For some people, including Dan, cooking a meal for someone can be a way to show love and affection, celebrate an achievement, or commemorate an important occasion. For the Conrad family and many others, August 29 is a signifigant date that does not go unnoticed. Three years ago today, Dan’s dad Tom passed away after a too-brief but valiant battle against a brain tumor. It is a date upon which we struggle against the sadness and missing by instead focusing on the happy memories, joyful times and favorite moments. One of Tom’s greatest joys was food — in a simple, meat & potatoes way, nothing too unusual or exotic. Dan loves cooking for family and does so just about every time he goes home to Altoona. During one visit years ago, as Dan was cooking dinner, his dad came in the kitchen to watch and keep Dan company. While observing, Tom cautioned “not too spicy!” just as Dan was seasoning the chicken soup — with salt and pepper. Although he didn’t have the most adventurous palate, Tom would have eaten just about anything Dan cooked and would have raved about it — such was Tom’s way of showing unwavering support to those he loved, no matter their endeavor. One of Tom’s true favorite meals that Dan cooks is London Broil, which involves a simple marinade used to spice up (but not too much!) an inexpensive cut of beef and turn it into something special. And it’s our way to claim this day and honor a great man who enjoyed nothing more than a delicious steak dinner. Except maybe a turkey dinner. Or dinner at Lena’s. Or a sleeve of Oreo cookies… Continue reading “London Broil”
Category: Recipes
Banh Mi Sandwiches (with leftover pork)
Pork is a versatile protein when it comes to leftovers, especially in Asian dishes. We have used leftover pork for stir fry, moo-shoo pork, and pork fried rice (post coming soon!), just to name a few. This sandwich recipe is yet another good use of leftover pork, with an Asian flair. I was inspired to try making Banh Mi sandwiches at home after having one from a little soup & sandwich shop in Brooklyn while visiting Dan’s brother, his lovely wife and adorable son earlier this year. Although not authentically Vietnamese, the sandwich was delicious and didn’t seem like it would be all that difficult to make, especially using pork that had already been cooked. There are a lot of Banh Mi recipes out there, but it seems like a common thread among most of them is pickled carrot and daikon (a type of radish.) The remaining sandwich components vary and should depend on what you have on hand and your taste preferences. The pickled veggies sound a little strange, but their sweet/sour flavor balances really well with salty pork, fresh lettuce and spicy jalapeno. We’ll definitely make this sandwich again.
Turkey Tetrazzini (with leftover turkey)
Now that we have a delicious new way to cook turkey breast and plan to cook turkey a lot more often, we need some good recipes for turkey leftovers. In the past, we’ve tried to think outside the box when it comes to turkey leftovers — turkey paella and turkey enchiladas, for example — but this time we decided to do something a little more on the classic side. Turkey Tetrazzini is a classic American dish, but one that neither of us had ever made or eaten. We found a great recipe for tetrazzini in (go figure) “The Best American Classics” cookbook by the editors of Cook’s Illustrated Magazine. We love the folks at America’s Test Kitchen because they exhaustively test all their recipes to come up with the best possible versions — something we thought would be key to successfully preparing a dish without having any clue how it was supposed to taste. Turns out that it’s supposed to taste really delicious with surprisingly complex flavors for what basically amounts to a noodle casserole. A noodle casserole that we will crave with every future turkey breast we cook.
Smoked Turkey Breast
When Dan purchased his smoker for one of the Charcutepalooza challenges, my first thought was that it would be yet another cooking gadget that he would use a couple of times before getting bored with it. Happily, I could not have been more wrong. He uses the smoker a lot, for such smoked delights as ribs, game hen and tri-tip. He also occasionally uses the smoker as a charcoal grill, for that old-school grill flavor. What I had originally thought was bought on a whim has turned out to be a very worthwhile purchase that has allowed Dan to expand his grilling repertoire. It doesn’t hurt that the smoker is incredibly easy to use and has achieved near-perfect results each time we’ve used it. If you grill often, enjoy smoky flavor and have the room and budget for it, the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker is a great investment that we definitely recommend (in a non-sponsored way.) Continue reading “Smoked Turkey Breast”
The Good Rice
A rice side dish can be a nice alternative to potatoes or pasta. Early in our home and cooking life, we used to make a lot of boxed rice dishes. Not that there is anything wrong with rice-from-the-box, but a couple of years ago we decided to cut preservatives out of our diet where possible and try to cook more dishes from scratch. The boxed side dishes were among the first to go. We thought we might miss the flavor from those little seasoning packets that come with boxed rice, but then we found this recipe, which tastes way better than the stuff from the box. We found the recipe on this awesome site, which has tons of great (non-sponsored) product reviews, happy hour recommendations and lots of fun content to browse, especially when you’re working killing some free time. Back to the rice — the ingredients are simple: rice, chicken broth, olive oil, butter, onion, garlic and salt — but they turn plain old white rice into a rich and flavorful side dish. For obvious reasons, we refer to this dish as “The Good Rice.” Continue reading “The Good Rice”
Grilled Branzini
We are big fans of Michael Ruhlman and regularly read his food blog, which is where Dan discovered that “branzini” is a really easy and tasty fish to grill. We’re always trying to work new fish recipes into our weekly menu routine, but it can be difficult because I’m not a big fan. But we are mindful of the health benefits of eating fish on a regular basis, so we continue searching for good fish dishes — especially ones that don’t involve breading or heavy sauces that cancel out the beneficial aspects. We have some old favorites (here and here), but this grilled branzini may be the most healthy — and still delicious — we have tried to date. It is also ridiculously easy.
Carrot Cake
This is our first dessert post here at FoodieLawyer. We don’t post many desserts because we don’t cook many desserts. I don’t really have a sweet tooth (salty is my thing), and Dan does his best not to indulge his too often. But it’s a special occasion around these parts — today is our birthday! On August 7, 2010, FoodieLawyer came into the Internet world. We started this blog way back then as a hobby and method of keeping track of recipes we enjoy. At the time, we weren’t sure we would be able to come up with enough recipes each week or that anyone other than our families and close friends would read our content.
One year and way more regular readers (not related to us) than we ever expected, FoodieLawyer has grown into something between a vocation and a lifestyle for us. We are humbled by the experience and grateful for the support from so many of you who have come here this past year. It has been a year of meeting interesting people, documenting amazing food experiences, acquiring new cooking toys, and learning cooking techniques that we never would have considered a year ago. Through this little blog, we have discovered an even greater appreciation and passion for all things food-related, and we are thrilled to still be here — cooking, photographing, writing — and hopefully inspiring others to do the same. Happy Birthday to Us!
Black Bean Soup
On our 34th (and counting) consecutive day of temperatures above 100 degrees, what sounds better than a big bowl of hot soup? It is counterintuitive, but this soup actually does sound good to me right now, even as hot as it is outside these days. Also counterintuitive? Wanting to beat the record of 42 consecutive days, even while complaining how ridiculously hot it is. It’s so hot that I don’t have the energy to make any “how hot is it” jokes. But it’s not too hot for this particular soup, which is lighter than you would expect, with southwest flavors and a creamy texture. We found the recipe in Cook’s Illustrated’s book “The Best 30-Minute Recipe” — making it even more appealing to cook on a hot summer night because the recipe is quick and means less time slaving over a hot stove or grill. Have I mentioned that it’s hot here? Continue reading “Black Bean Soup”
Mushroom Lasagne
Ina Garten does it again. Hers might be the most-used cookbooks we own — just about all of them have multiple pages tagged with recipes we have tried and enjoyed. And her books are the ones I often go to when I feel like we’re in a cooking rut, which is how I found her recipe for mushroom lasagne. Traditional lasagne with red sauce, italian sausage and ricotta cheese is one of Dan’s specialties, and we have it all the time. So I thought it would be interesting to try a completely different lasagne — with mushrooms instead of meat and cream sauce instead of tomato. The result is somehow rich yet light at the same time, hearty and delicious.
Grilled Corn
Corn is one of the quintessential summer foods. Although you can get corn year-round if you buy it frozen or canned, we think it tastes best fresh off the cob. It tastes even better if you can get it as freshly-picked as possible. Dan grew up with summers full of fresh (as in picked that morning) corn from a place called Barroner’s Farm in Pennsylvania, and it’s no coincidence that we almost always make a trip home to visit Dan’s mom during corn season (Hi Elaine!) Fresh corn conjures memories of childhood summers for me as well, since us kids used to spend a couple of weeks every summer with our grandparents in Ohio. After these visits, my parents were always happy to see us when they picked us up at the airport — no doubt they missed us, but I suspect that the big box of fresh corn coming off the baggage claim belt had something to do with their happy smiles as well. For years after moving to Texas, Dan wouldn’t even bother with the corn available here because it wasn’t as fresh as the corn from his childhood. But as his grilling repertoire has grown, he discovered a way to cook corn that, while not quite as good as fresh-picked, is still delicious and tastes like summer.