Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts Salad

So, this is a recipe I have had floating around in my e-mail for a long time now.  That’s my system, by the way, for recipes I find online.  I e-mail them to myself and have a “Recipes” folder where I keep them all.  When I began, I wasn’t including the source, but now I do, so I can easily say that this is from Smitten Kitchen!  Whom I love!   Everything she’s posted that I have made has been fantastic!  Exclamation points!

I was wary, I’ll admit, because I have a love-hate relationship with capers and a mostly hate-hate relationship with mustard of any sort.  However, I really couldn’t taste the mustard in a negative way, I was scared it would be too mustardy, but it was just a very subtle hint.  The capers, however, were not subtle.  Next time I make it, I think I will downsize to 1/8 of a cup of capers.  If you love capers, stick to the original.

Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts Salad with Mustard-Caper Butter

 (adapted only barely from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients:

) 4 garlic cloves

) pinch of kosher salt
) 5 tablespoons room temperature butter
) 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
) 1/4 cup drained, rinsed capers (though I suggest just 1/8)
) grated zest of 1 lemon
) 3 teaspoons dried oregano

) freshly ground black pepper

) 1 lb Brussels sprouts, rinsed and halved

) 1 lb cauliflower separated into bite sized pieces (I used pretty green cauliflower!)

Mix the garlic cloves and salt and mash them into a fine paste in a large bowl (or use a mortar and pestle, which I don’t have).  Plop in the butter, the mustard, the capers, the oregano, pepper to your liking and the lemon zest.  Now mix it altogether into a buttery, capery blob!

Pre-cooked, pretty green cauliflower

Bring a big pot of salted water to boil and add Brussels sprouts alone for 3 minutes.  Then dump in the cauliflower so the two cook together for 5 more minutes.  Taste a piece to make sure they are cooked through and then drain and return to pot.  

Add the butter concoction to the top of your steaming veggies and stir until thoroughly mixed.  Serve and enjoy!  I added a pinch of salt to ours, season yours to taste.

Other than the alterations I mentioned above, I LOVED this recipe and would make it again soon. 

 Bon appétit chickens!

Inspirational Sunday

Borrowed from Diana.

Happy Saturday!

Such a happy little guy!! Source

Happy Anniversary!

5 years today with Kyle, happy Anniversary!  Ich liebe dich Kal

Uncle George's in Astoria, NY

Lest you think I am a super chef who whips something together every night, let me clue you in to the truth.  Living in NYC allows you to eat whatever you want, whenever you want.  Even more specifically, living in Astoria means getting to eat Greek food whenever you want.  Kyle and I moved from Manhattan to Astoria in May and are right around the corner from Uncle George’s.  We have been meaning to go there ever since, and finally got around to it last Friday.

Right off the bat they brought us fresh, warm bread and we ordered a kilo of wine.  As it turns out, neither Kyle nor I ever fully got a grasp of the metric system, because a kilo of wine? Is a LOT of wine, approximately a liter (or about a bottle and a quarter of regular sized wine bottles).  SO, this is a picture light post as I tend to just talk and laugh when I drink pots filled with wine.

Yum, and ouch, but isn’t the copper vessel so cute?! 

For an appetizer we got the saganaki, which is fried kefalograviera cheese.  Yum!  I wish I got a photo of the presentation, it was in a cute little cast iron 2 handle skillet and when the waiter got to our table he poured in a little glass of (what I assume was) brandy and flambéed it for us.  To put out the flame he squeezed half a lemon over it and then placed it between us.  It was so cool!

Saganaki

 For my entrée I had one of the Friday night specials, roasted lamb with orzo topped with cheese.

It was yummy, baked and warm with tender lamb that only needed a fork to come apart.  I want to try to recreate something like it at home, I don’t know why I never make orzo?  I love it every time I have it.  I’ve also never made lamb but would be up for the challenge.

Unfortunately, dear readers, half a kilo in I forgot to take a picture of Kyle’s meal, and we focused on eating and talking instead.  It was a wonderful night and I’d recommend that anyone in Astoria check out Uncle George’s for the cute atmosphere and home-cooked Greek experience.

I’d also love to hear about any restaurants that we should check out either in Astoria or the city at large!

Leftovers Supper (or hors d’œuvres for dinner)

Though I obviously love to cook, sometimes it’s nice (especially when it’s NYC summer hot) to not turn on the oven after a day at work.  Kyle and I are particularly fond of doing finger food dinners; it’s a great way to use up the odds and ends from your fridge and very filling and fun.  It’s like eating all the hors d’œuvres at a party!

As an example, this is the dinner we had on Saturday after a long, hot day of biking along the Croton Aqueduct.  I didn’t mention it in the post, but it was SO HOT on our bike trip that we only ate the plums and carrots I packed and drank all the water, the bread, eggs, cheese and salami came back home the way they were packed.  That was fine, because they all became our dinner!

If we go around the picture, starting as near to 12 o’clock as possible, we had 1) a big hearty roll, sliced up, 2) an avocado, halved with some salt and pepper, that we ate with spoons, 3) a big bowl of crisp lettuce that we just ate with our fingers and dipped in -> 4) a delicious dipping sauce I created with a diced leftover scallion from this recipe (see, using up leftovers all over the place!), some olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette and grated parmesan cheese, 5) the manchego and wine cured hazelnut salami we didn’t eat earlier in the day with some baby carrots and finally 6) the soy sauce eggs I made quickly once we were home from the ride.

This was fast to put together and apart from the bread, we finished everything!  I love to make big, elaborate meals, but it’s equally fun to cobble together what you have lying around and have everyone just pick with their fingers.  Plus, did I mention yet? It really cleans out the leftovers from your fridge!

Are there any other easy finger foods / staples that you would add to something like this?

Soy Sauce Eggs

I am just in love with theKitchn lately!  They posted a link to this recipe  last week for Shoyu Tamago (soy sauce eggs) and I have been waiting to make it since.

I won’t re-post the recipe, just follow the link above to get the specifics, but it basically boils down to (haha, egg jokes!) rolling hardboiled eggs in a syrupy reduction of soy sauce.

Here they are, pretty and plain.

Reduce your soy sauce a little and then roll the eggs in it. I happened to use my pan that makes the WORST noise when you shake it, so I opted to use a wooden spoon to roll the eggs.  I think it worked just fine.

And… well, don’t let their ragged appearance fool you.  They look a little rough and you can see where I let the soy sauce caramelize a little and that stuck to the eggs in unappetizing clumps.  But the taste was great!  They were less salty than I expected/ was worried about.  Kyle hates soy sauce and he liked these too.  Maybe by reducing the soy sauce you can pick up more of the flavors that I generally miss due to the sodium levels?  At any rate, these tasted wonderful and I am sure to make them again for a fast and easy unique dish.