Valentine's Dinner

Valentine's Dinner, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Before Valentine's day rolls around again, I should probably post this picture of the last Valentine's dinner. We've been behind on posting as usual and I've been waiting for the Crusader to describe the dinner since he's the one that made it. According to him:

"The dinner was a dosa with a filling of a dry potato curry, topped with a coconut chutney, and served with a sambaar curry with rice. For desert, a carrot and cardamom kheer. The wine was a Hutch Gewurtztraminer from 2010, which was actually a dry grape that year."

This dinner was very special because it was a re-creation of the first ever meal that the Crusader prepared for me. Needless to say, the first and second time, I was very impressed.

Our cat of course loves to get in on the action whenever the camera comes out. I think that he is probably thinking about eating those roses more so than the dinner on the plate. He loves to eat flowers.

Chicken and ricotta soft tacos

Easy and very tasty soft tacos.

Corn tortillas
Chicken breast boiled for 8 minutes and then cut up in pieces
Ricotta cheese mixed with herbs including mint and scallions and salt and pepper
Cut up radishes

Delicious.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Padron peppers in flatbread

We got padron peppers in our csa box and had no idea what to do with them. Google came to the rescue with many links to variations on a simple preparation. We added flat bread and cheese to make it a meal.

Padron peppers in flat bread:
• Heat an iron skillet very hot and add just a little bit of oil (the amount of oil is really up to you- we found recipes that used anywhere from a teaspoon to a 1/4 cup). We used closer to a teaspoon.
•Cut off the woody stems and add whole peppers to the pan. Let them blacken a little bit and get soft. Stir them around so that all sides get a little blackened.
• When blackened and soft, remove from the pan and sprinkle with sea salt.
• Grill two small flatbreads per person. We simply put the flatbreads over a gas burner on the stove, but you could warm them in a grill pan or toast in the oven.
•Put some cheese on the flatbread (we used feta). Add the whole peppers. Sprinkle over some lemon juice, fold over flatbread and enjoy.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Strawberry Pie, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Another strawberry rhubarb pie. Same recipe as last time. (Although in looking back it has been quite a while since I made the last strawberry rhubarb pie). For some reason I remember this pie being easier to make last time. This time I struggled with the crust, but in the end it turned out ok.

This pie tasted fantastic warm, but it slowly got less tasty as time went on. We can't eat a whole pie real fast, so next time we should try to share it while it is still in its super tasty phase.

Elderflower Lemon Pound Cake

Elderflower Lemon Pound Cake, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Sometimes things just don't turn out well. This cake has a wonderful premise. Lemon and elderflower sound like they would be delicious with a pound cake. Lemon and elderflower syrup are delicious together, but they are not so good when combined with a mediocre pound cake.

I got this recipe from the Kitchn. The cake turned out a little dry and the middle fell in. Upon doing a little research, the Crusader discovered that if a cake is cooked at too low a temperature it can fall in the middle. If you would like to try this recipe, try cooking it at 350 rather than 325 for a little less time.

The cake tastes ok, but I am not sure that I want to waste the calories eating just an ok cake. I should stick with pie.

Asparagus and eggs

Asparagus and eggs, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Spring has sprung and it is time for asparagus! Two weeks in a row we have gotten asparagus in our csa box. Not long ago we ate at Outerlands and we had a fantastic asparagus dish with poached eggs on top. As it turns out, this is fairly easy to make. We roasted the asparagus in the oven in a baking pan with olive oil and salt and pepper. Then we poached the eggs in some water with a little vinegar. I'm sure we've talked about poaching eggs before: add apple cider vinegar to water and bring to a boil in a medium size sauce pan, reduce from a boil to a light simmer, break egg into a small dish, create a whirlpool in the simmering water by stirring in a circular motion with the wrong end of a wooden spoon, stop stirring and plop the egg into the center--then let it cook for a few minutes (about 3) until the white is cooked through and the yolk is still runny.

Put the poached eggs on top of the asparagus and sprinkle with a little bit of gray salt and shave some parmesan on top. This is delicious. We recommend very fresh eggs for this--as fresh as you can get. We recently switched to very fresh locally farmed eggs and it makes quite a difference. The yolks are orange rather than yellow and taste fantastic.

Anyway, this is a delicious simple dish. The Crusader made his fake rice a roni again and it was a good compliment to the asparagus and eggs.

Oscar Night Snacks

Oscar Night Snacks, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Cara cara oranges, cheddar cheese, piave torro del tempo stravecchio cheese, strawberries, honey, dates stuffed with goat cheese and pistachios, some extra goat cheese to eat with crackers, and cajun peanuts in the back.