Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

Last weekend we stopped in to P.F. Changs for a late lunch break from shopping, courtesy of a thoughtful Christmas gift card from friends (thank you, Rollins Family!)  We hadn’t been there in quite a while and were excited to see a lot of new items on their menu, in addition to all the old favorites.  Their menu has always had a lot of variety, but now it is huge and we look forward to going back soon to try more of the new items.  If you like spicy food, the “flaming red wontons” are a must-try.  “Flaming” is an accurate description of their spicy-ness.

Dan recently decided to dust off his charcuterie skills and attempt to make homemade turkey pastrami.  Success!  Turns out that he actually did learn a few things from our participation in Charcutepalooza a couple of years ago (although I apparently did not learn how to spell “charcuterie” and have to verify the spelling every time.)  The pastrami was pretty easy to make using 2 boneless turkey breasts, some spices and pink salt for curing, and the smoker to finish it off.  Dan also got to use his mesh elastic netting (which he purchased last year for salami making) — MacGyver-ing the turkey into it using an empty tomato can since he didn’t have an elastic netting stuffer.  We now have several weeks’ worth of homemade lunch meat in our freezer, and Dan has a satisfying feeling of cured-meat accomplishment.

Since we were already using the smoker for the pastrami, we picked up a small chicken to cook when the pastrami was done (the smoker stays hot for a long time.)  The chicken was juicy and delicious, with a slight smoky flavor (we used apple and cherry wood chunks in the smoker), especially when paired with black pepper vinegar sauce, which should pretty much always accompany any basic chicken dish, in our opinion.

We spent a few rewarding hours volunteering at the North Texas Food Bank this week.  It was our first time (but not our last!), so we weren’t quite sure what to expect.  What we didn’t expect was to be very nearly moved to tears, not just by the (enormous) need for this amazing organization, but also by what it does (and can do with even more volunteer and financial help) for so many.  We worked on the “Food 4 Kids” program, which provides backpacks filled with 2 days worth of nutritious snacks and drinks to kids who qualify.  It was explained to us that the food would be going to kids who might not otherwise have anything to eat over the weekend, while not in school.  It was simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming to think that the juices, fruit cups, trail mixes and other snacks we moved along the line collecting into bags could be the sole sustenance keeping a child from being hungry for 2 full days.  There were only 6 of us volunteering that day, and we were vastly outnumbered by the bins and boxes of food.  We managed to fill 875 bags in about 2 hours, while the program feeds over 11,000 kids every weekend.  The bags can’t fill themselves, and the program relies heavily on volunteer support.  It’s easy to sign up (they offer morning and afternoon shifts, 6 days per week, and the greatest need is Mon-Thur) and it’s a wonderful opportunity for a group service project.  The food bank does so much, but there is always more to be done.  We heard that this time last year, they had to call some of the schools and tell them there would be no weekend backpacks because there hadn’t been enough volunteers to fill the bags.  If you’re in the area and thinking about giving some time to your community, we highly recommend the NTFB.

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

It’s been quite the celebratory week for us, with Dan’s birthday, Fat Tuesday and Valentine’s Day all occurring within a few days of each other.  And you know if we are celebrating, there is good food involved.  We started with an amazing birthday-eve dinner at our favorite Dallas restaurant, Lucia (where it’s too dark this time of year to take any decent flash-free photos, sorry.)  Although everything we’ve ever had at Lucia has been really good, we have to insist that if you ever go there and the veal “breast” is on the menu, you have to get it.  Best. Veal. Ever.  The next day, we had a proper birthday brunch sitting on a patio with mimosas, eggs benedict for me and a burger topped with a fried egg for the birthday boy.

It’s a good thing that birthdays only happen once per year, since fried game hen (and/or chicken) has become the go-to birthday dinner favorite for both of us.  Its un-healthiness only makes it that much more of a special treat.

Fat Tuesday had us thinking about New Orleans and wishing for a trip there, so we settled for the next best thing and put on a big pot of New Orleans-style shrimp and sausage gumbo.  It’s not a quick recipe (and we learned a few things this time around and updated the original post accordingly), but it satisfied our craving (at least until we can get to the Big Easy for the real thing.)

We celebrated Valentine’s Day this year with many of our great loves:  each other; lobster & pasta in a silky, spicy tomato sauce; an episode of Downton Abbey and two episodes of Homeland.  Pretty much a perfect evening.

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this week:

Friday night is a good time for a homemade margarita.  We made ours with Herradura Silver tequila, a sweet/citrus liqueur called Licor 43, fresh lime juice, a touch of agave nectar for sweetness, a little lemonade (because we didn’t have enough limes) and a tiny splash of olive juice.  It was a refreshing way to welcome the weekend.

We had yet another amazing meal at Malai Kitchen last Saturday.  Instead of my usual Stir Fried Glass Noodles (Pad Woo Sen), I branched out (for me) and tried the Sweet and Sour Crispy Noodles (Mee Krob), and now I have a new favorite noodle dish.  The thin noodles were the perfect texture and everything was flavored with just the right amount of savory and spice.  We even loved the tofu.

While watching the Atlanta episode of Anthony Bourdain’s show “The Layover” the other night, we were delighted to see a quick mention of the Sweet Auburn Curb Market as a place to visit in A-town.  We visited the market several years ago and really enjoyed it.

We have broccoli in our garden!  We planted the little guys back in the Fall and weren’t sure how they would do, since we’ve never grown broccoli before.  Just about the time we started to see the florets beginning to grow, I remembered that I don’t really like broccoli (I much prefer its tiny baby cousin, the broccolini.)  So I’m not sure what we will end up doing with our homegrown broccoli — maybe a beef and broccoli stir-fry, with a (lot of) tangy/spicy sauce (to mask the broccoli flavor)?  We’ll definitely use it — Dan never misses an opportunity to chop broccoli.

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

Lots of people have (sometimes very strong) opinions about their favorite hamburger.  We appreciate a good burger — especially since we don’t have them very often — but have yet to declare ultimate allegiance to any particular burger joint.  In terms of fast food places, both In-N-Out and Five Guys rank at the top of our favorites list, due in no small part to the fact that they each boast high quality, fresh ingredients, and because they both make a really good, quick burger.  Someday we’ll do a post debating Five Guys versus In-N-Out, but for now, the In-N-Out burger (always order it “animal style”) takes the lead simply because there is one about 3 minutes from our house and has a drive-thru, while the nearest Five Guys is about 7 minutes further away inside a mall.  And we are lazy.

We’ve written about our homemade beef tacos before, but they are good enough to garner mention as a favorite every time we make them.  We’ve discovered that when it’s just the two of us, the recipe yields enough leftover meat for what we affectionately call “Taco Mac” — a layered, casserole type dish made with taco meat, macaroni pasta, leftover taco shells, enchilada sauce and cheese.  It’s so delicious that we might actually prefer it over the original tacos!  We’re making Taco Mac tonight and my mouth is watering as I type this.

Favorite New TV Show Alert:  Anybody else watching Kevin Bacon’s new show, “The Following,” on Fox??  If not, and you like psychological thriller / suspense / drama television with top-notch acting, plenty of  jump-out-of-your-seat scenes throughout and one of the best evil-but-charming character villains since Hannibal Lecter, you should.  It’s so good that we get quite impatient waiting a week between episodes  (new shows air on Monday nights.)  But be warned:  it’s dark, and may not be one you want to watch right before bedtime.

I’m generally a follow-the-recipe kind of cook and rarely, if ever, come up with my own kitchen creations.  But, faced with a package of thin-cut pork chops that needed to be cooked and the inability to find the recipe I had originally picked for the pork when menu planning, last night I improvised.  I started with this recipe (simply because it called for thin-cut pork and other ingredients we already had on hand), made several changes along the way, and ended up creating a dish and sauce that we can’t wait to try again.  Nevermind that I accidentally overcooked the pork just shy of shoe leather, the sauce was amazing!  I followed the original recipe’s direction to coat the chops with miso and garlic, but used mirin instead of sherry (and next time will add a little ginger.)  After pan frying the miso-coated chops, I used more mirin to de-glaze the skillet, then added a little chicken broth, some chopped mushrooms and chili garlic sauce and simmered until it all thickened into a savory, slightly spicy Asian sauce.  It’s an adaptation to be sure (rather than a true original recipe — do those even exist?), but one that I personally consider to be a creative culinary triumph!

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

We’ve mentioned it before, and last weekend made a pilgrimage to the always awesome Asian grocery store, Super H Mart, for Dan’s kimchi fix (stay tuned for a post on kimchi fried rice in the near future.)  We’ve always been curious to try something from the food court there, and are so glad we finally did!  I had a noodle stir fry dish with chicken, Dan had a spicy Korean chicken dish (similar to this), and we were quite impressed with both meals, which tasted like they came from a high-end Asian restaurant, rather than a grocery store food court.  Our only disappointment is that we were too full to order anything from the little dumpling shop.  Next time.

Whenever I find calla lilies on sale, I usually buy a few.  We used them in our wedding, so I’ll always have a soft spot for them.  Plus they last at least a week if you get them really fresh.

We both have a soft spot for a nice lunch on a patio.  While the Northeastern half of the country is experiencing record low temperatures (sorry suckers friends and family who live in those places!), we’ve been lucky to enjoy a few unusual-for-January days with temps in the 70s.  Yet we will still likely have at least a few more cold-enough-for-a-fire-in-the-fireplace days before Spring officially arrives.  Fickle Texas weather at its finest.

I debated whether to post anything here, especially since it certainly is not a “favorite” by any means, but ultimately decided I couldn’t talk about our week without mentioning a significant family event.  Last week we lost our much beloved Aunt Ella, who passed away after a massive stroke.  Ella is my dad’s aunt and somewhat of a matriarch of our family.  Although she never married or had children of her own, Ella looked after so many of us in her very special, loving way.  Not just family members either — she touched lives and made a difference for countless people in her community, church (where she was a member for 80 years!) and life’s path.  She lived a long and fulfilled life — the kind that makes you stop and wonder what you might do to improve your own journey and live better — and passed the same way she lived:  with peace, grace and her quiet, comforting presence available to all the many loved ones who came to say goodbye.  We will dearly miss our sweet Aunt Ella.  May her soul and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace.

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

We tend to get in a rut when it comes to breakfast — having the same couple of dishes over and over — so we tried something new this week.  We love smoked salmon and usually serve it on toasted English muffins with cream cheese and chopped red onion.  This time, we ditched the muffin, spread the cream cheese on a tortilla, added layers of salmon, chopped green onion, hard-boiled egg and slices of cucumber and celery for crunch, then rolled it up and cut it into several pieces.  It was delicious and will be added to our breakfast rotation.

You can tell it’s been a bit of an off week when a Friday Favorite is an out-of-focus picture of our cats at the vet.  But the older they get (they’re around 12 or 13 we think), the more relieved we are when they have an excellent check-up result.  Livestrong, Kitties!  (Too soon?)

We tried spaghetti squash for the first time this week and considered it a success.  No doubt we enjoyed it mostly because of the sauce we drenched served it with.  Dear friends of ours gave us a pasta-of-the-month subscription from Pennsylvania Macaroni Co. for Christmas this year, and our first delivery included a jar of the homemade Eggplant Sauce.  We loved it!  The sauce was rich and tangy with hints of basil and garlic, and no vegetable-y taste whatsoever.  Spaghetti squash looks like spaghetti (hence the name, how clever), but the texture is more crisp than pasta.  Once you get used to the texture, it’s actually pretty good, especially when you keep in mind how healthy it is.  It’s also really easy to make — just cut the squash in half (that’s the hardest part), place it cut-side-down in a baking dish, fill the baking dish halfway with water, cover the dish with foil, then bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes.  Uncover the squash halves and carefully turn them over, then re-cover with foil and bake for another 15 minutes.  Allow the squash to cool a bit, then scoop out the seeds with a spoon and discard.  Use a fork to pull the “spaghetti” pieces away from the rind and that’s it!  We might not have liked it as much without such an amazing sauce (thanks Paula and Matt!), but we’ll make it again.  Maybe next time as a healthy side to complement a giant slab of veal parmesan.

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

Dan has renewed his obsession experimentation with homemade bread.  Specifically, he’s working on perfecting the Dutch-oven-baked, boule-style bread.  Actually, rather than perfect, we’ll settle for crusty outside and less-dense-than-a-hockey-puck inside.  Out of three loaves this week, we got one with a perfect crust but dense middle (see above), another with a beautifully airy inside and weirdly over-floured outside, and one that was mediocre inside and out.  To be continued.

Just a few weeks post-Christmas (but still less than a month!), we finally packed up the trees and all the Christmas decor.  We blame the delay on attempting to pack everything in a more organized manner this year (hooray for new bins with matching lids that don’t have to be duct-taped shut, decorations organized by room/purpose, and labels!)  Dan is always a little sad to see the Christmas stuff get put away in the attic (possibly because he is the one who has to actually be in the attic, storing the bins that I pass up to him), but the Scrooge organizer in me loves to have my house and all of its stuff back in order after the holidays.

We made our first batch of green chile chowder so far this season.  It’s rich, creamy, hearty and a little bit spicy — perfect for a chilly winter evening.

“Dinner salad” takes on a whole new meaning when you add grilled steak, caramelized onions, fresh tomatoes and homemade blue cheese vinaigrette.

Dan had a quick work trip to Palo Alto, CA this week — one of his (and my) favorite places, in no small part due to the Calzone Quattro Stagioni at Cafe Renzo.  It doesn’t get much better than perfect pizza dough filled with salami, prosciutto, artichokes and mushrooms, baked until golden brown, then topped with a light marinara sauce.  Dan loves this lunch so much that I’m pretty sure this is not its first appearance on Friday Favorites.  And probably will not be its last.

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

My aunt, uncle and cousins from Oklahoma have an annual tradition of driving to the Houston area to spend the New Year’s holiday with family there.  For several years now, they have stopped at the Bavarian Grill in Plano for lunch along the way, which just happens to be about 15 minutes from our house.  This year, they invited us to join them and we’re so glad they did!  The food was amazing (I had the jí¤ger schnitzel with spí¤tzel, pictured above), the company even better, and we all wondered why we had never met up for this annual lunch before.  Suddenly, a new tradition is born.  Can’t wait for next year’s feast, Levy’s!

A big bowl of Cajun BBQ shrimp and a loaf of crusty bread hit the spot on a cold evening.  We like this recipe, which is also really quick and easy to make.  If you don’t have access to fresh shrimp, frozen “EZ Peel” shrimp will work fine — just be sure to use the big ones and leave the shells on when you cook them.

My brother J has always been a creative guy, and one of his artistic outlets is origami.  We spent Christmas at a lakehouse with my side of the family this year, and my brother spent a bit of his down-time creating a little family of giraffes out of colorful paper.  I snagged this one (named George) and put him in a shadow-box frame to hang on our picture gallery wall.  Thanks J!

We continued our New Year’s Eve tradition of staying in and cooking something a little more fancy or elaborate than our usual dinners — this year with braised short ribs (post coming soon.)  The melt-in-your-mouth tender ribs in the silky, richly sophisticated sauce made for a perfectly celebratory year-end meal.  And don’t even get us started on the leftovers, which we served over egg noodles with a little Worcestershire sauce, channeling my grandmother’s beef and noodles.  So good.

We’re not big on year-end wrap-ups or new year resolutions, but we do appreciate the fresh-start, clean-slate feelings that come with a new calendar, and we look forward to seeing what 2013 has in store.  Happy New Year!

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

We got to watch the Steelers play the Cowboys here in Dallas last Sunday.  Although the Steelers lost in overtime, it was an exciting game and we had a really fun time.  We had awesome seats (Club Level, yo!) with lots of Steeler fans and a couple of very nice, respectful Cowboys’ fans sitting around us, which made the loss sting a bit less.  If you’ve never been there, Cowboys Stadium (or “Jerry World” as some call it — after Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones) is quite a place.  It boasts one of the world’s largest high-definition televisions (72 feet tall, 160 feet wide — impossible not to watch, no matter where your seats are), a world-class art collection installed throughout the stadium, stadium-style food with a gourmet twist (Black Angus Burgers instead of regular burgers and “Torpedo” hot dogs with specialty sauces instead of regular dogs  — they even have sushi) and, so I’m told, even a Victoria’s Secret store, among many other features and amenities.  We didn’t get there early enough to do much sightseeing (or photo-taking) and were enjoying our seats during the game too much to do much walking around, but we’ve been there before and have even taken the guided tour.  It really is a spectacular place, in every sense of the word “spectacle.”  So, for those still keeping track of the Steeler Opponent-City Challenge, the current record is:  Steelers:  7-7, Foodie Lawyer:  12-2.  And for anyone curious, we’re going to take a bye week this coming weekend, in light of the holiday and being too lazy to find another food from Cincinnati, since we already did Cincinnati Chili.

Dan has been feeling under the weather lately — his annual bout with bronchitis / upper respiratory woes — and this has been a particularly long and nasty illness.  I’m not always the most patient of care-givers, so I decided to be a little nicer  go all Florence-Nightingale and surprise him with homemade chicken soup.  I followed a recipe that called for using a whole chicken that you “hack” (actual word in the recipe) into pieces using a meat cleaver in order to make homemade chicken stock as the base of the soup.  Cutting up a whole chicken is something (not surprisingly) I have never done.  If you follow this blog much, you know I’m not particularly fond of dealing with raw meat in any form, much less hacking up a whole chicken with a giant knife.  But I persevered, the soup was delicious, Dan is feeling a little better, and let us never speak of the hacking again.

We had friends over for dinner last weekend and tried a new appetizer:   caramelized bacon from the Barefoot Contessa’s latest cookbook, “Foolproof.”  It sounds a little strange, but if you like bacon even a little bit, you’re going to want to try this recipe.  In fact, if you’re doing any entertaining this holiday season, we’re going to have go ahead and insist that you make this bacon for your guests.  It combines the perfect amounts of all the right flavors — salty, sweet, smoky and spicy — into a highly addictive crispy bite.  And it’s super easy to make.  For half a pound of thick-sliced, applewood-smoked bacon:  combine 1/2 cup light brown sugar and 1/2 cup pecans in a food processor and pulse until the pecans are finely ground.  Add 2 teaspoons kosher salt, 1 teaspoon pepper and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper and pulse to combine.  Add 2 tablespoons maple syrup and pulse to moisten the crumbs.  Cut each piece of bacon in half and place the pieces on a wire rack set on a foil-lined cookie sheet (very important to use the foil — there will be lots of caramelized drippy-ness!)  Use a spoon (and your fingers) to evenly (and generously) spread the pecan mixture on top of each piece of bacon.  Bake in the oven pre-heated to 375 degrees until the topping is very browned (but not burned) — about 25-30 minutes.  Set the bacon aside on a plate to cool, then serve at room temperature.  You may want to cut or break the finished bacon into smaller pieces prior to serving (which would be a good time to also save a few pieces for later — there aren’t likely to be many leftovers!)

This is the time of year to celebrate traditions.  One of my family’s Christmas traditions is to work on a puzzle while we’re all home at my parents’ house for the holiday.  (At least until most of us get bored with it and invariably leave my dad to become obsesseed with resigned to finishing it by himself after we all part ways.)  This year, we will do a puzzle and celebrate other family traditions in a most non-traditional (for us) way — we rented a lakehouse for all of us to spend a few days relaxing and enjoying the water, good weather (temps in the 70s!) and each other.  We are very much looking forward to family-time in a vacation setting, and hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday as well, however you celebrate it.  Happy Holidays!

It feels grossly insensitive to blather on about our favorite things without saying something about the tragic school shooting this morning in Newtown, CT.  Our hearts and prayers go out to those affected by this terrible, senseless act of violence.  Love your loved ones harder (especially your kids) and enjoy your own favorites more — life can change in an instant.

Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

We’re just finishing up Season 2 of the show “Downton Abbey” and can’t recommend this series highly enough.  There’s a reason that Season 2 was nominated for several Golden Globe awards and Season 1 won for best mini series last year.  The acting, story lines, dialogue, sets and scenery are all top-notch, and it’s one of our all-time favorite shows.  If you haven’t watched it because you’re not that into “period piece” entertainment, give it a shot anyway — it’s so much more than actors dressing up in fancy costumes and speaking in old-fashioned accents.  If you’re not hooked after Dowager Countess asks “What is a ‘week-end?'” in her privileged, snooty tone during the family’s first dinner with Cousin Matthew in Season 1, then it’s probably not your cup of tea after all.  But it’s worth a look.  You’ve still got a little time to get caught up before Season 3 starts on Jan. 6!  (And if you’re like us, you won’t be able to resist watching several episodes in a row, marathon-style.)

We took a break from Christmas shopping last weekend — and took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather — by enjoying some of our favorite Tex-Mex on a patio.  Sizzling fajitas, beefy tacos and the “Texas Martini” (one of the best margaritas around) hit the spot, as did being able to sit outside on a warm and sunny day in December.

Homemade pasta is a relatively rare treat around our house, at least until Dan found and tried this easy-for-homemade dough recipe.  The pasta was really good, especially served with this boar ragu.  It was the first time we had ever cooked with boar (we used pre-ground boar that we found at Sprouts), and we were surprised by how much we liked it.  Dan detected a hint of “gamey” flavor (his palate must be more advanced than mine, all I detected was delicious-ness) but said it enhanced the overall flavor rather than detracting from it.  We’ll definitely make boar ragu again.  And homemade pasta.

The phrase “if you don’t like the weather in Texas, wait five minutes” rang true for us this week.  A few days after our Tex-Mex patio lunch, the temperatures dropped to freezing and we woke up to a very light dusting of snow!  The colder weather is a welcome change and makes it feel more like Christmas-time.

Our first snow also brought our first fire of the season.  Now it’s REALLY beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, our tree is up and (mostly) decorated, although I will likely find myself periodically adding and re-arranging ornaments on it right up until New Year’s, as I do every year.  It’s a sickness.