Crab Quesadillas

Tonight we combined two of our favorite dinners into one: crab melts and quesadillas. We roasted some red and orange peppers, chopped some avocado, and threw it all in between some tortillas with cheese and crab, and toasted them up in a skillet until the cheese was melted and the tortillas were golden brown and a little crispy. Topped with some guacamole, they were yummy, though WAY too much food. We're both feeling a bit full after trying to join the clean plate club.

Sushi

After our Ahi Katsu dinner a few weeks back, and my 'Dessert Sushi' last week, we thought it would be nice to just make some basic maguro sushi rolls for dinner. Until tonight, Dan had never made sushi, so it was fun to show him how it's done and make something to eat in the process. For filling, we used maguro tuna, cucumber, and avocado. We also mixed up some 'spicy tuna' filling, with chopped tuna, sriracha, and mayo.



The rolls turned out pretty good (a little soft, but still delicous). We had them with some soy sauce and wasabi, which Dan mixed a little strongly at first, resulting in a very sinus clearing first bite.



To go with the sushi, Dan mixed up a couple Pele's Revenge cocktails - appropriate considering the recent surge in volcanic activity on the Big Island of Hawai`i. I just hope nothing serious happens, both for the sake of the people of Pahoa, and our wedding there in June. The news about Aloha Airlines no longer honoring flights is enough of a challenge for our guests... I'd hate to have them dealing with roads blocked off due to lava flows.



And as a dessert treat, I whipped up some brownies and tried (rather unsuccessfully, thanks to my impatient nature) to make a Nutella mousse to go with them. I used the microwave to melt the Nutella, which crystallized the sugar (methinks), making it bond into a weird gum when I mixed it with egg yolk and butter, and impossible to fold into the whipped egg whites. So I slowly blended it in, which of course deflated the egg whites, leaving me with a cream, at best, not a mousse. But still tasty.

Matador

Tonight we headed out to Ballard to meet our friend Ruth and Dan's sister Lisa for dinner and drinks at Matador - an upscale Tex-Mex place with locations both in Ballard and West Seattle. The last time I was there, I had an amazing octopus dish, though it wasn't on the menu tonight. Instead, Lisa, Ruth & I all chose the shrimp fajitas, while Dan went with his staple, the tomatillo shrimp enchiladas. The place was packed, but service was quite prompt (considering), and we had drinks while we waited by the big fire pit for our table. Our food came fairly quickly, though the triple order of fajitas caused some confusion, and my order got lost in the shuffle. But I wasn't worried, since fajitas take so little time to prepare - a fact proven by my food coming within about 5 minutes. Hardly enough time for anyone else to dig in to their dinners.

And speaking of digging into our dinners - I dug in so quickly that I forgot to snap a photo first. Thankfully, Ruth (a pro photographer) stepped in with a spear of her fajita shrimp to stand in for the one I devoured already, allowing us to stage an untouched plate for the photo.



After dinner, we headed over to a little dive bar called 'The Bit', and had a round of beers courtesy of Ruth. I ran into my old college buddy, Dillon, who just moved to the Ballard area. That was a great surprise. We met my sophomore year of college up in Bellingham, and became good friends. We ran in the same crowd that year (in particular), and had a lot of good times. He now works just down the street from me, since he's a lawyer now and I work right by the courthouse. So I see him in a suit and tie fairly often, which is a bit disconcerting for someone I was so used to seeing riding around on a skateboard.

Corn Dogs & Tater Tots

Anyone who's read many of my entries will come to realize that in our meal planning for the week, my fiance and I usually keep the more complex recipes for Sunday nights, and often pick simpler dishes for the work week. My schedule can be a little erratic, so it can be difficult to know if I'll be home at 4:30 or 7. Occasionally we'll put some fancy dishes mid week (stay tuned for Phad Thai and General Tso's Seitan next week), but it's often safer to do something simple. And nothing is simpler than warming up frozen food.

Tonight we dined on veggie corn dogs and tater tots. It's not fancy, but it's filling. Who can say no to crispy tan food?

Tuna Noodle Hot Dish

Tonight we satisfied our casserole addiction with possibly the most classic casserole there is: Tuna Noodle Hot Dish. I hadn't had this since I was a kid, but it's been a staple in my fiance's family for years, with some very specific recipes and ingredients being preferred. We didn't get ahold of the official family recipe, but did our best to approximate it - and the results were quite tasty, and of course, comforting.

Tuna Noodle Hot Dish
1 (10.75 ounce) can Cream of Celery Soup
1/2 cup milk
1 cup peas
2 (6 ounce) cans tuna, drained and flaked
2 cups hot cooked medium egg noodles
1 small bag of sour cream & onion potato chips
a couple handfuls of mozzerella cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix soup, milk, peas, tuna and noodles in 1 1/2-quart baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven. Crumble potato chips on top, then sprinkle with cheese. Bake 5 additional minutes or until hot and cheese has melted.



(Recipe adapted from AllRecipes.com.)

Dessert Sushi

Every other Thursday, my department gets together after work in the kitchen of our office floor and sips wine, eats snacks, and unwinds a bit. When I first started in the team, it was a great way for all of us to get to know each other a bit more, and I think it's made us better at working together.

This time, I decided to revive a silly little recipe I found about 5 years ago, I think on Disney.com, for 'dessert sushi'. It was billed as a great April Fool's Day prank, alongside other 'food that looks like other food' recipes. But it's actually pretty good, for a sweet, playful snack.

Making them is just like making real sushi, though you use rice crispy treat mix (freshly made, before it sets) instead of rice, and use green fruit leather instead of nori, and gummy worms for the filling. My team seemed to enjoy them, as well as other folks who tried them.

Mediterranean Night!

In the same vein as Taco Night earlier in the week, tonight we had a 'mediterranean night'. We made up some falafel, and paired it with saffron cous cous, hummous, pita, cucumber, feta, tahini, and kalamata olives. It was a fairly low impact, but high flavor dinner. Though we ended up with WAY more food than we could eat.

Kava

When we were in Kona last October, we went to a little 'kava bar' called Kanaka Kava, where they serve a drink made from the kava plant. It's nonalcoholic, but has an odd narcotic-like effect. It tastes pretty awful by itself, so we opted for a mix with fruit juices. It numbed our mouths and made us feel a little relaxed, but certainly isn't as potent as a Xanax or a shot of tequila.

Dan found a place online and ordered some powered kava, which tonight we used with orange and pineapple juice to make a little kava drink. We sipped from coconut bowls (of course), and enjoyed the relaxing numbing effects while we watched some TV before bed.

Spicy Marinara Shrimp Pasta

Dan is really great at coming up with dinner ideas, both by scouring through cookbooks, and from his own imagination. He came up with the idea of a Spicy Marinara Shrimp Pasta when we were doing meal planning, so tonight I turned his idea into reality.

I cooked up some chopped red bell pepper and red onion, until soft. I also put some red pepper marinara on the stove, and added a bunch of additional seasonings, including basil, oregano, parsley, and a bunch of dried red pepper flakes. Once the pepper and onion were softened, I threw in the shrimp, and poured the sauce into the skillet, and let it all cook until the shimp were nice and pink. Then we poured it over angelhair pasta.

I can be a little heavy handed with the hot sauces and spices, but this turned out just spicy enough to bite back, without requiring guzzling beer or milk to calm the fires.

Taco Night!

Tonight we made tacos the way Dan & I grew up eating them - lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, beans, and ground meat (in this case 'Smart Ground', a vegetarian substitute).

Dan mentioned he wanted crisp shells, but we didn't have any, so I figured it was a good excuse to break out the deep fryer. Despite a minor calamity with the corn tortillas being a bit too wet still (they were icy from being in the freezer), I produced some decent crispy taco shells, and we feasted.

Croissant French Toast and Scallop Risotto

Dan picked up ingredients for croissant french toast, so I got the chance to learn how to make it via experimentation. I figured cutting the croissants in half, so they were thinner, would be advisable, so I started with that, and soaked them in a mixture of milk, egg, and orange juice before frying them up in the skillet in butter. Then I cut up a couple bananas, and cooked them in some butter and brown sugar into golden, putting them on top of the french toast. Then I melted a bit of Nutella (hazelnut & chocolate spread), and drizzled it over the tops. They were tasty, though I got a bit too much chocolate on mine.



And what's Easter brunch without some mimosas? So we made a pitcher of mimosas, which we sipped on a bit during the day.



For dinner tonight we tried another new recipe: Scallop Risotto. I was concerned because scallops cook so quickly and can get rubbery if you over cook them, but this recipe was spot on regarding timing, and they were perfectly cooked when we sat down to eat. The risotto wasn't as creamy as I expected, though still very good.



Scallop Risotto
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion—finely chopped
2 cloves garlic—finely chopped
1 cup arborio rice
½ teaspoon finely chopped lemon zest
6 sun-dried tomatoes—cut into small pieces
½ cup white wine
2 cups fish, chicken or vegetable stock
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
16 uncooked scallops
1 cup tightly-packed arugula leaves
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and cook the onion for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, rice, sun-dried tomatoes and lemon zest and cook for 1 minute, stirring to coat the rice with oil. Add the wine, stock, salt and pepper, bring to the boil then cover with a lid and reduce the heat to low. Simmer gently for 16 minutes without lifting the lid. Remove the lid and quickly add the scallops and arugula before replacing the lid and cooking for a further 5 minutes. Stir the lemon juice, cheese and reserved tablespoon of olive oil through the rice. Serve immediately.



(Risotto recipe courtesy of Sara's Kitchen.)

Eggs & Rice and The Auction

This morning, I was feeling a little under the weather thanks to red wine, margaritas, and a gigante chimichanga. So Dan whipped up a new breakfast favorite of ours, inspired by (no surprise), the cuisine of Hawai`i.

It's a simple, satisfying breakfast of steamed white rice, with a fried egg on top, and some soy sauce (and if my tummy was feeling better, some hot sauce, too.



Our dinner tonight was a really nice buffet at the Sweet Pea Cottage auction, which our friends Anna & Jason invited us to. Sweet Pea is a day care/preschool on Queen Anne that focuses on the arts, though the kids get a very well rounded education and a lot of love and support. Anna works in administration there, and our friends Josh and Julia are both teachers... and we've met a lot of the other staff over the past couple years, too. I even went one day a couple Summers back with a menagerie of insects and other arthropods for a day all about bugs (the last time my BS in Entomology came in handy). The auction was a lot of fun. We met some really nice parents at our table, did some bidding on lower cost items, and watched some high rollers toss around thousands of dollars - which is a bizarre spectacle.

Sadly, we completely forgot to take any pictures. But we had a blast, and would definitely do it again next year.

The Cha Cha and El Sombrero

Tonight I ended up at work late for a party for a coworker, then headed straight to the new Cha Cha Lounge to meet up with my fiance, Dan - and a bunch of our friends. We were all meeting up to see our friend Sarah, down visiting Seattle while she's on Spring Break from school up in Bellingham (my alma mater, WWU).



It was my first time in the new space, and I was impressed by the decor. It's sorta trashy vegasy kitsch, I suppose, but in a good way. Lots of flowers and sombreros and stuff on the ceilings (as with the old space), but they put some nice touches in like a lit wall. Having had a bit of red wine at work, I stuck to one margarita. It was great to see so many of our friends that I don't see as often now that I live a bit farther South, and great to get a chance to talk to Sarah.



After a margarita at the Cha Cha, we decided we wanted food (Mexican food), but didn't want to eat at the bar... so Dan & I headed down to Columbia City for dinner at our favorite neighborhood spot - El Sombrero. I had another margarita, as well as the overwhelmingly portioned Seafood Chimichanga. It's delicous, but a meal I should eat half of and take the rest home for lunch or a midnight snack.

Chipotle Guacamole Enchiladas

Tonight we put a spin on a quick & easy recipe we concocted for enchiladas.



We whipped up some refried beans, with a bit of cheese and some chipotle peppers stirred in, to give us something to snack on while we made dinner and waited for the enchiladas to bake.



For the enchiladas, we warmed up some small (taco size) corn tortillas in a skillet. While those were warming, I made a mixture of tofu cream cheese (that I bought for last night's vegan dinner) with chipotle peppers to create a creamy, spicy spread. I spread a small amount inside each corn tortilla, then squirted in some store bought guacamole, rolled them up, and put them in a 9x9 baking dish. After I filled the dish, I poured on some tomatillo salsa, the remaining cream cheese mixture, and a couple handfuls of mozzerella, and put it in the oven for about 20 minutes at 350... though I think it needs to go higher next time to get the cheese melted and browned a bit. Maybe I'll try 400 next time.



I also took the leftover brownies, and poured on a mixture of raspberries and icing that I blended together into a sauce.

Vegan For Dinner

Tonight we had our friend Carey over for dinner (rescheduled from last week). She's leaving Seattle for her hometown of Portland this Saturday, and in the short time we've known her, she's become a good friend. She's full of energy and ideas and enthusiasm, and everyone I know who's met her has instantly fallen in love with her constant positive energy.

When we met her, she was a true vegetarian. Recently, she stepped it up a notch by going vegan, and her plans are to move to a macrobiotic/raw food diet once she's settled in back in PDX.

So in honor of our last meal together (for a little while), I made Mojito Seitan for dinner. This time, I used mint instead of cilantro, cut back on the hot sauce, and paired it with some brown rice. Unfortunately, it turns out Carey doesn't really enjoy red peppers, but she was a polite guest and powered through eating some.



I also tried my hand at a little vegan baking. I started by looking in a vegan dessert cookbook I have, but the recipes relied on too many ingredients and swung unnecessarily toward specialty ingredients to replace already non-animal products. For example, sugar was almost always replaced by maple syrup, and some recipes called for arrowroot (a natural thickener) - which I don't have around.



So I decided to start with a tried and true recipe for brownies, which only had a couple ingredients in need of switching out: eggs and butter. Eggs are easily replaced in baking recipes with 1/4 cup water mixed with 1 teaspoon of flax powder (for each egg). And butter is easily replaced in most recipes with a no-animal product margarine or shortening. Last year, I was doing some food chemistry experiments with flax powder, so I had it around. With those replacements, the recipe still turned out moist and delicious (if I do say so myself). I added a little icing (made from powdered suger, tofu, and vegan cream cheese), and topped it off with some raspberries.

Vegan Brownies
1 stick unsalted margarine
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup suger
1 tspn salt
1/2 cup water
2 tspn flax powder
1 tspn vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x9 backing dish. Melt margarine in the microwave. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cocoa, sugar, and salt. In a small mixing bowl, stir together flax powder and water. Add vanilla and melted butter to flax mixture. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until combined (but don't overmix). Pour the batter into the backing dish and bake for 30 minutes. Let brownies sit for 10 minutes before cutting.



(Brownie recipe adapted from Cheap & Easy: A Cookbook for Girls on the Go, with egg replacement advice from Sinfully Vegan.)

Amigos Y Bebas

I work in Downtown Seattle, in a very tall office building. My building is connected to another very tall office building across the street, via an underground tunnel. Between the two, there's 2 banks, a gym, a dry cleaner, a massage therapist, a post office, a mini-mart, an office supply store, a shoe shine stand, 2 Starbucks, a Tully's, and at least a couple dozen restaurants. The gym is actually in the other building, and is where I (try) to workout and swim. Afterwards, I reward myself with one of the few restaurants in the complex that involves leaving the building (sort of).

Bebas Y Amigos is an Asian-run Mexican restaurant that is on a terrace of the building my gym is in. The prices are really good, service is polite and quick, and the food (at least the 1 menu item I get every single time) feels light and healthy - the perfect after-workout lunch.

I always get the Veggie Taco (minus cheese & sour cream), which for $2.74, tax included, is a great price for a good serving. I never feel hungry after, nor overly full (like when I go to another favorite - Cafe Zum Zum).

Another night of comfort

Tonight we relied on our old favorite - mashed potatoes, broccoli, and a protein main dish, which tonight was turkey, because the store was out of field roast.

I was most happy about how bright and green the broccoli stayed, though I'm still looking for better ways of adding a little more kick to the steamed broccoli.

The other variation tonight was that I used this great little garlic grater my Mom gave me for Christmas, and grated 3 cloves of garlic into the box mashed potatoes. Sandra Lee would be so proud.