Sriracha Mac and Cheese

I like spicy food, but I have my limits.  I discovered sriracha sauce a while ago at a local Thai restaurant.  In small doses, I love it!  It can make anything taste good.  I wish I had a bottle at work for when I eat my crappy frozen meals.  I bought a bottle and it languished in my sauce cabinet for a while.  After reading this comic over at The Oatmeal, I was inspired to find some ways to incorporate sriracha in food I actually enjoyed eating.  I discovered that there is a sriracha sauce cookbook.  I'm not brave enough to purchase it at this point, but I found a recipe for sriracha mac and cheese and it is AWESOME. 

The blogger (Sarah for Real) I got this from tweaked the original recipe, and then I did some tweaking of my own (extra cheese! more pasta!  more onion!) and it turned out really well.  I've made this twice.  The first time, I used the recommended amount of sriracha sauce and it was a little too spicy to eat in large quantities.  So the second time, I used just a bit less and it was perfect!

No one can resist the spicy, cheesy goodness!

Antep Lamb Not-Kebabs with Sumac Onions and Asparagus

Okay, so the plan was to make Antep kebabs from Turquoise, my awesome Turkish cookbook.  Too bad we forgot to turn the gas grill off the night before and all the propane escaped.  Since the grill was out of commission, my only choice was to use my Le Creuset grill pan.  The problem is that my metal skewers are way too long for me to use them with it.  So, kebabs were out of the question.  Also too bad: I bought lamb loin, not ground lamb, because apparently I don't know how to read.

But, this dish was still very good, and eliminating the step of skewering the meat may have made it easier to prepare.  The Lamb Spice Mix is fabulous, and would work really well outside of this dish. 

Since I wasn't skewering my meat and onions, I decided to thinly slice the onion and cook it with a little sumac for a tart punch.  I wanted some side dishes, so I made simple steamed asparagus and used some previously made hummus with pita. 

This salvaged meal turned out pretty awesome!

Lamb Chops with Spicy Chocolate Rub, Balsamic and Sage Onions, and Jalapeño Roasted Potatoes

I love lamb chops!  They're a bit of a pain to cook though.  I'm always worried that I'll overcook them and end up with dry, gray lamb chops that taste like they've been microwaved.  Thankfully, the grilling rules I found on the internet have been very helpful and so far, I've managed not to destroy any meat.

A few weeks ago, I went to a chocolate party.  That's right!  A party at which someone sold all manner of awesome chocolate products.  In addition to the usual bonbons and chocolate covered nuts, there were chocolate martinis, brownies, and a spicy chocolate meat rub.  When I first saw the sample of this at the party, I was immediately skeptical.  I thought the chocolate would be overwhelming.  But, it smelled more spicy than chocolatey.  I was intrigued, and for some reason the first meat that came to mind as an experiment was lamb chops.

This meal came together surprisingly easily, most of it was made while the potatoes were roasting.  The spice rub is awesome!  It's just a hint of cocoa mixed in with chili powder, garlic, and onion (and probably some other spices I couldn't identify).  It works very well with lamb! 

Guest Post on Trufflehead.com

People actually read my blog!  :)  A few weeks ago, I was invited to write a guest post for a new cooking iPhone/iPad app, Trufflehead.  The app is very easy to use and helps cooks of all levels make tasty, healthy meals.  Each recipe has nutrition information, difficulty level, and gives an estimate of how long it will take to make.  All the recipes and ingredients have photos.  A lot of the techniques (such as seeding a hot pepper) have instructional slide shows.  My favorite feature is the shopping list, which lets me pick all the recipes I want to make for the week and puts the stuff I'll need in one convenient list.  For those of you who have seen my handwriting in real life, you know how useful a shopping list on the iPad would be. 

Dave and I both love bison, so I volunteered to try the Bison Burgers with Chipotle Ketchup.  I should warn you, we both became addicted to the Chipotle Ketchup.  It's so easy to make and it scales well.  We ended up buying a bottle of ketchup and making an extra large batch and then just putting it back in the bottle for subsequent use. 

Here's my guest post:  Bison Burgers with Chipotle Ketchup!  Check it out! 

Fettuccine with Tomatoes and Crispy Capers

So, there's a reason my posts have recently been more sporadic.  Dave and I adopted a rescue dog!  He's a beagle and German shepherd mix.  He's our little sous chef, he loves sitting in the kitchen while I cook.  Usually, he likes laying right up against the back of my legs so if I move without thinking about him, I'll fall on my butt.

Look at my ears!  No one can resist my floppy ears!

Last weekend, I made a fettuccine dish and didn't use up all of my fresh pasta.  I saw this recipe for Fettuccine with Tomatoes and Crispy Capers in the most recent issue of Food & Wine.  I've made a dish with fried capers as a garnish before and they're really awesome.  They crisp very nicely, but retain their tanginess. 

The original recipe didn't call for sundried tomatoes, but I thought they would be a good addition.  I used enough fresh pasta for two people and the vegetable and meat amounts for a full recipe. I omitted the anchovies. 

This dish was quick, simple, and really really good.  The simple addition of some crushed red pepper made the prosciutto taste almost like capicola ham.  This dish was pretty quick to make because there wasn't much chopping and the tomatoes and garlic don't cook for very long.  The most labor intensive part of the meal was frying the capers, which isn't very complicated. 

Success! Pork, Ginger, and Cabbage Stir Fry

Tonight the plan was to make a ginger and carrot stir fry dish that Dave and I enjoy when we don't have a lot of time to cook, but want a healthy dinner.  Too bad I forgot to buy carrots.   The rice was already cooked, so I felt pretty committed to a stir fry over rice dish.  I improvised, and it turned out really well! 

There isn't a lot in our fridge right now, we've got a lot of dinner plans in the next few days that don't involve cooking at my house.  I found some random ground pork in the freezer.  I decided to use the giant piece of ginger that I bought for the original stir fry.  The only vegetables in the fridge were half a red cabbage, a few sickly looking scallions, an almost used up head of garlic, and an onion that was past its sell by date.  I ended up using everything but the onion. 

My first notion for the sauce was to do a variant on potsticker sauce.  We make it all the time and it's super tasty.  Then Dave suggested a spicier sauce.  

The verdict: success!  The ginger and red cabbage softened in the wok, but were still crunchy enough to add some texture to the dish.  The ginger was very powerful, I'd probably use a little less next time.  The sauce went perfectly with the pork and veggies, it was the right combination of tangy and spicy.  I would definitely make this again.  I'm happy that I improvised something tasty from an almost empty fridge. 

Colorful and tasty!

Rib Eye with Gorgonzola and Hazelnuts

I don't cook steak very often since I don't eat a lot of red meat.  That said, every once in a while, I crave steak.  Perhaps it harkens back to my college days when I subsisted off substandard salad bar and ramen because the "meat" served in the cafeteria was of dubious quality and cooked beyond recognition.  Whenever my parents came to visit I wanted STEAK every night.  I'm sure Outback made a killing during Parents' Weekend. 

This recipe is from The Wine Lover Cooks with Wine, which is a great book if you like using wine as an ingredient.  This steak dish also lets me eat blue cheese, which is one of my favorites.  The original recipe called for Roquefort cheese, but the store was out of it and I bought some blue cheese instead.   I also topped it with hazelnuts instead of walnuts.  It's served with a side of jalapeno roasted potatoes, which are simple to make!

The wine sauce has a great flavor, and the cheese goes very well with it.  It's also a good match for the potatoes.  Looking back, I don't know if I needed to keep them separate in a bowl, the sauce was good on them!