Movie Night #2

When Jamie and I found out our friend Kara hadn't seen Star Wars, we thought it called for a movie night. I was planning to make the same menu as last time, but I had some ground lamb, so I switched it up a little and made lamb sliders, garlic butter popcorn, zesty cilantro hummus with veggies, and put out Twizzlers. Big success!

To make the lamb sliders, I mixed ground lamb with about a tsp of curry powder, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, 1/4 of a white onion minced, some cilantro, olive oil, and salt and pepper. To make the mini buns, I toasted bread, cut it in half through the bread (making two thin slices), then using a little glass, cut out mini circles. I put a little chutney on the burgers - delish, and actually bite size. I think that's the key to a good slider. I like mine little.

For the garlic popcorn, I just crushed 4 cloves of garlic, stewed them on low in some melted butter, then through in some olive oil. I tossed it on the freshly made popcorn with some salt - yum!

Thai Wings

Every since I saw this amazing article, I've been making chicken wings for almost every football game. (I'm not really into football, so it gives me a tasty project while Jamie's screaming at the TV and checking his fantasy football scores.) Last night was the first wing-dinner of the season, and I decided to try a new one. Grace Parisi's recipe has a basic formula, then you add a few things to customize it. Our favorites have been the Maple-Chipotle, Jamaican Jerk, and Old Bay. This time, I thought I'd use the same formula but add a spicy, sweet, sour Thai twist. Big hit! They are totally joining the wing roster.

They're spicy and sweet and tangy and super addictive. And the basil and cilantro add a nice fresh contrast. Can't wait to make them again.

Gnocchi

 

Since my friend Chelsea got me a food mill (thank you!) and I'd been wanted to try out the gnocchi board again, I made Jamie a special gnocchi dinner last night. (We're not taking our honeymoon until after Christmas, so I wanted this week to have some special dinners.) The gnocchi was super fluffy and nice and the gnocchi board made them look so professional. The food mill also makes nice, uniformly ground up potatoes for the dough. Be sure to cool the ground up potatoes thoroughly before adding the flour for light gnocchi. I altered the recipe a bit from these very fancy gnocchi I made for New Year's.

A few more wedding presents in this pic! And some flowers from the wedding in the back

Serves 2-4
Ingredients:
2 potatoes (I used Russet, but Yukon Gold are good too, or a mix), skin on
1 egg
About 3/4 cups flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup cream
1 crushed garlic clove
1/2 cup grated pecorino romano
salt and lots of freshly grated pepper

Directions:
Put the potatoes in a pot of well salted water. Bring to a boil and cook until very tender - a fork should easily go in and out of the middle of the potato - about 45 minutes. Immediately peel the potatoes. You can hold the potato in one hand with a dish cloth to avoid burning yourself, and peel with a paring knife. The skin will slide right off.

Wedding Burger

I took off my beautiful, sparkling wedding band because I didn't want it to get all dirty and beefy

We're calling this the wedding burger because it was the first dinner we made when we got back to our apartment as a married couple. (It is also two types of beef, so maybe it works that way, too.) Some very nice friends of ours got us the massive and awesome chopping block and a very scary cleaver. I love them! I was a little afraid to have a cleaver in the apartment just because it seems right out of a horror movie so now it's wrapped up tightly and hidden in a drawer until next time.

Ever since reading this article on the best burgers, I've wanted a cleaver and chopping block to make my own and test it out. It's definitely not the easiest, but it really only takes about 5 minutes to chop up all the meat. The end result is a very juicy burger with an amazing consistency that is more steak-like than burger-like, or a sort of mix of the two. From the chopping, the pieces aren't uniform, so you get this great bite and texture. Jamie can't wait to have friends over to show off our new burgers, and I can't wait to try again with different cuts of beef.

We used 3/4 chuck and 1/4 sirloin from Ottomanellis which was great, but I do want to try some different combinations just to experiment. The chuck had the nice marbled fat, the the sirloin added some tenderness. This is also a fabulous way to blow off steam, so if I ever have a bad day, Jamie will probably be getting burgers for dinner from now on!

Serves 2 (big burgers)
Ingredients
3/4 lb chuck (cold)
1/4 lb sirloin (cold)
salt and pepper

Directions:

Put the chuck and the sirloin on a thick cutting board or chopping block and chop them into a fine mince.

Married!

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I was a bit preoccupied as Jamie and I got MARRIED over the weekend! It was so perfect in every way. The weather was warm, sunny, and clear, the flower girls were adorable, our friends were so sweet and fun, the band was incredible, and we just had the best, best time. So now, I am Sybil Bunn Pool! (And I promise, more recipes are on the way!)

Our honeymoon will be India in December, so I'm sure they'll be lots of good cooking posts after that, too! (And it gives us something to look forward to now that the whirlwind of wedding planning is over.)

Fresh Cold Tomato Soup

Hope you're not sick of tomato recipes yet! I saw this Cold Tomato Soup recipe in the Times and thought I'd try it with a few changes. It's simple, fresh, and a great way to use these amazing tomatoes before it gets cold. I had my friend Chelsea over for dinner and this was a a great, light dinner - perfect for the humid night. Would also be great for lunch.

Serves 2-3
Ingredients:
3-4 cups tomatoes, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
3 tbsp basil, chopped
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 pinch red pepper flakes
2 tsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

Garden Tomato Sauce

My goal for next weekend, along with not totally going crazy over my upcoming nuptials (10 days now!!!) is to make a whole bunch of this amazing tomato sauce and pop it in the freezer. Since our garden is putting out tomatoes faster than we can pick them (literally, every weekend we come out and some have over ripened, burst open, and been eaten by fruit flies or some other little pests), I decided to make some tomato sauce. Yum! It's very simple, you just need a lot of great, ripe, fresh tomatoes. The flavor really is incredible.

Serves 4 - I suggest doubling it if you have enough tomatoes!!!
Ingredients:
1 skillet full of halved and quartered fresh, ripe, summer tomatoes (probably about 5 cups)
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 large sprigs of basil, plus 1 with leaves removed and cut into a chiffonade
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped and separated
red pepper flakes