on top of butter lettuce and radicchio (sort of wish I had different greens), avocado, tomatoes, feta, 3 olives, and a soft boiled egg

some lunches

 Mozzarella, prosciutto, arugula sandwich from Spoon

It was pretty good, sort of hard to mess a sandwich like this up, I think. It was maybe a little salty though, probably because of the bread.

When I was in Rome, some of my friends were really into eating apples, feta, and raisins with a little bit of salt, pepper, and lemon juice. I thought it was the weirdest thing ever, but it's really good, and I ended up eat it all the time. I like using arugula instead of black pepper because it's peppery enough on its own. Next time I think I'll have to pick a more tart apple.

food regrets

What compels people to get food from bodegas? I always do, and I always regret it later. But when I was eating my tuna sandwich from bodega around the corner, I loved it.

sushi again

I went back to Mitoushi Sushi because man, that place is so good. This is way too much sushi for one person, and I couldn't eat it all. But it was cheap, I was a little drunk, and I'm greedy.  Clockwise from the top left: tempura roll, spicy tuna, tuna avocado, and an "East" roll, which means there's egg and avocado. I'm pretty sure I ordered an eel roll, but...I didn't notice until it was too late.

korean bbq

My favorite thing to eat ever is Korean barbeque, and my parents always take me to my favorite place when I come home...usually the day before I'm supposed to leave.

Meat plate, guh! We ordered pork belly, another kind of meat which I know the name of in Korean but not English (it was sweet and marinated in some sort of soy sauce mixture), and squid. I am really not into the squid on the grill, but it was part of the "combo."

 This restaurant is great because it gives you so so many side dishes, I can't even eat all of them. 

The meat comes with an onion chunk, some oyster mushrooms, and a squash (haven't had this before, but I guess it's winter) which get tossed on the grill too. Plus a red bean paste mixture, jalapenos, and garlic, which you are supposed to eat with the meat, but we usually put the garlic on the grill instead of eating it raw because no amount of gum and mouth wash will get rid of that taste by the next morning.

Also comes with this soup/stew made from a soybean paste, vegetables, tofu, and some beef chunks

Also comes with this salad of lettuce and green onions in some sort of spicy soy sauce dressing. The beef also comes (not here though) with a plate of fresh lettuce and sesame leaves, and you're supposed to wrap up meat and rice in it. It helps balance out the fattiness of the meat.

I'm not really sure what to call this, but it's eggs and that's it, really. I love it when my mom makes this but I always fail when I try to. Basically its beaten eggs with equal parts water (this one also has scallions and maybe a little bit of fermented shrimp in there) and then its steamed...I think? My mom's kind comes out very silky and smooth, a little like jello, but this kind is more porous I guess. I like both kinds. 

I only took a picture of one side dish because this one is my favorite. It's acorn jelly in soy sauce, red pepper flakes, and scallions. There is a white version of this and I'm not sure what it's made out of. I used to prefer that when I was younger, but now I really like the nuttiness of the acorn kind.

korean food

I never eat Korean food any more. I thought that once I moved to New York, I would eat it a lot since it was easily accessible, unlike in Providence, but I guess that never happened. It's expensive! And it takes a lot of time to make. But also, I feel like nothing can really beat my mom's cooking, so now it's just something I eat a lot when I go home. It's weird because this is what I would eat every day until I went to college, and now it's just a special thing. I don't know how my taste buds have to learned to adjust without it. All this food is not Korean food anybody would eat on a daily basis though...it's more "Hey Mom, I haven't had Korean food in so long. These are the things I want to eat."

My mom had this waiting for met when I got home from the airport, including cabbage and radish kimchee that my aunts made (which is a big deal) and sent from Korea. We get packages of kimchee every so often and the mailman always gives us weird looks, probably because the packages smell funny

This is one of my favorite things, ox tail soup. Because of the light, it looks like its all oil and fat, but it isn't really. You just boil oxtails for a very very very long time and keep adding water as it evaporates. The other version of this requires you to boil the soup for over 24 hours and it becomes a lot milkier and richer. Then you let it cool down, and once the fat solidifies and floats to the surface (gross I know) you take that all out. My mom does this whole process twice. I don't know why people are willing to do that but I'm glad they do because it tastes so good. Then you add salt and green onions.

This trashy Korean food. It's budae jiigae, which means "army base stew." This originated after the Korean War because there wasn't very much food to eat, and so people made use of the surplus food from the U.S. Army bases. So...basically it was a big boiling pot of kimchee and weird canned meats and sausages, miscellaneous noodles and I guess any other ingredients that were available. This is why my mom used to let us eat Spam when I was younger, then she learned that it was gross and she stopped using it. But really, I can't lie, it's good and SOMETIMES, my dad and I think about it and miss it. We hadn't had it probably since I was maybe 10, and we ordered this stew at a restaurant and got really excited to see the little fake meat bits, even though my mom wanted us to not eat them. We probably should have listened to her because it made us feel queasy.

This is my mom's version and she uses those sausages you put on toothpicks, beef chunks, udon noodles, tofu, and kimchee. It's so good but my mom only makes it when I come home because it's not really something you should eat often. I think this is why my dad looks forward to my visits, or else he never gets to eat this.

This is jajangmyeon, which is derived from the Chinese version of this dish. Its wheat noodles and a sauce made with black soybean paste, diced meat (or seafood), and vegetables. I LOVE this. It's a really popular delivery food in Korea, and I know this is the first thing I'm gonna get when I get there. But that black sauce gets everywhere! Or I'm the world's messiest eater. When I was little my mom told me that if I kept picking my nose, I would grow a mustache (what). I remember picking my nose, then having this for lunch, and then going to the bathroom to see this black sauce all over my face and I FREAKED OUT because I thought a grew a mustache. Worst day of my life.

This is pig's feet, which I really learned only a few years ago. My mom never told me what it was since she thought I would be grossed out, which I was. But by that point, I already liked eating it too much to care. Plus, I think that I knew what it was the whole time since its name has the word "feet" in it, but I just decided to ignore that fact. The pigs feet are cleaned (seriously, no little hairs have ever been found), and then boiled I think with some rice vinegar and ginger (maybe more things) until they're soft, then the bones are removed and they get sliced. It's served with cabbage or lettuce, which helps to balance out the heavy meatiness of it. And also with a super salty fermented shrimp sauce...you only need a little dab of that.

AND we usually get the jokbal (pig's feet) with this, which is called soondae. I'm not gonna tell you what it's made out of because I don't like to think about it. I'm not even entirely sure I know what's in it besides noodles because my mom won't tell me because she knows I will get weirded out. Or I do know, and I've chosen to forget about it. She just tells me to eat it, and I gladly do because it's great.

And all this comes with sliced radishes and raw oysters.

I dedicate this entry to my pal Neal, who is in Germany and is an amazing food buddy because he will try anything with me. And I miss him :(