Sandwiches | More Cheese More Chocolate

May 14 2013

2013 Weekends – Week 19

I kind of figured that after a weekend as exciting as last, this one was going to be several notches down on the fun scale, but little did I know exactly how far down it would fall. I went to a yoga class on Thursday night, and not even five minutes into it I felt a snap in my lower back. Instead of rolling up my mat and walking out like any sane person would do, I stuck around for the rest of the hour, gradually modifying my movements according to the pain that was increasing by the second. By the time the class ended, I could barely stand up to walk to the locker room, and on the way to my car I had to stop every ten feet as I was overcome by a back spasm. I didn’t plan to start my weekend on Thursday, but when you’re unable to roll out of bed on Friday morning without writhing in pain, getting on a bus and eventually sitting upright in a chair for several hours isn’t really in the cards.

I spent most of Friday laying on the couch with an ice pack, but once Matt headed out of town on Friday afternoon and a voice of reason was no longer present to tell me to stop moving around and lay down, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. To be honest, I didn’t realize just how much time I spent in the kitchen until I uploaded all of the photos to my computer, and now I completely understand why I was in so much pain on Sunday after having felt so much better on Saturday. Sitting still isn’t my thing, even if the effect of my restlessness is pain. At least there were freshly baked cookies to help me cope!

Without further ado, here’s everything* that I made while I should have been laying on the couch.

*Not pictured: a poorly photographed loaf of lemony olive oil banana bread

Stovetop macaroni and cheese plus broccoli that was lightly blanched in the pasta water. I made about a third of this recipe, and it was neither amazing nor terrible, as evidenced by the leftovers still being around yet remaining uneaten.

Toasted brioche with avocado and a fried egg, strawberries, tea.

I was feeling considerably better on Saturday and ventured out to buy groceries, where I was overcome by the urge to buy a container of sprouts. I was pretty hungry by the time I got home, so I made a wrap with the sprouts and a bunch of other veggies. Again, not great but not bad.

I ordered Pizza Luce for a late dinner, and continuing with the theme, it was not very good, mostly bad and very bland. The salad was decent, though.

Another activity that I should have skipped in order to rest: bread baking.

I made two loaves of partially whole wheat bread, and while they were pretty inside, they weren’t my best work. Maybe it was the universe telling me to sit down and relax.

Toast with harissa, fried eggs, blackberries, tea, orange juice. Fuel for more Sunday activities that I probably shouldn’t have done.

Like baking oatmeal M&M cookies. They were good.

Then I made pesto/tomato/mozzarella/basil sandwiches for a picnic lunch with girlfriends.

The only benefit of being stuck in horrible traffic because the main road between Minneapolis and St. Paul is closed for the weekend is that it’s a great opportunity for icing your back.

If you thought that making breakfast, baking cookies and preparing sandwiches seems like a lot of activity for someone who should be doing none of those things, you’d be right. Instead, I did all of those things and prepared a pork shoulder for a day of slow cooking in the crock pot. At least I simplified the recipe to cut out most of the labor-intensive steps.

By the time I got home from our picnic, my stubbornness was being punished with frequent back spasms, but that didn’t stop me from preparing a batch of creamy cilantro lime sauce to go with the pork. Some things are worth a little pain, and anyone who’s had the green sauce from Brasa knows that this sauce is one of them.

After I cleaned my plate, I rested.

Mar 25 2013

2013 Weekends – Week 12

I attempted to make us pre-dinner Old Fashioneds on Friday night, and they went from being very whiskey-forward to syrupy sweet to slightly citrusy and barely palatable after all of my tweaking. There were good cherries in them, though, so I was going to drink mine regardless, but next time I will take Matt’s advice and stick to whiskey sours. Anyone know of a good source for cocktail recipes?

We had chicken tacos for dinner on Thursday night, but without enough leftover chicken for two I was left supplementing with a block of tofu that was in the fridge and conveniently on the verge of expiration. I pressed the block of tofu for an hour or so and before slicing it and briefly marinating it in a mixture of lime juice, apple cider vinegar, cumin, coriander, chili powder and adobo sauce. I baked it on wire rack resting on a baking sheet at around 400 for 30 minutes – maybe more, maybe less. I kind of forgot about it (likely due to the whiskey concoction from above), but when I remembered, the tofu was nice and crispy with no mushiness. A few minutes longer and it likely would have had the texture of shoe leather, but the tofu (or whiskey) gods were looking out for me.

Matt turns up his nose at tofu tacos, and my mom would run screaming, but I found these quite enjoyable. I will, however, eat almost anything that is covered in guacamole, hot sauce, cheese and sour cream, so you might want to take that under consideration.

Saturday brunch // Tartine English muffin from the freezer topped with avocado, cheddar, over-easy eggs and hot sauce :: hash browns :: birthday bacon :: leftover ham from Heartland, which I ended up not eating

Plus some orange slices and coffee. This was a serious breakfast.

I had been looking forward to baking bread for weeks, especially after Matt gave me Flour Water Salt Yeast for my birthday, and Saturday was the day.

What better recipe to try first than the Saturday White Bread? Look at those bubbles!

This was really good for a bread that was mixed and baked in the same day. It lacked the complexity and slight acidity of the breads from Tartine Bread, but it’s also the most basic recipe in the book and used only commercial yeast. Without a levain starter or an overnight rise it’s hard to develop too much flavor, but the texture was just as good as a lot of Tartine loaves that I’ve made. The crust was nice and crispy while the inside was light and tender. My only complaint is that there’s a thin skin on the outside of the crust that shatters and flakes off with the slightest touch, but that could be due to me not covering it well during the final proofing. Maybe next weekend I’ll try one of the recipes that uses a levain starter for a better Tartine/FWSY comparison.

Looking forward to a week (or two) of sandwiches…

I redeemed my Friday cocktails with a round of refreshing Big Gingers on Saturday night. They made me excited for spring weather, although thirty and sunny feels pretty incredible these days.

Matt made us a batch of his amazing burgers to go along with our basketball viewing/magazine reading. I prepped the toppings, most of which were chosen in a pitiful attempt to inject vegetables into our meal. It’s a good thing I eat a lot of salads throughout the week.

My burger topped with greens, cheddar, tomato, pickles, mayo, mustard and ketchup. Knife and fork required. Mushy bottom bun not required.

Sunday brunch // Fresh bread topped with avocado, arugula dressed in vinegar and lemon juice, shredded mozzarella and provolone, fried egg and a sprinkling of dukkah :: grapefruit :: earl grey

Veggie stock flavorings

Sunday Dinner // Slow-cooked barbecue beef :: coleslaw :: baked beans :: chips :: pickle

I looked at a few baked bean recipes for inspiration/technique and then just made it up as I went. I roughly chopped and then sautéed two slices of bacon, and once they had rendered a bit of fat I added half an onion, also roughly chopped. When the onions were soft I added 3-4 cups of cooked cranberry beans that I’d defrosted from the freezer and then started adding whatever else I could think of. Ketchup was probably the ingredient that I used the most of, but there was also apple cider vinegar, molasses, maple syrup, Worcestershire, dry mustard, yellow mustard, hot sauce, salt, pepper and probably a couple of other things that I’m forgetting. I kept adding and tasting until I liked the flavor and it was a little on the soupy side, and then I put the lid on and baked it in a 300-degree oven for about an hour. I had intended on taking the lid off at the end to give it a bit of a crust, but it dried out enough in that hour that I changed my mind. Best served with salty potato chips.

Jan 28 2013

2013 Weekends – Week 4

Bagel + avocado + fried egg + hot sauce and grapefruit

Kiwi + spinach + banana + yogurt + flax + chia + water (based on this)

About to get an arm workout by grinding mustard seeds to make the Dijon mustard from Super Natural Every Day

Dijon mustard after 24 hours. Spicy! Delicious! I only added about a third of the honey that the recipe called for because there are few things I dislike more than sweet mustard. The extra honey might have toned down a bit of the spice, but I didn’t want to gamble and end up with something too sweet.

Inspired by my brother’s DIY ways, we recently added Wild Fermentation to our cookbook collection and procured a 2-gallon ceramic crock so we could make our own sauerkraut. Matt started the process on Saturday night, and we’re already looking forward to eating brats and reubens when it’s ready. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that homemade sauerkraut isn’t the gateway drug to tanning deer hides and building a cob castle, but I suppose there are worse things in life.

I made a batch of the middle-class brioche from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice (similar recipe here), and used about 1/3 of the recipe to make four hamburger buns. The recipe calls for 4+ hours of chilling the dough in the refrigerator followed by shaping and an hour and a half to two hours of proofing at room temperature prior to baking. I didn’t have that kind of time if we wanted to eat dinner at a reasonable hour, so I reduced the refrigerator time to about two hours, divided and shaped the dough into slightly flattened balls, and then let them rise at room temperature for about two hours. The buns didn’t grow much during the rising time, but in the oven they probably doubled in size, making them the perfect vessels for burgers. I wasn’t aware of any ill effects from the abbreviated chilling time, and these turned out to be the best burger buns I’ve ever made.

Matt made burgers with sautéed onions and mushrooms to fill the buns, and I made waffle fries from a bag – a guilty pleasure that’s pretty much all pleasure.

I love getting up (relatively) early on weekends to bake bread or make something good for brunch. I spent the majority of yesterday in the kitchen doing both of those things and more, and it was wonderful. If only I could do that every day…

The real reason I made brioche hamburger buns: so I could fry the rest of the dough and dip it in chocolate ganache. Any doubts that I had about the amazingness of brioche have disappeared.

Top: Tartine whole wheat bread

Bottom: Tartine whole wheat bread with raisins, coriander, and orange peel

Cauliflower soup with mustard (brioche) croutons from Super Natural Every Day and ham and cheddar toasts. The croutons are a must! Heat a little butter and olive oil in a skillet, whisk in a spoonful of Dijon mustard and a pinch of salt, add cubes of bread and stir to coat, cook until toasted or transfer to a 350-degree oven and bake until toasted.

May 24 2012

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Cheese, Chicken, Pizza, Salad, Sandwiches

In Case You Were Wondering…

In case you were wondering, it is quite possible to eat salad for dinner while still keeping it totally unhealthy. Just throw some bacon, blue cheese, and ranch dressing on it, and serve it with garlic bread that’s pretty much garlic-infused butter with a side of bread.

In case you were wondering, you can put tofu in a taco and totally enjoy it. Dip slices of pressed, firm tofu it in some kind of sauce or marinade (I used soy sauce, lemon juice, agave syrup, cumin, chili powder and garlic powder <- laziness), broil it for about ten minutes on an oiled pan, and then wrap it in a tortilla with lettuce, radishes, feta, and salsa. Feta, tofu, tortillas, and hot sauce are the future.

In case you were wondering, it wasn’t until my twenty-ninth year that I cooked a chicken breast, slipped it inside of a sesame seed bun, and called it dinner. Why have I never thought of making chicken sandwiches for dinner before? What America am I living in?

In case you were wondering, paying a few extra bucks for downtown parking instead of standing in heavy rain at the bus stop is sometimes worth it, as is getting to work in a fraction of the time that it takes on the bus, enabling you to leave early and get home with plenty of time to make pizza dough and still eat dinner at a reasonable hour. And cheese pizza always wins, especially when there’s smoked provolone involved.

In case you were wondering, shaved asparagus pizza is a great way to use one pound of asparagus after you’ve made the arguably irrational decision to buy three pounds of asparagus because three pounds was a better value than one pound. A decent sprinkling of good parmesan is clutch.

More Cheese More Chocolate

Category Archives: Sandwiches

2013 Weekends – Week 19

2013 Weekends – Week 12

2013 Weekends – Week 4

In Case You Were Wondering…