Pisco Sour

When I went to Peru for my brother's wedding to his Peruvian princess, one of my favorite things was Pisco Sours. Pisco is Peru's national booze. Sweet! When they recently brought me back a bottle, I was determined to make them myself.

2oz Pisco Brandy
1oz lime juice
1/4 oz simple syrup
1/2 egg white
dash of bitters

Throw all but the bitters in a shaker and shake the snot out of it. The egg white's froth up and make a rad foam, which you sprinkle a couple drops of bitter on. I think if I had stuck all the liquid in a blender, it probably would have frothed up better (like in that pic, which was taken in Peru). Obvious you-might-die warning: RAW EGG WHITES. Basically, you're taking your chances. Risky risky!!

Meat is Tasty Murder

I did it!!! I MADE STEAK!!! So, I'm suuuuuper good at eating meat, but I have yet to fully hone my skills at actually cooking it. With my workouts leaving me bruise riddled lately, I'm wondering if I need to up the iron intake, so steak plopped itself on my menu. The BEST source of iron is red meat. Veggies and supplements don't even come close to comparing. Sorry, vegetarians.

So I hit up the meat aisle and grabbed a pack of steaks. I can't remember which cut I got. They all look the same to me. It's pretty much "eeny meeny miny THAT ONE!". Now. My dad makes a killer tri-tip. It's like bloody heaven. His trick? Fagundes meat seasoning. Apparently Santa is a fan as well, as bottles of this stuff found it's way into our stockings one year.

I got home, sprinkled the seasoning on each side of the meat and let it sit for a half hour or so. Not sure if seasoning needs to "sink in", but it sounded good, right? I fired up my electric skillet to see if I could find another use for it. I had it on med-high, and cooked the meat on each side basically until I couldn't see any red from the outside anymore (5-ish mins on each side, maybe?). Not quite sure what the protocol is for that. I served it with some quinoa and fire roasted veggies (frozen isle at Trader Joe's. Comes with a 'balsamic glaze' that tastes like it's own heaven).

Verdict: SUCCESS!!! It was perfectly pink on the inside and, as usual, the seasoning made it taste like granted wishes.

Product Review: Soy Creamer by Trader Joe's

A lot of the things that I eat/use, I don't necessarily cook, but I still wanna tell you about them! So, this whole lactose intolerance thing. Still here. Still blows. With my coffee, I could totally go without sugar, but I can NOT go without creamer. I hate milk in it. I hate anything except half and half. And soy milk? ICK. I don't really like the flavor, and it's far from creamy enough for my liking in my coffee. Enter stage right: Trader Joe's Soy Creamer. Omg, people. #1-it doesn't taste super soy-y at all, but it does have a tiny hint of a nutty flavor. #2-totally creamy!!! WIN! I loooove it. In fact, I told my sister about it and she uses it now, too, and she's not even lactose intolerant (yet). Bonus: it's like $2!

Swiss Chard

Wanna impress someone? Tell them you know what the hell to do with chard. Or maybe I'm just impressed by it. I mean, it's a green other than lettuce, so it sounds all fancy to me. Anyhoo, this is a little side dish made with chard. As far as I can tell, there is no difference in taste between the different colors of chard. It usually comes in red, green, or rainbow. I usually get rainbow, just because it's purdy! If you get it at the farmer's market, wash it well. This last batch I made was a wee bit gritty because I'm totally lazy and just rinsed it quickly. I have no idea where I got this recipe. Off the interwebs a long time ago...in a land far away...

-2Tbl butter
-2Tbl olive oil
-1Tbl garlic
-1/2 red onion
-Two bunches of chard (they vary in sizes. Some have huuuuuuge leaves, some have tiny stems. Yay for variety! Basically-just chill. Don't worry about it)
-1 cup white wine
-1 Tbl lemon juice
-2Tbl parmesean cheese

First off-the chard leaves should be cut up separately from the stems. The stems are usually pretty thick, so they take longer to cook. If the stem goes up pretty far into the leaf, just cut it out. Cut the leaves into about 2 inch chunks (totally up to you how big you want the pieces. It'll cook down in size a lot).

Heat up the butter and olive oil in a pan over med (or med-high. Crap, I don't know!). When melted, add in the garlic and onion and sautee until soft. Next, add the white wine and the stems of the chard and cook until the stems are soft. Add the leave and cook just until they're wilted.

Drizzle the lemon juice on top, and sprinkle some cheese on it.

And now you can totally rock the farmer's market and be all "what, that? Oh that's just swiss chard. I've totally made that before. Be jealous, bitches".

Electic Skillet Cooking-chicken, veggies

I got a 12-in electric skillet for Christmas. Truth be told, I don't know what the hell to do with it. I mean, I just don't get what I can do with it that I can't do with a regular pan on the stove. Yet more proof for the title my blog. Since my mother was SO excited to give it to me, I certainly couldn't take it back, so it was time to put it to the test.

Also-I feel like I need to start eating 'cleaner'. I owe it to my body. I recently figured out that I have some sort of acute lactose intolerance, which blows, but I think I need to take it even further. I'll be trying to load the veggies into every meal, eat leaner meats (mostly chicken), and limited the gluten. Back to good 'ol quinoa!

Ok, so I started with making some quinoa (in a regular pot). The usual: 1 part quinoa, 2 parts chicken stock or water (I used half low sodium stock, half water, but it came out a little bland).


4pcs chicken tender-sized chicken breasts
4 bok choy
4 broccoli


I put the electric skillet on low-medium, threw in some "buttery spread" (ugh. I miss butter) and 3 cloves of sliced garlic. Let the garlic get nice and soft/light brown. Then I threw in 4 bok choys (pieces of bok choy?) and 4 stalks of broccoli, stems and all. I put some low sodium broth and white in, enough to cover the bottom of the skillet, and let it simmer. I covered it, so it would steam the veggies. Make sure to flip them every once in a while. When both types of veggies were soft enough for a fork to easily go through, I took them out and put the chicken in. There should still be some 'juices' left in the pan to cook the chicken in.

Cook for a few mins on each side, making sure it's cooked all the way through. Throw it all together and you've got yourself a pretty damn healthy meal! Mine came out a little bland. I always feel like regular broth is too salty, and low sodium isn't salty enough. And I totally suck at seasoning stuff!! I'll have to work on all that...

I'm still not totally convinced that I couldn't just do all that in a pan on the stove, but the skillet worked well enough. Moms told me that it would be good to make stuff with 'sauces' in, so I'll have to try that next.

Kickin Collard Greens

So, I've pretty much got cooking with chard down. When I saw another tough green, collard, at the farmer's market yesterday, I decided to go ahead and give it a try. Psh. I got this. I got home and perused allrecipes.com and came up with this one. They all had some kind of meat. One had a smoked turkey leg (where the eff do you get one of THOSE?!). One had smoked ham hock (I don't even know what that means!). This one had bacon. I can handle bacon!

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 slices bacon
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 pound fresh collard greens, cut into 2-inch pieces

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add bacon, and cook until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, crumble and return to the pan. Add onion, and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, and cook until just fragrant. Add collard greens, and fry until they start to wilt.
2. Pour in chicken broth, and season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes (I skipped s&p. In my opinion, chicken broth is flavorful enough). Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes (umm...mine took like 10 mins. Keep an eye on it), or until greens are tender.

I only had one bunch of collard greens and I have NO idea how much it weighed, so I assumed it was about half and made the recipe accordingly. Came out pretty good!! I loved the bacon (duh). The greens taste kinda spinach-y, which I liked. I would definitely make this again.

Now if only I had made something else to eat it with...oops...

Update: I threw the leftovers in a skillet and cracked a couple eggs over the top. Mixed it all up to make a collard green omlette (sp?) thing...oh man. SUPER good.

Stir-fried beef, broccoli, and yams

Woot! I'm on a roll people!! This is another recipe that I got out of Bon Apetit magazine. It was a "30 min meal" and they aren't total liar-heads like that damn Rachael Ray. The prep work was pretty simple. Anyhoo, this is a twist on beef and broccoli. Still don't have a camera cord, so head on over to your local Chinese food place, look at the beef and broccoli, imagine big orange chunks of sweet potato in it, and there ya go. For the record-I served with my trust quinoa.

1/4 cup water
3 Tbl (packed brown sugar)
3 Tbl oyster sauce (I found mine at Whole Foods, by the soy sauce)
1/4 teas dried crushed red pepper
1 1-lb flank steak, cut in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 1/4 inch thick slices
1.5 Tbl cornstarch
2.5 Tbl Asian sesame oil, divided (same section as the oyster sauce)
4 cups broccoli flowerets (about 8 oz)
1 8-oz yam, peeled, cut in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 1/3 inch thick slices
2 teas chopped peeled fresh ginger

Stir first 4 ingredients in small bowl until sugar dissolves. Set sauce aside. Place beef in large bowl; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add cornstarch and toss to coat.

Heat 1.5 Tbl oil (I automatically grabbed olive oil instead of sesame. Damn it!! The sesame oil is SO good) in large wok over high heat. Add beef mixture; stir-fry until no longer pink outside, about 3 mins.

Transfer beef mixture to medium bowl. Heat remaining 1 Tbl of sesame oil in same skillet. Add broccoli, yam, and ginger. Toss to coat; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add sauce. Cover, reduce heat to med-high and cook until vegetables are just tender, about 5 mins. Add beef mixture. Toss until sauce coats beef, about 1 min.

Easy enough, yeah? Naturally, I overcooked the meat a little. I think partly because I stir-fried it on med-high and not high heat. Oops. The sauce came out really tasty and the veggies were just right. Overall, it's a keeper!