Valentines Day Dinner

O-M-F-G... best Valentines Day ever. Seriously.

Valentine's Day has always been my favorite holiday. Even when I've been single (I know I'm so weird). I think I just love the idea of "love" and I love chocolate haha. But Valentine's Day is even more special now because it is Ed and I's anniversary! It was 2 years for us yesterday!

Me and Ed were trying way too hard to plan the perfect day. We had reservations at Le Provencal in Mamaroneck for back up because I was so indecisive about what I wanted to do. Anyways, after lunch, we declared that we would have a Go With The Flow Valentines Day and it was so amazing!

It started off with a cute little breakfast for Ed. I have heart shaped everything... cupcake pans, cake pan, pancake mold, blah blah blah...

Rice with 2 Heart Shaped Eggs

Then, we went to my mom's to give her some flowers. Then we went to Whole Foods to grab some ingredients for our home-made V-day Dinner. Yeah we cancelled the reservations :-)

We did V-day at Ed's because he has a fireplace... and I love making S'mores. Hahaha that's not the real reason but he cleaned up his place so nice and made it sooooo romantic :-)

Candles all over the room and red and white Rose Petals!

We got started cooking.
The menu:

Salad with Anchovies and Olives


Filet Mignon with Rub with Love Steak Rub


The Whole Plate with sides of Roasted Romano Cheese, Basil, Garlic, and Pepper Fries and Pan Fried Lemon-Pepper Okra and Shimeji Mushrooms

And just to make you like drool:

Medium Rare Perfection!

Our gift exchange came after dinner. Let's just say me and Ed are always on the same page. We were meant to be together <33

Omurice

Omurice is another one of my "oh-my god-it reminds-me-of-chidhood" foods! My mom made it so freakin' good! And I try to make this for Ed as much as possible when I have leftover rice, because I want to pass on the love <33

It's so eaaassssyyyy!!!

All you need are:
Leftover rice
2 Eggs
Ketchup
Corn Kernels
Chicken (or ham, or whatever leftover meat you have)

You put the rice, corn, meat in a frying pan with some oil. When all is heated up and the rice is dry, add the ketchup (I don't know measurements, but add as much as you like. Just don't make the rice soggy!).

Then you whisk up the 2 eggs (add a splash of milk if you want them fluffy!) and pour into a heated, oiled frying pan. Add the ketchup rice on one side of the eggs. Just before the eggs are fully cooked (you want it a litttle runny), you flip the empty half of the eggs over the rice side. Ta-da!

Top with ketchup and enjoyyyy!

Brilliant Leftovers!

I am literally eating this as I post this recipe! I was so excited to put together such an ingenious concoction.... with leftovers!

Karashi Mentaiko Fried Rice

-chopped garlic
-1/2 cup leftover brown rice
-diced zucchini
-sweet corn kernels
-2 tablespoons Karashi Mentaiko (no skin!)

** Karashi Mentaiko is "spicy cod fish roe". It's a very odd flavor if you haven't grown up eating it. I personally love it!

1. Sautee the garlic, zucchini, and corn.
2. Add the rice.
3. Add the karashi mentaiko, and stir fry until the karashi mentaiko turns to a salmony pink. DONE!



What I loved about this fried rice was the simplicity! The flavor was also killer! The karashi mentaiko gave it a salty bite to it, and to emphasize that special "cod fish roe" flavor, I did not add any salt or pepper!! The corn added a nice sweetness, and the zucchini added a little bit of a crunch!

Fried rice and roasted kabocha squash... I'm in heaven!

Babs' Birthday!

Happy Birthday Babs! As of today, she is __ years old!!! Her party was on Saturday.

Babs was super sick with a sinus infection, but it was fun nonetheless! Marlene the party host and the birthday girl's mother did a wonderful job with setting up and satisfying our bellies. I have become known among my friends to only go to social gatherings to eat. I told them. And they're O.K. with that so... I guess we're cool haha.

I have never been to Lola on the Grill in Yonkers, on Tuckahoe Road, but that's where the food came from. I am very ignorant when it comes to Latin/Mexican/Peruvian cuisine, even though I've loved all the things I've tried, but I really liked this stuff!


Rice with Beans (my favorite of the night!)


Pork (Ribs in an oily, stewy sauce)... So good!


Plantains... I didn't get to try these because I was too distracted by the other stuff!


Italian Combo Sandwiches... I'm not sure where these are from, and I didn't have any because I filled up on the Rice and Pork haha!


And of course the birthday girl cutting her "Rainbow" cake! *Her mom was a hippie and was going to name her Rainbow, but went with Barbra instead ;-)


Lola on the Grill
662 Tuckahoe Road
Yonkers, NY 10710
Phone: 914-779-5652

Back to School=Fewer Posts?

Is that the way it has to be? Nahhh...

Well I'm back in school, driving myself crazier than I should... but I do have a few posts lined up!

First of all, Superbowl Sunday! I designated myself the dessert lady, and since I didn't have much time, I cheated.


Trader Joe's Puff Pastry + Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Chips + Stop n Shop Coconut Flakes + Trader Joe's Sliced Almonds = Easy, yummy twist on Chocolate Croissants!

Then during the week, I went through my fridge/freezer to use up some stuff, and make some space!!

Turkey Meatballs with Ankake Sauce
The turkey meatballs are easy---> Ground turkey, panko bread crumbs soaked in milk, egg, salt and pepper, and whatever else seasoning.
The ankake sauce is soy sauce, mirin, water, dashi, and corn starch. I seriously never measure anything, so I can't tell you the amounts of each ingredient, but that's the funnest part of cooking... tasting it and making it taste how you want it to! Basically you just bring the water to a boil, add the soy sauce and mirin to your liking (at this point I added the shitake mushrooms and onions, and eventually the meatballs). Turn the heat off. Mix cornstarch with hot water. Slowly pour in the cornstarch into the ankake base, and mix and keep adding the cornstarch until the desired consistency is achieved. DONE!

Serve with hot, fresh rice!

Party at Miki's!

So tonight, I had a few lady friends over for a little get together... I of course was excited because I got to cook and bake for my friends!

The menu was this:

1. Pasta Salad with Roasted Balsamic Vegetables and Feta Cheese
2. Vegetarian Chili

3. Cocoa and Cinnamon Popcorn

4. Cherry-White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

The only thing that I used a recipe for was the cookies. I starred it in my google reader because they described my favorite kind of oatmeal cookies: Crispy and Chewy! The recipe can be found here at Taste Buds.

I didn't want to use milk chocolate chips, and I had bought a bag of tart cherries earlier today at Trader Joe's so I made Cherry-White Chocolate Oatmeal cookies :-)


Pre-bake


Post-bake


Cooling

Oh.My.Fu**.... these were effin good. They were exactly how they described them. Crispy and chewy in the right spots. The edges were nice and crispy. The middle had an awesome chew and the oats definitely helped. And what can I say about the perfection of sour cherries and sweet white chocolate?

Crunchy Brownie Bars

Sunday, I was supposed to go snowboarding but it didn't happen because I looked outside and thought it was snowing too heavily to drive.

Of course it stopped snowing by like 9 AM and wished I had gone :-( But I made the most of it with Ed, and we just did lazy things. Nintendo Wii, movie, baking!

I had a box of No Pudge Fudge Brownie mix. I have vowed to try and never make baked good using a mix, but these, I keep in my pantry! They are really good for a no-fat brownie! My only problem is that it's like really sticky. But it tastes really good!

My usual pizzazz that I add to these brownies are adding peanut butter chips and/or topping them with marshmallows, but I remembered these brownies that I saw on my google reader a while back and decided to make them instead!

They are called Marshmallow Crunch Brownie Bars and I found them here at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. Lately, I've been adapting recipes to the ingredients that I already have because I'm too lazy to go back out to the grocery store to get them. So these were quite different.

First of all, I didn't have marshmallows (ha!), and I didn't have any milk chocolate chips. So I left out the marshmallows altogether, and I used butterscotch chips instead. I figured I like the peanut butter-butterscotch combo so why not? Also, the only crunchy cereal I had was a Japanese version of cocoa krispies, so I used that.

It came out so good! It was like a layer of crispy fudge on top of a layer of brownie!

Fudgey and dense brownie + crispy/creamy topping= Craziness in my mouth, and I love it! (My friend Ashlee had them and said they were "like crack"... so if you like crack, this is definitely for you!)


The Ed man gives it a hell yeahhhhh!