Vegas

This week I am taking a girls trip to Las Vegas with Christine. While I am very much looking forward to sitting by the pool at our hotel (The Mirage) I can't wait to partake in the multitude of dining options. I made reservations a month ago at our hotel, The Wynn, and Mandalay Bay for dinner, but you really can't throw a poker chip there without hitting a good restaurant so more to come on that. Stay tuned!

Moving

Hi All,

I apologize in advance that this blog will be quiet for a bit. I am moving from one apartment to another starting on May 15th and won't be done  until the beginning of June. This means a lot of pasta, takeout and pizza and not much to report on the dining in or dining out front.

For the record, my favorite takeout places are:

1. Christy's Place in Charlestown for pizza 
2. The Chow Thai Cafe in Charlestown for the spring rolls and thai iced tea
3. Legal's Seafood Long Wharf for salad of all things (While I prefer to dine at the restaurant, the takeout staff there is always friendly and I have never had a bad meal - just beware of tourist high season)

You can bet I will be frequenting them heavily in the next 2-3 weeks. While I highly encourage being able to make a good meal under almost any circumstances, it is nearly impossible when all posts and pans are in boxes.

Mother's Day Delights

This Mother's Day weekend I flew out to California to visit my Great Grandmother, Grandma, Mom and Aunt. In addition to having four generations of House/Smith women under the same roof there were also some amazing meals to be had.

For starters, California is the land of delicious fresh fruits and vegetables. We ate oranges off of actual orange trees (one of the few remaining in Orange County), farm stand avocados and tomatoes, and the best sweet corn I've ever had. Add to that my Grandmother and Mother cooking family favorites and it's basically food heaven.

I have already posted about my Mother's breakfast burritos (made with crispy potatoes) but my Grandma finally gave me her kabob marinade recipe that I have been lusting after for years. The fun part is, she only gave me the basic ingredients, not the quantities of each. So I will have to post the actual recipe at a later date once I figure it out.

Most of all though, besides the great food, I appreciated the chance to be in the kitchen together sharing family stories as well as recipes. There is something to be said for taking a minute to spend time together this way. Enjoy the meal, but most importantly, enjoy each other.

Artichoke Risotto

Artichoke Risotto will definitely be making it into the regular food rotation. This was so easy to make, tasted delicious, and was very filling without being too heavy. All you need is risotto and a medium jar of artichoke hearts.

Admittedly I did cheat a little bit on this one because I used the "just add water and oil" risotto but the taste difference is minimal and it saves SO much time when you are trying to cook after a busy workday.

This particular box of risotto took 20 minutes of cooking time between boiling the water and oil and letting the risotto sit to cook/fluff up so I started that first. While that is sitting, melt a little bit of butter in a flat grilling pan over medium heat. Using a fork, grab shake the excess juice off the artichoke hearts and place on the pan with a flat side down. Since you don't actually need to cook the artichoke hearts this is mostly just to brown them, warm them up, and add a little bit of flavor. In addition to the butter I added some sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Once they are browned, let them sit on low heat until the risotto is ready. Plate the risotto in a low bowl, place the warm artichokes on top and enjoy!

On Deck

Tonight I am going to try my hand at an artichoke risotto. I love artichokes and I love risotto so I am hoping that I can come up with a good blend of the two. I have no set recipe but I will try to create one and we'll see what happens!

On Deck

Tonight I will try my hand at pulled pork in the oven with a side of the famous Stella Salad. This recipe is great because it allows me to go running while the pork simmers in the over, and there are always leftovers!

Boat Burritos

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am back again. I have been spending a lot of time away from the kitchen with traveling and Restaurant Week here in Boston. But I have returned.

Last night's meal was simple, but delicious. I call it Boat Burritos because the original recipe come from my Dad and Stepmom and was invented when they lived on a boat for a year and sailed around Baja California. So you know if it has to be made on a boat, it has to be easy.

This meal calls for a large can of refried beans and a large can of chunk white chicken. Side ingredients include tortillas, grated cheese, diced tomatoes, sour cream and salsa.

Step 1: Empty can of refried beans into a large fry pan on low to medium heat
Step 2: Drain water from can of chicken into sink and add the chicken to the refried beans over low heat
Step 3: Mix refried beans with chicken until evenly distributed/mashed up
Step 4: Cook until hot (doesn't take very long), remove from heat and use as the base of a burrito.
Step 5: add you favorite burrito ingredients on top and enjoy!

Simple yet satisfying Boat Burritos!

Super Bowl Sunday

While this post may seem three days late, Grill Guy and I are still enjoying the leftovers made for the Super Bowl festivities, so it seems fitting to write something today as I actually start to think about making the next meal.

This Sunday was great for a variety of reasons. 1. There was an abundance of good food. 2. The Saints won. 3. More importantly, the Colts lost. and 4. I tried two new recipes that were a success. I have included my favorite recipe below since the other is a Luck family recipe, not a Hanah B. original.

For the main course I made pulled pork sandwiches. This is not a complicated dish, it just needs time and a little attention. For 7 people I purchased 4.5 lbs. of pork butt, rubbed it with sea salt, placed it in a slow cooker and covered it completely with root beer (took 5 and a half cans for this size pork). I got the idea from mixing a family recipe that calls for oven cooking with beer and another recipe that mentions using brown sugar to add sweetness into the meat. I figured that instead of using two ingredients I could just use the root beer. Also, root beer is less expensive than a 6 pack.

Once you have the pork and the root beer in your slow cooker, cover and cook on high for an hour to two hours. Then put it on low for roughly four hours. To test when it's done take a fork to it to see if the meat will easily "pull" away (hence the pulled pork) and also make sure it is cooked through the center by cutting into the thickest part. Remember though, every slow cooker is different so make sure to check on your meat regularly. Once it is done, place it in a large rectangular glass dish, take out two forks and start pulling/tearing at the meat until you get it nicely shredded. Also a good idea to rinse out your slow cooker at this time for the next step. Once all the meat is shredded, put it back in the slow cooker on warm and cover with your favorite barbecue sauce. Mine is Sweet Baby Ray's. For this size meal I used roughly a bottle and a quarter.  Stir it all up and let it stay warm until ready to serve.

This tasted delicious on a big whole wheat bun with homemade coleslaw.

I also wanted to give a special shout out to Matt Valuk for making delicious homemade guacamole and to Amanda Luck for giving me her family's cole slaw recipe, AKA Stella Salad. The meal wouldn't have been complete without the good food and great friends to share it with.

Hope you enjoyed your Super Bowl Sunday as much as I did!

Super Bowl Sunday

One of my favorite meal days of the year is the Super Bowl. Regardless of whether or not your team is playing (Sadly, no Pats this year) you can still rally around the food table and make it a spectacular afternoon.

This year I am stepping it up a bit by making pulled pork sandwiches with a beer based recipe from my Step Mom and something new called Stella Salad that I found from my friend my friend Amanda Luck/her mom Mrs. Luck.

More to come once it's actually complete, but I can't wait!

Tomatillo Chicken

Thank you to the random sauce aisle at Whole Foods for inspiring this meal. It was also inspired by Mexican food dishes I have seen and eaten, but at the end of the day was really created by a moment of staring into the fridge and wondering what on earth I was going to put together to make chicken taste good.

Anyone that knows me well knows that I don't really like chicken, but it's a good sponge for other favors and works well as a lean meat.

For this meal, I used the following ingredients (only one of which wasn't already in my fridge/pantry):
2 boneless defrosted chicken breasts (about 1 lb total)
1 vine ripe tomato
2 big spoon fulls of Tomatillo Salsa 
I small spoon full minced garlic
Lime juice to taste
Salt
Refried beans
Dollup of sour cream (if you want)

Dice the tomato and put in a non stick frying pan with lime juice, garlic and salt to taste. Just remember you need enough juices to help cook up the chicken. Cut the chicken breast into 1 to 2 inch cubes and place in the pan with the tomato, lime and salt mixture. Turn on Medium High heat or Medium depending on how powerful your stove is. Cover the pan to let it all simmer together, stirring occasionally.

While that is cooking, but the refried beans in a pan and warm them up. They are already cooked, so it's really just heating them up. When the chicken is close to done, remove the cover and add the Tomatillo Salsa.

The chicken is done when it is cooked through (no pink), but isn't dry. When it is done, remove from heat, and plate the dish by putting the refried beans on the bottom, the chicken and tomatillo/tomato mixture on top and add a dollup of sour cream to the mix if you like something cool to remove some of the heat in the dish. This doesn't take long to make and it is very flavorful. Also you will have a whole jar of inexpensive Tomatillo Salsa to use to spice up other meals as well.

Enjoy!