I’ve neglected my food blog for awhile…since it was very hectic and time-consuming planning for my wedding. Good news though, we finally got hitched on Sunday and now I have time to devote to cooking and blogging!

We’re getting ready to set off for our honeymoon tomorrow and I’m in the process of researching food and restaurants. We’ll be headed off to Southampton for a 7 day Scandanavian cruise. We get to hit up Oslo, Copenhagen, Helsingborg and Amsterdam.

So far, my goal is to try out some smørrebrød (danish open sandwiches), herring and who knows…maybe some reindeer?
One thing is for sure, I’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures and notes to report back from my Scandinavian culinary adventure!!!!

Oh, and after all this…I’ll start cooking again. I’ve gotten so many wonderful kitchen toys and gadgets from my registry that I can’t wait to put to good use…mainly, this beauty:

I have been reminiscing on Olive Garden. Yes, there…I said it. I admit it…I love Olive Garden. I have a weak spot in my cold small heart for those cheesy overly priced chain food restaurants. Having lived in Miami all my life I was used to them. Then having moved to NYC they were few and far between. I missed them dearly and now that I’m in Los Angeles I have so many to choose from.

I remember having gone to the Olive Garden on 6th Avenue in Chelsea once when I lived in NYC and my friend ordered this most magnificent steak and pasta dish with gorgonzola cheese. I was thinking about it this weekend and decided I’d try to make that dish, but things got sidetracked and much like Dr. Frankenstein I made a monster (albeit a tasty one).

I went to the market in search for my ingredients and bought a sirloin, some fresh fettucini (as fresh as it can get without having to make it yourself which I’ve done and it’s a pain) and some alfredo sauce (also used to make it as it’s quite easy to make, but I was trying to just make this as easy a dish as possible). I could not find any gorgonzola cheese!!!! So I skipped it and went home.
At home, I had some frozen mixed mushrooms I bought from Whole Foods, some frozen green beans I’ve had in the freezer for who knows how long…and it was at this point, I realized I would be making something completely different and spectacular…something the WORLD HAS NEVER SEEN BEFORE!

You see, the mixed mushrooms are Asian mushrooms containing enoki mushrooms, shitake, plain white button mushrooms, etc. At this point, blending Asian mushrooms with Italian sauces was such a completely bizarre concept that it was totally worth it.

Oh and while we were eating, Rus wanted me to specifically tell you guys how wonderful he thought this dish was. So there you go!
Here’s how I did it:

• I grilled the Sirloin Steak on an indoor grill pan until it was medium on the inside.
• While the steak was grilling, I boiled the fettucini as the instructions dictated.
• While that was also goin’ on…I added the frozen mushrooms and the green beens to a pan with a small drizzle of olive oil and pinch of salt and sauteed this until completely defrosted.
• After the mushrooms are cooked, there should be some liquid in the pan…that’s fine. Add, the alfredo sauce to the pan and stir, blending the liquid and the sauce together.
• Slice the sirloin.
• Mix the sauce/mushroom mixture with the fettucini and plate it.
• Top the pasta with the sliced sirloin and enjoy!

This is one weird dish I will definitely cook again!

First off, I know it doesn’t look like salmon. In fact, from this angle it looks like either chicken or a slice of a quiche. This dish was truly put together at the last second. Believe me, underneath that seared curry is salmon.

I cheated by using a pre-made yellow curry sauce that I found in my supermarket and baked it for 20 minutes…for some reason, it didn’t cook so I blasted it with the broiler for a bit.

What I wanted to give you a recipe for was the soybeans. They were so amazing! I made them using frozen soybeans in a pan with:

• 1 tablespoon of toasted sesame seed oil
• 1 teaspoon of ginger paste
• 1 teaspoon of garlic paste
• 2 tablespoons of mirin
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons of terriyaki sauce
• a dash of sesame seeds (toasted and untoasted) 

This week has been hell for us. It was in all certain terms, “one of those weeks.” I had car problems and my dog had another bloody nose issue for two days. I swear, walking into our house from a long and trying day at work….all we could see was blood all over the kitchen floor. It looked as though someone had been violently stabbed while we were away at work. I couldn’t take it anymore…this has been going on for once a month and I’m frustrated and tired of worrying about his bloody noses. I decided to bite the bullet and pay the outrageous amount of money a vet would ask to get this thing fixed. Luckily, Baxter’s problem wasn’t a tumor (which is what I was dreading) but high blood pressure, which is easily treatable with medications. He’s also overweight and has to go on a diet, sorry buddy…no table scraps!

This weekend, we tried to relax a bit and forget the hectosity that was this week. Relaxing was short lived since we decided we’d re-do our office instead. The office has been a junk storage room for awhile, and so we thought it was high time to make it a proper office instead. That said, we put in some hard work this weekend and in doing so, I decided to make a dinner on Sunday to treat ourselves.

How could you treat yourself better than with a $16 piece of sushi grade tuna, a homemade wonton soup, vinegared sushi rice and a nice refreshing japanese salad? Tell me, how?

Pretty much most of the ingredients were easy to find at Whole Foods…except for the Tobiko. The way I got my grimey mitts on the Tobiko was simple. I went up to the guy at Whole Foods who prepares the sushi and asked him for some…okay….so I begged him for it. I’m not ashamed to admit it…I batted my eyelashes and begged him for some Tobiko. He looked confused and scared as if he would lose his job for giving me some tobiko, but he was kind enough to go in the back and get me some for free.

Now…before starting any weekend meal, you need to wind down a bit and relax. Enjoy the cooking…have a drink, particularly some Lambic Raspberry Framboise.

Celebrate all that hard work you’ve accomplished all week…and forget all your stress.

Next, get down to the nitty gritty…Start makin’ those wontons!

WONTON SOUP:

• Wonton wrappers
• Water chestnuts
• Shitake mushrooms
• Enoki mushrooms
• Straw mushrooms
• Broccolini
• 1 teaspoon of Ginger
• 2 cans of Vegetable Stock
• 2 cans of water
• 2 tablespoons of Mirin
• 2-3 tablespoons of Soy Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon of Rice Vinegar

In a pot, add the 2 cans of vegetable stock and water. To make the wontons, refer to my previous blog on making dumplings.

What is different about these dumplings and my previous dumpling attempt was that I included different ingredients, like the broccolini.

For the stock, add some of the the stuffing ingredients: water chestnuts, mushrooms, broccolini, enoki mushrooms. Also add the mirin, soy, rice vinegar and let boil for about 15 minutes. If you boil it for too long, the wontons will end up falling apart.

SEARED TUNA:

• Sushi grade tuna
• Sesame seed/Ginger (I bought a container with both ingredients at Whole Foods)
• Toasted Sesame Seed Oil

Remove the tuna from it’s wrapping and add sesame seeds to it. Since fish is naturally sticky, they will hold on. Add sesame seed oil to a pan and heat. Add the tuna and cook for 2 minutes on each side, removing it promptly from the pan.

I added a wasabi sauce to the tuna, which was extremely SPICY HOT. If you dare, you can simply make this by adding water to wasabi powder, but I warn you….It’s pretty darn hot. I topped the tuna with scallions and tobiko and served with sushi rice.

Also add a Japanese salad topped with enoki mushrooms, scallions and mushrooms with Ginger Dressing for a complete meal!

For those of you who are as picky about soups as I am, I present you this: The world’s easiest soup to make. Oh, and it’s pretty damn good for you too.

I remember the days when my parents fed me Campbell’s Condensed Chicken and Stars soup. I remember opening the can and watching that condensed GOOP plop down in the pot…adding tap water and then eating the sodium-pumped broth. Ahhh, childhood.

Nowadays, if I ever want soup…I do not look to the canned stuff, even though it’s sure as hell convenient. Even if I’m sick with a miserable cold or flu, I bring myself to make soup from scratch. Among my favorites are Cuban chicken noodle soup (my grandfather’s recipe) and matzoh ball. I also like purees as well.

I give you a test: go to the supermarket soup aisle and take a look at the back of the cans where all the nutritional content is. Take a gander at the Sodium percentages and try to hold back the horrific screams that you will inevitably want to shout right there in the middle of the supermarket. Seriously, that right there is a huge reason I refuse to eat canned soups…That and the fact that they pump their soups with preservatives and chemicals and things that were probably found in a toxic waste dump. I prefer being in control…being the master of my domain–the kitchen. I CONTROL WHAT GOES INTO MY SOUPS!!!! (chest puffs)

The other day, a good friend of mine Instant Messaged me and told me about a soup she made. Keila is a very healthy girl and all-around health minded. I mean, she puts me to shame. She got me drinkin’ almond milk for pete’s sake! She is a very learned gal on nutrition and food.

This soup she told me about was so easy, I felt as though it was too good to be true…so I tested it out and here are the results.

It’s a basic broccoli/cauliflower puree.

Ingredients?

Broccoli and Cauliflower–buy the ones already cut up and washed in those steamer bags that you find in the produce aisle.
A box of Organic Chicken stock (or vegetable stock if you are vegan or vegetarian)
Salt
Pepper
(I added a squeeze of garlic paste because I love garlic, but you don’t need this)

Basically, all you need to do is add the veggies to the stock and let it simmer until the florets are steamed through and soft.

Add them to a blender…but be careful not to add too much of the broth…we want it somewhat thick. In fact, I would go as far as to say to add all the florets first with a bit of broth and then add the broth to make it the consistency you want.

Puree until it’s nice and creamy.

That’s it.

How easy was that?

Classy lookin’ eh? This was one of the easiest dishes I’ve made up in awhile. It’s one of those dinners that you make when you’re too tired to make something way complicated, yet it sounds fancy and tastes great.

I bought some fancy sounding asiago fennel sausage at the supermarket this weekend and decided to add it to a noodle dish. I really love how sausage has come a long way from what it used to be a few years ago. I mean, when I think of sausage 10 years ago…I think of brats and kielbasa…oh and those little pigs in a blanket smokies which I used to love as a kid. Now there is an ARRAY of fancy sausage which have equally fancy ingredients  added to give it more flavor like apple, cheeses of different sorts, fennel, portobello mushrooms, etc.

I bought a lemon pappardelle pasta from Trader Joe’s which I simply loooooooove. I mean, this pasta is amazing and quite tasty. If you have a Trader Joe’s in your area, look for it, buy it and give it a try. You won’t be let down, I promise you.

Anyways, let me share with you the simple process to re-create this dish:

•  Boil the pasta according to the instructions (takes 8-11 minutes)
• Cut and sautee the sausages with a bit of olive oil until they are fully cooked (browned a bit)
• During the last few minutes of the pasta cook time, add grape tomatoes to the pan with the sausage and let them heat up a bit.
• After the pasta has been drained, add the sausage and tomatoes with fresh basil to the pasta pot.
• Mix in olive oil and garlic (I use the garlic that’s pureed already).
• Add salt to taste.
• Top with freshly grated mozzarella cheese and parmigiano reggiano cheese.

Serve with a Caesar salad or chopped Italian salad and there you have it, an easy meal that tastes amazing!

So a friend of mine sent me a link to this blog called veganyumyum.com and I was mesmerized by this gnocchi with Thyme Vinaigrette and Cashew Cream dish. Obviously, there was no salmon involved….only gnocchi. The salmon was added as a main course with the gnocchi on the side, although gnocchi alone would be good enough!

The original recipe and beautiful step-by-step photos are here.

I think the only problem I encountered was the consistency of the cashew cream. I didn’t use the blender and that’s probably where I messed up. I used a small food processor which is on it’s last leg (or blade, rather)! I was feeling kinda lazy and didn’t want to use our blender because we were going to have a protein shake afterwards and we need our blender for that and all the cleaning involved…ugh, no thanks. If I could do it all over again, I’d definitely try out the blender to see if I can get a smoother texture, although the chunky texture wasn’t really all that bad. I mean…okay, it looks pretty bad in the photo, but it was actually quite good overall. I added a clove of garlic to the cashew cream in a small last minute deviation from the original recipe.

As for the salmon, I added some salt and pepper on each side of the salmon filet and then cooked them in a pan with some olive oil until each side had a nice crispy cooked feel to it.I added some of the cashew cream and a drizzle of lemon juice to the salmon. Lastly, I grated some fresh lemon and orange over it for color (and taste). 

It’s been quite awhile, I know. I have been so consumed with wedding planning I have had no time for blogging or even cooking! I’m definitely looking forward to the time when the wedding has been a sweet memory and I can reap the rewards (aka: play with all the sweet kitchen gadgets I put on my registry).

This Easter weekend was hectic, and part of that hectosity involved having to come up with a Cuban dish for Rus’ family and their Easter dinner. Now, let me get this straight…it was all pretty much planned out and everything was covered, so what the hell could I bring that wouldn’t step over the line of someone else’s dish? This was the problem. Now, when you’re getting married and you’re the only one that can plan out this wedding, your brain turns to mush somewhere in between cottage cheese and mashed potatoes…it’s like that. It’s extremely difficult to think and rationalize. For instance, this morning, my boss asked me why I came into work so early…so I replied and said, “It’s Monday, I come into work early on Monday,” and he said “No it isn’t.” That’s when I started to think, “is it Tuesday? Did I forget to come into work yesterday? Was easter yesterday?” You see, this is my mental state at the moment, so thinking of something to bring for Easter dinner was quite the task.

I looked through a Cuban cook book and came up with Yuca Puffs or Bocallitos de Yuca. I have never eaten these or made these before, so it was hit or miss. I love yuca boiled with olive oil, garlic and onions or fried like french fries….so why not try out the puffed variation?

Yuca is not very well known, but it should be. Don’t be afraid of it! It’s that long root you see in the produce section. Every time I go to the supermarket and buy it, the person at the check-out always asks me what it is because they have no clue. It’s very starchy and is a good replacement for potato. Like I said before, you can boil them or fry them up like french fries and best served topped with olive oil and garlic.

To prepare the Yuca Puffs, you first must peel the Yuca root. Now, this is a VERY daunting task. If you can find yuca already peeled and cut in your frozen food aisle, buy it and save yourself the time and energy. If you can’t find it (like me) you have to go the extra mile and peel it/cut it/de-vein it of it’s little root thingamajig.

Here is a photo of a Yuca root with the waxy coating and one that has been peeled. When you peel it, you will see a rosy colored hue. Peel it until it’s white. It’s like peeling a potato, only a bit harder.

After you peel the Yuca, cut it in half and then cut it length wise. You’ll see a string in the middle of it. Take your knife and go under it removing it.

Cut the Yuca in smaller pieces and then boil it until it softens. This takes about half an hour.

Place the Yuca in a mixing bowl.

Next you’ll need the rest of the ingredients:

• 1/2 a Red Pepper finely  minced
• 1/s a Green Pepper finely minced
• 4 cloves of garlic finely minced
• 1/2 a yellow onion finely minced
• 2 eggs well beaten
• 1 Teaspoon of baking powder
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mash the Yuca up as if you were making mashed potatoes. Then mix all of the ingredients up in the bowl together.

Next, grease a flat baking sheet and roll the mixture in a 1 1/2 inch ball.

Place the Yuca puffs in the oven for about half an hour and enjoy!

I’ve been too lazy to take pictures of the food I cook lately…Sorry, I can’t take the credit for this photo: found it on google. I’ve been very wrapped up in planning a wedding, so I’ve let the blog hibernate these past couple of weeks.

Last night, I was in the mood for baking chicken. I rarely make chicken…because I never know what to do with it. My childhood consisted of many baked chicken dinners, which looking back at them now, make my stomach cringe. My mother would come home from a long day at work and make dinner for the family. She’d use many unsavory shortcuts, like boxed mashed potatoes (uuuugh). Her baked chicken would either be: shake n bake or dumping a can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom on some chicken and baking it. Since growing up and moving out on my own, I’ve tried to put the past behind me….but it’s hard…it’s really hard. I can’t pass the canned soup aisle without thinking about the cream of mushroom chicken and cringing.

I decided to make my version of Pollo Asado (Cuban Roast Chicken). It was faily inexpensive to make too. I bought 2 very large chicken breasts with skin for $4.00 at the grocery store and bought a bottle of Mojo Criollo (Hispanic BBQ Sauce…usually found in the Hispanic Section). Mojo does not look like your typical bbq sauce. It’s not dark brown and thick. It’s more of a marinade than a sauce you can brush on. It mainly consists of garlic and citrus flavors and smells.oh.so.goooooood.

• Rinse the chicken and marinate the chicken in a bowl for 2 hours (or more). The longer your marinate, the better the flavor.

• Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

• Place the chicken breasts in a baking pan with a bit of olive oil at the bottom and add some freshly ground pepper and sea salt to the chicken.

• Drizzle some more mojo on the chicken and baked it for 20 minutes.

• After 20 minutes, change the cooking method to broil (high) for an additional 10 minutes to give the chicken a nice golden brown skin.

• Remove the chicken from the oven and plate it. I placed the juice that was still leftover in the pan into a bowl so it could be drizzled onto the chicken when you’re eating it.

Make this with white rice or a baked potato and a salad. It’s delicious! The mojo really soaks into the chicken and you can definitely taste the citrus. Mojo is a great kitchen staple…use it!